How do I connect my DVD recorder to Direct TV?

How do I connect my TV, DVD recorder, and Cable Box together?

• I have a Sharp Aquos with HD cablevision. I just brought a DVD recorder and I can't figure out how to connect it to my TV to work properly! I think I may have brought a DVD recorder that isn't compatible with my TV. When I got it working somewhat...my TV didn't show in HD. Can anyone help me? If it helps, I have Cablevision with the Scientific Atlanta Box.

• Answer:

  The first and most basic connection you want to have if possible is to have coaxial going all the way through. The reason for this is because it's the only cable that allows a signal to pass through a device when it's completely powered off. But, in order to receive HD to your television, you will need to connect your cable box to the TV using an HD-capable cable (component, DVI or HDMI) directly to the TV on a separate input. DVD recorders generally do NOT have HD inputs, because they cannot record in HD. When the blu-ray and HDDVD recorders come out next year this may change. However, DVD players do have HD outputs because most of them can upconvert a standard DVD resolution (720x480 NTSC) to an HD picture. It's not true HD, but it looks HD - the missing resolution information is filled in as best as it can be based on the quality of the television, the specification of the HDMI cable, and the units ability to accurately up-convert. Therefore, if you have HDMI out from your cable box AND HDMI out from your recorder - and you have two HDMI inputs on your TV, connecting each individually to your TV is optimal. If you only have one HDMI input, you can purchase an HDMI y-cable (amazon.com has them for like $12) that allows two inputs into one. Then have the coax all the way through for signal pass-through when the device is off. Then, for recording quality - most likely the best connection from your cable box to recorder would be S-Video with stereo cables (red and white) - because it is the highest quality analog connection that is not HD. Component (Y, Pr, Pb) is analog as well, but is considered an HD connection - so it will probably not have that input either. Optimal connection, if all is available would be: WALL>>coax>>CB>>coax>>DVDR> >coax> >TV (also) CB>>hdmi>>TV (also) DVDR>>hdmi>>TV (also) CB>>svideo>>DVDR Hope this helps. Good luck.