hdtv issue with dvd/vhs combo - advice needed !

[Dan of Troy]

I helped install a very nice Vizio VW47LF LCD at my mother-in-law's house. She is in her 60's, lives alone, and she spends a lot of time with her TV. This is something of a complex issue, but please bear with me and help if you can.

She currently has an outdated VHS tape player and her DVD player is shot. She has basic cable, but there are 5 Digital channels available at 84.1, 84.2, etc. Her cable company told me today they will offer a cable box with digital cable and HD channels by March of 2008.

When you run the cable now through the VCR, you can not get the 5 Digital channels. When you run the cable directly into the Vizio, you get those channels.

Conventional wisdom is skip the VCR, but she wants to record on VCR.

Here is a very important question? Who do I choose a DVD/VCR combo today that will recognize those digital channels? This is the most important question I have in this post.

I record at my home on two separate DVR's, so I understand the beauty and technology and simplicity. However, I know she wants something between now and March before her cable company offers a DVR.

I have found several DVD/VHS combos for $100 or less, but the entire point and purpose of this Forum Post is, "will it recognize those 5 digital channels?" I don' t mind paying $250, if that is what she needs.

Please help if you can, and I hope you understand my efforts.

Thank you,
Dan

[SmokieStover]

Are you saying the digital channels do not pass thru the VCR when it is off, or when the VCR is doing a scheduled recording of an analog channel, or when the VCR is doing a live recording of an analog channel, or all of the above?

Are the available digital channels just simulcast of channels that are available in analog?

[edDV]

Simple answer is use a quality coax splitter and send one output to the HDTV and the second to her current VCR. The VCR composite (or S-video) + audio would then feed a separate TV input. The channels would need to be set separately for each device.

That is probably good enough until March '08. That way she can direct tune the QAM HD channels at the TV and record the SD version at the VCR.

Coax splitter. Get one rated at least out to 1 GHz.


Current VCR/DVD recorder combos come with tuners or without. Those without are intended to record off cable tuner/DVR boxes. If she plans to get a dual tuner DVR, then most recording will be done on the DVR and only "special" archive recordings will be saved to the DVD recorder. The VCR is there mostly to play the older VHS library.

[FulciLives]

I agree ... get a splitter and send one signal direct to the TV and one to the VCR.

Then she only has to use the INPUT button on the TV to switch between one or the other. Surely that doesn't make it overly difficult for her?

Plus she can watch one channel while recording another this way.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman