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Sky HD being reduced still further, vcr sart not a waste with latest d/l?
I foolishly forced a d/l of the latest sky hd software for my Pace fe3003 box, I assumed the update would fix a few glitches but it seems to have dealt a fatal blow to the vcr scart socket! I use hdmi from sky to denon amp, then tv scart from sky to scart splitter and to keep things neat I hooked scart from VCR sky to LX5090 panel, input one. So to watch sky without the denon I switched off the hdmi input and it reverted to vcrscart RGB but latest software has ruined that set up. I did a reboot and got an absolutely dreadful picture from the vcr scart, far too grainy. I then hooked the tv scart from sky box to panel and got RGB.
Has sky deliberately degraded the vcr scart on the pace hd box and if so what was the reason? Or have I mucked up the d/l?
Also I am convinced that sd is now worse and sky are insertinga ads as sd during hd programmes??
The only benefit is the blue line has gone but I think picture has got worse.
A very poor show if sky have done this deliberately.
gb
Has sky deliberately degraded the vcr scart on the pace hd box and if so what was the reason? Or have I mucked up the d/l?
Also I am convinced that sd is now worse and sky are insertinga ads as sd during hd programmes??
The only benefit is the blue line has gone but I think picture has got worse.
A very poor show if sky have done this deliberately.
gb
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If you were feeding the TV from the VCR SCART, it was composite only.
On the pioneer I can quiz the input and it read 576i on both inputs but to be honest I am not sure if it said RGB.
I will do a few more checks but pretty sure sky have duffed the vcr scart output. I have a spare sky hd box and will check that tomorro with old software.
gb-
It is possible that the picture processing by the box has been changed somewhat with the latest software release and this has now manifested itself in a worse (it was dreadful to begin with) picture over the VCR Scart.
When trying the spare box, you notice very little difference in quality, the composite picture would struggle to get worse! On my Samsung box, I have noticed an increase in PQ since the update, with it looking sharper; my only bugbear being that in their infinite wisdom, Sky removed the contrast option from the EPG.
To my knowledge, there has never been an ad or promo broadcast in HD on Sky.
I assume you have the box connected to the amp with an optical/coax lead as well as the HDMI.
Perfectly true - the VCR SCART is an RGB INPUT, and always has been. The only output on the VCR SCART is Composite (CVBS).
Which box is best now? I always thought the Pace was good.
gb-
Looking at the user manuals on the Sky website, most of the Sky+ HD boxes (with the exceptions of the DRX890 and the new 1TB box), do claim that the "DVD/VCR" SCART has both RGB and CVBS outputs.
On my standard box I added a third SCART socket specifically to get RGB output with the VCR SCART characteristics, i.e. active when the box starts on a timed event, with pin 8 high, so I could feed the RGB input to a DVD/HDD recorder that triggers on pin 8.
Are the manuals wrong? With current software loads, do any of the Sky+ boxes offer RGB on the DVD/VCR SCART?
As a related question, Sky+ (HD or otherwise) boxes are obviously designed to record only to the internal HDD, but is it possible to have a planner entry trigger pin 8 on any SCART socket to activate an external device from a timer, say for a recording that I want to keep on a DVD? Anyone bodged a box to achieve that?
I can't say I've ever seen that, but it's incorrect anyway.
No, it's an input ONLY - for feeding a DVD Player/Recorder IN to the Sky box to loop through to the TV.
If you want to keep a recording, then archive from the HDD afterwards.
So does that mean, in theory I can play a video (VHS) into the Sky HD box via the scart in and the HD box will upscale the video via HDMI to my TV?:)
It will merely pass the signal through it will NOT upscale it. I am not sure it will pass signal through to HDMI output but it does to TV scart output as it always has done on Sky+ boxes as well.
No, it passes it IN the VCR SCART, and directly OUT the TV SCART - which is probably one reason they have dropped the VCR SCART on the current HD (and only) boxes.
As your TV upscales the signal, there's no need for the box to do it.