How to Set Up a Cable Box for DVD, TV & VCR

Video cassettes and DVDs easily can be played on the same TV set that you watch cable on

Any cable box receiver is designed to be used with a television and a VCR and/or a DVD player. Newer televisions also give you more connection options. How you set up your system depends on the connections you have available, whether using the standard RF coaxial (with the circular threaded connection) and RCA composite (red, white and yellow plugs) connections or higher-quality component (red, green and blue plugs) and HDMI (with the long, trapezoid-shaped connection) cable.

Things You'll Need

• Television
• Cable box receiver
• DVD player
• Video cassette recorder
• Audio/video cables

Instructions

1. Connect the cable box receiver's output to the VCR's input and the VCR's output to the television's input; RF coaxial and RCA composite are your only options here. If these are the only connections the television has available, use the RF cable; otherwise, you can use composite.

2. Attach the DVD player's output to the television. You can connect it to the VCR's input, but you'll have to use a composite connection. If you have a better connection like component or HDMI available, connect the DVD directly to the television using that cable.

3. Connect the cable box directly to the television with a component or HDMI cable if either of these connections is possible. This gives you the option of watching TV with a higher picture quality while still being able to record via the VCR.

4. Attach the cable receiver box's input to the main RF coaxial cable line that comes out of the wall.

5. Plug in all of the devices and turn them on.

Tips & Warnings

• Remember which devices use which cable connection to the television so you know which input channel to tune it to. For example, if the cable/VCR combo is connected via the RF coaxial cable, tune it to "TV." If the DVD player is connected with component cables, tune the television to "Component" to watch the DVD player.

• Red, green and blue component cables transmit video only. You will need to complement this cable connection with a red/white RCA audio cable. The connection ports will be next to the red/green/blue video ports.

References

• Sam Matthews; Home Theater Specialist; Best Buy, Arlington, TX
• Ram Electronics

Resources

• Read this Article in Portuguese