TV Hookup Cable Antenna

If your TV only has a 75 ohm (or 300 ohm) VHF/UHF input jack and no RCA audio/video input jacks, chances are it also does not have a cable ready tuner. Many people use a newer VCR which has a cable ready tuner in order to watch analog cable TV without using a cable box converter. The VCR has to be powered ON all the time you are watching cable TV. The TV has to be set to channel 3 or 4. What if you just want to watch a local over-the-air channel? Turn off that VCR and switch over to your antenna. You can change channels on the TV.

Using the A/B switch, available at electronics stores, you can switch back and forth from cable TV to local antenna. You need two additional lengths of coaxial cable RG-59 or RG-6 available at local retail stores.

Coax Cable RG-59 or RG-6

For non-scrambled analog cable channels just take the coax cable from the wall and connect to the input antenna jack on the VCR. Tune the channels on the VCR using the VCR's remote control. Hookup another coax cable from the VCR "Out to TV" OUT jack to the input of an A/B switch. Connect your VHF/UHF antenna to the second input on the A/B switch. Next connect a coax cable from the A/B switch output to the TV 75 ohm input jack (antenna) on the TV set.

Coaxial Cable connects to RF jack

1) Cable TV signal input provides VCR tuner with cable channels
2) Cable TV signal Out to TV from VCR converted to VHF channel 3 or 4
3) Antenna signal input for local over-the-air TV channels
4) TV cable connection to 75 ohm input jack

The A/B switch is set to the "A" or "CBL" position to watch Cable TV and the "B" or "ANT" position to watch over-the-air local TV.

Cable Types and connections

Note: Typically your cable TV provider transmits lower frequency analog channels on some of the same frequencies as VHF channels such as channel 4, 5, 9 or 12. If your cable TV provider sends these channels on the exact same frequency as the VHF channel, you may be able to tune in a cable channel on your TV without powering on the VCR. Additionally you may be able to tune in other cable channels if they are sent out on a VHF or UHF channel. For example cable channel 9 may be sent out on VHF channel 9 or cable channel 12 may be sent out on VHF channel 13. Certainly not all cable channels will be available in this fashion. The VCR to TV cable connection allows a "Pass-Thru" when the VCR is not powered on, so any TV frequencies available on cable TV could be tuned in on your TV just as if they were being broadcast over-the-air. The VCR itself acts like a small TV station in that signals are sent to the TV on VHF channel 3 or 4 when powered on.

For a hookup diagram see: HDTV basic setup

Hookup Diagrams

See also:
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• Windows Sound Recorder
• VCR Recording

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