Foo - I need TV/DVD help. Calling all you Audio-Visual gurus!

Okay, so I picked up a cheap DVD player at Target thinking it would be perfect paired with a 16 year old TV we have in our basement. Perfect for treadmill or trainer workouts, right?

Well, turns out the TV only has a single co-ax connection on the back and the DVD player does not have a corresponding co-ax connection. I checked at the mighty Radio Shack, but the only solution the guy had was some $26 box to convert the three tail cables (left, right, video) from the DVD box to a single co-ax cable on the TV end. Honestly, the DVD player was only $29, so paying almost as much for a converter seems a bit much.

Any ideas or links for a cheaper way to convert the three-tail (red/white/yellow) into a single co-ax connection? C'mon, I know somebody out here in Foo has got my answer for me!

Find an old, cheap VCR, most will have RCA inputs with a co-ax output.

Do you have an old VCR laying around that barely works? VCR's usually have the coax connector - you could connect the DVD to the VCR and then go into the TV using the coax.

Look around for one someone's tossing in the garbage (actually, I've fixed two VCRs that way!). You basically just need it to turn on which it probably will.

Damn, you beat me!

You are looking for an RF Modulator

Sell on Ebay for around $12

Last time I bought one it was around $12 from walmart.

I was thinking there used to be issues with plugging composites DVD output into VCR's. IOW, i thought you couldn't do it because of copyright crap. I've never tried it, but that was stuck in my mind. Perhaps i'm wrong. Either way, give it a shot.

And you need to ditch that TV. In the very near future they are going to be switching everyone to a digital signal and your analog tv is so old that it is old analog technology, let alone the fact that it isn't digital.

And you need to ditch that TV. In the very near future they are going to be switching everyone to a digital signal and your analog tv is so old that it is old analog technology, let alone the fact that it isn't digital.

Whens the switch supposed to be? 2009? Ugh, what a PIA...

http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html

Whens the switch supposed to be? 2009? Ugh, what a PIA...It's already happened. As of 1-jan-06, digital-TV signals were required to be broadcasted simultaneously with the old signals. Don't worry about your old TV sets though, the U.S. is decades behind the Europeans and Japanese in adopting technology, we'll have analogue TV for decades to come.. The 2009 cut-off is just "planned"; they'll be ways around it like tuner boxes with analogue outputs, similar to the RF-modulator solution mentioned earlier.

Besides - that's only if you want to watch a broadcast channel. I only use my TV for movies.

Coax RF connections are from the age of the dinosaur. Seriously, it's time to treat yourself to a new TV.

Guys - this is just for his trainer in the basement. There's no need to treat for a new TV - just need something for an hour or two at a clip for movies.

Exactly. This TV's not picking up signals and I'm not getting an additional satellite box for it. It's just a junk TV in a basement. I did try connecting the DVD through the 10 year old VCR that's already connected to the TV, but that didn't work too well.

The RF modulator sounds like it's what I'm looking for. I'll check wally world this week. I can live w/ $12. Better than the bend-over price at Radio Shack.

Thanks!

Exactly. This TV's not picking up signals and I'm not getting an additional satellite box for it. It's just a junk TV in a basement. I did try connecting the DVD through the 10 year old VCR that's already connected to the TV, but that didn't work too well. What happened here? THat should've worked. Does the TV show VCR tapes OK? Then you set the VCR to video-in to display the DVD and it should send it out through channel 3 or 4 to the TV? If the TV doesn't show VCR tapes OK, then you might have a tuning problem with the TV.