I have purchased a Panasonic TH42PX70 and a Panasonic SC-PT850EB-K Home cinema kit - i have connected them both to each other using the HDMI Viera link - now, i want to connect a SKY + box, but i want to be able to use the surround sound kit whilst watching sky, whats the best way of doing this?

thanks

Not familiar with the kit but the only option to get 5.1 surround would be to use the sky+ box's optical audio out provided your av amp has an optical input.

Your video options will depend on the inputs of the av amp. scart or s-video?

Personally i would use optical audio and s-video if possible.

there is an opitcal output on the av receiver/dvd player ( the home cinema kit is a out of the box 5.1)

Assuming you have already got Sky connected to the TV via scart RGB, all that's required is an optical cable.

Sky+ optical out > Panasonic 850 optical in.

You'll need to go in to Sky's Services menu and select Dolby D in the sound options.

To listen to DD5.1, when available, you have to select D-IN (Digital In) on the Panasonic 850 - Page 40 in the user manual covers this.

Cables are readily available from various online cable suppliers or local stores, Maplins/PC World.

Don't go paying over the odds, £5-£15 max.

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/TS001.html

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tv...ml?id=DrTG7zqQ

i will be ordering sky today and i guess it will be connected directly to my sky via scart

If you're buying new why don't you get an HD box? I know it costs more but you'll be future proof for a while. You don't have to have the extra HD sub with sky, just view the free HD channels (to which channel 4 will be added later this year). You've got a nice HD TV, and a Sky HD box with HDMI output will give you a better picture even for SD pictures because of its better connectivity.

Recommend connecting....

Scart - AV1 Sky+ > TV AV1 (RGB) - You will have to select RGB in Sky's services menu (Picture settings).

Optical out Sky+ > Optical in Panasonic 850 - Don't forget to enable Dolby D via Sky's services menu (Sound settings).

i have ordered my SKY+ it will be coming next thursday.

i have now done this - next, i am planning on getting a DVD recorder Panasonic DMR-EX77EB-K - whats the best way of connecting this so i can record stuff off sky and my sky+ box on the HD or DVD of it?

Thanks

You will need to connect the two devices via scart lead.

Sky AV2 > Panasonic AV1/AV2

This does not allow for RGB recording and so will be inferior quality, the DVD recorder should be placed inline with the Sky.

Sky TV SCART ---> DVDR AV2
DVDR AV1 ----> TV RGB Scart.

You may also want to connect the DVDR HDMI to the TV for playing back DVDs from it.

The TV has only 1 RGB scart and is how they are watching Sky at the moment. Surely connecting up for RGB recording would have resulted in viewing Sky via AV2 (VCR composite) when the recorder was in use.

I suppose it's down to the viewers personal choice and what is more important.

Seeing that it is Sky+ I would have thought the recorder would have been used for copying what has been pre-recorded, therefore viewing Sky live would not be allowed when using the copy function, I suppose they could swap over to Sky AV1 (TV) when archiving this material.

Not at all, the setup as suggested by me means that both the DVDR and Sky+ are viewable in RGB - into AV1, the TV SCART 2 is not used. This is a standard setup for RGB compatible DVD recorders (note Sky+ is viewed via the DVDR feed through not by using it's VCR output). The result is playback/recording of both items in RGB without any scart switching.

If he was just using the DVDR for playing DVDs he would be better off getting a DVD player, he obviously intends to archive programmes.

It's been a while since I have used a DVDR, a few years in fact, it was an early Panasonic, I too had it daisy chained, my experience was limited viewing of Sky when the recorder was in use, in the end I decided to connect Sky via S-Video.

So presumably compatible DVDR's allow RGB pass-through when in standby/recording Freeview or copying from HDD > DVD?

The model he's getting will allow RGB pass through in standby or recording Freeview and also when AV2 is selected and no disk is playing. I don't know about HDD->DVD copy (my Panny EX75 doesn't so probably not for the EX77) but if the recordings are done in high speed mode copying only takes a short time anyway - it's never been a problem for me.

Things have moved on then - This was always a let down for me on a past system setup, then I could only view Sky via RGB on AV2 via the recorder, if the recorder was on any other channel Sky was temporary unavailable, this is why S-Video was the preferred alternative for me.

Thanks for the info.....