Hey all,

I know this isn't exactly the place to put this, but it seemed like the most appropriate forum I could find. (Mods, feel free to move it if you think there's somewhere better).

I do computer and technical consulting. One of my clients is an older gentleman facing macular degeneration. He's also a veteran and was able to obtain a pretty nifty device called JORDY that enhances vision - essentially it's a pair of electronic glasses with a built in screen that puts things right in front of your eyes. You can use it as a magnifyer for regular vision, or it plugs into things like TV's and VCR's/DVD players and lets you port the image directly to the screen. My client wants to do the latter so he doesn't have to angle his head to watch television.

JORDY has an RCA composite cable input for video (the yellow cable), and he wants to be able to watch his digital cable service on the device. Unfortunately, his TV (which is also the digital cable tuner - he doesn't have a separate box) lacks an RCA output, so there's no way to get the signal from the television into JORDY.

The only solutions I can think of and their respective caveats are:

A). Get a digital cable box from the cable company that hopefully has this type of video output - I'm not positive at this point if they offer any models with this features - going to give them a call tomorrow.

B). Get a VCR that offers video output. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure since this is digital cable, that won't work for anything but analog channels... (I have access to some old VCR's that would work for this if necessary).

Is there anything I'm missing? Is there any device out there that can do this more simply? I know he'll be very disappointed if this can't be done, and I keep thinking there has to be a way. Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide.

There are digital to analog converter boxes out there, I'd look for one of those. Here is one from RCA http://reviews.cnet.com/tv-hdtv-tuners-receivers/rca-dta800/4505-6487_7-32887593.html It looks like you can find this one for under $100. Maybe that will do the trick for you. Basically, I'd suggest to look for the converters that folks are selling so you can watch digital TV on older non-digital TV sets, and I think that would work.

Hope this helps.

You did not say if the TV has any outputs at all, does it? If it has any analog output (s-video, component, RF), then you can get converters for composite output (s-video to composite is very cheap and simple for example). If the TV has no outputs at all, then you know what that means. If it only has digital outputs, then it still can be done, but is a little more complicated/expensive. What outputs (if any) does the TV have, and what is the manufacturer and model number of the TV?

Hi and thanks for the help. The TV's a Samsung - from the looks of things a Series 3 (330) maybe. From what I remember, no outputs at all, as crazy as that seems, so I think we've got to find a solution between the cable and TV somewhere.

I just got back from the cable company, and their digital box *does* have composite out (only one unfortunately) as well as RF/cable out. I'm wondering if I could hook the cable out to the TV and the composite to the JORDY?

Or...maybe there's something that can split that composite out - do they make composite splitters?

Thoughts very much appreciated!

Many cable boxes have a s-video, composite, and RF output. You could run the s-video (preferred if TV has s-video input) or the RF into the TV and have the composite free for the JORDY. I find it unusual that a TV would have a DIGITAL tuner in it, are you sure that it is not just analog RF going into the TV? There are composite splitters - here is one on amazon for $8 - http://www.amazon.com/Composite-AV-Cable-1-to-2-Splitter/dp/B001CVXNBY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1218664055&sr=8-1

Thanks. Well, I know he can get the few HD channels our cable company offers right on his set, so yes, I think it must have a digital tuner, right? (It's not a great one, but it works - my Sony has somethign similar.)