6 replies to this topic

[IWantWhiteCastle]

I'm new to dealing with HD TV's and need some help.

I currently have a digital/hd cable box and an HDTV. I'm able to watch SD and HD channels obviously. At this point I'm just connecting the cable box straight to the TV via an HDMI cable.

Well I'm looking at buying an upscaling DVD recorder (not DVR). Here are my initial questions:

1. Would I need a recorder with the ATSC tuner to receive the digital signal in order to record (since I already have a digital box)?

2. And really the main question I want to know is, how do I connect these 3 devices so that I'm able to record digital television, as well as still have a HD signal to be able to view channels in HD (not looking to record the HD programming)?

My cable box only has 1 HDMI output, although it does have a component output. Would I have to send the cable signal from the cable box to the DVD recorder, and then from the DVD recorder to the TV (and would that also preserve the HD signal)? Or could I connect both my TV and DVD recorder straight to the cable box via the HDMI and component outputs?

I've been having trouble to find information on this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[vet.mad hatter]

What is the dvd recorder?I think your best bet would be buy a spilter for the cable then buy a newer digital tv tuner card for the pc.I have no idea what you mean your going to try to record hd broadcasts from cable to a dvd??

[IWantWhiteCastle]

What is the dvd recorder?I think your best bet would be buy a spilter for the cable then buy a newer digital tv tuner card for the pc.I have no idea what you mean your going to try to record hd broadcasts from cable to a dvd??

no I don't want to record hd broadcasts, I want to record the SD broadcasts, but its coming from a digital source.

This is kind of what I was looking at but I'm not fixed on buying that one.

[IWantWhiteCastle]

What if I have an HDMI cable going from the digital box to the TV, an RCA cable from the cable box to the DVD recorder, and then an HDMI cable from the DVD recorder to the TV.

Would that preserve viewing HD channels, recording SD channels, and having the DVD upconversion work for watching DVD's?

[Sniprwulf]

so you're saying that your having an hdmi go to your tv and rca to your dvd recorder? I'm pretty sure that won't work for hd channels considering that if you have your cable box rca cables hooked up to your tv, you won't get hd channels to work. rgb might work but i dunno.

[IWantWhiteCastle]

so you're saying that your having an hdmi go to your tv and rca to your dvd recorder? I'm pretty sure that won't work for hd channels considering that if you have your cable box rca cables hooked up to your tv, you won't get hd channels to work. rgb might work but i dunno.

my reasoning in that would be to have an HDMI cable straight from the cable box to the TV, so that I could view channels straight from the box.

The RCA cables would only be used to record from the cable box, then the HDMI cable from the DVD player to the TV for the upconversion when playing DVD's.


I'm just really confused with all this analog/digital bullsh*t. For some reason I can't get a grasp on how to make it work.

[vet.mad hatter]

What if I have an HDMI cable going from the digital box to the TV, an RCA cable from the cable box to the DVD recorder, and then an HDMI cable from the DVD recorder to the TV.

Would that preserve viewing HD channels, recording SD channels, and having the DVD upconversion work for watching DVD's?

I think that would work but its going to be a process.Also aside from the pain switching to record and hd. I am pretty sure while recording you will not be able to switch channels and be stuck watching whatever is recorded in sd.