One of the questions we fielded during our in-depth evening last week was, "I have a VCR hooked to my TV; how do I get them ready for DTV?"  This is one of those questions with lots of possible answers, none perfect.  Also, some TVs have lots of input connectors while others only have a place to plug in the antenna.  Here is a generic way to do it that should work with any TV and any VCR.  Before getting into the details, there are some assumptions behind this:

1. Neither your TV nor your VCR has a digital tuner.
2. You want to be able to record a show on one channel while watching another show (live) on a different channel.

There is also a limitation: your VCR will not be able to select the channel it records automatically, you will have to select it manually.

Still with us?  Good!  Here's a sketch of what you probably have now:

The signal from your antenna hits the VCR's antenna input (it might also say something like "RF IN"); the output from the VCR hooks to your TV's antenna input jack.  Typically, you watch shows "live" by changing the channel on your TV to whichever station you want to see; or, you tune the TV to channel 4 to watch a tape from your VCR.

Setting up for DTV means that you will need two converter boxes:  one to receive the digital station you want to watch live, the other to receive the digital station you want to record.  I strongly suggest that you buy different model converter boxes for these two purposes -- for example, one Zenith and one Digital Stream -- otherwise, your remote controls will change both converters at the same time, which is a real mess.  Also note that Zenith and Insignia (Best Buy's store brand) are the same box with different branding, and each will respond to the other's remote.

In addition to the converters themselves, you will also need two 2-way splitter/combiners (for instance, Radio Shack part number 15-1234), and three short lengths of coax (Radio Shack 15-1552 is a two-foot length with the connectors already assembled).  You will also need the existing cable from your VCR, plus the two cables that came with the converter boxes.

Here's a sketch of how it should hook together:

Your existing antenna lead (red) goes to the input of the first splitter; use two of the short cables to go from each of the splitters' outputs to the antenna input of each converter box (light blue, orange).  Now use the third short cable to get from converter #2's output to the VCR's input (pink).  One of the cables that came with the converters can go from converter #1's output to one of the ports of the second splitter (which we are using as a combiner) -- (dark blue).  The other converter-supplied cable goes from the output of the VCR, to the other port on the second splitter (green).  Finally, your existing cable (purple) goes from the second splitter to the TV.

Hint:  if one of your converter boxes is a Digital Stream, use it for #2 (tuning the VCR); it has a switch on the back you can set to make it play on either channel 3 or channel 4 -- set it to channel 4.  If converter #1 is a Zenith / Insignia, it comes from the factory tuned to channel 3, and you can leave it as it is.

Another hint:  by law, converter boxes come with an automatic shut-off "feature" that will turn the converter off after several hours.  Go through the menu options and disable the automatic shut-off -- at least on the VCR's converter -- or else you will wind up recording snow after the converter turns itself off.

So... how do you make this rig work?  Let's assume that converter #1 (live) is a Zenith and converter #2 (VCR) is a Digital Stream.

• Set your TV to channel 3 to watch live shows, and use the Zenith converter's (#1) remote to select the DTV channel and control the volume.
• Set your TV to channel 4 to watch the VCR.  The VCR's output switch (usually on the back) must be set to channel 4.
• The VCR's tuner should always be set to channel 4; if you have it set properly, you will be able to see menus from the Digital Stream converter (#2).
• To record a show, select the station you want to record on the Digital Stream converter (#2).  Make sure the Digital Stream's volume is set to about the 2/3 point and that there aren't menus or captions in the picture -- otherwise, they will get recorded along with the program.

There are other ways to do this -- for instance, if you have a TV with AV inputs you can eliminate the second splitter and run phono cables from converter #1 to the TV's AV input.  But if you are looking for a scheme to get the job done with just about any combination of equipment, this will do it.

Happy taping!

-- Jeff