Video Asylum

Posted by tase2 (i) on January 20, 2001 at 10:21:41:

Hi I am very new to this world. Please forgive the length of the following message. I was a little bored at work and thinks got a little wordy.

Hi,

I need a little help with my home theater hookup. It was working OK but some of the phono plug wires were as much as 15-20 years old. I thought I would replace them with all new gold plated wires or cords. Unfortunately when I tried to do all the reconnects I ran into some problems. I was able to get the receiver, tape deck, and CD player to work fine. My problems lie with the TV, VCR, & receiver connections. I am almost positive that the cable wires are all connected correctly, because I did not touch them at all. The following are the components in question:

Sony 27 in. Trinitron. Model # unknown ( the owners manual says 1987, but it was purchased in the early 1990’s)
Sony VCR SLV-595HF

Sony STR-D865 Surround sound receiver.

Again I believe that the speakers a connected correctly because the stereo works fine. There is also a Motorola interactive digital communications digital cable box.

Unfortunately the 3 owners manuals do not agree with each other, and this is where I get confused. The back of the TV has:

VHF/UHF antenna terminal(F-type) Video Input Jacks Audio Output (variable)
VIDEO
L(mono) L
audio
R R

The back of the VCR has:

RF unit VHF/UHF(F-type) AUDIO VIDEO AUDIO VIDEO
Channel 3 In Line R L Line R L
Channel 4 Out In Out

The back of the A/V receiver has:

Monitor TV Video 2(unused) Video 1

() Video In Video out Video In
L Audio In Audio out Audio In L
R Audio In Audio out Audio In R
Per the receiver manual I should plug TV Video out to Receiver Video in, but the TV does not have Video out. Even prior to this problem, I have never been able to play the TV through the stereo with normal results. It would play through the speakers but only at high volume and total hiss. I always needed to turn on the VCR for it to sound normal. Also if I put the TV into video mode, I would get no volume out of the TV at all unless it was turned to channel 4. Now with the digital cable box it is always on channel 4. So basically I am asking for help on the correct way to wire the sytem for optimum performance. Currently the cable wire from outside goes directly into the cable box and I am not sure from there. As I stated that all works OK, but I am forced to watch what I am taping or keep the cable box on if I am not home. I can turn the box off and receive the basic cable channels and tape the way I used to, but can not watch 1 digital channel and record another. Any suggestions for that? That is secondary to the wiring problems described above. Thank you so much for taking the time to read all this and hopefully you can help.

Thanks
Mark

Again I totally apologize for the length. Hope to hear from you soon.