Hi,

After much deliberation I'm just about to buy the Pioneer 530H (was considering the Sony HXD710), but before I do can any 530H / 630H owners tell me if they have successfully connected two decoders to the recorder.

I would like to connect my sky box (via scart) and Freeview box (presumably via s-video) so that I can record from the freeview box and still watch sky.

Has anyone done anything similar to this? And if so, what is the quality like via s-video?

Also, will the G-Link be able to control both decoders or just one?

Any info would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

No, you can't do this. You can certainly connect them both but while you're recording one 'channel' (whether it's an internal channel from its own tuner or from an external video source), you can't view another. I just tried it now, Ipressed Record to record what is currently on my Sky box, but then the Channel + and - buttons are disabled.

Now that's the interesting question and one which I don't know the answer to. First of all, the infra-red dongle would need to be aimed at both receivers. Secondly, I don't know how Guide Plus knows about two different external tuners. I don't have any terrestrial reception at all so I don't even know how it can download EPG listings for both analogue terrestrial AND Sky Digital. Presumably you'd get duplicate channels listed, but if you tell it to get EPG data from ITV1 analogue then I would assume it will only get terrestrial listings, similarly if you tell it you've got a Sky box then it gets Sky Digital listings. That's what I've done and I don't get any terrestrial listings.

2 boxes can be a problem in this type of instance.
I have a Freeview PVR and Sky+ connected but as both are PVR's your problem does not occur.
Its best to daisy chain via RGB so you can record both in best quality,however the watching/recording clash continues.
As all the channels you need are on Sky I would connect that to the RGB input on the Pioneer and just connect the Freeview to the other scart input on the tv and watch it independently.
If you want both connected to the Pioneer,you can connect one box or the other via the Pioneer phono inputs,but this will give only composite recording quality.
Whichever box gets connected via phonos can have its scart connected to the second scart on the tv.
If you follow this manner,just watch on Freeview and wherever possible record from the RGB input of Sky.

Thanks for the info, but I didn't mean that I wanted to record from freeview and watch sky all via the recorder.

I was intending to connect my sky box to the recorder and to the tv. So if I was recording from the freeview box, I could still watch sky directly on my TV.

The reason I want to connect a freeview box as well for this is so that I don't always have to record from the sky box for the best picture. If I want to record BBC1, id prefer to record from freeview, so that I can still watch Sky one on my TV.



I read in the 530H manual I downloaded that when setting up the guideplus you can specify upto 3 external decoders. So I was wondering if you can do this, can if control more than one, assuming the g-link can point at both.

Thanks, I may forget about using my freview box, and just record from sky. I just wanted to keep my sky box free when recording from BBC / ITV etc.

I guess when recoring from terrestrial for something I didn't want to keep and transfer to DVD (which would be most of the time) I could simply record via the internal analogue tuner.

The ITV/BBC channels are better quality on Freeview.
In particular ITV1 on Sky is blurred and suffers terrible pixellation on certain types of scenes

I'll try out connecting the freeview box the the decoder via a scart to s-video cable, and see what the quality is like.

I have my Topfield PVR, My Humax Fox STB and mt VCR all connected to my 420H using a manual SCART switch-box. Most of the time it is switched to the Fox but I switch the the Toppy or the VCR when dubbing things across.

I connect a Sky+ to a 530 using s-video and the picture looks fine to me, the colours aren't quite as vibrant as RGB but the clarity of image is excellent.

Thanks for the info.