One of those wiring problems only I (?) could come up with

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I have a fairly flexible cabling setup between my TV, my DVD deck and my
VCR,
to direct content from hither to yon in any of the ways I might find
interesting.
One new thing I'd like to try has me a bit stumped, though.

It would be nice to take output from the DVD deck, feed it into a
modulator to
create an RF signal, and then input that into the VCR. This would
enable reduced-
definition taping of DVD segments (personal-use only, not of entire works,
in other words not to steal stuff), bypassing the protection against
taping DVD
full-definition output. But the VCR has, like I suspect all such
beasts, only one coax input. And I have yet to see a coax switch. I
can't just
use a Y connector, because then the incoming cable signal would still be
there,
messing things up. A coax switch sounds like a tricky proposition. Or
maybe
it's a well-known device to other people that I just haven't encountered
yet?
I really don't feel like screwing and unscrewing coax cables to achieve my
peculiar goals.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

>In article <svWdnRdSNY6ZqbreRVn-uA@look.ca>,
> Anthony Buckland <buckland@direct.ca> wrote:
>
>
>
>>And I have yet to see a coax switch.
>>
>>
>
>You have yet to go to a Radio Shack?
>
>
>
I have yet to see one at my local outlets. And a big oops!
I should have Googled first. The things are all over the
place. Sorry.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Anthony Buckland" <buckland@direct.ca> wrote in message
news:svWdnRdSNY6ZqbreRVn-uA@look.ca...
>
> It would be nice to take output from the DVD deck, feed it into
> a modulator to create an RF signal,
> and then input that into the VCR.
> This would enable reduced-definition taping of DVD segments
> (personal-use only, not of entire works,
> in other words not to steal stuff), bypassing the protection
> against taping DVD full-definition output.

Using a modulator will NOT eliminate the macrovision copy-protection signal,
if present. It will still be carried along with the video. You would have
to use some kind of video processing amplifier, such as the Sima Model SCC
to eliminate it. In that case, you wouldn't need the modulator.

W²

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Lorenzo wrote:

>Numerous companies make a 75 ohm (coaxial cable) A/B switch that will
>route either the A or B input to the output with significant isolation
>to prevent interferance. Radio Shack has them. I believe they also have
>a mini modulator that incorporates an automatic swith. When you turn on
>the DVD player it cuts off the cable or antenna signal and routes the
>modulated signal to the TV set. It's typical use is for watching DVDs
>on TV sets that don't have video input jack(s).
>
>If you're trying to get around the anti copying signal on some DVDs, I
>highly doubt this is the way to accomplish that.
>
>
>
>
Thanks to you and others for insisting that Radio Shack (now The Source)
has coax switches. Of course, they do, and why I couldn't find them
before is a question about my ability to see things -- maybe I just
insisted on looking in the wrong places. Whatever.

I don't want to copy DVDs. If I did, copying to tape would be silly,
as I'd lose so much quality. What I do do is to compile things into
summaries, and it would be nice to include excerpts from DVDs
along with taped material from other sources. I recalled that a recent
past thread on the subject of taping protected sources had as one
conclusion the advice that modulating DVD output into an RF
signal bypasses the protection in a sense, since the RF signal looks
like any other signal from any other source to the VCR (or any
other equipment) and no longer contains the macrovision information.
More-informed people may have varying mileage on this idea.

Anyway, at least now I know more about switching coax signals.