Take the cable that comes into the house and connect to cable box "in". Connect wire from cable box "out" to vcr "in". Connect wire from vcr "out" to TV.
set-up the vcr with cable box option.
Set the cable box to channel 3 or 4 (vcr setting).
Use the cable box remote for tv on/off and tv volume only.
Use the vcr remote for changing tv channels and everything else.