I have a SDTV that has analog and digital tuners and I can't record a show in digital mode please help!?

Question

I have a RCA 20F424T SDTV with the analog and integrated digital tuner and a VCR/DVD Recorder dual deck. I am trying to record a program in digital format over the airwaves (A.K.A. bunny ears) I can pick up the signal no problem but I can't use my dvd recorder while in digital mode it won't display on the screen but when I switch back to analog mode on channel 3 it shows up please help! any suggestions on how to make it show up in digital mode is appreciated the device works fine it is just getting it to record while broadcating digital content on my tv do I need some special equipment for this? I have RCA Coaxial and YB PR connections on the T.V. itself I would just like to be able to record the show while it is broadcasting digital. I think it is a input problem of some kind. But this DTV is new to me thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Your SDTV is ready to receive and decode both analog and digital.  So you have no issues there.  But is your VCR/DVD recorder also new?  Does it include the NTSC and ATSC tuners because the ATSC tuner is what you need to record in digital (aka SDTV and HDTV channels) and make a STDV recording.

Basically you should be able to hook up the VCR/DVD recorder to your antenna and then hook the output of that up to your TV (probably the video and audio outputs to matching inputs on your TV - these are the yellow, white and red connectors) and see the channel you want to record when it is tuned on the recorder.

You may have to get rid of those bunny ears as they may not give you enough signal unless they are amplified and an outdoor antenna is much better.

Side note about digital tuners:

NTSC and ATSC are the answers for the US

PAL and DVB-T are the answers for the UK

DVB-T is called Freeview in the UK