Hi, I hope someone can help me with this problem I'm having. My mom recently purchased a Vizio LCD 32" TV and for Christmas we bought her a DVD/VCR combo. I tried hooking this up for her but am confused because there is no input/out for the cable coming from wall to hook into on the DVD/VCR. I tried getting her a cable box from Comcast but they want her to upgrade her cable at $55 a month. She says no way. So what can I do now? She is elderly and will only record on the VCR when she is away and will sometimes watch DVDs. Too many remotes just confuses her so the easiest way possible and the less buttons to push the better. Thanks for any help I can get. Kim

I assume you have comcast signal inputted directly to the TV. Purchase a after market cable box that does not descramble. You can probably even use a old vcr and change channels on it and input that to the dvr.

I would try looking at the installation instructions that came with both the DVD and the TV and see how they suggest adding the cable. I don't think it will be that difficult as the new tv's are now cable ready so you don't need a separate cable box. You want to do the DVD player first on the cable line and then a connection to the TV. I don't know how else you would hook this up as there IS no other way. Wall = cable line = DVD = cable line = TV.
Try that.

I made a mistake in my original post. There is no DVR, only the DVD/VCR player and the TV. There is no input on the DVD/VCR combo to put the cable line into. Do I need something else?

Kim,

First, your mom is correct, Comcast can go pound sand until they make glass.

Your mom purchased a Vizo LCD TV. Is this TV a High Definition TV, that can handle a 1080P screen resolution?

Instead of using the coax cable from the Output of the Comcast Receiver, look for an alternate output connection on the Comcast Receiver. I suspect that you have a composite video port (yellow) and White and Red audio ports. I also suspect that there is a S-Video port immediately above the yellow port.

All you need to do is connect the red and white (audio) lines to the input of the DVR. Choose either the Yellow, composite port or the S-video port. S-Video will give you a better image.

From the DVR to the TV is just as simple. Look on the back of the DVR, do you see a port labeled "HDMI"? Next check the TV, does it also have an "HDMI" port? If the answer is yes, get an HDMI cable long enough to connect the DVR to the TV. HDMI ports carry both image and sound.

Please let me know if you have any problems.

DVR or DVD, the connections are the same.

What is on the back of the DVD/VCR? What kind of input places? It sounds like you need some kind of converter thing I had to shell out $25 at Radio Shak to get. I looked at my set up for my DVD player and TV. It is called an RF Modulator. You can put the cable IN and the cable OUT into the modulator and the DVD and TV. Isn't it nice that they didn't give you this info in the installation manual? Apparently the system you have does not have this gadget built in. Some of the newer systems do. Even though my DVD player was new it did not have this gadget built in to it and had to get the RF Modulator. The post above gives you another alternative also but I don't have personal knowledge of just how that works as my TV is 2001 and the DVD is 2006.

Don, I totally agree with you on Comcast. I'm probably the only person I know who has no cable, digital or satellite TV. Just the basic channels so that makes this even harder. My mom only has cable in order to get a clear channel 3.

I did use the red, white & yellow but I may have been missing the HDMI part. I couldn't find the channel to set up the dang DVD player and could not view a tape either. I'll print this out and give it a try. Thanks for all your help.

Twinkie - I do have an extra RF Modulator and I will bring that too. Of course this isn't in the installation manual. That would make it way to easy.

Thanks everyone.

Kim,

It's an either or situation, not both.

On the Comcast box, you should see the RF (Coax) out port as well as as the composite ports Yellow White Red. I seriously doubt that that receiver will have an HDMI port.

However, once you get the data over to the DVD, then if the DVD and the TV have HDMI ports, that's the way to go. HDMI ports carry both Video and Sound.

The Composite Carries Video on the Yellow port and Audio on the White and Red.

S-Video is a much better screen resolution, I believe it is 720I (720 line per inch, interlaced). If the S-video is available, then I would us S-Video into the TV's S-video port and White and Red for sound.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by donf

Kim,
... On the Comcast box, you should see...

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Wasn't the original question about a set-up WITHOUT a cable box? -- i.e. for 'basic cable' only (no cable box, just the cable line from the wall). If that is still the configuration I have a somewhat similar question for the hookup of our new Vizio TV.

We have 'basic cable' (no cable box). We also have not purchased a "converter box" (believing the advice that one's not needed "as long as you have cable"). The cable line is split -- one feed to the TV and the other to a VCR/DVD combo. The VCR/DVD combo then goes to the TV using composite video. When we use the TV's tuner we can tune to digital QAM channels (e.g. 85-3). However, we cannot tune to any digital channels on the VCR.

We are told that we don't need to 'do anything' for next week's conversion (Jan. 15 here in Hawaii) as long as we have cable or satellite. I see how this could work for the wall-TV direct feed. However, I cannot see how our VCR will still be able to receive (for watching on our wall-VCR-TV feed) or record.

Are they saying that what I see today on (say) "channel 8" of the VCR -- today an analog feed -- will become a digital feed after the conversion? If not, how will existing VCR equipment (with built-in tuners) work?

I've asked this of several sources, only to be met with "shrug"... wait and see.

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by donf

Kim,
... On the Comcast box, you should see...

---

Wasn't the original question about a set-up WITHOUT a cable box? -- i.e. for 'basic cable' only (no cable box, just the cable line from the wall). If that is still the configuration I have a somewhat similar question for the hookup of our new Vizio TV.

We have 'basic cable' (no cable box). We also have not purchased a "converter box" (believing the advice that one's not needed "as long as you have cable"). The cable line is split -- one feed to the TV and the other to a VCR/DVD combo. The VCR/DVD combo then goes to the TV using composite video. When we use the TV's tuner we can tune to digital QAM channels (e.g. 85-3). However, we cannot tune to any digital channels on the VCR.

We are told that we don't need to 'do anything' for next week's conversion (Jan. 15 here in Hawaii) as long as we have cable or satellite. I see how this could work for the wall-TV direct feed. However, I cannot see how our VCR will still be able to receive (for watching on our wall-VCR-TV feed) or record.

Are they saying that what I see today on (say) "channel 8" of the VCR -- today an analog feed -- will become a digital feed after the conversion? If not, how will existing VCR equipment (with built-in tuners) work?

I've asked this of several sources, only to be met with "shrug"... wait and see.

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment!

Its actually pretty simple.
Take the cable out of the back of the TV.
Plug the cable into the back of your rf mod.
Plug yellow, red and white from the output of the mod into the input of the dvd/vcr. Grab another set of yellow, red and white out of the DVD/VCR! And plug it into an input of the TV. Pretty simple right?
Turn the cannel on the TV to the input you selected.
Now you should be able to turn the channels through the vcr/dvd combo. You should also be able to control the volume with the vcr as well. Just turn the TV way up so you can fully adjust with the vcr.

I don't have a remote I want to watch a movie how do I do it without cable or a remote

Quote:

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Originally Posted by molly brown

i dont have a remote i want to watch a movie how do i do it without cable or a remote

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I want to watch a movie on a dvd player but I don't have a remote or cable how can I do it manually to switch to input

You need to hook out of DVD to an input on the TV, Select the correct input on TV and Watch Movies.
Some things cannot be done without the remote.
Replacements or Universals are available