Hello everyone

If any of you use one of these routers to connect a Sky digibox to a widescreen tv can you tell me whether auto widescreen switching works please? (for the techies out there I'm specifically asking about pin 8 pass-through)

Many thanks

Ian

UPDATE

I have just spoken to technical support at Holdan and have my answer.

The HSR1000 DOES NOT SUPPORT AUTO-WIDESCREEN SWITCHING FROM A SKY DIGIBOX! (pin 8 is NOT through-connected). If you want your tv to autoswitch widescreen modes do not connect through this router.
Dissapointment strikes again! Apart from this major flaw this was a perfect product for my requirements. Mine is being returned for a refund.

Ian

Check out these products, not cheap, but bloody good!

Link !! http://www.js-technology.com/

Cheers for the link Northamuk

Good product but not really what I'm after. Other than the widescreen problem the HSR1000 is an almost perfect product. This problem is simply not acceptable on a high end product that was designed with digital satelite in mind! Mine got parcelled up today.

I've re-cabled my system back to plain old composite video being switched through my AV amp. Quality isn't quite as good as with RGB but still well acceptable for now.

I'll just wait 'til Holdan get their act together and fix the widescreen problem... or some other company comes out with something similar and steals their market!

If anyone knows of any other product that does the same as the holdan please let me know.

See http://www.holdan.co.uk/acatalog/HOL-HSR1000.htm if you haven't seen the HSR1000 before. Maybe a few emails to them complaining about the widescreen issue would speed up the release of modified version.

Ian

This is another one I was looking at (Trilogy 1)

http://www.lektropacks.co.uk/dept.asp?dept%5Fid=112

I have tested both the Triology 1 and 2 but had switching problems with both! You may be ok though? Just a warning!

Has anyone got a B-Tech Quintro BT945?
What is it like to use?

Any comments or praise or niggles would be welcome.

Ta
Ian

Yeah I just bought one, looks complicated to hook up - but is really dead simple. RGB is supported and it automatically switches to the last unit swirched on and back again when you switch the unit off. You can, of course, manually override the automatic switching.

I'm delighted with it. Cheapest place to buy - Index £79.99.

ta for your comments northamuk

How well does the "record one source whilst watching another source" feature work"?

Does your tv still auto-widescreen switch with your Sky Digibox routed through this box?

Ta

Ian

Haven't yet tried the record one source watch another yet, everything else seems to work as if they were the only unit connected to the TV Scart.

I have the Quintro+ and highly recommend it.

Bought mine from HERE . £74 incl PP

Hmm,

I'm confused. My Quintro is NOT compatible with my Thomson Sky digibox. It causes my TV to constantly flip between 4:3 and 16:9. According to the guys at Keene (where I bought it) this is a known problem and lots of Quintros have been returned. B-Tech are hoping to fix it.

Now contrary to the earlier post in this thread, Keene assure me that the Holdan HSR1000 DOES do widescreen switching. Anyway, whatever happens, my Quintro is going back and I should be receiving the Holdan pretty soon. I will let you all know how it goes

Chris

I bought my Quintro from Keene just after Christmas and encountered exactly the same problem with my Loewe TV/Sony digibox. Keene replaced the Quintro with the HSR1000 and I can sadly confirm that this box doesn't support widescreen switching . A pity because otherwise it would be a perfect switcher.

m.

Hi

I started this thread and I can assure you that after owning an HSR1000 for a week, testing it and talking to the techie guys at Holden that this router DOES NOT support 'pin 8' (sky digibox) widescreen switching.

I have also discussed my findings with technical support at Keene where I bought the router and subsequently sent it back for a refund. It puzzles me greatly (and annoys me) why they are still saying it does do widescreen switching???

msmorley & audioplasm - When you say your tv flips between 4:3 and 16:9, does it do it when it's supposed to or at random? Many adverts are broadcast in 16:9 even if the main programme is 4:3 (or vice-versa) so you'll sometimes get switching during ad breaks.

I believe that the Quintro does pass the 'pin 8' signal correctly so widescreen switching does happen, however the quintro is nowhere near as good as the HSR1000 so I will wait until Holdan sort their act out.

Ian

I''d say that it flips at about five times per second. Not attractive, I can assure you.

The Quintro does initially set the correct aspect ratio and then it just goes nuts. I'm surprised that Keene haven't realised that the Holdan doesn't support pin 8 switching: they don't claim it does in their catalogue and they were certainly on the ball when it came to the problem with the Quintro.

Hope you don't have too long to wait...

m.

Ian states:

Ian (or other), can you enlighten me please. I was about to purchase the Holdan HSR1000 Scart Router when I saw this discussion about its inability to auto switch. Can you tell me in layman's terms what are the implications of this inability to auto switch? Is it a major handicap? It might help you to know my TV is a new Philips 32" PW9308 widescreen which has itself an auto switch facility. Does this facility on my TV mean that its absence from the Holdan does not matter so much? Please advise.

Many thanks in advance,
Eddie Byrne

I'm not familiar with your TV model but, as far as I can see, because the Holdan doesn't pass the pin 8 widescreen switching signal through, your TV will remain blissfully unaware of what aspect ratio the source material is in. No problem if everything you watch is in widescreen but rather irritating if that isn't the case. I ended up coding a "4:3" and "16:9" macro on my pronto to make switching easier.

I can now also sadly confirm that the Holdan HSR1000 does NOT support automatic widescreen switching. Rather annoying, especially since the guys at Keene assured me that it does...

Anyway, it's gone back, so I'm still in the market for a 5+ input SCART switcher that supports automatic widescreen switching (pin 8) and is compatible with the Thomson Sky Digibox...

Anyone?

Hi

Non of the other scart switch boxes currently available come close to what the Holdan can do. Especially useful is the SPDIF digital coax switch which means that the unit can switch between Sky+ digital output and DVD digital output. It also has a separate set of composte signal outputs for a digi-sender. There isn't another switch box that will let you, for example, play playstation on the main tv, record something from sky onto VCR and watch a dvd in another room all at the same time! I'm sure Audioplasm aggrees with me that even with all these plus points, the widescreen issue is unforgivable on a 'high-end' product like this, especially when Holdan themselves show the box hooked up to a Sky digibox!

I'm still hoping/waiting/praying Holdan will get their act together soon and perfect the HSR1000.

Ian

erm...WS Switching for starters.

I'll stick with my Quintro thanks.

Couldn't put up with a scart switch box (like the Holdan) that doesn't support WS switching.

Even the Argos £10 manual switch boxes support it!


Nothing complicated about this.
I could do all this without a scart switch box!

Kevo,

If you can set up your system to do multi-way RGB scart switching/routing like my example, why did you need to buy a quintro?

Ian

PS What do you think of the Quintro?

Your example doesn't require a scart switch box at all.

From your example........

I can use my xbox in RGB on my TV.

Whilst i'm doing this I can record from from my Cable stb to my vcr via scart. No need for RGB switching (or TV!) there.

I can route from my DVD player to another room via it's S-video.

The point of a scart switch box is primarily to compensate for the lack of RGB scarts on a TV, usually they have only one (like mine).
I have four RGB devices going into one RGB, which is why I bought the Quintro.

However, I do see the SPDIF sockets being useful for some people on the Holdan.

The Quintro is fine. It auto switches OK, the pic quality looks the same but there's slight distortion on the audio on all scarts and phono outputs.

My example was only one possibility. I too could set my system up so I didn't need a switch box to make my example work. If I did that though I couldn't then switch to watching the VCR on the main TV and watch a DVD on the digisender TV..... or watch a DVD on the main TV whilst recording sky on the VCR and also watching sky on the digisender TV...or any other combination you could think of, without re-connecting everything. The HSR is a matrix router. Any of the inputs can be routed to one or more of the outputs.

What sort of distortion are you getting on the audio through the Quintro?

Ian

As if it's the audio levels have been set too high at the source.

There's no way to get rid of it, just lessen it by not having the TV vol too high.