Can you send a cable signal through a DTV converter box to monitor (it has RCA jacks)?

Question

I want to turn my computer monitor into a TV. The DTV converter box has RCA out and the monitor has RCA in. The box also as the analog pass-through feature. Could I just pass through the analog cable signal through the box and out to the RCA jack on the monitor? (I'm not using digital cable, just basic, analog cable from Time Warner)

Answer 1

The output from the DTV converter box is probably three RCA jacks, two for stereo audio and one for composite video.  If your computer monitor accepts a composite video (yellow) signal, then it will work. I'm betting it won't though, because the monitor input you are talking about is probably component video (red, green, blue), which is basically the same as HDMI.  The analog pass-through feature shouldn't make a difference, because the output from the converter box is always analog. Still, try it!

Also, if what you have is really a digital TV converter box, then you aren't using it to receive cable at all, you are using it to convert over-the-air digital TV signals, received via an antenna, into analog video and audio.

Answer 2

No (at first glance).

What color is the "RCA" in jack on your monitor? Is it yellow?

Typically, some monitors offer a "composite video in" jack which is yellow. Cable does not send composite video. Although it is an anolog signal. The cable signal has several hundred channels of information riding on it which must be decoded and demodulated.

Your monitor is equiped to demodulate a "composite video only" signal. Not a complex cable TV signal. If the DTV box has a composite video out jack "yellow" then you ARE in business.

Answer 3

Coupon type converter boxes only work with over the air digital TV signals and were specifically designed so they could not be used with any major cable TV system.

Find yourself an old VCR with a cable ready tuner(almost any made in the last 20 years). It will do exactly what your asking. The yellow composite cable goes to the monitor's video input. You will have to run the sound to something else, unless the monitor also has a RCA sound jack.