My Cheap TV Rig


In this post I am going to talk to you about how I have gone about watching television. I will admit I am a bit outdated sometimes, not necessarily in the entertainment I choose, but in the format. You see, I still watch VHS tapes when the time is right. And I own many DVDs. They are cheap, especially at the Goodwill, or on eBay, if it is a newer release that has yet to make it into the thrift stores. Rarely, if ever, do I pay full price for a movie. Many of my DVDs cost $3, some $2 or even only $1. Plus, being a recording engineer, I am also an audio/video geek.

I can recall only a couple times when I paid full price. It was the night before I left for tour my senior year of undergrad, and after eating dinner for the evening, I decided to go look around Target to get some last minute items to take with me on the trip. I found the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory new for $5. I decided to get it, as it was a once-in-a-long-time chance to get one of my Tim Burton favorites at this price. I also got Edward Scissorhands at Walmart for the same price new a few months before.

I do hope to buy a Roku soon and stream whatever I want. The thing is, I hope Rokus do not evolve like iPods did, by advancing each generation so that it is no longer compatible for streaming with certain providers. I want to use Tubi, a free streaming service, and any other free streaming service. Hey, maybe I might upgrade to Hulu. The prices are not bad, I will say. If I get a Roku, it will go into my HDMI 2 input.


Alright, let's get down to business with the setup. I found the DVD player at Goodwill for $5. I had to order a specific remote separately on eBay for $10. Still not bad. I have it plugged into the HDMI 1 input. I took a normal red-yellow-and-white AV cable set and plugged it in from the DVD player to an AV to HDMI converter (NOT an adapter, there is a difference). I then plugged in my HDMI cord directly into the TV. The converter was from Amazon for $15.

I also got the VHS player at Goodwill for $5. Because of how old it is, it has a weird A/V input. Only yellow and white. However, I was able to plug the colors in in such a way as to make it work. I have the VHS player playing through the normal AV input. My setup required 2 AV red/white/yellow cord sets, to be clear.







The HDMI converter has a separate plug-in to the TV's USB port, otherwise, it won't work.




I messed around for quite awhile with which inputs to use. I tried using the HDMI converter with the VHS player, but I got weird color stripes on the screen when I watched a video, despite the sound and video working properly. It did not have anything to do with my Goodwill VHS player, because when I plugged this rig into another VHS player, it did the same thing. However, I was able to plug the DVD player into the converter and it worked just fine. 😊

For the TV antenna, I have a basic antenna from Walmart that I have plugged into the regular TV input. 

Here is a video of me switching between Pollyanna on VHS and Edward Scissorhands on DVD.

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