I really know very little about this, but the HDMI cables support both audio and video. Newer recording devices have the HDMI connectors. The red, white, and yellow ones you refer to are RCA connectors, and some TVs have those plus HDMI and/or DVI. S-Video provided better video quality than the yellow RCA plug, but I don't think it's used much any more.

As to using the USB port to connect a computer, I have to beg complete ignorance, especially for doing what you wish, but I'm sure one of the real "geeks" here will be able to give you an answer to that question.

I have never done it, but try looking up subjects like "Turn your computer into a DVR" on the internet.

Your tv source (antenna, cable) should connect to your VCR - DVD recorder and the signal should go from there to your TV. There must be a way to go from the recorder to the TV. If not I think it would be cheaper to buy a low priced recorder than to buy a tv tuner for the computer and have it installed. I use a VCR - DVD that I bought at Walmart for $79 that connects to the TV with a HDMI cable.

The short answer is yes. The long answer is that you need the necessary hardware and software. What you're looking to do is build what's called a "home media personal computer" (aka HMPC).

Unless you are reasonably skilled and what to invest the time and money, you might be better off buying a HMPC or investing in something like TiVo. If you're television provider has a DVR available, that might be the easiest solution.

We have a Comcast-provided DVR at home and we love it, but if I were faced with lack of funds to pay my ever-increasing Comcast bill, I would be looking at doing what the OP has asked as well. Though I've never done it, logic tells me that you would have to install some sort of card into your computer which has tuner circuitry and allows coax or fiber input and HDMI output. Then you would need software to manage your recordings, which might come with the card, or you may be able to find some open-source (a.k.a free) software to do it. I'm also guessing that if you want to record HD, the card's tuner would have to be HD, unless there is an up-convert software solution.

You would need something like this. Since Biwako of Abi has a combination pc monitor - tv that would be all they would need. If you're not satisfied with seeing it on your computer monitor you would need it on a computer that had a port that would connect to a port on your TV. My laptop has a hdmi port which connects to the hdmi port on my tv so that would be all I need.

I meant to add that since OP apparently has a VCR/DVD there must be a way to connect it to the TV. That would be the simplest and cheapest way to go. The thing is the signal is not output from the TV (I don't think any TV does that) which is why the lady at Costco responded the way she did. The signal goes to the VCR/DVD and from there to the computer and I think there must be a way to connect it even if it's just a section of TV signal cable that goes from the VCR/DVD to the TV.

Thanks a lot, all of you. I think that probably Bob's suggestion for connecting the recording device and TV is the only way for me to go, as we have little money to spare, so I'll have a go at seeing whether I can hook things up the way Bob says.

Today we have been cleaning up the yard and pruning bushes, owing to a notice from the Home Owners Association, but I'll fiddle around with connections as soon as I can find the time and post here again.

If the HDMI connector "audio, out" on my TV/monitor can actually handle both audio and video, as Grandms says, and if there are adaptors on the market that would allow me to plug the other end of an HDMI cable into my VCR/DVD recorder, then that is another avenue for me to explore.

Reading the other suggestions, I get the impression that I was looking at the problem backwards, anyway, hoping that the computer would help me record from the TV, when it would apparently have to work in a reverse way to that, which would require buying more equipment. My computer itself is not set up to catch the channels the way a TV would.

At this point, I am beginning to get the idea that I am not going to be able to keep up (mentally) with all the ramifications of the latest digital technology!

You should understand that HDMI is a digital signal and would need to be converted to an analog signal for use by an your VCR/DVR (unless your device has a digital input of some sort). So there is not just a simple cable you can use, you need an actual converter box. I'd also suspect that you TV would need to be on for this to work as well.

There are certainly digital and analog tuner cards available for you PC but if you use a cable box, it's a bit more complicated.

Today, armed with the information you guys have given me so I could ask a few intelligent questions, I went to the CostCo where I bought the TV and found a worker there who seemed to know recent TVs pretty well. The upshot of it is that, as Mike says, I would need a converter box. What he described sounded like what we used to have from Cox before the economy went south and we had to step back down to their basic service. He pointed out that blue ray is what is being used now, whereas my old (bought less than a year ago!) VCR/DVD recorder is out of date and can't deal with the output from this TV. When I asked if there were blue-ray recorders, then, he said Not yet. So there must be a lot of people in the same boat as me.

I still don't fully understand everything he told me, so I may have garbled it here, but the conclusion was that I could hitch my TV to the recorder, but short of spending a lot of money, it wasn't going to accomplish anything, so I have resigned myself to going recorderless and missing shows!

Thanks a lot, anyway, everyone who tried to help me.

That just doesn't make sense. It sounds like you get TV on Cox Cable. Is the cable connected to the TV-Monitor? What is the make and model of the VCR-DVD? If you will post that information I will tell you what you need to connect it so that it will work.

Thanks so much for the offer, Bob. We do have Cox Cable, and it is connected to the TV monitor. Our VCR-DVD is a Toshiba DVR620KU, and the TV is a Samsung Led TV monitor, SyncMaster, series 3, TA350 and series 5, TA550, whatever that means. I don't know which letters and figures may be useful, so am repeating them all.

I am sorry for not having gotten back to this problem for several months. There has been illness in the family, as well as computer problems, which are now solved, hopefully, with the aid of a friend, and what with personal problems and job demands, I just didn't feel like concentrating on the TV/recording problem.

What I want most now, and can't do, is to record TV shows. Not HD or HBO or anything--just a few KPBS or sit-com things. Our TV cable service is basic.

A visitor showed me that with an HDMI cable, I can watch tapes and DVDs from the Toshiba unit, a step in the right direction. However, I seem unable to bring up anything on the TV screen that will let me record to either the tape or the DVD.

There is no place to plug in a coaxial cable to the Toshiba, so I figure that any recording would have to be from signals sent from the TV. (In fact, even if I could send signals directly from the cable connector in the wall to the Toshiba, there would still be no way to select channels to be recorded.)
The problem is that all the ports and other places for hitching the TV to the Toshiba are labeled "IN" and, unlike our old TV, there are none for "OUT".

Well, Bob, or any other kind person, does it seem that there may still be a way to record to the Toshiba device? Even to be able to record to VHS tapes would be great.

I found this information about your DVD/VCR:

no built-in TV tuner � requires a connection to a cable box or satellite receiver
upconverts and displays DVD video at 720p/1080i/1080p via HDMI digital interface
selectable progressive-scan playback for smoother video with HD-compatible TVs (via the component video output)
5 DVD recording quality settings, 2 VHS recording speeds (SP, LP)
coaxial digital audio output for Dolby� Digital/DTS�/PCM
front-panel digital camcorder input (IEEE 1394)
2 sets audio/video inputs (composite, S-video), including 1 front-panel (composite)

I'm not familiar with using a recorder with no built-in tuner but it looks like you would have to select the channel with the cable box if that's possible. If it is you connect the recorder to the cable box with a composite or S-video cable and the recorder to the tv with the hdmi cable.If the cable box cannot select the channel for you you would a tv tuner such as this one. You would connect the cable to the tuner and the tuner to the recorder and the recorder to the tv. Then you could watch and/or record the programs.

What an interesting discussion. You guys put your heads together and taught us all something. Thanks for the hard work.

I neglected to say that if you decide to get a tv tuner make sure it has either composite or S-video outlets so that you can plug it into your recorder. The tv/monitor of course has a tuner but no outlet to connect to the recorder to record programs.