CRT TVand Sony recorder HDC500 can't watch and record in HD Help

[Glasswitch]

Hi I am new here and I live in Australia. I am hoping that one of you can help me. I have a Panasonic CRT which I had a HD Top set box connected to. This was great until the extra free to air digital channels came on line ie: ONE HD- the sport channel. Because I wanted to record one of the sports programs and hopefully watch another channel at the same time- and I was told that I would be able to do this by the salesperson, I was very disappointed to find that it was not possible. After contacting Sony technical staff it was confirmed that the HDC 500 only has one HD tuner in it and so you can only watch HD program OR record a HD program not both at the same time.
My question is- can I connect up the HD Top set box that I had connected to the TV before and then run it through the HDC 500 which is connected to the TV? That would give me two HD Tuners instead of one. If so is that the way to do it and indeed, would it work or am I on the wrong track? Thank you in advance

[jagabo]

Just split the cable (with a Y adapter) from the wall and run one signal to the cable box, the other directly to the TV.

[usually_quiet]

I assume this is free-to-air from antenna and you want to use an HDD DVD recorder and a set-top converter box with a TV that lacks a tuner capable of tuning the signal on its own.

If the HDD DVD recorder has an RF-out pass-through, you can connect the antenna RF cable to the DVD recorder, and the RF-out from the DVD recorder to the RF-in on the set-top converter box. If the HDD DVD recorder doesn't have an RF pass-through, you will need to get a splitter and connect one leg of the split to each box.

In either case, you will also need a separate connection on the TV for each of the 2 boxes, or a switch, if they must share a connection.

[Glasswitch]

Thanks for advice. I am going to try this way. However, would it work if I run a set of component cables and aerial from the top set box into the recorder and from there the aerial and another set of component cables into the TV? Sorry to be a pain!

[jagabo]

For over-the-air reception you can use an RF distribution amp to split the signal to both devices. For example:

http://www.amazon.com/Channel-Master-3414-distribution-amplifier/dp/B001PI09SE

[usually_quiet]

Thanks for advice. I am going to try this way. However, would it work if I run a set of component cables and aerial from the top set box into the recorder and from there the aerial and another set of component cables into the TV? Sorry to be a pain!

Each box needs to get the signal from the antenna, and what you are suggesting won't provide it, if the set-top boxes are like the ones in the US.

RF out for our STBs sends whatever the STB is tuning in SD, on channel 3 or 4 (analog). You could connect the STB's component out to the DVD recorder if you wanted to record what the set-top box is tuned to, but there is no point to doing that. The DVD recorder has its own tuner.

If there is no RF-out pass-through on the DVD recorder, then you need a splitter, or a distribution amp with a splitter (to boost a weak signal) added to the cable from the wall, in order for both the STB and the DVD recorder to be able to tune channels independently.

[Glasswitch]

Thank you for your wonderful help! I bought a splitter and connected as suggested, one line to the TSB then connected component cables from the TSB to the TV and also red and white cables. The recorder is plugged into AV2 so I connected the TSB to AV4.So it works! when I want to record HD to the recorder I can. When I also want to watch HD at the same time I simply switch over to AV4 and use the TSB through the TV. Don't know what I would have done without you . You have made a 64 year old female's day!