Composite to HDMI interface question (NA)

azure

azure

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azure
I have an old JVC CRT-type television that is apparently on its last legs (picture developing horizontal lines in upper part of screen, independent of input source, or with no source). Also the local cable provider has switched over to digital and no longer supports older analog TVs - I see frequent brief signal dropouts that they tell me are due to this incompatibility. Seeing as modern, HDTVs with flat screen LED display are under $500 nowadays, I've decided now is the time to replace it.

Here's the thing: I have two peripherals that interface with my current set via a what I believe is called a composite video/audio cable (white, red, yellow RCA-type plugs). They're an old VCR and a newer, but still fairly old DVD player, if it matters. The TV I'm looking at has only two HDMI ports (a sales person at Best Buy assured me that it has one composite port, but the specs say nothing about it so I doubt this is correct). What do I need to interface my peripherals with the new set? I've seen composite-to-HDMI adapter cables that sell for under $20 and composite-to-HDMI converter boxes that go for anywhere from $40 to up to $200. I'd like to get two of whatever I get in order to interface both peripherals without the need for a switch box behind or inside the TV stand, which with my setup (and the layout of the room it's in) would be a real pain to have to access frequently. With what little I know about the interfaces, I have doubts a simple adapter cable could even work, but even if it could, I want whatever I get to work well (decent picture without aspect ratio distortion).

Hoping someone here who has more experience than I with home electronics can advise me!
 
Most TVs should have at least one composite input. Sometimes it's shared with a component input. No matter, VCRs little over 300 line resolution will look awful on a modern LCD TV. Might as well play it through channel 3 :). DVD will be better, somewhat. LCD screens really do not display non-native resolution too well.
 
Don't know what to say about the VCR, but definitely upgrade the DVD to a Blueray (backward compatible to DVD and cheap). Technology marches on...
 
Composite is analog video signal, HDMI is digital video signal with embedded audio. Not compatible with just an adapter, you need some sort of signal converter.

On the composite connectors...yellow is the video, red and white are left and right audio signals. Be careful that the salesman is not thinking "Component" video inputs which is the blue/green/red RCA video inputs and red/white audio. Component is a better signal resolution than composite but still much less than HDMI.

For your VCR, you would need something like this if you only have HDMI input:

https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Video-Audio-Converter-Adapter/dp/B00MNFWYBI

Another option is if your new TV is "cable ready" with a RF co-ax connector on the back (like the cable signal connector coming into your house) you can connect your VCR to the TV using a co-ax cable and tune the TV to channel 3. Most VCR's have a co-ax out but not all new TVs have a cable ready co-ax in any more.

Check the back of your cable box...sometimes those have composite inputs that you can use then run the signal through the cable box and essentially use your cable box as the switcher.

For the DVD, don't spend a dime on a signal converter. DVD players with HDMI outputs can be had for $40. You are getting a HDTV...sending or converting an analog signal to that HDTV will look like crap for your DVD's.

...but any way you look at it, you are talking about three devices. VCR, DVD and Cable box so you either need a new TV with three HDMI in or two HDMI in and an a composite or co-ax input.

I just did the same thing...finally retired my last tube TV...but the old DVD player had to go with it as well.

Some TV's still have a composite and/or component analog inputs, but those are going away in newer produced units since that signal technology is dead and gone in modern electronics but they are still out there if you shop around at Costco or Wally-World. Just turn the demo models around and see if there is the yellow input on the back or side (they are sometimes located on the side seperate from the HDMI inputs on the back)

My recommendation is to go find a new TV that still has the "A/V" composite input for your VCR and buy a new DVD player.
 
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Shawn said:
My recommendation is to go find a new TV that still has the "A/V" composite input for your VCR and buy a new DVD player.
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Depending on the number of VHS tapes and whether or not they're Commerical or personal, can also just re-buy the media, or have them converted professionally. We had wedding and other VHS stuff converted to DVD at a local photo retailer, and they came out as good as VHS can look when piped into a modern TV. Which ain't good. But you don't throw out the wedding tape, I suppose. Ha.
 
Shawn said:
Composite is analog video signal, HDMI is digital video signal with embedded audio. Not compatible with just an adapter, you need some sort of signal converter.

On the composite connectors...yellow is the video, red and white are left and right audio signals. Be careful that the salesman is not thinking "Component" video inputs which is the blue/green/red RCA video inputs and red/white audio. Component is a better signal resolution than composite but still much less than HDMI.

For your VCR, you would need something like this if you only have HDMI input:

https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Video-Audio-Converter-Adapter/dp/B00MNFWYBI

Another option is if your new TV is "cable ready" with a RF co-ax connector on the back (like the cable signal connector coming into your house) you can connect your VCR to the TV using a co-ax cable and tune the TV to channel 3. Most VCR's have a co-ax out but not all new TVs have a cable ready co-ax in any more.

Check the back of your cable box...sometimes those have composite inputs that you can use then run the signal through the cable box and essentially use your cable box as the switcher.

For the DVD, don't spend a dime on a signal converter. DVD players with HDMI outputs can be had for $40. You are getting a HDTV...sending or converting an analog signal to that HDTV will look like crap for your DVD's.

...but any way you look at it, you are talking about three devices. VCR, DVD and Cable box so you either need a new TV with three HDMI in or two HDMI in and an a composite or co-ax input.

I just did the same thing...finally retired my last tube TV...but the old DVD player had to go with it as well.

Some TV's still have a composite and/or component analog inputs, but those are going away in newer produced units since that signal technology is dead and gone in modern electronics but they are still out there if you shop around at Costco or Wally-World. Just turn the demo models around and see if there is the yellow input on the back or side (they are sometimes located on the side seperate from the HDMI inputs on the back)

My recommendation is to go find a new TV that still has the "A/V" composite input for your VCR and buy a new DVD player.
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Didn't think that the TV might not have a coax input, there is no cable box so that's an absolute necessity (this cable company doesn't provide one and their literature doesn't mention needing one for any level of service). The current setup is coax goes first to the VCR and then daisy-chains to the TV. No Channel 3 needed, the VCR has its own separate tuner.

Thanks for the advice, replacing the DVD with a Blu-ray that has an HDMI output is probably a better solution. (What about a DVD-RW? Haven't looked into those yet.) I will double check whether the new TV has composite input. The sales gal was definitely talking about composite not component as she showed me a picture from some promo glossy. She did not seem very knowledgeable about the products they were selling and again, the specs did not mention a composite input so I suspect the promo literature was for a different model. The demo models are wall-mounted so you can't turn them around, but I might be able to get them to open a box.

Nate, the tapes are personally made and I still record stuff I can't be there to watch. There's about 100 of them, unfortunately. For new recordings I could go to DVD-RW if that's still a viable format and not too expensive.
 
What are you doing for audio? The new TVs have pretty tinny speakers. A cheap audio receiver would do the converting for you and much more.
 
If you hit the specifications tab on that page, it pulls down a table that includes the list of inputs. Looks like you're right about a lack of composite.

Input
  • Number Of Composite Video Inputs
    0
  • PC Input
    No
  • Number Of DVI Inputs
    0
  • Video Input(s)
    HDMI
  • RF Antenna Input
    Yes
 
CMongoose said:
If you hit the specifications tab on that page, it pulls down a table that includes the list of inputs. Looks like you're right about a lack of composite.

Input
  • Number Of Composite Video Inputs
    0
  • PC Input
    No
  • Number Of DVI Inputs
    0
  • Video Input(s)
    HDMI
  • RF Antenna Input
    Yes
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Thanks, I was going by the specs list in-store and hadn't scrolled to the bottom of the page. Apparently it does have the coax input, a good thing. Still I would need the converter - Shawn, the Etekcity is actually the one I was looking at. I hesitate because I've read stories of bad aspect ratio distortion from some Composite-HDMI converters. I would rather put up with some clipping rather than a stretched picture.
 
If you do not have a cable box...you can still run the cable signal through your VCR then to your TV via the coax just as you are doing now and the VCR would still be the tuner.

Just need to be sure you get a cable ready TV with the co-ax input
 
Shawn said:
Composite is analog video signal, HDMI is digital video signal with embedded audio. Not compatible with just an adapter, you need some sort of signal converter.

On the composite connectors...yellow is the video, red and white are left and right audio signals. Be careful that the salesman is not thinking "Component" video inputs which is the blue/green/red RCA video inputs and red/white audio. Component is a better signal resolution than composite but still much less than HDMI.
......

My recommendation is to go find a new TV that still has the "A/V" composite input for your VCR and buy a new DVD player.
Click to expand...


Component(RGB) is capable of all the same resolutions as HDMI up to 1080p and even higher. Probably not as high as 4/8K+, but plenty high. Component is analog version of HDMI, so you may have some signal degradation, but I doubt it would be that noticeable, especially in with DVD/VCR hook-up.


Otherwise, yes. As others mentioned, buy cheap Blu-Ray, convert all VHS to DVD/BR and get rid of that VCR and DVD player. Your VCR is probably going to die soon anyway. They tend to do that if not used, mine did. And tapes do not live forever either. And Blu-ray player are dirt cheap. Still, 2 inputs is not really enough for things and composite is a very useful input to have.
 
azure said:
Nate, the tapes are personally made and I still record stuff I can't be there to watch. There's about 100 of them, unfortunately. For new recordings I could go to DVD-RW if that's still a viable format and not too expensive.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. One thing to consider is a ready-made Over The Air DVR to replace the VCR, but understand if you're trying not to buy more stuff. Top of the line in that space seem to be the TiVo Roamio.

Beware, even on a free OTA DVR one of the things you may have to pay for is a (usually cheap) subscription to the data stream that gives you a TV guide. On and off you'll see companies waive the subscription fee for "life" or a few years or whatever -- but they bake the price into the unit price. TiVo was doing that at one point with theirs to sell more of them. Annual subscription usually runs about $15. Depends on the unit.

I'm sitting here thinking we have an older DVD-RW unit around here that we could part with, but I'm pretty sure it's too old to be able to receive HD signals (ATSC is the technical name) OTA, which pretty much means all it's been doing for years is sitting under the bedroom TV doing nothing. I think it strangely has an HDMI output too. A very "lost" piece of tech that I picked up before the digital switchover for broadcast.

It doesn't sound like a good fit for your setup or I'd be happy to part with it for the cost of a cheap USPS Priority Mail box shipping. Probably cost more to ship it than it's worth though.

It plays DVDs also of course but we almost never do that, and that TV had one of its HDMI inputs blown by the lightning strike that blew a hole in our old garage roof, so to even use the thing I have to go over there and unplug one HDMI source and plug in that weird old DVD player/recorder.

Anyway, with that ramble over with... LOL... I'd look into the cheap OTA DVRs to replace a VCR that's just recording OTA stuff, these days.

There's also DIY ways to build them, but I doubt you want to do that. Many folks here have varying levels of DIY home entertainment servers and streamer systems. I've avoided it just because messing with them can be a huge time suck if they're not working right.
 
denverpilot said:
Makes sense. One thing to consider is a ready-made Over The Air DVR to replace the VCR, but understand if you're trying not to buy more stuff. Top of the line in that space seem to be the TiVo Roamio.

Beware, even on a free OTA DVR one of the things you may have to pay for is a (usually cheap) subscription to the data stream that gives you a TV guide. On and off you'll see companies waive the subscription fee for "life" or a few years or whatever -- but they bake the price into the unit price. TiVo was doing that at one point with theirs to sell more of them. Annual subscription usually runs about $15. Depends on the unit.

I'm sitting here thinking we have an older DVD-RW unit around here that we could part with, but I'm pretty sure it's too old to be able to receive HD signals (ATSC is the technical name) OTA, which pretty much means all it's been doing for years is sitting under the bedroom TV doing nothing. I think it strangely has an HDMI output too. A very "lost" piece of tech that I picked up before the digital switchover for broadcast.

It doesn't sound like a good fit for your setup or I'd be happy to part with it for the cost of a cheap USPS Priority Mail box shipping. Probably cost more to ship it than it's worth though.

It plays DVDs also of course but we almost never do that, and that TV had one of its HDMI inputs blown by the lightning strike that blew a hole in our old garage roof, so to even use the thing I have to go over there and unplug one HDMI source and plug in that weird old DVD player/recorder.

Anyway, with that ramble over with... LOL... I'd look into the cheap OTA DVRs to replace a VCR that's just recording OTA stuff, these days.

There's also DIY ways to build them, but I doubt you want to do that. Many folks here have varying levels of DIY home entertainment servers and streamer systems. I've avoided it just because messing with them can be a huge time suck if they're not working right.
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Thanks Nate. Yeah, I probably shouldn't go with older tech to replace REALLY old tech, it would just be a stopgap. Either replace the VCR with something available today or continue to use it, with as cheap as possible an interface. As others have said, the Etekcity is cheap. The only question I have is the picture quality I would get on the HDMI set from it.
 
denverpilot said:
Makes sense. One thing to consider is a ready-made Over The Air DVR to replace the VCR, but understand if you're trying not to buy more stuff. Top of the line in that space seem to be the TiVo Roamio.

Beware, even on a free OTA DVR one of the things you may have to pay for is a (usually cheap) subscription to the data stream that gives you a TV guide. On and off you'll see companies waive the subscription fee for "life" or a few years or whatever -- but they bake the price into the unit price. TiVo was doing that at one point with theirs to sell more of them. Annual subscription usually runs about $15. Depends on the unit.

I'm sitting here thinking we have an older DVD-RW unit around here that we could part with, but I'm pretty sure it's too old to be able to receive HD signals (ATSC is the technical name) OTA, which pretty much means all it's been doing for years is sitting under the bedroom TV doing nothing. I think it strangely has an HDMI output too. A very "lost" piece of tech that I picked up before the digital switchover for broadcast.

It doesn't sound like a good fit for your setup or I'd be happy to part with it for the cost of a cheap USPS Priority Mail box shipping. Probably cost more to ship it than it's worth though.

It plays DVDs also of course but we almost never do that, and that TV had one of its HDMI inputs blown by the lightning strike that blew a hole in our old garage roof, so to even use the thing I have to go over there and unplug one HDMI source and plug in that weird old DVD player/recorder.

Anyway, with that ramble over with... LOL... I'd look into the cheap OTA DVRs to replace a VCR that's just recording OTA stuff, these days.

There's also DIY ways to build them, but I doubt you want to do that. Many folks here have varying levels of DIY home entertainment servers and streamer systems. I've avoided it just because messing with them can be a huge time suck if they're not working right.
Click to expand...

TiVo subscription is typically $15/month, not per year. OTA Roamio currently comes with lifetime free subscription and can be bought on Amazon for about $370(or rather could a few weeks ago when I got it). If OTA +DVR is what you are trying to do, than this is a good direction. I debated between this and Tablo and decided on TiVo... So far no regrets.

Although, I didn't see that in the OP. Seems like he is staying with the cable. If that is what you are trying to do, then unless your cable provider supports cablecard(and even with that it's iffy), you are stuck with DVR from the cable company. There is no way to receive the signal from them without their box or a box with cablecard(if supported).
 
... Also.. Look into PLEX or XBOX Media center. A much easier way to play your home and downloaded videos. No need for DVD or VCR. Just a box(such as Tivo or Roku) or browser, computer(server), and a good storage device.
 
azure said:
Thanks Nate. Yeah, I probably shouldn't go with older tech to replace REALLY old tech, it would just be a stopgap. Either replace the VCR with something available today or continue to use it, with as cheap as possible an interface. As others have said, the Etekcity is cheap. The only question I have is the picture quality I would get on the HDMI set from it.
Click to expand...

It'll be poor but "kinda watchable". Remember it's roughly a 486x440 image you'll be displaying in "letterbox" (because it's 4x3 format) on a 1920x1080 (16 x 9) format screen.

Dumb question because it's not clear. How are you feeding the VCR today? Does it have a digital tuner? (I doubt...) I just realized there's no way an old VCR is recording direct OTA signals these days. But I missed it if there's a cable box or something non-OTA handling the down-conversion to the VCR.

I think I missed something here. Looking back to see what it is.
 
I went with Best Buy for my UHDTV earlier this year. Has multiple connecting options on the back. Running Bluray player (HDMI), Dish (HDMI), DVD RW/VHS (component), and Laser Disk (component). Now if Dish would start with some UHD channels, I'd be set.
 
Shawn said:
That would still work if there is no cable box and the new TV has a cable ready RF Co-Ax input.
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Not asking about the output. Saying it's impossible to be recording OTA from the VCR today. It doesn't have an ATSC tuner, only NTSC.

So I'm trying to figure out how the VCR is even working today, before the change. It has to be being fed by something. ATSC to NTSC converter, cable, something that gives it an old style RF or component input.
 
denverpilot said:
Not asking about the output. Saying it's impossible to be recording OTA from the VCR today. It doesn't have an ATSC tuner, only NTSC.

So I'm trying to figure out how the VCR is even working today, before the change. It has to be being fed by something. ATSC to NTSC converter, cable, something that gives it an old style RF or component input.
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Not sure, Nate. But it is recording directly OTA. The old TV doesn't have a digital tuner either. The cable company claims that their format is now all digital, but I suspect that's a half truth. There must be an analog signal there. As I think I wrote already, there is some kind of incompatibility between their signal and my equipment since the signal drops out completely on a random basis, for a couple of seconds, and then comes back. Sometimes it happens more than once every minute, making it quite unwatchable. But it "sort of" works, most of the time.

Okay... I just checked my provider's site and it looks like for Digital Cable they do supply a cable box. So the front desk person has been giving me wrong info, and I'm obviously still on their basic analog service (well, one step above "Basic", I have "Cable Plus") that doesn't really work well. On my service there is no cable box, to answer your earlier question. The signal comes in via coax, direct to the VCR, and the coax then daisy chains to the TV. Composite outputs from the DVD and VCR go to separate composite inputs on the TV. The current setup is nice as I can record something on one channel and watch something else on a different channel, at the same time. Or watch something on DVD while recording OTA on the VCR.

I think I need to talk to their tech support (hard to get connected with them since it's basically one person who is usually out at a customer site) about what my options will be with them once I get a TV with an ATSC tuner.
 
azure said:
As I think I wrote already, there is some kind of incompatibility between their signal and my equipment since the signal drops out completely on a random basis, for a couple of seconds, and then comes back. Sometimes it happens more than once every minute, making it quite unwatchable. But it "sort of" works, most of the time.
Click to expand...

I had a similar problem a while back...issue was that the actual co-ax cable was crap all the way from the pole, through the house and to the TV and cable modem. The newer cable signals are utilizing not only the core of the cable but the braiding as well which used to be just shielding. Discovered the problem when the tech came to troubleshoot the internet but TV was also not 100% stable similar to your problem. Needed new co-ax with better braiding. Was not an issue with the old analog signal they used to send.

Cable company ended up running a new line from the pole to the point of entry then I ran a new cable from there to the TV and office for the modem since they were going to charge me for the in house work.

Have them test the signal coming in the house and at the point of entry. If you are just running off the co-ax, you should not have any drop out issues unless they changed something on their end. Issue is probably not your TV.
 
Shawn, that actually makes sense and is what I initially suspected, but the front desk person said her tech people are sure it's because my equipment is analog. Seeing as she was wrong about my signal being digital, there's a good chance she's wrong about that too and the problem will persist even with a new TV unless they do some serious troubleshooting. As I said, I need to get together one-on-one with their tech support person.
 
OTA = Over The Air. As in via antenna. No cable or cable provider. Just free antenna channels. Just to clear terminology here. As far as I can tell, this is not how you have it setup
 
genna said:
OTA = Over The Air. As in via antenna. No cable or cable provider. Just free antenna channels. Just to clear terminology here. As far as I can tell, this is not how you have it setup
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Yeah that's where I got lost also, but I think I see what's going on now.

You're receiving cable, and there are some cable systems that have maintained backward compatibility with analog TVs. They're actually quite rare, most have gone to offering a simple converter box and changed all their signals on the coax to digital. It saves them a lot of bandwidth.

One of two things is coming down that cable. Either old school analog RF NTSC just like if you hooked it up to an outside antenna back in the old days and received analog TV directly...

Or more likely if that cable system is at least up to relatively modern standards, your VCR has a QAM tuner. QAM used to be the format in which the cable company delivered the non-"scrambled" channels down the cable back in the day.

The "scrambling" on pay channels was done by analog means, and their boxes "unscrambled" it. They'd also simply stick RF attenuators inline to block certain frequencies before they entered your house in the really old days to keep you from getting channels you didn't pay for.

I'm again, surprised you can still take the coax and plug it into a VCR and receive pretty much anything at this point.

Some of the dropouts and problems may just be analog protection schemes that were used to keep folks from doing stuff like recording to VHS. Are the dropouts there when watching live and bypassing the VCR or only on recorded content?

Why I ask is what you're describing sounds like one of the schemes that was used to keep folks from recording but not from watching. It was usually used in DVD players to try to plug what they called "the analog hole". You could run a cable out of a DVD player into a VHS recorder and use the analog video signal to make a poor quality copy.

But they could also be actual problems in the cable drop itself. I had similar but different problems fixed once by the cable installer running a completely new drop from the light pole out back... the coax in the "drop" had gone bad from many years hanging there in the elements.

Anyway, doesn't really matter, but it's important to note that your VCR appears to be receiving an RF signal the cable company still has on their coax.

(Most of this stuff about what's on a particular system is documented online, so if you don't mind sharing which cable company it is, we'd be able to check and know for sure most likely.)

Anyway... Once you upgrade to an HD set, it's likely they'll force you to get a set top box of some sort. The feed to it from the coax will be digital, and HDMI to the new TV.

That leaves...

The VCR:

Maybe their box will still have a downconverted RF output via coax that can simultaneously be fed into the VCR. If so, the VCR will probably only get a limited number of channels or even only one on "channel 3 or 4" at a time.

If not and it only has composite outputs, and if the VCR has inputs for that, which not all do, same issue arises...

The VCR could still record one channel at a time and you'd have to set it on the cable company's set top box ahead of time.

The VCR won't be able to "tune" to multiple channel anymore.

The New TV:

The new TV would likely be fed off of the cable box via HDMI.


Additional info:

There were some HDTV sets that had QAM tuners so they could receive "basic cable" directly via coax if the cable company wasn't sending standard analog NTSC down the coax. They're not common at all anymore because many cable companies killed that long ago. They want you to use their boxes to receive for the most part now.

One reason for that, cord cutters would order cable data modem service ONLY and then stick a Y splitter inline between the wall and the data modem, and they'd get free "basic" cable. As Long as they made sure to buy a TV with a QAM tuner built in.

This was also a popular way to feed basic cable and data to small businesses for a while until residential customers started figuring it out. Ten channels for the doctors office waiting room and cable modem for their internet.

In large apartment complexes, if the physical cable wasn't disconnected at the junction panel room, anyone with a TV that would do QAM word get free basic cable simply by plugging in. Sometimes a building had paid for that and it was intended, and sometimes not.

But... It kinda sounds like your cable system there still has analog RF on the coax. And that's the key that made it make sense to me.

Any of that help, or just make it harder to understand?

You're on the right track to ask them how you'll get service both as HDMI and in a format the VCR can record. At this stage of the tech game in cable, they may say they don't support RF inputs anymore.

If you provide the cable company name, the model and make of the VCR, and exactly which channel numbers it receives, we may be able to help figure out exactly how it's receiving those.
 
Nate, I already gave a link to the cable company's site. (There it is again.) So you can see what kind of services they offer. The VCR is a JVC HR-VP634U. It receives channels 2 through 99 on cable. It's quite old, mid-1990s technology and completely predates digital TV, so I'm pretty certain its tuner is not QAM. (The manual does not specifically say.)

It's pretty obvious that the service I have, Cable Plus, delivers an analog signal and that's why my TV and VCR are able to receive it without a converter box. Digital Cable requires a converter box and I'll have to ask them if it's possible to get backward compatibility with my VCR's tuner that way. My guess is probably not, so I'll have to switch to a different recording system if I upgrade to a new TV and switch to their digital service. That's okay too.

Whether I replace my TV right now or not is something I'm still mulling over. As of this morning, the horizontal lines in my picture are gone. I'm guessing I have an intermittent component failure that could just keep acting up on and off for a long time, so I probably have time to research all of my options.
 
Well, the analog signal, as mentioned is very low resolution (<300 lines). The TV will have a line doubler (some are better quality than others) that will try to make it look as good as possible on the new tv, but in reality, you will never be happy with the picture. If your provider delivers a digital HD signal, you should go ahead and upgrade stuff. Your talking about 20 year old technology, which is basically your grandfather's technology. I haven't used a VCR in at least 10 years. Blueray is cheap (<$100). DVRs are cheap. Your provider will probably rent you one.
Digital Converter with HD Tuner and Dual-Tuner DVR (digital video recorder)
$9.95
Click to expand...
 
azure said:
Nate, I already gave a link to the cable company's site. (There it is again.) So you can see what kind of services they offer. The VCR is a JVC HR-VP634U. It receives channels 2 through 99 on cable. It's quite old, mid-1990s technology and completely predates digital TV, so I'm pretty certain its tuner is not QAM. (The manual does not specifically say.)

It's pretty obvious that the service I have, Cable Plus, delivers an analog signal and that's why my TV and VCR are able to receive it without a converter box. Digital Cable requires a converter box and I'll have to ask them if it's possible to get backward compatibility with my VCR's tuner that way. My guess is probably not, so I'll have to switch to a different recording system if I upgrade to a new TV and switch to their digital service. That's okay too.

Whether I replace my TV right now or not is something I'm still mulling over. As of this morning, the horizontal lines in my picture are gone. I'm guessing I have an intermittent component failure that could just keep acting up on and off for a long time, so I probably have time to research all of my options.
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Got it!

They might just bring you a digital box you'd hook to one input of the new TV (HDMI 1) and then you could get an up converter for the VCR and still use it on HDMI 2 or however you ended up feeding it to the TV.

The analog signal on the cable/coax won't go away just because they hooked a digital box to it necessarily. Depends on if they have to change something upstream though.

A Y adapter for 75 ohm coax and a couple of short chunks of coax (one going to the new digital box, one to the VCR) and you can always just try it and have low expectations until you see it working again. Heh.

You won't hurt anything by splitting the signal and maybe they'll let the installer do it or any nice installer would anyway if they're not a weenie.

(They have coax and terminations and Y adapters and all that stuff "free" in their truck of course, so ask nicely even if the company says no. Haha. I had an installer once who did me a favor and "backfed" the whole house distribution panel from a single satellite receiver so other TVs could watch whatever was on the main set. Back in the RF distribution days anyway.)

The picture quality of the VCR on a new set will be awful as others have mentioned but if it's something you really want to see, you'd put up with it. Heh.

(Like my aforementioned wedding video and my wife wanting to watch it sometimes on anniversaries. LOL. Content is great, picture looks awful. I just smile and nod of course. Haha!)

You may be right about it being a component going out in the VCR. Many "vintage hi-fi" stereo aficionados of gear from that same age, often buy a receiver or amp and the first thing they do is disassemble it and check or even just preemptively replace all of the electrolytic capacitors on the circuit board(s).

The electrolyte dries out over decades and the capacitors don't do what they did the day the thing was assembled in the 1970s.

Computer power supplies also went through a few years of this type of problem in the late 90s with capacitors made at the One Hung Low plant, which I hear is somewhere in China. Ha. ;)

Like all the old airplanes we all fly, stuff is wearing out. Ha.
 
denverpilot said:
Got it!

They might just bring you a digital box you'd hook to one input of the new TV (HDMI 1) and then you could get an up converter for the VCR and still use it on HDMI 2 or however you ended up feeding it to the TV.

The analog signal on the cable/coax won't go away just because they hooked a digital box to it necessarily. Depends on if they have to change something upstream though.

A Y adapter for 75 ohm coax and a couple of short chunks of coax (one going to the new digital box, one to the VCR) and you can always just try it and have low expectations until you see it working again. Heh
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Yes, I could do that, but I just spoke to the cable company yesterday - this time to one of their (count 'em, two!) tech people instead of the woman at the front desk - and was told they do offer a DVR rental for $10/month. (Or is buying one commercially a viable option? Not sure.) So for new recordings it doesn't make sense to keep the VCR operational. For the old tapes, well to be honest it's an old series that I rewatch every 3-4 years or so. I can always purchase the DVD set or rent from Netflix the next time the urge hits. So I'll probably not let compatibility with my old VCR be a purchase constraint.
The picture quality of the VCR on a new set will be awful as others have mentioned but if it's something you really want to see, you'd put up with it. Heh.
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Right, this is the other problem with keeping the VCR around. I'm not a videophile and can put up with some picture degradation, but I won't watch something if the picture outright sucks.
(Like my aforementioned wedding video and my wife wanting to watch it sometimes on anniversaries. LOL. Content is great, picture looks awful. I just smile and nod of course. Haha!)
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Yes, that's different. Family videos, priceless. Of course you have to be able to watch those from time to time!
You may be right about it being a component going out in the VCR. Many "vintage hi-fi" stereo aficionados of gear from that same age, often buy a receiver or amp and the first thing they do is disassemble it and check or even just preemptively replace all of the electrolytic capacitors on the circuit board(s).
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I don't see how it could possibly be anything in the VCR as the lines were appearing even with the DVD player as video source (feeds into the TV via a separate composite input). Much more likely to be something in the circuitry in the TV that generates the picture. Luckily, for now, I have some breathing room.

I also talked briefly to another Best Buy salescritter yesterday, who tried to convince me that 4K resolution was "about to" become the new standard and if I bought a 1080p unit today, it would soon be obsolete. I haven't paid much attention to developments in the industry for over 20 years (I know, it shows! :redface:) and have no idea if this is true. Not sure if I want to spend the extra cash to get the latest and greatest. Also, does a 1080p picture expand to fill the whole screen on a 4K set or does it display reduced size? If full screen, is the aspect ratio distortion noticeable? (I would assume so, since even very slight aspect ratio mismatch is quite noticeable when it comes to things like faces.)
 
azure said:
I also talked briefly to another Best Buy salescritter yesterday, who tried to convince me that 4K resolution was "about to" become the new standard and if I bought a 1080p unit today, it would soon be obsolete. I haven't paid much attention to developments in the industry for over 20 years (I know, it shows! :redface:) and have no idea if this is true.
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Ignore the BestBuy num-nuts. They are just as bad as used car salesmen that wanna up-seel you. Yes, 4K resolution is where they are going but that is not going to make current TV's obsolete, but for someone that is currently on a tube TV with no HD signals...just go to Costco and buy the size you want at a decent price. You don't need to pay top dollar for the latest and greatest for your situation.

If you like to record shows, I would also just get the cable company's box for HD signal to your TV with their DVR option. I had Tivo for a while with my own purchased box. Started running into problem as the cable companies started changing their signals to their own proprietary scramble essentially rendering my Tivo useless without upgrades. Now I just use the DVR from the cable company and been happy.
 
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azure said:
Yes, I could do that, but I just spoke to the cable company yesterday - this time to one of their (count 'em, two!) tech people instead of the woman at the front desk - and was told they do offer a DVR rental for $10/month. (Or is buying one commercially a viable option? Not sure.)...
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There are HD DVRs available for sale. The models below record to either DVD or hard disk. I haven't looked into quality/customer satisfaction, although I have and like the SD (i.e., low resolution) version from the same manufacturer.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/46444957...75035&wl11=online&wl12=46444957&wl13=&veh=sem

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox...wl11=online&wl12=46444956&wl13=&veh=sem#about
 
Very little content in 4k right now. I have a 49in 4k in a built in nook in the family room and there is very little difference between 1080p and 4k content at normal viewing distances. Once you get to 75 or 80in dedicated home theaters where you are fairly close in with controlled ambient lighting 4k makes more sense. Get an OLED with the highest contrast ratio and lumens you can afford.
 
weilke said:
Very little content in 4k right now.
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This. 4K requires big bandwidth on the distribution system and won't be offered for an exceedingly long time, if ever, via broadcast.

If you have 4K content stored locally that you know you want to play, you already know it.

And the comments about viewing distance should be considered also. We have a monster 70"+ Samsung but we did that because our viewing seating is a long way back from that wall. We wouldn't see a significant difference in it being 4K without rearranging the butt-holding furniture a lot closer.
 
denverpilot said:
This. 4K requires big bandwidth on the distribution system and won't be offered for an exceedingly long time, if ever, via broadcast.
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There are a couple of shows and documentaries on Netflix, some recent release blueray DVDs and DirecTV has a couple of channels with documentaries etc. Comcast, our cable provider has nothing.

And the comments about viewing distance should be considered also. We have a monster 70"+ Samsung but we did that because our viewing seating is a long way back from that wall. We wouldn't see a significant difference in it being 4K without rearranging the butt-holding furniture a lot closer.
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Same here. The viewing position in front of the 49in is about 12ft back and it is mounted fairly high over a gas fireplace. To really get the best pic we would need a 65 or 75in TV. But then, watching TV isn't that big a part of our life, so having one of those monsters in the family room wouldn't make any sense.

If I don't blow all my money on flying, one of these days I'll finish out an area in the basement as movie theater. By then, an 85in 8k TV is probably $999 and weighs 25lbs.
 
weilke said:
There are a couple of shows and documentaries on Netflix, some recent release blueray DVDs and DirecTV has a couple of channels with documentaries etc. Comcast, our cable provider has nothing.
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Right, my provider has nothing in 4K either, and they don't anticipate going that way anytime soon.

Update: George, one of Trans Video's two techies, was over today to replace my splitter and check out the cable signal at my TV. He pronounced it fine and could find no reason for the signal dropouts. He opined, though, that if there was an intermittent problem with the analog side of their system it's very possible they wouldn't know about it as I'm one of their very few analog customers left, if not the only one. I guess that's testimony to how ubiquitous and just darn cheap digital home entertainment tech is today, even in a poor state like VT everyone has switched over.

I've pretty well decided these are what I'm going to get, as soon as I have another chance to drive the 50 miles back to Best buy, probably later this week:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...p-smart-hdtv-black/6422016.p?id=1219661888984
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...lack/3205019.p?id=1219575795041&skuId=3205019
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...lack/3205019.p?id=1219575795041&skuId=3205019
Unless, of course, someone can give me a good reason to go with something else... Thanks y'all. :)
 
azure said:
I've pretty well decided these are what I'm going to get, as soon as I have another chance to drive the 50 miles back to Best buy, probably later this week:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...p-smart-hdtv-black/6422016.p?id=1219661888984
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung...lack/3205019.p?id=1219575795041&skuId=3205019
Unless, of course, someone can give me a good reason to go with something else... Thanks y'all. :)
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How fast is your internet ?

You only really need a 'smart' TV if you intend to use the internal internet streaming features like Netflix or Amazon Prime. A 'dumb' TV may be sufficient if you are not interested in those services (and if you are the 'streaming' BlueRay player you listed above can play them for you).

Also, try to listen to the built in speakers, you may find them lacking. In that case you would either need a sound-bar or a receiver and surround speakers to get a better result. For a 40in the sound-bar with wireless subwoofer is probably the best option.

As mentioned earlier, even a basic Audio Video Receiver would allow you to hook your VCR player to any HDMI only TV. It would take a component or composite video output from your VCR and play it on the HDMI TV. You could also hook up a DVD recorder to a second output and convert your videos into DVDs while you watch them.
 
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