How to make a dvd play on an old tv?

September 16, 2005 5:05 AM

I have a late '50s television. Can a DVD player be made to play through this tv? If yes, can anyone show me how to do it?
posted by frogmoses to technology (6 comments total)

I wouldn't see why not. Does it have any external inputs at all?
posted by Vidiot at 5:19 AM on September 16, 2005

It probably only has 300 ohm antenna inputs (the kind with two screws), so first you'll need an RF modulator and a 75-300 ohm matching transformer. Should work perfectly; that's the beauty of NTSC's backwards compatibility!
posted by zsazsa at 5:32 AM on September 16, 2005

The TV almost certainly has screws in the back where you could connect an external antenna. If your DVD player has RF out, you need a coax cable coming out of the DVD player, with an adapter for those screws at the other end (IIRC, it's a 75-ohm adapter). You would probably find everything you need at RadioShack.
posted by briank at 5:35 AM on September 16, 2005

(or, what zsazsa said)
posted by briank at 5:35 AM on September 16, 2005

I played nintnedo on a TV with the screw adaptors on it when I was a wee laddy.
posted by delmoi at 7:38 AM on September 16, 2005

Big Lots has cheepo RF modulator and 300ohm-75 ohm impedence converters. ZsaZsa is correct
posted by Agamenticus at 8:06 AM on September 16, 2005