Helping with hooking things up..

[Superstar24]

This isn't a DVD editing question or anything...I feel kinda stupid asking it, but I can't figure it out and it's driving me nuts. I have a TV, a DVD recorder/player and 2 VCRs all hooked together. I 've had it this way for about 5 years or so, and everything always worked fine, I moved and had to take everything apart, and now I can't get it working again no matter what I do. The main problem that I've noticed is I can watch TV thru the VCR as I always do, but when I click the tv/vcr button on the remote to watch tv thru the tv it doesnt work, and it always did before...the way I always had it before was my TV has a video button that has video 1, 2, 3 on it, whenever I wanted to watch a DVD, or play ps2, i'd hook the video and audio cables from the dvd player to the video and audio in slots on the vcr, turn the tv to video 1 and i could watch it, same with the ps2...and if i was dubbing a video, i could hit the tv/vcr button and watch regular tv as the vids were dubbing...well, when i hit tv/vcr now the tv is just all snowy, i've tried every possible cable hookup i can, i even have a splitter which i used before and i cant seem to find the right combos no matter what i do...does anyone have any advice? Sorry for the weird q, but i've been trying to get this working for about 2 hrs now and it's driving me nuts.

[RowMan]

You say your equipment is "all hooked together." We'll need to know EXACTLY (cable by cable, connection by connection) how you have it currently set up in order to help diagnose the problem.

My first guess with the info so far is that you might have the RF inputs and outputs connected incorrectly.

[Superstar24]

Well, I had it wrote down before, but I lost the paper during my move. For some reason, I could swear that I had the back of the tvs VHF/UHF hooked up to the RF out on the DVD player, but I don't see how that'd be possible. Right now, to get the TV play thru the VCR (which gives me better vid and sound quality) I have the TVs VHF/UHF hooked up to the back of the VCRs out and the cable for cable hooked directly to the in on the back of the vcr and that plays fine...but that's not what I want..the dvd player wont play no matter what hookup I use and if I hit tv/vcr on the remote, I can't watch tv regularly on the tv as I could before, it's all snowy when I do that.

[RowMan]

OK. From what you've stated so far, it sounds like you have a TV that has at least three audio/ video inputs and an RF input for the antenna or cable.

You also have two VCRs and a DVD recorder. Did you want the ability to record TV broadcasts on all three? If not, which one(s) do you want to be able to record?

Are there any other things you wanted connected? Like maybe a game system?

[Superstar24]

Ya, I have a PS2, however when I use that I plug the video & audio jacks into the front of the VCR (which is the playing VCR when I dub videos, thats why I have 2 there, I also do the same thing when I watch a DVD, plug it in the same way, however the DVD playing isnt working now) The only one I record off TV with is the playback VCR. Even tho the DVD player is also a recorder, I dont use it for that,I just watch dvds on it

[Superstar24]

Well, I got the DVD player working. I hooked the tv's vhf cord into the dvd player rf out and hooked the video & audio cables from the dvd player to the tv..so I guess I was right, I did have the tv cord to the dvd player as I originally thought. Now I have to get the VCR to be able to watch TV on it and I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

[guns1inger]

Antenna should go from the wall into the VHS RF-in. From the VHS RF-out the DVD Recorder RF-in (if you want to change channels or record from OTA) and from the DVD Recorder RF-out to the TV. This way you can watch/record independent channels on all three devices.

You should then run dedicated av cables from the VHS to the DVD Recorder, and from the DVD Recorder to the TV.

[RowMan]

When you watch a DVD, what input is your TV set to?

[Superstar24]

When you're referring to the VCR in your reply, I'm assuming that you mean to hook everything into the main VCR, which would be the one that I watch tv on and use as the playback one when I dub....the other VCR doesnt do anything except is the recording VCR when I dub...but you said then I can record on all 3 devices.. what do i hookup to the dubbing vcr?

[Superstar24]

its set to video one on my tv

[Superstar24]

Gunslinger, I just tried your advice, but when I click the TV/VCR button, the TV is snowy still, where before I could watch TV on it when I would click the TV/VCR button if I was dubbing a video, and wanted to watch regular TV. Would I need to use my splitter? I know I had it hooked up before, but since I lost my instructions I wrote down I don't know what was hooked into it. I thought for sure your advice would've worked, but unfortunately nothing comes up on the TV when I click the TV/VCR button.

[RowMan]

A couple more questions and I think I can have a proper set-up for you.

How many audio/video inputs are on the VCR that you use to record?

Do you have watch TV over-the-air (via antenna) or does it come from a cable box or satellite receiver?

[Superstar24]

On the video that I record with there is front A/V jacks which are the A/V in, when I dub I hook the A/V jacks into those from the VCR that I use to play & record & watch tv from (the playback one which I consider the main VCR) and on the back of the recording VCR there is the regular vhf hookups and a/v hookups, but I don't even have the recording VCR on unless I dub a video, everything that I do is thru the main VCR (watch tv on it, record from tv, and is the playback vcr when I dub a video)...thanks for trying to think of a solution for me, I'm at my wits end with this, I wish I could find the same hookups I used before because everything worked perfect then.

[Superstar24]

I don't have a cable box, the cable comes thru a hookup in the wall and I plug a coaxial cable into that and right now i have it plugged into my main vcr, but still if i click the tv/vcr button on the remote the tv is snowy and thats what im trying to fix

[RowMan]

Are you saying that you do not receive any kind of cable channels and watch TV "over-the-air"?

When switching from watching a video to watching TV using the TV/VCR button, did you try changing the channel on the TV to anything other than channel 3?

Also, we're talking about the TV/VCR button on the remote for the VCR, right?

[Superstar24]

Yes, I tried to change the channel on tv, and yes, we're talking about the TV/VCR button on the remote..before, I could hit that button and watch any channel on tv regularly, now everything is totally snowy..it doesnt make any sense to me

[RowMan]

OK. Try this...

Connect the cable from the wall directly to the TV. Any channels?

If not, be sure the TV is properly set up to receive the channels. The TV most likely has some sort of auto-tune function somewhere in the menu. You'll have to make sure that the tuning funtion is set to "antenna" unless you're getting Cable TV signals without a box.

[Superstar24]

No,. there's no pic when I plug it right into the TV..I've realized it has to be in the VHF plug on the back of the playback vcr to play on the tv..thats basically the only thing that I can figure out for sure..nothing else seems to work..

[RowMan]

Here's another shot that might diagnose what's wrong...

Connect the cable from the wall to the RF in on the VCR. Then connect the VCR's audio/video outputs to VIDEO 1 on your TV. Set your TV to VIDEO 1 and turn on the VCR with no tape in it.

With this set-up, you should be able to see TV channels from the VCR's tuner. Change the channels on the VCR to confirm. If the VCR can't pick up any channels, then the problem is with the signal in the cable coming from the wall.