How do I live stream video from a 2003 camcorder to a smart TV?

May 22, 2017 11:59 AM

I need to live stream video from an old Sony camcorder to a brand new TV in a different room. Caveat: I'm using an A/V transmitter/receiver setup that only uses composite jacks and a line out for a phone connection.

I'm using a Sony DCR-TRV70 which only has a composite out for video. My A/V transmitters have composite (RCA) jacks for audio/video in/out, and a phone jack for "line out". I bought an RCA-HDMI converter so I could connect the A/V receiver to my TV but the TV won't recognize a signal.

Here's the setup:

1) Camcorder --> A/V transmitter via composite cable

2) A/V transmitter --> phone line via the transmitter's "line out" jack

3) Phone line --> A/V receiver via the receiver's "line out" jack

4) Transmitter --> RCA/HDMI converter via composite cable

5) RCA-HDMI converter --> Samsung TV via HDMI

Everything seems like it should work but the TV isn't recognizing a signal. I've looked over the manual for the transmitter/receiver (here: http://support.radioshack.com/support_video/doc64/64714.pdf) and it seems like it should work but doesn't. I'm inclined to think it's not an issue with the transmitter/receiver because I used to use them to stream video from the camcorder to my old DLP TV, sans RCA-HDMI converter. The only reason I'm using the converter now is because there's only one yellow composite jack on the new TV, it doesn't have the little red/white/yellow triple like you'd normally see.

Help please?

posted by bumpjump to Technology (7 answers total)

What do you mean by "phone line" -- do you mean headphone line?

And it sounds like you are connecting an input to a "line out" jack. That's not going to work.

Here's what I would do:

Camera --> HDMI converter by RCA 3x (yellow/video, red & white/stereo audio)
HDMI converter --> TV by LONG run of HDMI cable carefully gaffer-taped to the floor.
posted by MattD at 12:23 PM on May 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

(If the HDMI converter is reasonably good quality, e.g. Gefen, it should be able to get a single through the cable run.)
posted by MattD at 12:25 PM on May 22, 2017

What model TV do you have? It's unusual for a TV to have a composite video in but not audio.
posted by zinon at 12:57 PM on May 22, 2017

Response by poster: By "phone line" I mean a telephone jack, i.e. the transmitter is connected to the telephone jack on the wall in the camera room and the receiver is also connected to the wall telephone jack in the TV room. This is the manual for the A/V receiver/transmitter, the schematic where it shows the RCA/phone jack should be on page 4 of the PDF:
http://support.radioshack.com/support_video/doc64/64714.pdf

This is the HDMI converter I'm using:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I482KZI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is my TV:
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN70KU6300-70-Inch-Ultra-Smart/dp/B01E6BIT3S

Instead of the typical 3x jack, my TV only has one yellow jack but my RCA cords (I've tried using multiple different ones) don't "push in" all the way into it, if that makes sense.

I just measured the distance between my camera and my TV and it's ~120 ft. It's looking like a 150-ft HDMI cable will be about $80-$100, is there a more cost-effective way of going about this?
posted by bumpjump at 1:15 PM on May 22, 2017

Likely this is a PowerLine A/V solution OP has, everyone. bumpjump, what you've got there is akin to a phone line - it works on the same standard/type of cabling, but it's likely an internet cable (an RJ45) instead of a traditional phone cable (an RJ11). Ethernet (internet) cables are thicker and the connector jack has eight metal-gold contacts instead of the phone line's four.

Have you tried connecting the camcorder's composite cables straight into your converter, i.e., bringing it into the other room? Troubleshooting right now sounds like it would benefit from isolating the different elements to see what part's not working. Curious to know if you've got the same RCA plugs on either end, coming from your camera, and going into your HDMI converter.
posted by a good beginning at 1:42 PM on May 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

According to the manual your TV needs one of these AV adapters for composite in. The whole thing plugs into the yellow component in port. It might be worth a try.

It could be the RCA to HDMI you have is faulty. Can you test it with out all the other equipment in the mix? Possibly with a different TV/Monitor?
posted by zinon at 1:46 PM on May 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Can you try the whole setup but just do it one room and use a phone line connected directly to your device?
posted by gregr at 2:29 PM on May 22, 2017