AboutNagy George Expertise Bsc. in Electronics and Communication engineering. Satellite dish installer, trouble shooter and Quality Auditor for 12 years. Author of the Satellite news article in the "satellite Guide Magazine". Member of the satellite club international (SCI). Member of the IEEE (Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
Member of the Australian Institution of Engineers.
Expert in signal distribution on many TV sets. Deep knowledge in related fields such as CCTV (closed circuit TV), surround sound and speakers.
Having said that, I have no experience in TV repair.
Expert: Nagy George Date: 9/27/2006 Subject: tv signal and distribution
Question Hello! I have the following set up,air antenna, direct tv, vcr, dvd player, and a 7.1 Onkyo surround receiver. I need to know how to connect multiple tvs so that I can watch one source on the main tv and watch a diff. source on an aux. tv. As well I need to know how to hook things up so that I can record on the vcr while watching another source. My off air antenna, before installing the new Onkyo was good. Now the off air picture stinks on all tvs. Help!
Answer Bob,
The part that is confusing me is why your FTA quality of reception would drop when you installed the amplifier ?? It is not related unless we knocked off a connection or put pressure on a lead!!
Personally I would try to investigate this part first so not to blame the experimenting you are about to do with the quality drop.
Alright, the way to view different sources on different TVs is to have different sources on different RF channels so for example if your VCR RF out is on Ch 36 you set your DirecTv RF out on 42 and your VCR RF out on ch 45, I haven't mentioned your DVD as it doesn't have RF out so you will need to play it thru your VCR which means that one of the AV outs of the DVD will go towards AV in of the VCR (don't quote me on these channels numbers as I do not know what FTA channels exist in your area).
Regarding the local setup, all devices should be connected to the amp so VCR on VCR input of the Onkyo receiver, DVD on DVD input, Receiver on Sat input and so on and if you have 2 outputs on the receiver, one would go to your TV for playback and another one to VCR AV in for recording, I know that we mentioned before that DVD will connect to VCR AV In but probably your VCR has more than one input.
I hope it's not very confusing but feel free to get back to me if things arent very rosy
