DVD Player Connection - Coaxial Cable Only

If you have removed the decoder box and connected the DVD directly to the TV without success, your issue is not the cabling or the decoder. The decoder box is likely set to send a signal to your TV on either channel 3 or 4. The DVD player must do the same. With the TV hooked to the DVD player, try both channels to see if there is a signal present. If the DVD is just sending a digital signal and looking for the TV to convert it to analog, you might have an incompatible setup. What model is the DVD player?

I looked some recent Sony DVD players and they do not have coax outputs. Something is not quite right in the OP's description.

agreed.

Okay (love the quick responses - thanks!), this is a Sony CD/DVD Player model DVP-SR210P. I just took another look, and it definitely has a coaxial digital output. And in addition to the 3-way RF connectors, it also has component video output. I'm sure that I also "checked" that I had toggled the TV to see if there was signal being output on Channels 3 or 4.

If we really get conflicted (and dedicated) to solving this problem, I could conceivably provide a digital picture of the rear connectors of the player, but I think I'm describing them pretty accurately so that folks can "visualize" okay.

He didn't say he recently purchased a NEW Sony DVD player.

Here is the manual. From the manual...



The coax output is not an analog output suitable for a TV signal. Question about your converter box: Does it have the capability to add a second input source? If so, you could use it to convert the digital DVR signal into analog.

I just looked at a very cheap converter I have and it has the ability to use a second source, so likely yours does as well. Use the audio and video out connections to tie into your converter then use the input source button on your converter remote to select the DVD when you want to watch it.

Okay, this was revealing (the part where the coax output is only audio was particularly helpful . . . ). I'm still a little hazy on the connections, although I understand that I "want" to run RCA-type connectors from the DVD player through the cable converter box, so that I output analog signal to the TV. I'm still not sure I see how to get "there" from "here". And I'm sorry that this posting went quiet for a couple of days - but there's still interest in achieving "man over machine".

I took another look at both the DVD player and the converter box today, and I'm just not seeing any way to route the digital signal from the DVD player in through the converter, and then on to the TV, via the coaxial cable. I'm perplexed.

What is the model of your converter box? Assuming you are correct and your box doesn't have an aux in, what you need is an RCA to RF adapter. Here is one for around $12. You can find more by searching "rca to rf adapter"

The graphic image is representative of the rear panel of the converter (Model QIP2500). So, the RF modulator would handle the output from the DVD player, and that would be routed directly to the TV? And would the DVD player output be from the 3-way RCA connections?

It looks to me like that diagram above is the back panel of your DVD player, not the converter box. The output from the converter box is going to be RF, the same as you got from your TV antenna before they went to only digital signal a couple years ago. So I would suspect that what you should do is plug an antenna into the converter box, then plug the converter box into input 1 on the DVD player, and plug output 2 from the DVD to the coax input on your TV. Do NOT use the digital coax output on the DVD. Set converter box and DVD player to Channel 3 or 4, whichever doesn't have a TV station broadcasting on it in your area. Tune your TV to the corresponding channel and leave it there forever. You'll have to change channels with the remote for the converter box. That might work. then again maybe not.

Oh, you say that's the converter box back panel--never saw one that complex. What does your DVD player have on the back? Is there a coax input from antenna, or something similar (or a VCR, maybe)? If so, plug the converter box into that.

I'm told that those cheap signal splittters you see only work one way, you can't use them as a signal combiner, in other words. You can get analog switcher boxes that used to go for anywhere from ten to thirty dollars that can take two coax RF signals and switch between them to feed your tv.

Here in the post-holiday solitude, I thought I would revisit this posting, starting off with the good news that Santa left me a Audiovox Corporation CRF907 RCA Compact RF Modulator in my stocking this year - which was strongly suggested as being the "intermediary" device that would allow me to finally complete the installation of my DVD player, and get it to work with my older TV, which only has a 75 ohm, coaxial input connection.

The modulator goes together pretty quickly (the benefit of no moving parts), and after running the 75 ohm connection from the converter box to the TV In connection and the 75 ohm connection from the TV Out (to the TV), along with the RCA cable connections from the DVD player to the modulator (and plugging in the power adapter), a test of the installation initially suggested we were still not quite there - since the DVD was successfully transmitting audio, but not video.

A quick re-review (combined with a little intuitive deduction, based on the fact that audio only was now working), revealed that although the rear connectors of the DVD player were "color-coded" for standard RCA-type connectors (white, red, orange), as was the modulator unit, it was necessary to plug the orange cable on the DVD into the Video Out plug, which was grouped with the Component Video connectors (Who knew?).

So, the good news is that this brings this issue successfully to closure (hopefully for the benefit of others), and when faced with this problem the purchase of the RCA modulator (<$10), proved to be the winning solution.

Hopefully, now my wife will stop calling me colorful names for having invested in such a low-end Sony DVD player . . . although that may be too much to wish for (too bad RCA doesn't make a modulator to fix that problem too). Thanks for everyone's help on this!

Wow, that's a pretty good price! Congrats on solving your problem and good job to the North Pole technical team.