Please help!! I bought my mother-in-law a dvd player for her 70th birthday and tried to set it up with her existing digibox and video player and it's all gone terribly wrong!!

She has a Toshiba TV with 2 scart sockets, a Daewoo digital freeview box with 1 scart socket and a JVC video with 2 scart sockets and now the new Sony dvd player with 1 scart socket.

I connected the dvd player to the TV using the scart lead into EXT1. I connected the digibox to the video using a scart lead and an aerial lead (as shown in the manual). I then connected the video to the TV using another scart lead into EXT2 and an aerial lead (again, as shown in the manual).

Now she can watch the normal 1-5 channels on the TV, she can switch to EXT1 and watch a dvd, she can switch to EXT2 (or 0) and watch a video (and, I think record but I was so fed up by this point that I almost lost the will to live and gave it all up as a bad job!) but there is no way that I can get the digibox to work. I did manage to get sound from it by switching the channel on the video to L-2 (which according to the video manual is the satellite receiver channel) - but other than that there is no way I can see the digibox. I have reset the channels (using the Auto channel select options)on both the TV and the video in the vain hope that it would magically make things right ... but, no joy.

The only thing that is different between now and before is the scart connection to the dvd player and the extra aerial connection from the video to the TV. But even removing this doesn't seem to make the slightest difference.

So now she can watch dvds (of which she has none yet) but not watch all the extra channels that she used to watch and she is really not impressed with me! She's hardly talking to me ... OK, so that may be one good thing to come out of this!!! ... but I am really frustrated by this as I can't logically understand why it won't work.

Please can anyone help?

Was the freeview box originally connected to EXT1, and the VCR to EXT2?

On my old Toshiba TV, EXT2 didn't accept an RGB input, only S-Video or Composite, while EXT1 would accept all three. Make sure that the freeview box is set to output the same type of video signal that the VCR is currently outputting (and the TV is obviously accepting, since the VCR works OK).

If the scart input on the VCR can be changed, set that to the same signal type as well.
You'll probably have to set the VCR to one of it's external inputs - most likely L2, since you got freeview sound when you tried that one.

Remember that you (usually) have to set all components in a chain to use the same type of video signal (RGB, S-Video or composite). Very few devices can take one type of signal as an input, and output it as a different type.

Make sure the digibox SCART lead is connected to AV2/EXT2 on the VCR and not AV1/EXT1.

When the VCR is on standby it should pass through the video signal from the digibox to EXT2 on the TV.

If you are getting sound but no picture the SCART lead from the digibox to the VCR may be faulty or not fully connected.

Thanks, I'll try it tomorrow. Wish me luck!!!

By the way, how do you know what sort of a signal each part of the jigsaw is using?

You need to check the manuals, on-screen menus, or both.
Some sockets only pass one type of signal (yellow single pin is composite, 4-pin is S-Video), but scart can do 3 different types, depending on what the manufacturer puts inside the box.