Upgrade Your Old TV

You were happy and proud of your old TV, such big screen, good brand, fantastic image and sound, such a lot of connectors. Some years ago you had to plug a DTV converter box to your dear old TV...and the revamping worked a miracle : your old set was better than new. But what about giving a useful new feature to your old TV? If you read on and carry out this project you'll be able to record a channel and watch a different one.

Steps

Understanding the Sketch

  1. Nr 1 is the TV signal wall outlet, the item you get your TV signal from. The black lines are TV antenna cables, (colored black in the sketch) those that have male/female heads,(see photo). Nr 2 is a splitter, (see photo). From the splitter the TV signal forks out and feeds converter boxes 3 (your newest one) and 4 (your old one you're so familiar with). Nr 3 is connected to the TV (Nr 6) by means of a scart cable (colored blue in the sketch),(see photo of a scart cable).
  2. On the lower part of the sketch there's another converter box (Nr 4),(the old converter box you first added to your old TV some years ago). Using scart cables (colored red in the sketch), Nr 4 is linked to the TV and to a CD-DVD recorder, (Nr 5).The recorder is also connected to the TV with another scart cable.

Get your Supplies

  1. If you have a recorder in your system, you'll need:
    • 2 TV signal cables,1 scart cable, 1 converter box, 1 splitter
  2. If you don't have a recorder, you'll need:
    • The mentioned above, 2 scart cables, 1 CD-DVD recorder This issue of number/type of cables is not definite for these appliances do not always have the cables needed included in the pack.

How It Works

  1. The TV signal from the wall outlet travels to the splitter and forks out feeding"3", (secondary converter box, the one just added to your system) which if eventually turned on can give signal to the TV. This converter box should ONLY be switched on, when recording, to be able to watch a different channel from the one being recorded.
  2. To avoid getting mixed up keep on using "4" (main box, the old one you've been using since the DTV change) to give signal de the TV and / or to the CD-DVD recorder.
  3. To watch TV do as you have done for some years, only use the main remote.The secondary converter box "3" is turned off and its remote kept somewhere apart to make things easy. If you want to record some program, switch the recorder on and check thru the TV that recorder and main box are correctly linked...the way you have been doing up to now if you have a recorded branched to your main box and to the TV.
  4. NOW, if you want to record some channel while recording a different one, just turn on the secondary converter box and input the channel; a new signal will be triggered to the TV, suppressing the previous one that will keep on feeding the recorder. Put the main remote out of reach just to avoid ruining the recording.
  5. High quality old TV's used to have this feature: "the latest change is the one that gets to the TV", which is the inverse of: "The latest element switched off lets the signal of the previous one still on get to the TV.

Tips

  • When buying your second converter box make sure it has these two features.
    • A USB port at the front panel to be able to watch PC contents at a short notice without having to record CDs or DVDs. When shopping for your 2nd converter box, take a pendrive memory with several movies recorded from your PC in it. Ask the shop specialist to check how it works with the converter you're interested in.
    • HDTV stamped on the front means your converter box is of a higher quality and that it can tune in more channels.

Warnings

  • All your system components must be switched off when you start assembling. When you're done turn everything back on. For this purpose, a power strip comes in very handy.
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