Hi, I'm new to the forums here and was looking for some help having to do with my cable channels. In short, I replaced my ancient TV with a new projector and am building out a home theater, but can no longer see most of the cable channels.

First, we have "Millenium Digital Cable" in Seattle. I rent an old house and I do NOT pay for cable. I don't know who pays for it (possibly the landlord), but I certainly don't and the service has been there since I moved in about 5 years ago. We have no cable box either... I simply run a coaxial from the wall socket to an RF switch... then to the TV. At that point we had all the standard broadcast channels (3-13 basically), and a bunch of basic cable channels, such as Discovery, History, Comedy Central, etc.

Now that I have a projector, I removed the TV from the equation. Since the TV is no longer there to select channels, I needed something else to do that. So now I run the coaxial coming out of the RF modulator and into the VCR.

This works, but only for the basic channels (1-13) when I use the VCR to go through them. The rest of the cable channels all display as a simple blue screen.

I'm sort of stumped... any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Sounds like your VCR does not have a QAM tuner in it. You need this to pick up the basic clear cable channels.

Check the settings in the VCR. Make sure it's set to "cable" and not "antenna".

Ok, I'll check the cable/antena setting when I get home.

What are "basic clear cable channels"? Not sure what that is.

I should have also said... using the VCR simply as a means to change channels seems a little 'ghetto'. Is there another, possibly simpler device that I could use? Some sort of standard or universal cable box that will do the job? Something that doesn't cost too much? The VCR will work for now, but it just seems silly.

Thanks for the feedback you guys!

Forget the QAM "basic clear channels" for right now... dodge the curve ball.

All you are looking for at this point is basic analog cable. Same as you had before. Check the VCR setup. If it's newer, it should work as a "tuner".

Ok, I'll check the cable/antena setting when I get home.

What are "basic clear cable channels"? Not sure what that is.

I should have also said... using the VCR simply as a means to change channels seems a little 'ghetto'. Is there another, possibly simpler device that I could use? Some sort of standard or universal cable box that will do the job? Something that doesn't cost too much? The VCR will work for now, but it just seems silly.

Thanks for the feedback you guys!
Actually using the VCR as a tuner is fine. You could purchase a tuner but it will probably not be any better or easier to use.

Ok you guys... much appreciated info! So a 'tuner' is what I need. Will see if the VCR can do it after I get off work tonight. It's pretty old too, but who knows. This sheds a lot of light onto the problem.

Let me ask this... I really hope it isn't a dumb question, but it probably is. Will a 'receiver' work as a tuner sometimes? I have a new receiver (well newly bought from Craig's List - sony str-dg800) that I just got. It has a coaxial post in the back labelled as "FM 75 ohm coaxial", in the 'antenna' section... just below the AM antenna input. This, I assume, will not work for my purpose and is explicitly for FM radio... correct?

The FM connector is just for the Radio tuner only.

I'll bet from the post that it's the Ant/CAble switch that is the issue of your VCR setup menu. I've had many people over the years have this same issue with New TV or a New VCR install.

Ok you guys... much appreciated info! So a 'tuner' is what I need. Will see if the VCR can do it after I get off work tonight. It's pretty old too, but who knows. This sheds a lot of light onto the problem.


VCRs were the most common "tuners" available for basic analog cable that you could actually own, other than what your TV might have had. There were a few standalone tuners (I remember having one growing up) but since the advent of cable-ready TVs, standalone tuners have become like Bigfoot sightings. They weren't any better than a VCR anyway.

A DVD recorder would probably have an analog tuner as well, although you have to watch out as the cheaper ones don't have any sort of tuner.

That was it you guys... there was a TV/Cable option in the menu that needed to be switched. Took me half the night to find the old remote so I could even dink around.

Anyhow, works great now...thanks so much for all the help!

Another satisfied customer. ;)