Help please! Problem with hooking new gadget into Chorus Cable Box..

Basq

Hello all,

Wasn't really sure where to put this post so apologies if it's in the wrong section.

Got a new gadget for Christmas / 21st off my brother - the Archos AV400 (www.archos.com/av400). It's like a portable video recorder - you plug it into your VCR / Satellite Reciever / CableTop Box and record programs off them.

I retired my VCR a long time ago (to make way for DVD, of course), don't have Sky / NTL Digital but i do have a Cable Box for recieving Sky Sports given to us by Chorus. So i decided to use this.

So, you put the Archos AV400 in it's cradle which has 3 sets of wires coming out of it - 2 sets of the red, white, yellow cables (1 set marked AV-in, 1 set marked AV-out) and an S-video cable.

Hooked everything up to do with AV-Out - put the AV-out cables into a Scart connector and connected it to the the back of the TV. Can now broadcast to and from TV fine from Archos 400.

Now here's the problem..

I need to hook in the AV-In wire (for recording) to my Cable Box to record from TV. However, my Cable Box only has wires for white and red connectors, so am unaware of what to do with the yellow wire.

Last night though, i was messing around with the connections and i connected the white cable in the white port (on Cable Box), and the yellow connection into the red port and it worked fine. Recorded some shows from TV.. i thought i was away with it! But then realised when i put in earphones that i only got sound in my left ear (and it's not faulty earphones ).

Any suggestions then on what to do with the yellow wire and / or how to get the sound in both left and right? I've attached a picture of the back of the set-top box also below (ignore the DVD Player under it and the Christmas house above it! )

Thanks in advance.

PS - there's no scart connection on the Cable Box either so that's out of the question.

Pataman

Yellow should connect to the BNC connector on the right of your picture. Yellow is video signal

Basq

Apologies but unsure of where exactly is the BNC connector? The black box or by the silver panel?

Is possibly, circle it on the photo.

Cheers for the reply Pataman. Much appreciated!

Pacifico

Hmm thats strange......

Did you get video signal from the red connection? The reason the sound was in mono is that only one channel (white) was connected. Connect both red an white to the the Archos AV400.

In the Pic is that your DVD player under the Chorus box?

Basq

Got no video with the red connection strangely.

Connecting both red and white just gives me sound with no video signal.

And yes, that is my DVD Player under the Chorus Box.

EDIT: But looking at the colours co-ordinating with my DVD Player.. it shows white and red is left and right audio, respectively. And that yellow is the video.. so it's quite a strange little problem i'm having.

Pacifico

Well i cant really see a way to connect the video from the chorus box seeing as the only output seams to be Coaxial.........

Unless you run Chorus through something like a VCR or DVD recorder.....

SoBe

the red and white connections on the back of your box are only audio left and right connections.yellow is the standard colour for a video out connection.

have you the box connected to anything else that can output a video signal?

ZENER

To the left of the power connector in your picture there are 2 sockets with some text under them - can you tell us what it says as the image is not very clear.

A close up of the 2 connectors would be nice also so we can see what type they are. The may be BNC but I suspect they are F-Type connectors so a better picture may help.

Also are there any connectors on the front panel of the cable box ?

ZEN

Basq

fli wrote:

have you the box connected to anything else that can output a video signal?

Well, it outputs a video signal to my TV if that counts...

ZENER wrote:

To the left of the power connector in your picture there are 2 sockets with some text under them - can you tell us what it says as the image is not very clear.

A close up of the 2 connectors would be nice also so we can see what type they are. The may be BNC but I suspect they are F-Type connectors so a better picture may help.

Also are there any connectors on the front panel of the cable box ?

No connectors on the front panel of the cable box. I've attached a couple more pictures below of the box. Should be easier to recognise the writing on the connectors now. Worth mentioning that what looks like a connector on the front of the Cable Box in the first picture is an IR emitter for the Archos AV400 to enable it to change stations when required (when you've scheduled a TV show to record).

The writing on the black box type connector to the left is 'TV OUT' and 'CATV IN', and also there's a black tab over a hidden socket (presumably) that has 'Bypass BYP110' under it.

Also the silver panel to the right has 'TO CONV' and 'CABLE IN'

I've also attached a picture from above which may help you to identify the connectors (sorry if it a bit blurry though, think i overdone it with the zoom and was a bit close to it).
If you need any more specific pics, let me know.

This Cable Box is really my only option - so if any of you can suggest any way of fixing this problem, using a connector available in a hardware shop etc.. it'd be much appreciated!

Thanks for all the feedback all!

PS - By the way, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Images:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~basquilletj/100_5790.jpg
http://homepage.eircom.net/~basquilletj/100_5789.jpg
http://homepage.eircom.net/~basquilletj/100_5788.jpg
http://homepage.eircom.net/~basquilletj/100_5787.jpg

Pataman

Hi in the silver panel, they look like bnc conectors. As i said earlier use the yellow to connect to them, not sure which one. trial and error, only 2 of them. If you need to get a connector maplins have phono to bnc plugs.

ZENER

Pataman wrote:

Hi in the silver panel, they look like bnc conectors. As i said earlier use the yellow to connect to them, not sure which one. trial and error, only 2 of them. If you need to get a connector maplins have phono to bnc plugs.

They're F-Type connectors not BNC as far as I can work out. They have threads on the outside surface which BNC's don't have.

The only option is to hack the box to find the video signal before it goes into the RF modulator, this would, of course, invalidate any warranty on it. Failng that get a cheap VCR and take the video out of it, most TV sets don't provide Composite out on their SCART connectors but there's no harm in trying that too.

ZEN

Basq

So it's looking like i've no option really with the Cable Box then. Got 2 VCR's in the house that i don't use any more but i really don't want to hook them up again!

I've some closer pictures of the silver panel to confirm if they are in fact F-Type connectors. Apologies about the quality but behind that Cable Box is quite dark and i didn't want to use the Flash as that can reflect against the silver surface and make the photo look pretty poor!

So i presume there's no connector to convert from phono to F-Type?

EDIT 1: Regarding my above question, i found the following paragraph here (http://www.classicgaming.com/o2home/email.shtml)..

ClassicGaming.com wrote:

Use a connector, called an RCA® Female to F Male or Phono to F-type adapter. This is a small silver or gold (the gold-plated variety is probably better to use) connector that fits directly on the end of the Odyssey² RF cable and allows it to screw onto your TV set. These adapters give you a better picture than a switchbox, but you won't be able to watch TV on your set without swapping cables around.

And here's a picture of the mentioned connector:


Any idea if this will work? Or any other suggestions on if i can connect F-Type to BNC?

EDIT 2: Been looking on Maplins at the BNC / F-Type Connectors. It certainly does resemble a F-Type connector than a BNC anyways.

ZENER

Hate to put a downer on it but it's not so much the connector that's the problem but the signal thats available at them. The CATV IN connector is no use to you - the TO CONV signal sounds like an IF or RF signal but if I was going to try any of them it would be the TO CONV connector.

Be careful as it may contain a DC voltage to power a device attached much the same as an LNB would get power from a sat reciever. A multimeter would be usefil in determining this and to avoid damage to your new toy !

ZEN

Basq

Cheers for the info Zen.

Think i'll just leave it as it is... with the sound only in the left ear! The sound is un-noticeable when playing from TV or from the actual AV400 built-in speaker.

Might look for a program which will extract the sound from the left, and somehow duplicate it to the right.... if you get what i'm saying!