You may need a converter box for your VCR as well. I had the same experience and had to turn off the box and just use the TV and VCR without it. Of course, that won't work after the stations make the switch. Such a nuisance. We haven't done anything about ours yet, but I did test it one night when the station was running the test for people to see which equipment needed the box. In the beginning, I thought there was a place to plug in the VCR too, but no such luck. I really don't want a bunch of gadgets sitting around.

Can you describe how you have your VCR, converter box, and TV hooked up? Start at the antenna and describe how the signals flow from one box to the next.

Also, does your TV have A/V (red/white/yellow) inputs and outputs available? How about the VCR?

If you like to watch one channel, while simultaneously recording another, you will probably want two converter boxes. One for the TV, and a second one for the VCR.

wws944,

I connected antenna to converter box with coaxial cable. From converter box I connected VCR with coaxial cable, I connected VCR with TV with coaxial cable. My VCR, TV and converter box all have A/V connections. I tried to connect converter box with VCR and VCR with TV using A/V connections but I had no reception until I connected converter box with VCR using coaxial cable. I don't want to record one show and watch another at the same time. I just want to be able to record a show and see the show that recorded.

always program it to record at the desired time, but ALWAYS ch 3. then set the converter to teh desired channel.

say you want to record ch 10 from 3-4PM, program teh VCR for a start of 3:00 on channel 3, and end at 4:00. then tune the converter to channel 10 and leave. that is where you messed up.

Is the 'channel 10' that you are trying to record an analog or digital signal?

If analog, then you probably need to turn the converter OFF, so that the 'analog pass through' feature is enabled. Then tune your VCR to channel 10. (If you want to also watch the broadcast, your TV would need to be tuned to either channel 10 or channel 3 - depending on the specifics of your VCR.)

If digital, then yes, your VCR would need to be on channel 3 (as does your TV.)

If you are recording a digital signal though, you will get better audio and video quality by using the A/V connections from the converter box to the VCR. And same between the VCR and the TV set. I wonder if the reason you couldn't get the A/V connections to work was because some menu option in either the VCR or TV was not set to the correct input?

What you might consider is to connect the VCR to the TV using the A/V cables. Period. Then use the TV tuner in the VCR for all the analog tuning for the next 2.5 months. (When watching/recording digital, you would turn the converter box on and set the VCR to channel 3.) After that, just use the A/V cables between the converter box and the VCR. This gets rid of all the 'channel 3' stuff and gives the best quality possible.

but what if you want to record "channel 10" at 3pm and "channel 7" at 4pm and you are not home so your VCR programming changes the channels for you, the converter does not change channels automatically so it will not record anything but one channel? HOW LAME!
Does anyone know if there is a VCR/DVD combo that already has the converter box built into it so I can just have things the way there where? This is just crazy, they force you to use the box but it is not compatiable with a simple VCR set up to record my favorite shows when I am away? What here they thinking?

IdahoSlim
JulyJns@yahoo.com

> ... it will not record anything but one channel?

You got it. Your old VCR will be relegated to watching channel 3 (or better, a direct A/V connection) from the converter box full time.

There may be a converter box that one can program to automatically display different channels at different times. Maybe check at the AVS Forum - http://www.avsforum.com. There are some HUGE threads on converter boxes there.

> Does anyone know if there is a VCR/DVD combo that already has the converter box built into it so I can just have things the way there where?

I can't make a recommendation. I have an old Sony RDR-VX500 VCR/DVD recorder which is in a similar situation. But anything new that has a TV tuner in it should be required to have a digital tuner.

> ... What here they thinking?

Follow the money.

newer VCRs don't have a digital tuner, or a tuner at all for that matter. teh law now says if it has a tuner it MUST be digital capable, so the manufacturers jsut removed the tuners in all new ones.

i had a JVC VCR at one time that had a remote sender on it. you programmed the VCR to act as teh TV/Conveter/Sat RX remote and put the "eye" where it could activate the device. then you would program you recording to tell teh other device to change to a certain channel at a certain time. it worked flawlessly for years until we got Tivo and no longer used the VCR.

as far as you wanting to record 2 shows at different times on different channels, you would need a 2nd converter and vcr so you can tune each to the desired channel. then record one show on each. i don't think any low end converters out there have a scheduler to automatically switch channels, though some of the higher end ones do.

another option is a converter with a built in DVR. these are not cheap though, last time i priced one it was close to 200.00.

"Does anyone know if there is a VCR/DVD combo that already has the converter box built into it so I can just have things the way there were?"

Sony RDR-VXD655 $329.99 msrp

Here is a link that might be useful: Sony RDRVXD655

The DTV PAL converter by DISH that ibgyahoo is using IS capable of changing channels based on a programmed schedule. It is one of a very few DTV converters that has this capability. Both the VCR and the converter box need to be programmed.