I'm able to get a really good Freeview reception on a portable aerial and I was wondering what things I can do to improve the picture quality further?

I've got a gold-plated scart cable and an aerial booster.

Will these have an effect on the picture quality? I've heard that aerial boosters can do more harm than good?

I had a look at scart cables on the Internet but there's about 10 different brands and models!

ARGHHHHH!!!!

You could have just posted this onto one of your other (now nearly 40) TV threads.

Anyway, what exactly are you connecting?

If you're using the digital tuner and getting a good picture with no breakup then that's the best you're going to get.

Probably not very much, assuming it's setup properly (i.e. sending an RGB output etc) then the very nature of digital broadcasting means that you'll either get the best possible reception, or nothing at all, with a narrow margin in between where reception may be affected with high levels of errors, but not enough to render reception impossible.


I don't really see what good a gold-plated SCART plug on its own would do? Surely what's more important is the quality of cable (i.e. shielded etc) than if the plug has a microscopic amount of gold plating? I believe it can even cause a chemical reaction over time if the sockets you're plugging into aren't gold too.

Likewise adding a signal booster may not be such a good idea; you should ideally have a good enough aerial to provide decent reception without needing one in the first place, an indoor aerial is unlikely to be sufficient for most viewers (although it does work in some places) and the very location of the aerial means it can be more prone to receiving interference from devices inside the home.

Even then there is a limit of what a digital terrestrial picture can actually look like; most of the channels are an over-compressed mushy mess, certainly nothing like what you'd get with a DVD or good quality analogue reception.

I forgot (again).

Where's the 'Inform a moderator' button?

I was just wondering if a £30 scart cable will be better than a £10 cable.

I get break-up on some of the channels but I know that's more to do with my transmitter than my equipment really.

I'm mainly using the Freeview that's built into my LCD TV but I've also got a DVD player (cost £20 from Tesco ).

Really? I'd imagine unless there is engineering work being carried out that it's the result of using an indoor aerial providing insufficient signal or interference.


What the heck is the point of spending £30 on a cable to connect the TV to a £20 DVD player?

Surely if you were really interested in optimum picture quality you'd have invested in something a little better?

I agree if ur spending £20 on the player a cheap £1 tesco value scart will be goog enough.

I also agree that your break up is more due to ur aerial. I got new aerial split to 3 rooms which has now stopped my daughter twitting about picture break up in bad weather (well worth the cash).

I know I'm prone to going for a cheap option but to spend more on the scart than the player is ludicrous.

Paul you can get a fully screened flat scart cable for £8 or so from http://www.tvcables.co.uk/ this will be good enough for a 26" box and anything else you have thats not HD. Paying more is just chucking your cash away.

ian

Indeed.

Paul, go to Woolworths and get their Technosonic HDMI player (with HDMI lead) for £40, great player.

I've got the Tevion branded one.

paul in your last 10 or so posts the AERIAL is more important than scart leads.

just get sky HD

just get TOSHIBA HD DVD player

Just get AERIAL

we will all have a whip round and do the work for you