Steve vRS

I've just had Sky+ installed and I'm having difficulty linking my DVD home cinema into the system.

Before I got Sky, the DVD (it's a Panasonic DVD combined with surround sound amp) plugged into the first SCART socket on the back on the tele. when the DVD was switched on, in automatically changed the TV over to AV1. The TV also had an audio output to the amp so that I could route the TV audio through the surround sound.

When the Sky engineer installed the digi-box, the DVD was not there (we've just moved house and the DVD was still boxed up) so he plugged it into the first Scart.

Now when I plug the DVD into any other scart, it will only play black and white on the TV.

Does anyone have any idea how to connect everything together so that the DVD plays in colour and I can route the TV audio into the surround sound?

Thanks

Steve

PS the Tele is a Panasonic as well.

prodriva

Post here www.avforums.com they should be able to help you with your setup problem.

Steve vRS

Thanks. I'm not a member of the forum and it seems a bit techie for me!

Anyone have any ideas?

Steve

GrollySTI

Doesn't the instruction manual give you an example set up showing you what goes where? - bad omission if it doesn't

Steve vRS

No

Steve

Kyl3cook

I have just done this.

Here's what I did.

I have 2 scarts in the back of my TV (if you have one, I'm sure you could get an adapter). Anyway, DVD/AMP combo goes to one, the Sky+ to the other. That's the picture dealt with.

Soundwise I just connected directly from the Sky+ to the DVD/AMP with an optical cable. If your amp doesn't have an optical input, I'm sure you can just run a couple of phono leads from one to the other.

It took a bit of doing, but now I have everything running through my home cinema....TV, Computer, Sky+, XBox, PS2...lots of wires

mart360

sounds like you need to go into your tv/ syk setup menu,s and configure the scart sockets.

some will take a composite/ others rgb, and then others svhs

sounds like the scart is looking for compo and getting rgb

Mart

Kyl3cook

Agree on the RGB thing....my DVD will play in a funny green and black when running through the Scart RGB 1, whereas the SKY+ gets the best picture running through RGB. You can set it up in the Sky menus.

Frosty The Snowman

Have you tried just plugging the DVD into the SCART that Sky is in? Does it work?

Steve vRS

I think the problem basically is that only one scart on my tele produces a colour image so if I plug anything into the other 2 scarts, it is just black and white. Can you configure the output of the Sky box so that the scart will recognise it? I've not found any thing on the tele to configure the scart sockets apart from a feature where you can configure the output of the second scart socket.

Steve

Frosty The Snowman

Well I think, as has been mentioned, you have a DVD player and a Sky Box both outputting an RGB signal and your TV can only take one RGB and one composite.

You should be able to make your Sky or DVD player output composite. Someone else will have to tell you the how on a Sky box as I have NTL, and you'll have to hit the manual for the DVD player, although it will probably be in the menu, with the disk tray empty, and in some sort of display/output settings bit.

If you can't sort it pop over to avforums they don't bite and will be able to help you for sure.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

Or sounds like you need an RGB scart switchbox if your TV only has one RGB scart input. No need to frig around with the sky+/dvd settings then. Just plug them into the RGB switchbox and then into the RGB tv input.

Edited to say; Can't u just plug the DVD into the 2nd scart on the back of the Sky+ box? This should act as a passthrough when you do this. It would mean you'd have to turn off the DVD to view Sky+ though.

David_Wallis

mine did this, but it was because only one scart socket supported ntsc.

logiclee

As said your TV looks like it will only accept an RGB input on Scart 1.

To change the Sky+ to Pal composite press services on your Sky remote, and go into system set up, select Picture settings and adjust Video Output from RGB to PAL. Remember to save new settings.

If you would rather watch Sky through the better RGB picture then read your DVD players manual to set the output to composite.

To get dolby digital from Sky+ movies you will need an optical cable from the Sky+ box to your AV amp.

Cheers
Lee

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

LogicLee hit the nail on the head - I cheated and bought an amp with two optical inputs, one coax and 3 scart inputs with one scart output to the TV. (I saw the same amp for sale (return) in Richer Sounds in Nottingham for £80)

Turn on Amp - choose input mode (DVD, STB or Xbox) get glorious picture and the optical / coax takes care of the audio.

Of course all that went to pot today with the purchase (and installation) of my Samsung 32" LCD... HDMI is stunning!

Steve vRS

Thanks for everyone's advice. I managed to change the output of the DVD player to S video. Now each unit is connected to the TV via a Scart and the TV outputs it's audio to the amp via the Scart. Will I still need an optical cable? I've never come accross one of these. I am an AV numptie!

Steve

mightyyid

Following on from Lee, many TV's only have one RGB enabled Scart socket (number 1), and as you'll probably watch more Sky than DVD's, Sky should run through to Scart 1 (and then activate the RGB setting in the settings box in Sky+ menu). The picture will then take about 30 secs to become clearer.

Ideally, DVD should go through component's but if the TV does not have it, you'll be stuck, so just a standard SCART will do, but make sure the settings in the DVD player (which may have been done for RGB given this is how you used to have it) and thus will need to be changed back to composite.

And given you have gone for Sky+, well worth getting an amp with a digital input (and all external amps will have digital inputs these days), so you can connect it. Unfortunately, Sky in their wisdom only offer optical, rather than the slightly better coax digital, but it's still good enough. My map has two of both, so the Sky goes into one, the DVD player another, the CD player another and PS2 another....

Try and avoid sending signals through a TV if you can - and try and get everything into the amp and this will give the clearest signal. Ideally, your DVD player has picture going direct to TV and sound direct to amp, ditto everything else. Every time you go through another input/output, you lose quality...

Andy

Kyl3cook

If you want to run your sky+ through your home cinema, then I think so. An optical cable is about £20, and you can get them from most Hi-Fi shops....it's just a fibre optic jobby (technical I know)

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

How do you know? No one is broadcasting in HD yet Unless you mean you've got an xbox360 hooked up to it?

logiclee

HDMI is used by current equipment like upscaling DVD players, home cinema PC's as well as the Xbox360. On my 50" Sony there is a very noticable improvement in picture quality when switching between component and HDMI. Getting rid of the digital to analogue and back to digital conversion certainly improves the picture.

Here's Yoda from Revenge Of The Sith upscaled to 720P through HDMI.



Cheers
Lee

hades

Hope the problem is sorted out, but should just point one thing out as no-one seems to have spotted it as yet. The composite video pin on a SCART lead (pin 17?) is also the one used to take the luminance signal in an S-video transmission. Much more likely if you're getting a good quality black and white picture that it is a S-video / composite mix up than an RGB / composite mix-up.

Regarding the optical cable - you need it to link your DVD to your AV amplifier and also your Sky+ box to your AV amp if you want 5.1 sound rather than Pro-logic derived from stereo. With a half decent 5 speaker set-up, it does make a huge difference.