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Is the 'channel 10' that you are trying to record an analog or digital signal? If analog, then you probably need to turn the converter OFF, so that the 'analog pass through' feature is enabled. Then tune your VCR to channel 10. (If you want to also watch the broadcast, your TV would need to be tuned to either channel 10 or channel 3 - depending on the specifics of your VCR.) If digital, then yes, your VCR would need to be on channel 3 (as does your TV.) If you are recording a digital signal though, you will get better audio and video quality by using the A/V connections from the converter box to the VCR. And same between the VCR and the TV set. I wonder if the reason you couldn't get the A/V connections to work was because some menu option in either the VCR or TV was not set to the correct input? What you might consider is to connect the VCR to the TV using the A/V cables. Period. Then use the TV tuner in the VCR for all the analog tuning for the next 2.5 months. (When watching/recording digital, you would turn the converter box on and set the VCR to channel 3.) After that, just use the A/V cables between the converter box and the VCR. This gets rid of all the 'channel 3' stuff and gives the best quality possible.

Thanks jdbillp, It embarrasses me to say, but we have about 6 TVs in the house. We would need to watch different channels at the same time on them. I would hate to spend alot of money on all the converter boxes, only to find out they don't work well. I guess I should just get one at a time. But I'm not sure what the alternative would be, if that first one doesn't work well. Yes, most signals for us come from the south-southwest, and that's where most of the trees are, plus a little valley. There are pretty much only 3 TVs that we tend to use most of the time. Would the converter boxes be easy to move, if we wanted to watch something in another room? We've been totally happy with our present set-up and it bums me out that we might be in store for a big hassle. I heard one person say that their converter box works okay while watching TV, but when they tape a show, it looks horrible. We're no where near needing new TVs, so we need to go with the converter boxes. My mother recently went into a nursing home, and we are using one of her newer TVs. How can I know if it has the type of tuner that wouldn't need a converter? One more question........A good working antenna will still be important, right? The motor on our rotor isn't working. Fortunately, when it died, the antenna was in a good position for most of the stations. Will that make any difference with the digital signals? Sorry if my ignorance is showing. Thanks for your help!

If you are getting strong signals with your rabbit ears now, you should still get strong signals from the same stations. (Assuming your local TV stations are not changing transmitter sites in the process. And some are.) One thing about digital TV though. You either get a picture or you don't. So if some station is weak, and you are getting a poor analog picture, you may not get anything with DTV. A better antenna would help. Along these lines, in most areas the low-band VHF channels (2 through 6) will not be used anymore. The broadcasters who currently use those channels will be moving up to high-band VHF (7 though 13) and UHF (14 through 69.) So this can make antenna location/positioning a bit more important as well. : Sounds like once again, the American public has been sold out. Our TV's were working fine. Now we have to spend piles and piles of money if we want to keep receiving TV signals. The feds are giving out $40 coupons - up to two per household. And most 'coupon eligible' converter boxes cost about $40. So it should be a wash.