Newbie Help w/ DVD/VCR combo hookup (1 Viewer)

[StevenMCohen]

o.k, I know it is said that there's no such thing as a dumb question in this forum, but I'll test that theory here.

I just purchased some components for a bedroom setup. I have a Toshiba 20AF43 television, Zenith XBV343 DVD/VCR combo unit and an RCA satellite receiver.

The DVD and satellite portions of the setup work just fine. My problem seems to be in getting the VCR to work.

Connections:

1. Component video out on back of DVD/VCR (in the DVD exclusive section) to component video in on back of TV (the video 2 input)

2. R/L RCA audio out from back of DVD/VCR (again in the DVD exclusive section) to R/L RCA audio in on back of TV (the video 2 input)

3. RCA yellow, red, and white from back of DVD/VCR out (the DVD/VCR section) to the RCA yellow, red and white input on back of TV (video 1)

4. The satellite receiver is run as follows: RF cable into the ant in on the sat receiver; then out to the ant in on back of the DVD/VCR player; and finally out of the DVD/VCR player and into the TV.

When trying to run the VCR, I select the VCR button on the DVD/VCR unit, tune the TV to channel 3 and select video input 1 on the TV. All I get is garbled output on the TV. As I said, the DVD and satellite work just fine.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks for the help!

Steve

 

[Lew Crippen]

Try selecting ‘Video 1’.on your TV instead of tuniing to a channel.

 

[Vince Maskeeper]

Garbled output that matches the video from the VHS tape (i.e. are you seeing signal from the tape, only poor- or are you just getting a poor TV channel?)

As Lew said, you shouldnt need to tune the Tv to ANY channel, rather it should be selected to the video one input. If you THINK you are looking at Video 1, double check- because the fact that you mentioned tuning to channel 3 first makes me think that you might need to double check your approach.

Also, if you try a DVD, using the Video 1 setting, do you get a picture? Some of these DVD/VHS units pass both dvd and vvhs from their composite output (the one you have connected to video 1)-- if you can get a picture from the DVD on video 1, and not vhs- then chances are good there is a problem with the VCR function of the unit.


Are you hearing audio from the VCR when you have it set on Video 1?

 

[StevenMCohen]

Vince:

I do not hear any audio and the video output is clearly garbled (although it does look like something might be playing - just very garbled).

I thought I did select video 1, but I'll check again.

I haven't tried checking if the DVD plays through video 1, mainly because I intentionally set it up to go into video 2.

Thanks for your help.

 

[ChuckSolo]

I have the exact combo unit you have and I have the DVD hooked up via the component jacks to the component jacks on my TV (video1) and the composite connections for the VCR to video2. Since I have a 5.1 surround receiver, I have the DVD using the receiver's digital coax connection and the VCR is using the Video2 analog connection on the receiver for sound. If you don't have a receiver, you must use the analog stereo sound connections on the TV. Note that the component video connections utilize video1 as does the S-video connection on the TV. You cannot use the same video connection on the TV for both the DVD player and the VCR. By default, component and s-video use Video1, at least on my 27" Panasonic. The problem you are having is that the DVD is hooked up to the component connections on the TV which is video1 and you also have the VCR hooked to video1. Unhook the VCR from video1 on the TV and hook it up to video2 on the tv, this should solve the problem.