I have seen loads of threads on here about connecting the Sony HXD860, but could anyone "clearly" set out which cables should go where??? I have the following:

1) Basic new Sky box (not + or HD)
2) Sony 860
3) Samsung HD R74 TV

I have an HDMI cable to connect the 860 to the TV, the rest will be scarts.

Does the 860 connect with the Sky box to allow easy use of the EPG? The 860 says refer to the Sky manual. The Sky manual says refer to the 860 manual

Any help will be very useful!!

Thanks

Bodaton

Connect the SKY box to the 860 with a SCART cable.

And that's it. You can watch SKY through the 860 that way and have it upscale.

You won't be able to use the EPG though, that's for freeview. Connect a regular aerial to the 860 and back out into the TV to use the freeview EPG and record freeview as well as SKY.

Thanks for the info.

Which scart is best to use? From the Sky (TV out) scart to scart 1 or 3 on the 860?

Also, what does upscaling mean on the HDMI?

Bodatron

The TV out SCART on the SKY box will give best pic (RGB) and you shoudl feed that into Line 3 on the 860.

Upscaling means the 860 will scale the picture fed into it up to 1080i or 720p before passing it on to the TV.

Left in Auto mode it will ouput 1080i but you might want to try changing it to 720p to see if that gives you a better pic with your set up.

Cheers BigTim

Will try it out at the weekend!!

Bodatron

I set up my connections as advised above.

I notice that when the 860 is recording from Freeview, I can't view Sky through the 860. Is there a way round this. Will I have to connect a SCART from the Sky box to the TV??

Thanks

Bodatron

Yes you will.
There is not currently a setting in “options” that will allow you to view via the output connections something different from the source that is being recorded.

One of my gripes with this box is that you cannot record from a Sky box via the Scart input L3 and select to view a Freeview channel from the RDR HXD860s on board tuner.
I am sure this could be changed by a software update that would allow you to select different sources for recording and viewing.
After all, you can view a Freeview channel while the box is Dubbing from disc to disc.
Last edited by Schizoid Mike : 21-03-2007 at 18:50

Thanks Schizoid

I will re connect the SCART. Do you suggest connecting the TV OUT SCART on the Sky Box to the TV or the Sony 860?? Does it make a differance?

Bodatron

That's a difficult one.
It could depend on the age and VCR Output Scart signal of your Sky Digibox.
My Sky Digibox does not provide the Widescreen switching signal from the VCR Output Scart socket.
Also how much of your viewing time will the RDR HXD860 be recording from the Freeview tuner.

It will make a differance as would lose the ability to upscale the best quality picture that the Sky box provides, as sugested by BigTim if you connect TV Out Scart to the TV.

If you are going to be recording a lot from the onboard Freeview tuner then I would suggest the Sky Box TV Out to your TV and Sky Box VCR Out to L3 on the RDR HXD860.
The only positive from this connection is that you could use the 860's Syncro Record function to record programmes from your Sky Box using the Sky EPG. (provided the Sky Digibox plays ball)

Just a thought on the issue raised above - watching the external Sky box whilst a Freeview recording is taking place on the Sony:

My mother has the XHD560 which is the 860's little brother, and I seem to recall that if you set a recording via the timer or epg you can set it to standby and it will then record in standby mode.

Reading the Panasonic forum here I note that the EX75 can pass through an external Sky box signal whilst the recorder is in standby mode, even when its recording.

So the advice with the Panasonic is to make all your recordings using the timer, leaving the recorder on standby- that way you can still watch the Sky box at the same time.

I wonder if the same function is available with the Sony? Perhaps you could give it a whirl and report back?

If it is available it would solve your problem to a great extent.

I will give the connection a try, but I'm not sure about recording from the Sky Box using the EPG??

I have a new (last month) Sky Box - just the basic model. The 860 is only a month old too. I will connect as suggested, but what changes (if any) do I need to make to the set up??

Thanks for all your help!!

Bodatron

I will try this, but I may have already

Bodatron

I hope it works!

By the way, don't worry about making recordings using the Sky box's epg and Sony's synchro record, it's easy.

Provided you've connected up as suggested above by Mike (Sky Box 'TV Out' to your TV and Sky Box 'VCR Out' to L3 on the RDR HXD860) you select the programme you want to record from Sky using the Sky epg - then press the 'autoview' option on the Sky epg (I think it's coloured red).

On the Sony, in your menu option select 'synchro record' - this might actually be called 'record link' or 'external link'. You may also have to put the Sony into standby before the recording - check the manual on this. Hopefully you don't.

Anyway, once the recording is due to start the Sky box will automatically switch to the correct channel (this is the 'autoview' feature) and this act of switching will send a signal through the scart lead to the Sony, which will trigger it to start recording from the scart.

Once the programme finishes autoview will send another signal to the Sony and the recording will cease.

Note:

1) Connecting the equipment up this way also means that for everyday use you don't need to connect the Sony directly to the TV to watch it. It will share the Sky box's connection and when you play anything back on the Sony it will loop through the Sky box to the TV. Pressing any menu key on the Sky remote will switch the picture on the TV back to Sky and vice versa.

2) The downside of this connection method is that the signal you record from the Sky box will be PAL composite and not RGB, therefore not quite as good. RGB is carried via the 'TV out' scart only on the Sky box.

This is fine if the majority of recording you want to do is from Freeview channels using the Sony's on board tuner, but if you think you will mainly be recording from Sky channels, especially if you want to archive those recordings to DVD, then it might be best to connect up as Tim suggested initally, with a second connection from the Sky box direct to the TV so that you can watch Sky when the Sony is busy recording. (NB this assumes that my other suggestion doesn't work ie. make your recordings using the timer and see if the Sky picture loops through the Sony).

3) Upscaling: from everything I've read on many forums the upscaling offered by DVD machines at this price point is inferior to that offered automatically by the LCD TV screens themselves, so trying to upscale the Sky picture via the Sony doesn't really matter.

4) As you have an HDMI cable you could also use that to connect the Sony to the TV's HDMI socket and see if this improved your DVD playback quality. You will probably need to experiment a bit, setting the HDMI output to either 'auto' or 720p and see which is best.

Good luck!
Last edited by Fireball XL5 : 24-03-2007 at 00:17

With regard to recoring using the L3 socket, I have noticed that when recording two consecutive programs on the same sky channel using the EPG on Sky with autoview, the second program only records the sound, not the picture. Anyone else seen this?
Ian

Ok, I'm lost!!

How do I get to record using the 860's EPG? I can't get it to work?? What am I doing wrong??

Can it be done??

Bodatron

Oh dear.

How did you get on with the suggestions above regarding recording Sky (and the connections)?

If you want to record from the on-board Sony EPG -

get the EPG on screen -

Select the programme you want to record by using the navigation keys on the remote.

Once you've found the programme press 'enter' on the remote (or 'okay', I can't remember the name of the key) - this will bring up a new small window - select 'timer record' -that's it!

If you now look at that programme in the EPG there will be a small clock by the programme title.

You can leave the unit on standby and it will still record, and you can also play back a DVD or another programme off the hard drive and it will still record at the same time.

May be I'm not understanding?

Can you see the Sky Channels listed on the Sony Box EPG? People keep saying you can, but I can't?

May be I'm expecting to much??

Bodatron

You cannot see the Sky channels listed in the Sony's EPG. The Sony EPG only lists the channels available on its own tuner, as one would expect.

Thats why I underlined the phrase 'Sky epg' in my post number 13 above. You set the Sky autoview feature using the Sky epg on the Sky box.

Perhaps make a cup of tea, relax and read this thread again slowly, as you seem somewhat confused!

Good luck

There may some confusion creeping in here from out side caused by some channels broadcasting on both Freeview / Digital Terrestrial and Sky Digital / Digital Satellite.

On the RDR HXD860 you should only see the three Sky channels that are broadcast as part of the Freeview package listed in this boxes EPG.
They are Sky Three, Sky News and Sky Sports News.
If these channels are not listed in your EPG, it may be a case that you live in one of the areas that can not receive all the Freeview / Digital Terrestrial channels.

The three Sky channels listed above and most of the other channels available on the RDR HXD860 are also broadcast on Digital satellite and are available through your Sky Digital box and can be found in the Sky Digital EPG.

Ok, that makes sense

I think its a case of trying it all out this weekend. It will be interesting to see if the 860 wakes up when the channels turn over with autoview on my Sky box.

Thanks for everyones help!

Bodatron

Use the Video out scart on your Sky box and connect it to line 3 on your Sony 860 box otherwise you will not be able to syncro record sat`programs. If you use the tv out scart on your Sky box this will dissable syncro record.

Upscaling normally takes the standard picture upto about 80% of HD quality with a good upscaler via the HDMI input on your TV.

Has any one with a Sky Digital box, its picture output set to Widescreen, connected with a scart lead from either its VCR Out or TV Out to the RDR HXD860’s L3 Input, managed to record a Widescreen picture without having to adjust the TV to Widescreen during playback of this recording?

Or has anyone successfully recorded the Widescreen flag from Sky Digital to the RDR HXD860?
Last edited by Schizoid Mike : 18-05-2007 at 18:07

I've unsuccessfully tried both ways as quoted above and it can't be done, certainly not with my Pace skybox anyway . I only get the Widescreen flags when I record from the built in Freeview.

Having checked the RDR HXD860’s manual in particular page 52, I might try changing the setting for the recording picture aspect ratio for the hard drive from Auto to 16:9.
Then reconnect the TV Output Scart on the Sky Digi box to the L3 Scart socket on the 860.

As a point of interest on the previous occasion that I had this connection, when the 860 was put into standby, the picture from Sky Digi box that was looped through the 860 to the TV did automatically switch to Widescreen. (There were no other connections from the Sky Digi box to the TV to confuse the issue).
This means that the Widescreen Flag from the Sky box was reaching the 860 but was not responding to it and not recording it.

Sorry, the above should have read, “in particular pages 52 & 53 - Adjusting The Recording Picture Quality And Size, Rec Settings,.....

Unfortunately I missed the edit window.