Older DVD player with newer TV

[Brad Anbro]

Hello all,

I am trying to get an older DVD player to work with my newer Roku TV, but am not having any luck. The DVD player is an older Sony model. It has the usual left, right & video RCA-type output jacks, but no HDMI output. I purchased what I thought was an HDMI to RCA (plugs) adapter cable and have tried it with the various HDMI inputs to the TV, including the "eARC" input. So far, I have had no luck in getting the TV to recognize the DVD player. Any ideas? Thank you.

 

[eiraved]

Model number of the DVD player and the TV?
I believe you would use the "RCA to HDMI" adapter, not the "HDMI to RCA" for it to work properly.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Hello all,

I am trying to get an older DVD player to work with my newer Roku TV, but am not having any luck. The DVD player is an older Sony model. It has the usual left, right & video RCA-type output jacks, but no HDMI output. I purchased what I thought was an HDMI to RCA (plugs) adapter cable and have tried it with the various HDMI inputs to the TV, including the "eARC" input. So far, I have had no luck in getting the TV to recognize the DVD player. Any ideas? Thank you.

Buy new DVD player with HDMI out. Or buy you a Blu-Ray player with same, that also plays DVD discs. .

 

[Yamaki]

Take a picture of your TV jack pack.

Take a picture of your DVD player jack pack.

Take a picture of the converter jack pack.

Post those pictures here.

The converter must be an RCA out ===> HDMI In unit. You can't go HDMI Out ===> RCA In as the DVD player is sending the signal to the TV, not the other way around.

 

[Olle]

The solution for best picture and overall performance is to acquire a player that has HDMI out.

 

[Bill Ferris]

A economical solution, if important, might be to search on Amazon for composite/component (RGB) video to HDMI converter/adaptor, if you do not wish to replace your older Sony DVD player.
There are quite a few inexpensive (less than $50.00 USD) models available, and select one that has the most amount of sales and positive reviews, and if you have Amazon Prime you can easily return it for free and try another.
Or buy a more modern BR/DVD player, as has been suggested above.

Good luck with your pursuit.

 

[Brad Anbro]

Hello all,

I am trying to get an older DVD player to work with my newer Roku TV, but am not having any luck. The DVD player is an older Sony model. It has the usual left, right & video RCA-type output jacks, but no HDMI output. I purchased what I thought was an HDMI to RCA (plugs) adapter cable and have tried it with the various HDMI inputs to the TV, including the "eARC" input. So far, I have had no luck in getting the TV to recognize the DVD player. Any ideas? Thank you.

Thanks to all for the replies. Apparently there are two kinds of adapter cables - RCA to HDMI and HDMI to RAC. I am assuming that I purchased the HDMI to RAC cable, which did not work. I bought a Panasonic DP-UB154P-K DVD player, with the HDMI output and it works fine. The quality of the Panasonic unit seems to be MUCH better than the Sony unit that I had been using. Thanks again!

 

[linuxfan]

I purchased what I thought was an HDMI to RCA (plugs) adapter cable

For anyone who stumbles upon this forum post please be aware the key word here is "adapter" - there are active electronics involved, to convert digital video/audio to analogue video/audio. A simple cable with different connectors on each end will not work.

I bought a Panasonic DP-UB154P-K DVD player, with the HDMI output and it works fine.

Yes, that's the sensible solution.
But for anyone who is stuck in a position where they must utilise an older DVD player with analogue outputs, most modern TV's do include an analogue input, but it may not be obvious - because instead of using conventional RCA connectors, instead they now typically use a 3.5mm TRRS socket to save space.
Here is the rear of a TCL Roku TV -



And here is the corresponding 3.5mm TRRS-to-3xRCA cable -