Need a Doohickey...
 

...That will take a signal off my cable box & break it down to seperate video & audio outputs. Is there such a beastie made ? Where can I get one ?

If by "take a signal off my cable box" you mean a CH3/4 RF signal, you can always use a VCR for this. Feed the RF into the VHF antenna input, and tune the VCR to the proper channel. Take baseband audio and video out from the line outputs of the VCR.

I didn't think cable boxes today not having these outputs present on the back panel. Most cable systems today using digital signals that require a box to decode/descramble, and they usually have the video and audio avaliable. A set of RCA jacks. yellow core usually composite NTSC video, red and white or black stereo audio.

Otherwise as mentioned above a VCR will do this job nicely.

MCM Electronics used to sell such a device (basically, the opposite of an RF modulator), but I could not find it on their Web site now.

I quick further search turned up the MCM device. It is/was their catalog number 33-2060 RF demodulator, and it sells (or sold) for about $50. It has mono audio.

I guess I wasn't clear enuff-I want something that takes a signal off the CABLE WIRE/Coax itself, & then breaks it down into the audio/video components...Couldn't find 33-2060 in MCM...Guess its discontinued..(Sigh...)

If you have the regular cable, the VCR trick is the best idea. I can get a few of the free HD channels on the sets with the built-in decoder board. I'll be out of luck if they change our cable to all digital, as I like to run my old sets without a cable converter.

I have a cheap RF modulator that does the same thing. I use it with a TV that doesn't have separate outputs so that I can use a DVD player.

OK, if you want to go from the cable (in from the cable company) and end up with audio and video, then you just need "a cable box". Specifically, one with the audio and video outputs (which they probably all have had for a number of years).

If you are specifically looking for a box/device you can own as opposed to a rented cable box, the best you will get is whatever remaining NTSC channels are still on your cable company's system, for as long as they keep some NTSC channels on there. I just did a search and I cannot find any of the cable-ready set-top tuners at places like MCM that were very common not too long ago; I own at least two or three of them that I use with my amateur-TV system. There certainly have to be plenty of them on Ebay. A VCR that is cable-ready will also work fine; use its video and audio outputs as others said.

Sandy-

I found details of another gadget that will accept channel 3 or 4 RF input (from the old-style cable boxes if you have one) and turn it into audio and video. This gadget also has an amplifier/splitter in it. It is called a Cable Ready Plus, made by Go-Video in the 90s:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Go-Video-CAB...-/330672776115

I have no affiliation with the seller. Let me know if that is what you are looking for.

Yep, dat be De One ! Got it Marked...(grin) Checked around at Rat Shak & Worst Buy, & they all just looked at me kinda stupidly, as expected...Believe it or nutz, I have several "TV Studio" type monitors that ONLY accept "Video & Audio" inputs.

Yep, I've also got a tunerless monitor intended for studio use...accepts composite only.

I'm all out of doohickeys right now,but I do have some thingamabobs and whatchamacallits and maybe even some whatzits around here somewhere.

Glad t'see you unnerstan' all them Hi-falutin', Rootin'-Tootin', $400 technical words...I dunno, what I need may really be called a Gizmotron...Or a Hydrostatic Gonkulator....And I KNOW where Magical Smoke comes from-Moe Howard let it slip once-It comes from the rare hydro-pneumatic aromatic Oil of Annacannafrannistan....Which is ONLY found on trees growing on the SOUTH side of mount Hooliackus in Outer Lower Harpootlistan...