EDIT: I read the rest of the thread. And eliminated my suggested starting place. Good luck.
Base band video, composit video, NTSC video, and PAL video are all terms that mean a video signal as would come from a camera which is just that, a CAMERA and nothing more. They usually do have sync and the color reference burst added to the combined waveform/signal. These terms, keeping in mind the differences between NTSC and PAL, all mean a signal that combines: black and white video information, a color subcarrier that contains the color information, the vertical and horizontal sync signals, and the color "burst" which is the timing reference for decoding the encoded color information. These signals do not contain audio. Base band audio, monaural of stereo, would be the accompanying audio signal.
Base band video signals are commonly carried on 75 Ohm, coaxial cables with connectors like BNC and RCA. But almost any other kind of connector can also be used.
When the base band or composit video signal AND the base band audio signal(s) are modulated on an RF carrier, you then have what is commonly called an RF signal. And it contains everything that a TV monitor needs to display both a picture and the sound.
RF, modulated signals are commonly carried on 50 Ohm coaxial cables with type F, BNC, or many other kinds of coaxial connectors.
You may notice that I listed BNC connectors for both base band and RF signals. But, since two different coaxial cable impedances are used for these two, the BNC connectors are also NOT the same. BNC connectors actually come in three varieties: 75 Ohm, 50 Ohm, and Non Continuous (not specified) impedance. The third of which is, perhaps, the most common.
Even so, either NTSC or PAL format video into the viewfinder module from a 210 or a 210E should give something visible on the tube.
Why are you using a cable with those Belling-Lee coax plugs? The video signal from the DVD player into the viewfinder needs to be baseband not RF. Your mention of "channel frequency o/p of the dvd player" and "fixed channel i/p of the viewfinder crt" is nonsense.
Thanks for helping with my education on this. I've always skipped over analogue tv theory until now. And the only connectors i've ever used on the back of tvs/vcrs/dvds have been Scart connectors.
What are the 210 and 210e you referred to? You lost me there.
I checked in the manual and it's pin 3 for video which i've wired up so that's all good. I did try inputting a signal without the converter box too when i initially hooked everything up two weeks ago.
I have that old coax cable there because i thought i would be plugging it into the rf out of an equally old vcr recorder. That didn't give a picture other than white so i moved on to the dvd player. Having soldered the pin to the wire I've left it like that and have to use adaptors to join it to a phono rca cable.
So i'm using the rca Video out socket from the dvd player. Is that a baseband signal?
I thought it was rf out tuned to channel 36 for an analogue tv to decode, hence my utter confusion. Still confused actually as i don't see any other connection options from my dvd player. I've looked up baseband, but in all the analogue tv theory sections in my books the only signal in town is the rf composite video/audio signal, so i'm none the wiser yet.
I do appreciate your efforts though!