Trying to help out a co-worker...

[CooterBrown008]

He has an older tv (RCA) with only an RF jack, no composite or S video jacks and a series 2 TiVo.

His connection is like this: DVD player composite out to TiVo composite in, then RF out to tv.

He says he has always been able to watch his DVD player through his TiVo by selecting either channel 00 or channel 01 but that it no longer works. When he tries this now he gets no video or sound from the DVD player, just a TiVo error message about searching for a signal.

I have no experience with this; in fact my TiVo does not have a channel 00 or 01 but I am hoping someone here knows what the problem is and can help out.

Thanks in advance.:)

[wmcbrine]

I would suggest that your friend buy an RF modulator -- the kind that has an RF pass-through, and only turns on when it gets a signal on its composite input. Hook up the Tivo through the pass-through, and the DVD player to the composite input. Then, when he wants to watch a DVD, all he has to do is turn on the DVD player.

Unless he also wants to record DVDs onto the Tivo? In that case, he'd have to actually fix his channel 0 problem... ISTR reading that this is an issue with version 9.1 of the Tivo software, but I don't know. (I only have S3's and DirecTivos.)

[scandia101]

I would suggest that your friend buy an RF modulator -- the kind that has an RF pass-through, and only turns on when it gets a signal on its composite input. Hook up the Tivo through the pass-through, and the DVD player to the composite input. Then, when he wants to watch a DVD, all he has to do is turn on the DVD player.

If the RF modulator is connected to the Tivos RF input, where does the Tivo get it's TV signals from?

I know I read something about this back when I first joined. I'll look it up.

[scandia101]

Here's the discussion on how to get around the problem
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5728333#

[stevel]

You need this:

Auto-Sensing 4-Way Stereo A/V Selector & RF Modulator (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049647&cp=2032057.2032187.2032188.2032200&parentPage=family)

This A/V selector and RF modulator works with any TV to switch between four audio/video components. The RF modulator makes up for no A/V inputs on your TV--connects to the antenna/cable input jack.

[JimSpence]

These are all good suggestions. But, I think the OP's co-worker should consider upgrading his TV. :)

[CooterBrown008]

Thanks to all who replied.

I like Jim Spence's answer best but he got it to work again with the "old manual recording trick".:)

Until today I did not know any tvs made since the seventies or so did not have composite jacks on them. Live and learn...

Special thanks to Scandia for the link that did the trick.

Thanks again.

[wmcbrine]

If the RF modulator is connected to the Tivos RF input,No, the Tivo's output.

(cable/ant)
|
+-------------------+ +-------+
| in (TiVo) out | | (DVD) |
+-------------------+ +-------+
| |
+------------------------------+
| pass in (RF Mod) out |
+------------------------------+
|
+------+
| (TV) |
+------+


Until today I did not know any tvs made since the seventies or so did not have composite jacks on them.Oh, yeah. Well into the 90's, at least. I only wish they'd stopped making them, so I wouldn't have to deal with my relatives' crummy RF-only sets that they bought without my advice, and now they need to hook up a DVD player, etc...

[scandia101]

No, the Tivo's output.

(cable/ant)
|
+-------------------+ +-------+
| in (TiVo) out | | (DVD) |
+-------------------+ +-------+
| |
+------------------------------+
| pass in (RF Mod) out |
+------------------------------+
|
+------+
| (TV) |
+------+



Ahh.
"I see." said the blind man.

[scandia101]

Until today I did not know any tvs made since the seventies or so did not have composite jacks on them. Live and learn...


In the late '90's the price of TV's dropped dramatically and one thing they did to drop them even more was eliminating a/v inputs.