Hi all,
I have a TV with two scart inputs. I've connected input 1 to my cable box and that works fine when I select Ext1 with my TV remote. Job done.

Scart 2 is currenty connected to a daisy chain of VCR, satellite box and DVD player. The daisy chain is a nightmare to reconnect if anything gets moved and a nightmare to select what you want to watch by switching boxes on/off. SHMBO hates it.

Would an auto switch box work more intuitively than my present daisy-chain? If so, any recommendations?

cheers.

Does the cable box have a second scart with pass through that you could use for the DVD player?

No, it just has one output.

I've never seen a cable box with only one scart. All the ones I have seen have two: one for the tv and one for a vcr. What type of box is it ?

How you connect things up is really down to what you want your vcr to be able to record from.

I'd only want to use the vcr to record from the satellite box.

Re the cable box, I was trying to keep that out of the equation. It is all OK going to TV scart 1 on its own and I don't want to complicate that side of things. I don't need to record the cable via the vcr, if that's what you were thinking.

Do both your TV scarts support RGB ? Do you want to be able to watch cable whilst taping something from satellite at the same time ?

Yes and yes

I think there are several ways of making things easier, but it depends on what you prefer. The way I would do it personally is as follows:

Product 5344462 from Argos (4-way remote control RGB SCART switch). I have one of these already and I like it a lot. It has neat blue lights on the front to indicate which input is chosen (1,2,3,4) and can be operated manually or via a remote control. Plug your 4 devices into it, its output into Ext1 on the TV, and the VCR socket of the Sky box to the VCR. You've then got flexibility of which device you want to watch without turning things on and off and can view anything independently.

There are other, cheaper manual switches but they mostly tend to be 3-way so you'd still need to use both SCARTs on the TV. Some have record loops so one of the inputs could be the VCR. But to be honest, I've had quality issues with these units.

There are switches that can work automatically but I've not had any experience of those. I'm not sure whether you'd get into logistical nightmares again with turning things on and off in order to view a particular thing or whether it all works seamlessly.

For ultimate flexibility (and price!), a 4-way matrix switch which gives you a TV output and also an independent output for a second TV or a recorder.

Not used one before but this looks ideal for what you are wanting to do.

Triton Auto switchbox features include...

Supports RGB
Allows 1 input recording while watching another.

http://www.astarsolutions.co.uk/prod...67&source=list

Not the cheapest solution, but should have ease of use.

You might want to give Soulboy77's suggestion a try, i.e. DVD > Cable on scart1 and VCR > SAT on scart2.

You can leave the cable and SAT boxes switched on at the same time, and switch between them by selecting your tv scart. You can watch either cable or a dvd whilst taping a programme off SAT. You shouldn't need to unplug anything, and the only things you need to switch off are the dvd player and vcr when they are not in use.

(EDIT: by DVD > Cable I mean connecting the DVD scart output to the Cable VCR scart, and then the cable TV scart to the TV's scart1. Similarly, VCR > SAT means VCR in/out scart to the SAT box's vcr scart, and the SAT box's TV scart to the TV's scart2)

I was thinking that if you really still wish to have the three devices connected via the TV Ext2 then all that is needed is a two way scart switch with the Sat box and VCR (still daisy chained) on one leg and the DVD player on the other. Something like this maybe - link

From experience though, it always seems a case of trail and error in finding a decent scart switch that actually works correctly or doesn't degrade the signal in some way.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys . Certainly given me a lot to think about. It helps to be able to bounce ideas around. Definitely makes you realise what you don't want.

That said, I am leaning towards an auto switching box like the Bluedelta SmartScart http://www.bluedelta.co.uk/page6.html . A manual switcher has no appeal and yet another remote control would go down like a lead balloon!
I want the cable-TV side to be foolproof and therefore independant and daisy chain free so that is staying on scart/ext1 no question.
Scart/ext2 would have the auto switch box. Having the dvd, satbox and vcr going to an auto switcher would make the cabling more obvious (a bit like the change from co-ax ethernet to RJ45 hub/star wiring), specially a few months down the road when I will have forgotten everything.

I would still give it a go without a switch first - what have you got to lose ? You might be pleasantly surprised how easy it is to have the dvd attached to the cable box. When the dvd is on, it will just automatically pass its signal through to the tv and when it is off the cable box's signal appears as normal. It couldn't be simpler really.

Using a switch is not without its own problems. In particular, if you are using a Sky box then you need one that correctly switches the scart pin-8 voltage level or else you may have problems with widescreen. There are a lot of threads that have gone over this if you have a search.

Remote control switches combined with a programmable remote control can be the easiest solution once you have got them setup (this is what I use myself). I have a Logitech Harmony remote, which has activities such as 'watch dvd', 'watch cable' etc. programmed in. These activities can control any or all of your boxes. So you can setup an activity to switch various different boxes on or off, and also select the correct input on a remote control switch with just one button press.