We bought our HDTV a while back. Because our previous cable service was connected through the regular coaxial port, we could plug in our DVD player or the Wii in the top multi-port row and everything would work. It was a bitch to switch them out, but it worked.

Our new cable is routed through the internet with HD service and they used the top multi-ports. The second row would not work for the DVD player or the Wii, except in black and white.

Today we purchased a coaxial cable, connected the our old VCR (we have too many VHS tapes still to trash it) to the TV in the one cable port, connected the DVD player to the VCR and it all works!

We also bought a component cable (with 5 connectors) for the Wii and connected that to the second row of ports.
It works too! Woohoo!

I am SO proud of hubby. He's not that tech savvy, but managed to figure all of it out.

Now, I can have the tablet more often, lol. He was playing games on it because he couldn't play the Wii.

The funniest part of all of this is that I had tried to find an answer online for the B/W Wii problem, but couldn't get any definitive answer. Some said the ports were bad, some said it was a setting on the TV or by the ports, others had all sorts of complicated, technical answers. Not ONE forum I read mentioned the component cable. In the end, it was actually simple. One cable. Done.

It does help to have the right cables.

Just so ya know: if your TV has USB ports, it means it can take external hard drives - so if you have folders of photos and videos (most common formats) your TV will play them.

I also have an external box that can convert VHS tapes from a VCR to my computer hard drive but I'm not sure if the technology is still available.

Pffft! New-fangled VHS tapes!
I've got thousands of slides to convert, though they're stored on a different continent.
My sister is trying to convert a few but she's such a non-technical person and doesn't do any color correction and such.

There are stand-alone slide scanners out there. I see them on sale occasionally. Only problem is that they're only 5 Mp. To get better results you need a flatbed scanner with a slide/negative mount.

LOL jab. I still have some pics on floppy that I need to get put on disk. Us mature folks are just too far behind the times.

Terrific info to share, roseanne ~ thanks!

Sooz

lol Sid. I don't really want to copy any of the VHS. Most of them are crappy quality. We are slowly, but surely, replacing them with DVDs and when we are done, they (and the VCR) are going out the door!