My TelevisionGo BackTV My TV is a Philco P1324C R102. It is a pretty good TV for.. Watching TV live or from a VCR, Watching DVDs and playing some games (rarley). I haven't been able to find any info of this TV's existence online (just like my VCR) so here it is! 
Beside this text is an image of the TV. It has it's own
(mostly) wood cabinet. The TV and some junk is on the top with the DTV box and more stuff on top the TV.
The VCR, DVD,
and Switchbox are in the
middle. and DVDs/Tapes, remotes and wires in the storage space. The TV
also has a holder for my giant rabbit ears antenna.This TV was made in March 1995 as seen on the back sticker. Amazingly, I even have it's remote! I acually have remotes for everything also. It's a bit broken though. You need to press most of the buttons extremely hard or else the TV won't do anything. I'm sure that if I managed to open it, I might be able to bring some life back into the pads by writing(?) on them with pencil graphite, which apparently can make the pads conductive again. Haven't been able to find out how to open the dang thing though. Getting Composite Inputs This TV has no composite inputs. Only RF input for an antenna or anything that actually has RF on it. This may not be the best solution as VCRs have composite input and RF output but I didn't have a VCR in my setup at the time. Its an RCA "Compact RF Modulator". You can plug in composite on one side and RF comes out the other side. It also has an RF in to go right back out of the output. The really annoying thing is that it uses a power outlet! And it's even one of those big plugs. I could just use my VCR now that I have one but whatever. The adapter outputs on channel 3 of 4 and you can tune your TV to recieve the picture. Going to other stations gives some interesting results though. Usually only when the VCR is on. Plugging everything into one TV How can you plug so many things into one little TV? Well I have a switchbox! It's just a small box that mechanically switches composite signals, so no power outlet needed. It has 8 inputs and 1 output, so you will never need to switch around composite cables. Everything plugs into the back, so if you were using all 8 slots you would need 24 individual cables plugged into this thing. That would be a mess. I only have a few things, One for DVD, VCR, NES and an AUX which is actually a composite extender cable that's on top of the cabinet for easily accessible composite right there. Go To Top VCR My VCR is a Sears (JVC) 509-30115. I was able to find out that this obscure VCR is more easily findable under it's original branding. It's actually a JVC HRA57U if an image search with an Amazon result is correct. If you're looking for it's remote like I was doing for a while, the remote is the JVC LP20878-001 remote. They are on eBay at probably any time. I know some people don't like JVC VCRs but I think that this one is not bad. It plays and records nicely and has only eaten one tape. It wasn't the VCRs fault it was kind of my fault for not noticing that the VHS tape was for some reason sticky under the flap. It still worked after that. Here are some things I like about it 4 Head Hi-Fi Easy Clock/Program set Picture Stabalizer Acceptable EP video Fast Rewind (kind of) Things I don't like about it Composite inputs on front only Mostly remote controlled Go To Top DVD There is not very much I can say about the DVD player. It's a Sony DVD SR-310P. Quite a small DVD player, which is good for the space that it's in. I have watched DVDs on this TV, and this player works pretty well. It's not a fully featured DVD recorder or anything, but just as a small player, it works just fine. I bought the player at a Value Village thrift store, so I had to connect the universal remote to be able to use most of the features. Go To Top DTV I'm very interested in the new age of Digital OTA television, and all the misconceptions that come along with it. I don't really benefit from the lossless 1080p video quality and free cost of digital OTA because I watch it on a crappy CRT. I really like the idea of being able to watch TV for free in HD, but I can't imagine television being a thing for that much longer with the (for better or worse) rise of digital streaming services. I like being able to watch TV for free. And local stations show some good programs. My DTV box is a RCA DTA-800B. I can plug it into my VCR and tape shows I watch. I've recorded a bunch of video tapes over the past few years, maybe 20 years in the future I can somehow find a working VCR and rewatch the dumb stuff I recorded. My only problems with digital OTA, other than being stuck with only local stations, is that after all, it's still being picked up by an antenna. Many people have the freedom to be able to stick the best antenna you can buy on the roof of their house, but I'm not really in the position to be able to do that. I'm just stuck with "good" old fashioned rabbit-ears which is NOT ideal for digital. At least I don't have one of those stupid "flat" antennas. Another thing is channel scannning, you can't just tune to a channel and bam, there it is, you have to do a channel scan, and unless you have a good antenna (which I don't) you'll be stuck pointing the antenna in different directions, and having to restart the channel scan (which takes a few minutes) every time you don't receive the station you're looking for. I'm sure there's WAY better DTV boxes out there, many even built into modern TVs, but this is all I have for the time being. Interestingly enough, I was able to pick up some American TV stations (I live not far from the US border) by putting a coat hanger on a shelf and attatching it to my DTV box. With some trial and error, with my rabbit-ears and coat hanger, I've been able to pick up stations up to 60 miles away, which is pretty dang good, though it can be difficult to get good reception on those some days. Go To Top
Last Updated Jan 3, 2019 Revised Oct 15, 2020 and May 11, 2021
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