Cable to rca conversion problem
|
New member Username: Lowery02Post Number: 9 Registered: Mar-06 | I have standard basic cable for my TV.. i want to run audio through my home theater system, but all i have to work with is the single coax cable that comes out of my wall. i want to watch tv with the audio through my reciever.. yes i realize that i'll only have 2 channel stereo, and that digital surround will not work. it will output the stereo signal through all of my speakers. there is no audio output on my tv, just inputs. there is no coax input on my reciever. i tried to use one of those dvd RF modulators, but that did not do the trick what so ever. i realize i could buy a vcr, and use that to convert my coax into a left and right composite audio channels, but i need something simpler, less bulky, cheaper... is there a converter out there that i could buy?.. i havn't asked anyone at circuit city or best buy yet. i cannot afford upgrading to a digital cable box. help me out! |
|
Silver Member Username: Usa2k4Post Number: 146 Registered: Dec-04 | If your TV has a headset output jack, you can use it to connect to the AUX or Tape/CD input on the receiver. Of course, you'll need to play with the volume controls on both receiver and TV to find the best settings for the sound. Otherwise, you'll need a TV tuner and using a VCR as you mentioned is the simplest way. I've seen a few VCR's @ around 50 bucks from good names like Panasonic, Sony... They are pretty small in size and not as bulky as the ones made years ago. It's hard to find a stand-alone TV tuner for less than $50. If your receiver has Dolby Prologic II/IIx or DTS Neo:6, or its own simulated surround soundfields, you can get very good simulated surround sound from stereo sources. |
|
Silver Member Username: John_sColumbus, Ohio US Post Number: 919 Registered: Feb-04 | chris yes indeed, it sounds funny, but it is actually cheaper to buy a VCR than a separate cable-ready tuner with audio outs, which is what you need. Maybe you can get lucky and have a friend or relative with a "broken" VCR. Usually they're broken because they don't record or play. But more than likely, the electronics (including the tuner) still work. Alternatively, there are probably hundreds of old VCRs sold on eBay every week. |
|
New member Username: AdessmithPost Number: 4 Registered: May-06 | I have heard many people that had the same problem. The fact of the matter is that you will not be able to use the tuner in your tv and still get the audio signal to an extermal receiver. From what I understand the rf modulator didnt work because You were trying to split the signal BEFORE your tuner, the modulator has no way of knowing which channel you want to hear. It takes a signal and "modulates" it (inserts it on a specific frequency on your coax cable, usualy on channels 3 or 4.). A tuner undoes that, it pulls one frequency and creates one signal from it. Does that make sense or am I way off? |
|
Silver Member Username: BoycePost Number: 110 Registered: Apr-06 | VCR is the easiest and cheapest way. |
|
New member Username: AdessmithPost Number: 5 Registered: May-06 | The only downfall to using a VCR or any other sort of external tuner is that you loose any special features your tv has (dual tuner PIP, Channel lables, commercial skip) Also most VCR tuners are of lower quality than what you will find on your tv. Years ago I hooked my parrents stuff up to work both ways (direct to the tv or through the VCR with stereo sound) They found that it wasnt worth the aggravation of shuffling remotes and trying to remember what everything had to be on (TV stayed on channel 4, VCR and stereo had to be on, Use the VCR remote to change the channel, use the stereo remote to change the volume, etc...) Usualy they would just turn the tv on and didnt worry about the stereo or vcr and were happy with the speakers on the tv. In fact, when watching a movie, they found they had to ride the volume when using the stereo much more than when hearing sound from the TV. The music sounded too loud and the dialog was too low. |
|
Silver Member Username: BoycePost Number: 113 Registered: Apr-06 | I guest if you still watch PIP etc, you can add a 2 way splitter after wall jack, then 1 to TV, other for VCR, when you want to use amp, turn on the VCR , turn to same channel of TV. |
|
Bronze Member Username: Lowery02Post Number: 11 Registered: Mar-06 | hey guys, thanks for all your input.. i ended up getting a vcr from my dad.. it's actually pretty nice, and i got it for free. it's a pretty decent jvc.. works great, getting great sound out of it..i have a setting on my ht system that outputs the stereo sound through all the speakers, and thats what i usually use. it's jus ta bummer that a lot of the channels only have a mono signal. other than that, no problems with the sound like that guy said about his grandpa..heh it's really unbelievable that they don't make a small cheap device that converts the signal to composite outs.. maybe we should team up and invent it, and make millions, what do ya think?! heh, thanks again guys. |
|
New member Username: AdessmithPost Number: 6 Registered: May-06 | Yeah, you invent it and you'd probably make billions, because it would be magic. Unless I am wrong, it would be impossible. The audio feed MUST come off of a tuner. It seems that if someone came up with a way to pull the audio feed off of a coax cable BEFORE going into the TV you would be hearing ALL the channels at once. You see what I am saying? The coax carries mixed signals (all your channels mixed together) and the tuner seperates them. If you grab the audio before the tuner then the other stations havent been filtered out yet and you hear all of them. If someone were to design something like that it would have to have a selectable frequency, and that would mean that every time you changed the channel on your TV(video tuner) you would have to change the channel on your magic box (which is in essence an audio tuner). Maybe if you had a programmable remote control, then you could program it to send change both at the same time. Am I correct? Im not a Audio/Video expert, im just using my innate understanding of signal flow and troubleshooting logic. |
|
Gold Member Username: Project6Post Number: 8150 Registered: Dec-03 | Actually there are different devices that can do that now. One of them is called a television. Believe it or not once you plug in the cable to the inputs of one of these devices, it will actually separate all the signals and you will see moving pictures on the screen and you will also hear sounds. There is another device that can do the same thing, it is called a cable box. This one can also separate the different channels for you. Then there's a VCR, there's also Tivo...there are so many, you just have to look...LOL.  |
|
New member Username: AdessmithPost Number: 7 Registered: May-06 | LOL TV, Cable box, VCR, Tivo... They all contain TUNERS, It is the tuner in each of these devices that accomplishes this. Anyways, Any TV worthy of being a part of a home theater will have audio outputs (on its tuner). Otherwise, your best bet is gonna be a VCR like mentioned so many times before (then start saving for an great TV) My experience with home theater has been rather funny. I was given a 15 year old projection TV. We got hooked on Tivo but the sound sucked so we had to go out and get a cheap walmart Home theater system. We eventually realized that the TV sucked so we went out and bought a 50" DLP. Then realized that our surround sound wasnt up to par so we bought a $500 Yamaha system. Standard cable looked horrible on 50 inches so had to upgrade to digital cable with DVR. Turned out the analog cable sucked because our cable company sucked. So we went directv, and of course we had to have the HD tivo version. Of course you have to have a nice remote to control everything... and woah... If our light dimmers had infrared sensors on them.......Grand total of about $5000, all because someone gave us a TV!!! |
|
Silver Member Username: John_sColumbus, Ohio US Post Number: 947 Registered: Feb-04 | Adam, your story sounds all too familiar. |
|
Bronze Member Username: Lowery02Post Number: 12 Registered: Mar-06 | berny.. why oh why?..ahhh... unless you're just retarded, we already talked about something cheap, not your friggin tivo.. man... sigh.. |
|
Gold Member Username: Project6Post Number: 8157 Registered: Dec-03 | It was a joke chris, a joke... |
|
Silver Member Username: John_sColumbus, Ohio US Post Number: 949 Registered: Feb-04 | Anyways, Any TV worthy of being a part of a home theater will have audio outputs (on its tuner). I'd be willing to bet that 95% of the TVs on the market for the last five (maybe ten) years have audio outputs. maybe we should team up and invent it, and make millions, what do ya think?! It seems the majority of external tuners are made to allow people to watch TV on their computers. (Watching TV on a TV isn't enough for some.) Anyway, I'm sure there's limited demand for a unit such as this because most people are using up-to-date TVs. |
|
Bronze Member Username: AdessmithPost Number: 13 Registered: May-06 | John S, I agree, MOST TV's I've seen lately have the audio outputs. I have seen some of the smaller TV's and TV/DVD/VCR Combo units that do not. You are definately right though, the demand isnt that high because most people arent going to hook up a audio receiver to a 19" TV. Even the 15 year old projection TV I was given had audio outputs. Of course that wasnt good enough for us and when our income tax refund came in we upgraded. |
Main Forums
Today's Posts- Home Audio Forum
- Home Video Forum
- Home Theater Forum
- Car Audio Forum
- Accessories Forum
- All Forum Topics