I've just installed this unit according to the manual for a Sky+ installation, that is, daisy-chaining the SCART from the Sky+ box, via the DVR to the TV.

Satellite programmes display correctly (in full colour, normal quality) when the DVR unit is in standby, but once the DVR is switched on, the live picture from the satellite is displayed in black and white.

That the picture displays correctly when the unit is passing the signal through suggests that the SCART leads are all good. I've been through the initial setup (paying particular attention to the video output settings) several times, but haven't been able to get to the bottom of this yet.

I've also tried adjusting the video output of the Sky+ box from RGB (my usual setting) to PAL, though this doesn't help.

Pre-recorded DVDs seem to play correctly on the DVR unit, but I've yet to try recording to DVD (or ->HDD->DVD) and playing back to see if playback is in colour (in other words to determine whether this is simply a problem with the passed-through video signal).

My worry is that the black and white picture may be a symptom of some copy-protection mechanism, though this seems unlikely given the availability of "Sky+" on the input AV menu.

Has anyone else encountered this? Even better, have you managed to solve it?

Thanks for any suggestions

I think this is usually symptomatic of one thing sending s-video and the other expecting RGB, or the other way around, or something like that...

Remember that the Pio has settings for both the input and output SCARTS so make sure they're both set to RGB.

PS. Also try pressing the TV/DVD button (bottom right of remote I think) and see if that makes any difference...

Even try pressing your 'input' button on your TV's remote and cycle through the various inputs i.e S-video, RGB etc.

This was the answer -- thanks, Chris! I was mistakenly looking at "input colour system" (which offers PAL/Secam/Auto). Once you had suggested looking for In and Out AV settings, it became obvious that I should be looking at these (which of course both offer an RGB option).

So thanks for the tips, and thanks also to HHGTTG for the suggestion about the TV inputs .... I'm going to have a play now