[Orry Verducci]

I have a WinTV card installed in my computer, and in the past I've connected my Sky Box up to it via RF. However, since I've got a new WinTV card that uses full resolution over 320x240, the disadvantages of using RF plus the fuzzy picutre have become very clear.

Therefore, I plan on getting S-Video to use with my new Sky+ box, however I've been told by a mate that S-Video doesn't carry audio. As well as the fact I don't want to run 3 different cables across the living room from the Sky+ Box to the PC (1 for S-Video, 2 for Audio), the 2 audio connections on the Sky+ box is used by my Sky Gnome, which means I can't connect the WinTV to them. So, has anyone got suggestions for an easier solution?

[A-Friend]

What other inputs do you have on your new card?

[jer1956]

Originally Posted by Orry Verducci

I have a WinTV card installed in my computer, and in the past I've connected my Sky Box up to it via RF. However, since I've got a new WinTV card that uses full resolution over 320x240, the disadvantages of using RF plus the fuzzy picutre have become very clear.

Therefore, I plan on getting S-Video to use with my new Sky+ box, however I've been told by a mate that S-Video doesn't carry audio. As well as the fact I don't want to run 3 different cables across the living room from the Sky+ Box to the PC (1 for S-Video, 2 for Audio), the 2 audio connections on the Sky+ box is used by my Sky Gnome, which means I can't connect the WinTV to them. So, has anyone got suggestions for an easier solution?

Any solution can't magically add audio to the s-video socket. You will have to get audio from the SKY+ using the phono's or scart. There is nothing to stop you fitting a scart convertor plug into the VCR scart output, and picking the audio up from that, unless you have that connected to a VCR?

As for linking your PC with a single, or no cable, that will require some extra equipment that will be a lot more expensive than three lengths of cable, and probably nullify the WinTV card anyway.

One solution is to digitise the video at source, using say a Slingbox, and then use a network to transfer it to the PC, bypassing the wintv card completely!

[chrisjr]

You can get AV leads with S-Video and two phonos for the audio as one cable. Something like this..

http://catalog.belkin.com/PureAV_det...duct_Id=185995

though the longest run they do is 12 feet.

You can also get adaptors that split one phono plug to two sockets such as...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34195

Just get a pair of these and you can plug both sets of leads into the Sky box at the same time. It won't do any harm doing this.

[Orry Verducci]

The VCR Scart is in use by the DVD Recorder so I can't use that. Also I don't really want to use a slingbox for the reason that I use the WinTV card with Windows Media Center.

[Scorpio]

Originally Posted by Orry Verducci

The VCR Scart is in use by the DVD Recorder

Why?.................the Sky TV scart should connect to the DVDR AV2 (input) and the DVDR AV1 (output) should go off to the TV (RGB scart, probably AV1).

Do you have any other devices clogging up your set up? Perhaps there is a tidyer way to arrange them to free up a scart or phonos on Sky.

Rgds,
SCorp

[jer1956]

Originally Posted by Orry Verducci

The VCR Scart is in use by the DVD Recorder so I can't use that. Also I don't really want to use a slingbox for the reason that I use the WinTV card with Windows Media Center.

If it's a decent DVD Recorder it should record RGB, and hence you should be using RGB passthrough to connect the SKY+ TV Scart to the TV via the DVD Recorder. That way you record the SKY+ RGB output when you need to, rather than the much poorer composite coming form the VCR scart.

That way you can free up the VCR scart and use a scart adapter to access it's left/right audio.

P.S Even if it's cheap DVD Recorder that only records composite, you still could use RGB passthrough as the SKY+ Tv scart outputs RGB and composite.

[Orry Verducci]

It's an decent DVD Recorder, however RGB only works with Scart 1, and that's the one connected to the TV, with the Sky going into Scart 3 that can't use RGB. The main problem with scart is that I don't want to mess around getting adapters, and I can't connect scart to the WinTV.

[jer1956]

A decent DVD Rrecorder should support "RGB Passthrough". Youconnec the SKY RGB scart to the DVd REcorder input scart, and the DVD Recorder;s output scart to the TV. When the DVd recoder is in standby it will route the RGB input to the output, and on to the TV.

[Scorpio]

Sky TV scart (RGB) ---> DVDR AV2 (input)
DVDR AV1 ---> TV AV1 (RGB)
Sky S-video ---> TV card video in
Sky audio phonos ---> TV card audio in

Rgds,
Scorp

[jer1956]

Originally Posted by Orry Verducci

It's an decent DVD Recorder, however RGB only works with Scart 1, and that's the one connected to the TV, with the Sky going into Scart 3 that can't use RGB. The main problem with scart is that I don't want to mess around getting adapters, and I can't connect scart to the WinTV.

There arn't just scart to scart cables! You can get a "scart to phono" cable and use that with the freed up VCR Scart with your Sky Gnome. That means you then have the S-video and phono audio outputs to connect to the PC.