TV, DVD, & Sky ... Help please :(

[kmount]

Hi all,

I have literally zero knowledge of television 'networking' and daisychaining of scart etc, so I am seeking advice.

The parents have just bought a new 'HD Ready' LCD Tv which has 2 scart sockets (sure beats 1), and a multitude of other jacks and plugs etc which are no interest yet.

I have a DVD Recorder which also has two scart sockets, and aerial etc.

Finally, a Sky box which is similar.

Basically, I have a scart from the Sky into the TV, and from the DVD into the TV, and this works fine except the Sky kicks the crap out of the DVD and you need to mess around to make it work. (Can't just change the 'exit' to Scart2 without Sky taking over).

The antenna feed comes in to the Sky box, and from the Sky box via scart to the TV. The DVD has a Scart to the TV too.

How on earth would someone else do it? I'm about to go spare!

[wfnuk]

If Sky keeps kicking in and switching your TV back to it's own AV channel (I assume that is what you mean), the answer is simple - it is getting a switching voltage from pin 8 of the scart plug. Simply take the cover off one end of the Sky scart lead and cut the wire going to pin 8! Easy if you know how!

[acidtechno]

not sure if this helps but our tv has 2 scart sockets, freeview digital box in one, dvd player in other.

when turning digibox on it automatically goes to that scart channel on the TV.. takes over to put it one way.

All I have to do is just change scart channel to watch dvd (digibox doesn't take over again).

from what you are saying it sounds similar, there should be a button on the remote to change scart channels on the tv.

[wfnuk]

If you are unsure of the scart plug pinout, you'll find a diagram here.

[jonban]

What I have done is as follows (uses just 2 scart leads):

Connect the Sky "TV Scart" lead to the input Scart of the DVD
Connect the DVD output Scart to the AV1 socket on the TV

The advantage of this is that only the TV output on the Sky box (assuming it is a standard Sky or Sky+ ) is RGB and this should give the highest quality viewing and recording.

On my DVD recorder, if the DVD recorder is in standby then the Sky signal just passes straight through to the TV.
When the DVD is powered (e.g to record something or to playback a DVD) then that is what you see on the TV.

If your recorder doesn't pass the signal through in standby then I woudl try the following (needs 3 scart leads)
Sky TV Scart Output -> AV1 on the TV
Sky VCR Output -> Input Scart on DVD recorder
Output Scart on DVD -> AV2 on the TV

You also might want to connect the old analogure aerial lead into the DVD recorder and then from the DVD to the TV (so that you could record a Terrestrial channel while watching Sky or vice versa)

Hope this helps

There is lots more info at forum.digitalspy.co.uk

[Old_Crow]

If you get desperate, look out for a device called a 'Smart-Scart'. Costs ~£25 and automatically switches up to 4 Scart inputs through to one output, has buffer amps on each input, and incorporates a separate record loop. (Think there's a version with more inputs too).

I don't use this stuff myself, but a neighbour asked me to help sort out interconnects for Digibox, Satellite, DVD player and VCR, and the TV had one Scart input... It should have been possible to do it, but there were so many problems with devices transmitting on to the channel when on standby and attenuation of the signals when supposedly switched 'straight through' that I gave up, did some research and got her to order a 'Smart-Scart'. It works brilliantly, and I managed to configure it such that all the sources can be recorded as well as viewed, with no loss of quality. (No, I don't have shares in the company!)

[mrjones]

I think you can also switch off the scart control in the sky box setup, not sure where, i'll look later.

Ah, found it now...

http://www.satcure.co.uk/digifaq2.htm#scartav

hth

[kmount]

Alright guys, thank you very much. I have got it working 'properly' now with not kicking in and getting moody etc.

My problem is now quality related, and I'm not impressed with it. Below is a post I just made elsewhere, and rather than hardlink, I was hoping you could cast your eye over it. (wfnuk, why aren't you online!)

Hello there, and thank you for taking the time to read my problem.

Recently picked up a new Relisys RLT32AG20 from Tj Hughes on offer, and from reading reviews it didn't seem like a bad buy, considering my 27" CRT TV was dying!

Anyway, got it all tuned up, and working etc, but it just doesn't seem to have as crisp an appearance as I would have hoped, IE, there appears to be fuzziness around the edges of characters, and some of the colours quite dull.

I have seen countless options in the menu's such as Skin tones, shining, 'Magic' codes for colours etc, and to be honest, I'm a computer techy, this tv malarky has me stumped!

My setup is as follows:

Sky feed into sky box.
Scart from Skybox to Tv on 'Scart1'
Scart from Skybox to DVDRecorder to Tv on 'Scart2'
There is also a 'terrestrial' feed coming through to the TV too.

I also have the problem of having a Rev 4 remote so I can't find a relevant magic code to have the TV controlled by the Sky remote which is a problem, but not pressing at the moment.

I have played with all of the settings and can't seem to 'perfect' the art, I was hoping someone could help, with either, a 'master' reset to start the fun all over again, or whether anyone could suggest any pointers.

Finally, FWIW, the manual is terrible, its about 10 pages long and doesn't explain half of the options on offer, and by following the pictures, I have got this far!

Please save my sanity.

Thank you so much.

[AndyBites]

Chaz,

First thing, Scart 1 is the RGB scart socket? (many tvs have one rgb and the others are standard scart input).
Have you set output in the skybox menu to RGB?

I know they're fairly basic things, but not sure what you have / haven't tried

Hope is of some help,

Andy