ms (04/21/83)
I have recently purchased a mid range vcr (Panasonic 1750), it has a lot of nice features and it was within my price range. I decided not to pay the extra couple of hundred bucks for cable ready or stereo. One of the reasons for not getting cable ready is that I very rarely watch more than 14 of the cable channels and I believe one can purchase a little box called a "block converter" which converts all the VHF cable channels to UHF channels. This will enable me to tune my vcr to receive all the unscrambled cable channels. The problem is that I would like to get one of these boxes, so does anyone know where I can get one (eg CRAZY EDDIE etc) - by the way I live in New Jersey. I believe the cost is about 30 bucks, I think 'BP' ? may make one ! I have a certain number of days in which I can exchange my vcr for a more expensive one, so if anyone thinks that what I'm trying to do is not possible then could they let me know. For instance is there a serious degredation in the signal once it has gone through the block converter? I would appreciate any help on this, thankyou in advance. Martin Studd houti!ms
heliotis (04/22/83)
Keep in mind that buying a block converter defeats the ease with which one can record one station while recording another. You have to buy a splitter, and go over to your TV and flip a switch. Also, if you only like stations which fall in 2-13 (like me: My catv company puts HBO on 3), your vcr can tune those in off the raw cable. Jim