Hello,

I haven't bought a new dvd player in 2 years, so not quite sure what the differences are these days. My player came with all it's cables to set it up and get it going straight away, no extra purchases were needed.

My friend, however, has just bought a toshiba dvd player from sainsburys (because apparently she thought it was a good deal and it was a spur of the moment thing - before which she had never even watched a dvd in her life).
Anyway, she asked me to set it up for her. The player instructions are awful, but they do tell you there is no scart lead included, so I used the RGB as the diagram shows. The diagram also shows using an audio cable, but there were no more cables in the box. The instructions only mention the scart lead not being included but nothing else (which kind of implies the other cables are included)
I thought this was strange because surely if the player cannot be used without extra purchases, this would have to be advertised before you buy the player?

Anyway, thought i'd check the player (obviously just picture and no sound) but it wouldn't work. So I "borrowed" the scart cable from the VCR and used that to connect to the tv. All worked perfectly, so found the menu and changed the setting from scart to RGB cable, so that it could be used.

If the dvd comes set up to work with the scart but not the RGB it is supplied with, and you need the dvd player to work (with a scart) to access the menu and change the setting to RGB, then what's the point?!!

All of this was just guessing and trying, there is no mention in the instructions, just the picture and very misleading technical jargon which doesn't even explain it correctly anyway!

So what do I do now? Tell her to buy a scart cable or tell her to buy an audio cable before her player is even going to work? Or just tell her to take the player back because there are better deals out there?

Is it normal to supply dvd players that don't work without extra cable purchases? If so, don't they have to tell you that before you buy it?

My friend bought a toshiba dvd because her tv is toshiba (also has an unhelpful instruction booklet) and thought she was getting a good deal for £29.99. Was she? If she has to buy an extra cable as well it'll push the price up. What's the best I can do here? Is buying a really cheap scart the way to go? or is it better to buy a better quality one? Are there better deals for budget dvd players out there?

Sorry this has become a rather long rant! Any advice welcome. Sorry if I've said anything stupid, but this really has confused me!

Thanks very much

Hi there..

Firstly, to be honest, if you buy anything electrical from a food supermarket company, then you will not get the advice you would expect from a proper electrical appliance dealer. Yes, you save "some" money, but the hassles you can get generally are not worth the money you saved in the first place. So, no, you can't really expect to be told what is/isn't included. If your freind had purchased from say Comet and they didn't advise her to also purchase the cables she needed with it, then thats bad service and I'd say you have something to complain about there.
So, in my opinon, if you are buying anything like that from a supermarket, or in fact from the internet, I guess it's assumed you know what you want and what it doe/doesn't come supplied with.
Onto scart leads.... there are RGB scarts, standard scarts, scarts that only work in one direct (so you have to plug then in the right way around or the signal won't flow in the right direction). You also get scarts for visual and audio, and also scarts that are just for visual. The quality of scart cables also differs massively. I would stringly advise paying out for a better scart cable if you want a reasonable picture. I would personally think nothing of paying £60 on a scart cable, but then again this wouldn't be worth it on a £30 DVD player!

You shouldn't need a seperate audio cable unless you are linking the DVD player into a home cinema amp. These leads are called digital coaxial or digital optical and are for this purpose only. If you are just linking up to a TV with a scart cable, you only need the one lead (as long as its a scart that carries audio as well, which are usually 21 pin scarts).

Yes the DVD player is a good deal (you don't mention the model number but Toshiba often win awards for "best budget DVD player") and you will almost always not get a scart cable supplied. It keeps the supply cost down and allows people to decide if they want a £5 scart of a £100 scart.

Finally - in my experience, Toshiba instructions are terrible. I just bought my father a £1000 Toshiba LCD TV and the instruction manual was 5 pages of complete useless rubbish. Luckily I know what I am doing, but Dad would have been totally stuck if he replied on the maual supplied!

Hope the above helps.

Stuart

The only cable supplied was a red, white and yellow ended one, which gives picture only (once I hd changed the settings using the scart 21 pin). The instructions say I need to plug in another cable for audio, but the player didn't come with any more cables. Can I just get her one of these audio cables? Would that be cheaper than buying a 21 pin scart?
Thanks

tell her to take it back and get down to richer sounds !

The red/white/yellow cable provides left and right audio (red and white cables) and video (yellow). That's the standard colours. They will no doubt be phono connectors. You don't mention what is on the other end of that cable. If they are plugged in the correct way around, then it "should" work fine as the yellow is definatley carrying video rather than audio.
You can get a convertor to go from the three photo sockets to a 21 pin scart socket (no more than £5) or just go and buy a cheapo 21 pin scart to scart lead from any electrical shop which won't cost more than £5 anyway (or look on ebay as they as dirt cheap) . As I say, better quality cables can be anything upto and above £100 but you wont need that on a cheap-ish DVD player. Make sure the scart works in both directions OR make sure its plugged in the right way.
Incindentally, if you have the cable in the RBG socket of the DVD player/TV AND it's NOT an RGB compatible cable then it won't work either.
Stuart

Agreed - Richer sounds have the cheap prices combined with decent knowledge from their staff and excellent customer service.

Why not? The RGB scart will still have a composite output - at least every RGB scart I've ever used has.

The red/white/yellow cable is the same at both ends (tv end and dvd player end). It is only providing picture, there is no sound.

The red and white cables do provide sound, as long as you have plugged them into the audio input slots on her TV, or on her amplifier. And selected the correct input on the TV (probably AV3 if it's anything like my Toshiba TV; it won't auto-switch using red/white/yellow like it does with scart). Why not just go out and get a scart lead, you can get a cheap and cheerful one for about two quid from Wilkinsons, which will probably keep her happy? It doesn't sound like she's bothered about having the best sound and picture capabilities under the sun, if she's bought a DVD player from Sainsburys, she just wants to be able to watch DVDs.

You make it sound as if it is strange for a DVD player to be sold, at under thirty quid, without a scart lead included. That's not strange, given that there are so many different ways for electrical AV equipment to be connected to each other these days. There must be half a dozen scart leads of different lengths and qualities in my cupboard under the stairs, that have come with previous purchases of Sky boxes, VCRs, DVD players, DVD recorders and televisions in the past. She can have one of them if she wants.

Including a scart lead will inevitably push the price up, and presumably one of the reasons she bought the DVD player in the first place was because it was cheap. Anybody who is serious about the quality of signal they want to pass between DVD player and TV/amp would immediatley replace the scart lead with a better one anyway, or use an alternative method of getting sound and vision out of the DVD player. When was the last time you bought a printer that included a USB cable? Same reason - most people have got dozens of USB cables lying around from previous purchases of printers, cameras, keyboards, mice, modems etc, and including another one would push the price up. This woman got a "brand-name" DVD player for under £30, that had a sticker on the box saying SCART NOT INCLUDED, and you're complaining. Unbelievable!

Actually, I have bought 3 printers in the last 2 years (all Epson) and they all came with usb cables. I have bought a sony dvd player and philips digibox, which both came with scart cables.

I know the box said the scart was not included but it didn't mention that the audio cable was not included and therefore the dvd player does not function at all without extra purchases. The instructions say that one cable is used for picture and another is used for audio (it doesn't mention thats it's not included, it's just isn't included). I have checked and re-checked and the player definitely isn't working (picture but no sound) without the extra cable.

I know you have to change the settings from the defult scart setting, but there is no picture to be able to view the menu to make the change.

Right, now listen carefully coz I'll say this only once.............

A fully wired scart cable can and does carry all types of video (composite or the three RGB colours seperately) along with the audio track.

Plug in the scart and the TV will show DVDs and also give the sound from through the TV.

The mention of an audio cable in the instructions is only applicable (as mentioned above) if you wish to bring a seperate audio amplifier into the equation - you dont, so forget it.

The setting for RGB/non-RGB is (again) only valid if you are plugging the TV end of the scart into an RGB-enabled socket. Usually, AV1 on a modern TV will be the RGB socket.

Start by setting plugging into TV AV1 and setting RGB off. You should get a picture and sound. Now set the video signal on the DVD player to RGB. If the picture is still on the screen it should now be an RGB picture and be marginally improved. If the picture disappears then the TV is not RGB compatible and youll have to change it back...............not easy with no picture......SO>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>check the TV for RGB compatibility first.

You are definitely over-complicating this one...........just plug it in.

Rgds,
Scorp