An older friend asked me to hook up their DVD player to their HDTV via the
component cables. Yes, not complex but again, they're older and somewhat
technophobic.

I got the DVD hooked up to HD1 and in fact it plays the DVD when HD1 is
selected. However, now, some of the stations that were coming in on their
coax cable connection aren't. They've got this HDTV hooked up via a coax
cable coming through the VCR - yes, I know, complete waste of technology but
that's their setup. In essence, they're just using it as a wide screen tv
and don't seem to care that they're not getting an HD picture.

However, now he tells me that some of the stations don't come in that had
been coming in before. At first, I thought maybe in the process of moving
the TV around I had damaged the coax connector but some of the stations come
in strong when the cable is connected - only snow without the cable so
obviously a signal getting through. The stations that now don't come in on
this TV do come in on other TV's in other rooms on the same cable system.

Can you think of reason why some stations wouldn't come in only on this one
tv when they were before?  Since I'm not an electronics buff, I wondered if
there was a way for a coax connection - either the cable or something in the
tv to be "selectively broken".

Additionally, something odd I notice is that they have the cable from the
wall going to the "out" coax connection on the DVD/VCR player and the cable
to the tv from the "in", which I assumed was backwards. However, after
reversing the cables, the picture is worse.....?? Doesn't seem right to me..

Unfortunately I was in town visiting for Thanksgiving, so am not able to do
a hands-on look at what's going on now. I've suggested they try other TV's
on that same cable and perhaps get help to lug this HDTV to a connection in
another room to see if it exhibits the same behavior, which is I would do if
I were there.

Also, unless they're taping off the cable connection, now that they've got
the component cables hooked up from the DVD, there isn't any reason for the
coax cable to go through the DVD/VCR is there? Or is there?

Thanks for all input