Where can I acquire a cheap cable box with composite outputs? (Edit: bought $7 VCR on eBay)

[frankqfrank]

NEWER EDIT Holy sh1t, I found this with like 2 minutes left to bid and did so on impulse, $15.00 shipping/handling!!! Maybe I can talk him down...
EDIT I bought an "as-is" VCR on eBay. I figure it's as is probably because it doesn't play tapes, but i dont need it for that. Hope it works out. Check out my purchase here.

I inhereted a nice TV but the tuner is going downhill. I have cable and all the stations are fairly fuzzy. However, any video coming into the composite video inputs looks great, I plugged my DVD player into the inputs and the picture and sound are very good.

So where can I acquire a cable box whose sole purpose is to take cable tv channels and output them to composite so i can get a clear picture. remote control a big plus. One option is an old VCR, even if its broken (the tape playing part of it). As long as it has a cable tuner and composite outs it should serve my purpose.

Thanks for any tips. Now back to searching eBay and some other auctions...

 

[ThaGrandCow]

Check the back of a Popular Science magazine.
Bonus: the box might be one of the "special" ones that mysteriously let you watch all the pay channels.

 

[fatbaby]

<< Check the back of a Popular Science magazine.
Bonus: the box might be one of the "special" ones that mysteriously let you watch all the pay channels. >>



But those "black" ones usually cost $300, and odds are the company will upgrade (to digital) and make your box obsolete before the black pays for itself

 

[frankqfrank]

I thought those things were a huge scam. I'm surprised theres not enough of these floating around to make them cheap. Cable companies had to have 1000s of them, now they're more or less useless since all TV's are cable ready and the pay channels require big fancy boxes (at least with Time Warner.)

 

[piku]

I don't think this will work like you want it to.

Just because the boxes output is composite quality doesn't mean its input will be. Your signals quality is still going to be held back by how good it is coming from the wall.

 

[frankqfrank]

its coming from the wall just fine, my other cable ready tv has a great picture. with the same cable this tv is fuzzy, so i made the assumption that the tuner is messed up.

 

[Ameesh]

the cable box you get from the cable company will defintly have composite outs.

 

[frankqfrank]

yeah that is true but $3 / month

 

[cressida]

eb@y