How to hook up a dvd player to an older tv?

[amyb]

I have a 2004 Samsung dvd player...nothing fancy but it should work fine once plugged in. I am trying to plug it into a 2000 RCA tv (model F20625). There are the standard red/white/yellow audio connections on the back of the tv and I have appropriately hooked them up to each other. Now, the problem seems to be that since I don't have the original remote for the TV, I don't know how to switch it to another "AV" mode or whatever. So, even though it looks like the DVD player is working (it shows the minutes passing as the DVD plays), I can't see any picture on any of the 02-09 channels. When you go through the TV setup on the menu, it asks if you have a VCR, but it never asks if you have a DVD player. So, I don't know if that means it can't use a DVD player or what. Certainly someone out there has faced this problem...how to fix?

When you say "yes" to the VCR, it then wants you to enter which brand and it starts searching for a specific code. I don't think it will ever find the matching code since I'm not plugging in a VCR. Also it wants me to set the VCR to channel 02 and wait for it to reset to channel 09. I don't think you can set the DVD player to a channel, so I'm puzzled on that one. There's no special button to push actually on the tv to switch modes. This is the heart of the problem...without the original remote, I'm not sure what to do to make it switch.

[Erik]

There should be a tv/video button on the box or a channel L1 or V1. In the channel setup, say yes, you have a VCR, that may allot an extra channel for video. It is essentially the same thing as a VCR or video game system. DVDs were brand new in 2000, keep in mind, so only the top 2000 models would say something like DVD. If that doesn't work, elaborate on the question and we'll see whats up.

[KirklandS]

I would try a few things
1- just try going through all the channels. I know it's a pain although different tv's have different settings. If you go up high enough, you might hit video one or two which would solve the problem.
2- what buttons are on the tv, I would look for one that would change the input from cable to the dvd
3- get the tv to bring up the question about the vcr and tell it that you do have one, that might trigger something
4- call the geek squad
hope this helps