RF/coax out on a DVD recorder ??? HELP!

[lordsmurf]

Alright, I just bought an Apex DRX-9000 ... about to go to the store and buy a Cyberhome 1500 too ... will take loser back to the store.

The APEX coax out does not "work". At least not in my book. I wanted my SVHS VCR to go to the APEX to then go coax out to the tv (which has no other input).

From looking at info on these recorders, it says these have "pass-through" available. Is this some crappy way of saying the signal from the recorder does not modulate out of the recorder? If so, what good is coax out? Or is this just a defective unit?

What gives?

Help! Who else has a recorder, and either uses or tried to use coax out?

No, I don't want to spend $30 more on a RF modulator.

[thoots]

What gives?

lordsmurf,

Welcome to DVD Recorder-Land.

Yep, a bit of a rude awakening for me, too. I've thought about making a really really really elemental FAQ about a few little surprises like this. But, at any rate, it appears that none of these actually "output" RF signals.

With my Panasonic E80H, you indeed feed it RF as an input, but it won't "output" its signal via the RF output. It will just "pass through" the RF signal, making it essentially just a rather expensive "splitter" when it comes to RF.

If you don't have any video inputs on your TV, you've got to either get a modulator, or hook something up to get it through the existing modulator in your VCR. I guess I'd suggest going to the DVD recorder, then use the pass-through to the VCR, and then to the TV. That'd get RF signal to your DVD recorder, and then you could "watch" the thing via the video inputs on your VCR. On the other hand, if you're actually sending the video output from the VCR to the DVD recorder, I'm not sure how well it's gonna work to "watch" the video "input" as such.

I didn't have any problem with direct video inputs/outputs -- I've got tons of that stuff all around. But, I had a scheme where I fed the otherwise useless RF outputs on my three VCR's (now hacked down to just one, beyond the E80H) to other TV's in the house -- whoops, no DVD recorder!! I wound up finally biting the bullet and getting a couple of Terk Leapfrog systems to send all of my direct video stuff to any TV in the house -- actually, a much better solution all around.

At any rate, I think that's the nature of the game -- I hope this helps!

thoots

[Bob W]

Hmm I guess I'm the only one that finds it strange one would own all this expensive video recording and playing equipment only to feed the output to a TV with coax only (seems counter productive at best). In fact I didn't know they even made TV's like that anymore.

[donpedro]

...it appears that none of these actually "output" RF signals.

If I was reading manuals correctly...

GoVideo R6530, Philips DVDR-77/17, Philips-Magnavox MDV630R

do output to channel 3 or 4.

But you are right. Most of them do not.

[thoots]

donpedro,

Hehehe -- thanks for going through the manuals for us!

The bottom line is that these are more like "DVD players" -- no RF output, than "VCR's," with RF output. Seems kind of strange to be hooking RF up to them and then not "carrying it forward" as such, but that's the usual case. But then again, no DVD players have RF output, so that's consistent, too.

Whatever the case, the situation remains that most of these do not have onboard RF modulators to output an RF signal....

thoots

[Gazorgan]

Most VCR's don't work either, joys of macrovision.....

Digital recorders weren't designed to modulate for a reason, there's no technical need. 'Normal' hookup is DVR-->VCR-->TV (which we all know doesn't work due to Macrovision), and not VCR-->DVR-->TV.

Lordsmurf. Stop spending all that $$$ on toys and cough up $99 US for a 24" APEX TV with A/V inputs :P

[donpedro]

You have point thoots. But it seams that there is still a lot of people that have TV without A/V inputs . Thta is why they sell external modulators (or whatever is name for it) for DVD Players

[lordsmurf]

'Normal' hookup is DVR-->VCR-->TV (which we all know doesn't work due to Macrovision), and not VCR-->DVR-->TV.
Lordsmurf. Stop spending all that $$$ on toys and cough up $99 US for a 24" APEX TV with A/V inputs :P

I've never seen the "problem" with DVD->VCR->TV ... maybe I'm just special, but I've set up players for myself, friends and family, never had any problems at all with that.

New tv? Why? Mine works fine. Had it since 1989, nothing wrong with it. Looks and sounds fine, everything still works.

I'd been meaning to buy a split box, found that the modulator version was only $5 more, so I just went ahead and did that. No problems anymore. I'm still in disbelief that the DVD recorder companies are so stingy as to exclude a $5 modulator. Unbelievable.

On the upside, the APEX DRX-9000 blows away the quality of a Panasonic. The 4-hour mode (352x480 VBR 0.0-9.8/DC10 AC3/192k stereo) is almost identical to quality of the DirecTV source. No macroblocks like the Panasonics. And I thought the Cyberhome was garbage, that's going back to the store in a few hours, difficult to work with and took forever to close off a disc when you pressed STOP. I plan to do a few recorder write-ups next week. This Apex is a great item. I even dare say the 4-hour mode looks better than me trying to use an ATI AIW card or AVI->MPEG on any card to get 4 hours on a DVD. I still can't believe it. I recorded both a soccer game from ESPN (fast action) and T3 from PPV (dark and light scenes both, with both fast and slow action).

Just took forever to get everything re-wired. The lack of coax was a monkey wrench, added hours onto the setup time.

[Captain Satellite]

'Normal' hookup is DVR-->VCR-->TV (which we all know doesn't work due to Macrovision), and not VCR-->DVR-->TV.
Lordsmurf. Stop spending all that $$$ on toys and cough up $99 US for a 24" APEX TV with A/V inputs :P

I've never seen the "problem" with DVD->VCR->TV ... maybe I'm just special, but I've set up players for myself, friends and family, never had any problems at all with that.

New tv? Why? Mine works fine. Had it since 1989, nothing wrong with it. Looks and sounds fine, everything still works.

I'd been meaning to buy a split box, found that the modulator version was only $5 more, so I just went ahead and did that. No problems anymore. I'm still in disbelief that the DVD recorder companies are so stingy as to exclude a $5 modulator. Unbelievable.

On the upside, the APEX DRX-9000 blows away the quality of a Panasonic. The 4-hour mode (352x480 VBR 0.0-9.8/DC10 AC3/192k stereo) is almost identical to quality of the DirecTV source. No macroblocks like the Panasonics. And I thought the Cyberhome was garbage, that's going back to the store in a few hours, difficult to work with and took forever to close off a disc when you pressed STOP. I plan to do a few recorder write-ups next week. This Apex is a great item. I even dare say the 4-hour mode looks better than me trying to use an ATI AIW card or AVI->MPEG on any card to get 4 hours on a DVD. I still can't believe it. I recorded both a soccer game from ESPN (fast action) and T3 from PPV (dark and light scenes both, with both fast and slow action).

Just took forever to get everything re-wired. The lack of coax was a monkey wrench, added hours onto the setup time.

Where'd you pick up the Apex and what was the cost?

[lordsmurf]

I got it for $294 from Wal-mart.

All 3 stores near me were sold out, as were 2 stores out in the country... so I went to the bad part of town, where I'd have figured high-dollar items would stay on the shelf, and managed to find one left, still in the box.

Two stores near me and both country stores still had display models. Maybe if you have that scenario, you can con a manager to giving it to you, maybe with a discount.

[Captain Satellite]

I got it for $294 from Wal-mart.

All 3 stores near me were sold out, as were 2 stores out in the country... so I went to the bad part of town, where I'd have figured high-dollar items would stay on the shelf, and managed to find one left, still in the box.

Two stores near me and both country stores still had display models. Maybe if you have that scenario, you can con a manager to giving it to you, maybe with a discount.

Thanks for the reply, I'll check it out. I wouldn't mind a spare for that price. I currently own the Panasonic DMR-HS2 with the so called 'luma-bug'. I've got to tell you, brother, I read all of the reviews and surfed the web for weeks before I bought it, I finally decided to draw my own conclusion. If it's there, I can't see it, which I guess is all that matters, even when playing the discs back on other players. I suspect that the problem may be more apparent on some recorders than others. Thanks for your comtibution to the board, how bad would it suck if we all agreed on everything.