Solved! Question about connecting tv, dvr and vcr

[lfba65]

I have a DVR with coax in and out, and as far as I can tell an HDMI out but no hdmi in.
I have an old VCR with coax in and out.
I am planning on getting a TV that has 3 hdmi inputs and a coax input and should be able to switch between then..
The cable box has coax input and both coax and hdmi outputs.
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Can you tell me if something like this would work or am I way off base.
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coax cable from wall to coax input of cable box (the way it is now)
hdmi output of cable box to hdmi 1 of tv
coax output of cable box to coax splitter
output 1 of coax splitter to coax input of dvr
then hdmi output of dvr to hdmi 2 of tv
output 2 of coax splitter to coax input of vcr
then coax output of vcr to coax in of tv

 

[J_E_D_70]

DVD or DVR? Title and text are different.

 

[lfba65]

DVD or DVR? Title and text are different.

sorry, I corrected the title, it is a DVR.

 

[jsmithepa]

If the coax out of the cable box is Digital then it can only be connected to the Digital Video Recorder. If analog, it can only be connected to the analog VCR, intended for old analog TVs.

Why do you need both DVR and VCR?

 

[lfba65]

If the coax out of the cable box is Digital then it can only be connected to the Digital Video Recorder. If analog, it can only be connected to the analog VCR, intended for old analog TVs.

Why do you need both DVR and VCR?

I probably do not really need the record capability of either, but since I have them, would like to set it up so I can. I bought the DVR planning on no longer using the VCR, but a friend gave me a bunch of old VHS movies, and I would like the ability to view them and also view movies on DVD if I want.

The coax out of the cable box carries both, not sure how it works, but I have used it on both analog and digital tvs.

 

[jsmithepa]

If VCR is used only for playback then nothing needs to connect to its input, only its output needs to be hooked up to TV.

Sounds like u got everything figured out, go ahead, hook 'em up, worst can happens is, it doesn't work, nothing is gonna blow up.

 

[J_E_D_70]

I'd simplify. Coax - cable box - coax - DVR - HDMI - TV and VCR - TV.

Have to have two boxes on to watch tv (unless the DVR passes hdmi in standby) but less switching inputs. No need to have coax into vcr since you have dvr.

 

[americanaudiophile]

Your hookup scheme is correct.
If the TV has an AV input then use that one for the VCR. It will look better than going through the TV tuner.
The simpler one above won't give you HD cable.
You can skip the coax input to the VCR since you won't record with it.

 

[lfba65]

If VCR is used only for playback then nothing needs to connect to its input, only its output needs to be hooked up to TV.

Sounds like u got everything figured out, go ahead, hook 'em up, worst can happens is, it doesn't work, nothing is gonna blow up.

ok thanks

 

[lfba65]

Your hookup scheme is correct.
If the TV has an AV input then use that one for the VCR. It will look better than going through the TV tuner.
The simpler one above won't give you HD cable.
You can skip the coax input to the VCR since you won't record with it.

Not sure whether the tv has AV or not, not sure what AV is , but I will check it out.
Thanks

 

[lfba65]

I'd simplify. Coax - cable box - coax - DVR - HDMI - TV and VCR - TV.

Have to have two boxes on to watch tv (unless the DVR passes hdmi in standby) but less switching inputs. No need to have coax into vcr since you have dvr.

Thanks. I had originally thought I wanted to set it up so I could record to VCR if I wanted to, but I guess I will just forget about that.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Let us know back here if the simplified string works. Someone above said your cable wouldn't be HD but seems to me it would. If the DVR records HD but only has coax in it has to take the HD stream from the cable box. Interested in knowing

 

[lfba65]

Let us know back here if the simplified string works. Someone above said your cable wouldn't be HD but seems to me it would. If the DVR records HD but only has coax in it has to take the HD stream from the cable box. Interested in knowing

I just got the new tv today and it is still in the box. I do not know much about all the different inputs/outputs and have been trying to figure out things ahead of time.

Looked at the vcr and it does not appear to have component/composite output, so for the VCR, I think I will have to use coax output. I do not think I would even be able to tell it it if it is HD or not.

The dvr has coax, composite and hdmi outputs (or that is what it looks like to me)
When I got the cable box, the cable people hooked up the dvr to the old tv. Looks like they used composite output. The old TV does not have HDMI. I guess I could use either the composite or hdmi output from the dvr? Right now, I do not have an extra HDMI cable.

I guess I will forget about input to the vcr -which will simply things by doing away with the need for a splitter for the coax.

Not sure when I will get to try it. With the larger tv, not sure I will even have room for both the dvr and vcr.

And sorry but in your previous post, I do not know what you meant by needing 2 boxes.

 

[lfba65]

Oki I know so little about this but kind of winging it. Got the tv set up and decided to see if I could get the vcr to work for playback only. It is an older vcr ,does not have composite or component output. So was trying the coax, which requires channel 3 and the vcr is analog. Antway, when I tired to put tv on channel 3 it said not channels set up. So I went to the tv menu and found a menu for setting up channels. (normally I do not use the channels on the tv since I select channel on the cable box). There was an option for adding a analog channel, so I added channel 3. That made the play back work but with very poor picture quality. Maybe there is a better way of making it work? I do not want to buy an type of converter etc. I do not know if adding analog 3 was the right thing to do, but at least the play back will work.
Not sure when I will try the DVR.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Keep in mind you're watching a 480p vhs tape on a presumably fairly large 1080p tv that can't upscale that format - it's not going to look very good.

 

[lfba65]

Keep in mind you're watching a 480p vhs tape on a presumably fairly large 1080p tv that can't upscale that format - it's not going to look very good.

ok, The vcr will probably be used very little. Mainly if I have company and they want to watch one of the movies. Might never be used.
Thanks