I'm trying to connect a JWIN hard-wired security camera to an old but working Zenith VCR that I found in the street.

To get it to work, I have to make each UHF or VHF.

The JWIN monitor has a plug-in hole for the antenna something like the hole you plug a phone in to charge it. Its labeled ANT. It has a switch that can be set to UL, VH, or UHF.

The old Zenith VCR has two holes, one marked ANT IN and the other marked ANT OUT. These holes are fibreoptic (you insert the pin and turn the collar down). I have tried to find a manual for the VCR on the Zenith website, but the VCR is too old.

How do I hook these two items up? Should I put them on VHF or UHF? What is the connector called that I need to buy? I imagine it would have a plain pin on one end and two screw-down pins on the other end.

Or do I connect ANT IN to ANT OUT on the VCR? A two-headed audiovisual cord connects the VCR to the monitor.

Thank you for any help.

 

Depending on the components you have, you may be trying to mix apples and onions. Some of those cameras are made to mate with a specific monitor or multiplexer. If the VCR is a standard consumer model, it may not easily mate with with such cameras. CCTV and consumer video don't quite work the same way.

By your description the "holes" on the VCR, if they have a pair of locking pins sticking out of the sides of the metal collar, may be BNC connectors. If so, it's possibly a real CCTV VCR. If so, none of the RF settings do you any good, this thing is designed to take video directly, without conversion to VHF or UHF.

Older video gear can be a pain to find information for. Most of the makers do not retain information on anything older than a couple of years old.

 

The directions for the JWIN simply said it could be attached to a VCR, so any VCR would do. Per the directions, all you have to do is set the monitor and the VCR on the same channels, 3 or 4. I did this, and the VCR didn't record the image on the monitor. I simply got a blue screen on the VCR tape. Normally this means that the channels aren't set properly, but they were. I tried setting both on channel 3 and channel 4. I had previously tried to mate the monitor to a newer VCR, with the same results.

I tried technical service at JWIN. It said that you have to do what I did. The camera sends an image to the monitor with no problem, so the issue is definitely how I'm connecting the monitor to the VCR.

It's a commercial VCR, definitely not for CCTV. (What does BNC stand for?) It doesn't have locking pins at the side of the metal connector. They look like the hole you'd attach a cable box to - in inset pin and a round metal collar going around the outside.

I've been assuming that UL on the monitor is the setting for regular TV. Is this right?

 

No, regular television at channel 3 or 4 would be VHF.

A BNC (Bayonet Neill Concelman connector) is a standard video cable connector.

The connector you have is either an RCA connector or it's a cable F connector.

Frankly, I have my doubts that this found VCR has a working input, and if it does, I'm not sure your components are compatible.

 

Thank you very much for the information. I believe the problem is that I didn't know regular TV was VHF.

 

You havw one of those el-cheapo B&W portable TV sets (I have one)

You simply need an adapter that is an F female to 1/8" male, which you treat a a normal F connector on the set, and connect to the RF out on the VCR with an F patch cable.
Tune the TV to VL, ch 3 or 4.