Hi all! I just bought an RCS DVD/VHS recorder (http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/en-US/modeldetail.html?ProductID=DRC8320N). I love it! I also have Insight cable. I connected it to the best of my ability and it's playing and recording fine. One problem though: the BLACK is not crisp or sharp, it kind of blends and looks like a stain in darker areas and spreads into lighter grays. It's hard to explain but the black/gray/dark browns aren't consistent and clear. Anyway, this is also showing up in my recordings. The weird thing is that it isn't like that when I change out of DVD mode. In other words, when I'm not on "video1" where the DVD player is tuned to, but I tune to where the cable shows straight on TV, it looks fine. It's not a high def TV by any means but it doesn't do the problem with the blacks showing up weird. As soon as I hit the button to switch to see the channel through the DVD though, it does it again. Is it the cables I'm using? Any ideas? Thanks!! (wasn't sure which forum to post this under so sorry if you see it twice - I posted it in one other but nobody replied)
Yes, it burns whatever I'm watching on TV onto a DVD. The problem is that the black "stain" looking colors record onto the DVD and show up when I play the DVD in other media players, like computer or other DVD player.
Are you using component cables to hook it up? Is this digital cable. If you are recording from the cable, you may be expecting to much. The signal quality is not that great.
Yes it is from Digital cable (Insight Digital) to DVD through the DVD/VHS player/recorder. I'm OK if the quality isn't great, but I just want to improve the black. Like I said, it's kind of like a stain spreading out instead of actual black. Are there better cables I can get? Thanks!
I am also not sure what "component cables" are. I am hooking it up using the cables that came with the DVD/VHS player and I needed an extra RF cable that didn't come with it in order to hook up the cable to the player and the player to the TV. Thanks!
Manual See page 7 If your TV does not component hookups, look for a S-Video jack. component - best S-video - good Coaxial - ok I have had digital [Cox] and in low light condition it well sucks.
How do I know what cables are which and what cables my hardware takes? Thanks! I feel like I might be getting somewhere here! All I know is that both my DVD player and my Cable box take the kind of cables that have the "red white yellow" cables split into more of them but my TV doesn't take that - my TV strictly has the "red white yello". Now what I can do is get the other type to connect the DVD player to the Cable box. Does that make sense? Maybe I'll take a digital pix of the back of my TV/DVD/Cable box and post it on here.
Component jacks are green - blue - red Sounds like the TV has just the standard hookup S-Video jack Cables
OK but if I get the component cables to connect the DVD player to the Digital Cable box will my recordings look better even though the TV itself doesn't support better cables?
No it may not help. I think the trouble is with the Cable signal. Have you watched a retail DVD on the player and see how the pic looks! The cable box will may have componant jacks. It uses a coaxial jack. A pic would help
I will take a pic and upload it when I get home from work. Retail DVD's play well. The TV itself plays well when I am watching Cable. When the picture goes bad (the black looking weird) is when I take the TV remote and switch to "Video In" and watch TV through the DVD player. When I start recording to a DVD this bad picture records onto the DVD as well.
Easiest for you would to be use an S-Video cable from the cable box to the DVD and another S-Video cable from the DVD to the TV. Also a set of RCA cables [red and white (left and right audio)] from the cable box to the DVD and another set of RCA cables from the DVD to the TV. P.S. I like your sig from Abraham Linclon
This is so frustrating it's making me cry!! OK people there has to be something WRONG!! I didn't get s-video cables but I got the 3-prong red-yellow-white cable (not sure what that one is called) and anyway it is not working whatsoever. It seems like the only thing that works is RF from cable to dvd player to tv. I tried a lot of combinations that worked but not all together: The red-yellow-white cable works from: Cable to TV DVD to TV but NOT from Cable to DVD to TV. Basically each works individually but they don't work together. Now I got it set up like this (bottom picture): click here This way each is connected individually to the TV through the red-white-yellow cables but they are not connected to each other. This is better quality because the RF is eliminated but I can't connect them together so that I can record to the DVD/VHS. I can get the S-video cable too BUT I don't even get audio with the red-yellow-white so I don't think it will help 'cause the audio would still have to go through those. Now I tried one more thing: A "monster flatscreen cable" - a component video cable - BUT I can't use it because the cable box has output for it but the DVD player doesn't have INPUT for it . Any idea why the cables don't work!? I tried every channel 1-5 so I'm not missing the input channel. Please help 'cause if I can't get this to work then I'll take the DVD/VCR player back. If I wait too long I can't take it back. Thanks!!
You can hook the 3 cable from the cable [green blue red] to the DVD [green blue red] plus another red and white for the audio. The TV does not look like it has that hook up [I cant see the color of the jacks on the side but I guess they are yellow red and white] So the best you can do is use the S-Video from the DVD to the TV plus another red and white for the audio.
I got it working with the red-white-yellow for both connections (cable to dvd, and dvd to tv) HOWEVER I found something really annoying... the DVD has green blue red OUTPUT but no input!! That does me no good because my TV doesn't have it to input, so I can't use green blue red from the Cable to the DVD player. That sucks! Will S-Video look better than the yellow cable? Thanks!!
Sorry I just look back at the manual and see what you are saying. It not a great setup, the best you are going to get is if you go to the S hookup.
