VCR-hook-up in Home Theater (1 Viewer)

[Zena]

Need Advice on a VCR:

We recently purchased a Pioneer AV 711 Receiver, Mitsubishi Wide Screen Projection HDTV, JVC progressive scan DVD player, and a Sony N55 Hi-fi VCR. We bought ALL "Monster" component, digital coax and good composite cables.

We ran everything to the AV receiver so we could operate everything through (1) unit. However, the (1) component cable we ran to the HDTV will Not play the analog cable box or VCR. We had to hook-up a separate analog video cable from the monitor out on the receiver to the to HDTV regular input. The problem is- we have switch inputs on the HDTV to watch Cable or VCR.

Is there any way of getting one line out to the TV to work for all the units hooked-up to the AV Receiver??

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I'm afraid not.

There are 3 types of video connections:

Composite, SVideo, Component

Most receivers will NOT convert one to the other. (I think there is a Dennon model 38xx that will convert everything to Component).

You are in quandry because you have:

Composite: VCR, CATV box
Component: DVD

The easiest/cheapest solution is to buy a nice Universal Remote. These have "Macro" buttons that will take 5-20 different signals in sequence and play them back.

You program 1 Macro button for the DVD player that will:

- Flip the receiver to the DVD sound
- Flip the TV to see the DVD video.

You program another macro button for the VCR to:

- Flip the receiver to the VCR sound & video
- Flip the TV to see the Composite video

You program the third button to:

- Flip the receiver to the CATV box sound & video
- Flip the TV to see the Composite video

The One-For-All Cinema 7 is a very nice remote that will do all this and more for $20-$30. (I've seen this for $25 at Best Buy and $19 at Longs).

The other solutions would involve getting rid of the CATV box and VCR. There ARE better devices.

Soon, Dish will have a recordable HD receiver that will replace both the CATV box and VCR, but it's a few months away. But this would give you Component Video for everything.

Hope this helps.

 

[Zena]

Thanks....we thought that was the case. We may return the VCR if we can find a better device. The analog Cable box-we're stuck with until the upgrade the cable system feeding our neighborhood. If all else fails, the remote control you mentioned actually accomplishes the objective.

Zena