Verizon FiOS and recording on a VCR

[trying2moveup]

Originally Posted by tedanderson

One word of advice in general... whether it is Comcast, FIOS, DirecTV etc. you have to understand that those guys aren't very well trained. It is best to just sit your TV beside the nearest exterior wall or coax outlet and let the technician hook his box to your TV and then go back and call Geek Squad or an A/V system integrator like Meyer Emco, Tweeter, (or one of these local guys that do plasma TV installations) and let them connect all of your components the "right" way.

I do this kind of work on the side and sometimes I am HORRIFIED at some of the stuff I see.. coax cable stapled down the middle of the ceiling and people saying things like, "I can get channel 50 if I press this button, hit that switch, turn off this box, and stand on one leg..." and I just find it to be a terrible situation.

Yeah, I can believe it and also they (Verizon ) tried to charge me for 2 outlet installations when I clearly only had ONE done. And they tried to bill me AGAIN for this after I got the first bill cleared up. But that rant is for another day. . .

[BigDragon]

Originally Posted by trying2moveup

OK - I'm going to try this either tomorrow or the next day - just don't have time to mess with it tonight. Right now,if you were to look at our TV stand, the TV is on top (naturally), followed by the FiOS box on top of the VCR on the shelf below. THe VCR is bigger than the FiOB box but I can stack them in that order if necessary, I guess (Won't I be blocking the vents on the FiOS box and God forbid I burn down our house over trying to tape some stupid TV show????). ANyway, I'll try what you suggested.

The FiOS box changes the channels. That's fine b/c whatever channel I leave it on will be the one taped, which is what I want - like I said before, I don't want to tape one show and watch another at the same time. This is a TV in the playroom so basically I can program it and just let it alone while it tapes the occasional show I want to watch later.

I hope this works!

The physical placement of things doesn't matter. The organization of the wires does. It will work. I used to work on this kind of stuff all the time back when retail electronics sales were serious commission jobs instead of what they've become today. Commission died off so I left.

The following diagrams may help. Simply substitute the FIOS box for the Cable or Satellite box.
VCR TV cable hookup diagrams
TV Converter box hookup diagrams VCR and TV (ignore right side converter box and A/B switch)
http://columbiaisav.googlepages.com/...onnections.htm (ignore HD red, blue, green wires unless you get an HDTV...then you'd want them or HDMI from the FIOS box as well as the DVD half of the DVD/VCR Combo)

Unfortunately, AV technology has taken several steps backwards in recording technology. With the advent of digital compression on network lines, having a stand-alone recording device and a stand-alone TV tuner has become more and more rare. Digital boxes are limiting the flexibility the old analog networks had. You'll still be able to record whatever channel the FIOS box is tuned to, but I miss the good old days where VCR and TV tuners operated on their own while the digital box was just there for pay-per-view.

[trying2moveup]

[quote=BigDragon;8455502]
The following diagrams may help. Simply substitute the FIOS box for the Cable or Satellite box.
VCR TV cable hookup diagrams
TV Converter box hookup diagrams VCR and TV (ignore right side converter box and A/B switch)
Hookup diagrams HDTV - VCR Connections (ignore HD red, blue, green wires unless you get an HDTV...then you'd want them or HDMI from the FIOS box as well as the DVD half of the DVD/VCR Combo)quote]

Thank you so much for these diagrams!! Very helpful, and I'm definitely a visual person. I was just studying all of them in prep for doing this tonight after the kiddos go to bed and I think we have a major problem , which is---

The Motorola FiOS box has only ONE RF coaxil pin on the back of the box, not two. There is an RF IN, but nothing else back there. . . and that is connected to the coaxil outlet in the wall of the room, which in turn is hooked up to the FiOS box outside the house. . . if I twist that off, I lose the picture completely as mentioned before in this thread. . .

Therefore, even though my VCR has an "in" and "out" (2 coaxil points) to be hooked up to the FiOS box, it appears I literally cannot do it - there is no point on that stupid box to run another coaxil cable to the VCR.

I just can't believe this crap!! Is there anyone out there that can actually record to a VCR from their FiOS with a non-HD box or TV???

[BigDragon]

Ouch, I hadn't even considered that scenario. The only way to get around it is if your VCR has composite in and out connections. Most DVD/VCR combos only have composite out. If yours should happen to have an extra set labeled in, then you can do composite out from the FIOS box to the composite in on the VCR. Then you'd want a second set of composite cables connecting the VCR's out to the TV's in. There's a penalty for doing this though. That setup would require your VCR to be set to the appropriate video/input channel and always be powered on when you wanted to watch TV. You would be able to record what you're watching still, or you could record with just the VCR and FIOS box powered up.

The only way to watch TV without having the VCR powered on would be to use Y-splitters on the composite cables so that one branch of the Y goes to the VCR and the other branch goes to the TV.

Regardless of what you choose to do, either solution is rather messy. Sadly, you might just be forced into their DVR package.

[trying2moveup]

Originally Posted by BigDragon

Ouch, I hadn't even considered that scenario. The only way to get around it is if your VCR has composite in and out connections. Most DVD/VCR combos only have composite out. If yours should happen to have an extra set labeled in, then you can do composite out from the FIOS box to the composite in on the VCR. Then you'd want a second set of composite cables connecting the VCR's out to the TV's in. There's a penalty for doing this though. That setup would require your VCR to be set to the appropriate video/input channel and always be powered on when you wanted to watch TV. You would be able to record what you're watching still, or you could record with just the VCR and FIOS box powered up.

The only way to watch TV without having the VCR powered on would be to use Y-splitters on the composite cables so that one branch of the Y goes to the VCR and the other branch goes to the TV.


Regardless of what you choose to do, either solution is rather messy. Sadly, you might just be forced into their DVR package.

I told you it was a scam to force you into buying the DVR!!!
Are these composites the red/yellow/white circle thingys? WHY DOES THIS SUCK SO MUCH!!!


Another question --- can I buy a DVR from a store or with FiOS must I rent the Verizon DVR? I mean, for $20 a month I could buy one and have it pay for itself in less than 2 years.