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Old 06-03-2008, 17:47
Jumbo_Holden
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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Scart-to-HDMI-...QQcmdZViewItem

Someone on eBay is flogging these scart to HDMI boxes. I'm not planing on buying one at this time but it's a thought for the future. As it may give me a sharper/clearer picture from my Sky+ box on screen if the thing actually works, as I would like a 'little' better picture but don't want to get Sky HD.

Just wondering what other people think about this device?? Sound too good to be true to all of you?
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Old 06-03-2008, 18:36
Nigel Goodwin
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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Scart-to-HDMI-...QQcmdZViewItem

Someone on eBay is flogging these scart to HDMI boxes. I'm not planing on buying one at this time but it's a thought for the future. As it may give me a sharper/clearer picture from my Sky+ box on screen if the thing actually works, as I would like a 'little' better picture but don't want to get Sky HD.

Just wondering what other people think about this device?? Sound too good to be true to all of you?
What would be the point?.

Connect via RGB SCART and you've got a connection many times better than the broadcast picture quality, and the TV set upscales it to fit the screen, what advantage would HDMI give you?.
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Old 06-03-2008, 18:39
Jumbo_Holden
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What would be the point?.

Connect via RGB SCART and you've got a connection many times better than the broadcast picture quality, and the TV set upscales it to fit the screen, what advantage would HDMI give you?.
Not much, just that when I put a DVD player in via scart, then in via HDMI it gives me a somewhat clearer/sharper picture. I wasn't going to bother anyway just wondered what other people's thoughts were.
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Old 06-03-2008, 18:45
Nigel Goodwin
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Not much, just that when I put a DVD player in via scart, then in via HDMI it gives me a somewhat clearer/sharper picture. I wasn't going to bother anyway just wondered what other people's thoughts were.
Are you 100% absolutely sure you're watching via RGB when you use SCART? - normally only one SCART socket on a TV will accept RGB.

Obviously it also depends how good your TV is as well, it might be better on HDMI than RGB, or it may be better via RGB. If you've got an S-Video option, it's worth trying that as well - don't rule out anything, strange things happen!
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Old 06-03-2008, 18:50
Jumbo_Holden
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Are you 100% absolutely sure you're watching via RGB when you use SCART? - normally only one SCART socket on a TV will accept RGB.
It's a Sony Bravia 32" and the sky is in socket 1 which the manual clearly states is RGB. As it stands I've now got 3 HDMI inputs and only 2 sockets (2 sharing 1 via a switch box) I'd have to spend even more money another box anyway which I'd rather not.
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Old 06-03-2008, 18:59
Jarrak
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Just wondering what other people think about this device?? Sound too good to be true to all of you?



Well all it is doing is basically what the HD telly does when it accepts a scart input, it converts the analogue signal into digital to process,scale and then display.

Unless your TV is really really bad then I can't see any obvious benefit in paying anything for this device.

It's one thing for device that is using a digital source (DVD or STB) and as a native HDMI output to look better than using it's scart analogue output but if the device only has an analogue output you won't be seeing the difference as described in your second post.
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Old 06-03-2008, 19:08
Nigel Goodwin
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It's a Sony Bravia 32" and the sky is in socket 1 which the manual clearly states is RGB. As it stands I've now got 3 HDMI inputs and only 2 sockets (2 sharing 1 via a switch box) I'd have to spend even more money another box anyway which I'd rather not.
I take it you've got the Sky box set to RGB?, try switching it between PAL and RGB a few times, the difference should be instant and obvious. The default setting is PAL, and changing to RGB makes a HUGE difference on an LCD.

I do this on a weekly basis at work, people complaining about poor pictures on their new LCD, and the prats of delivery guys haven't bothered switching the Sky box to RGB (and neither had the crappy installer!). Sometimes, if you happen to get a brighter than usual customer, you can talk them through it on the phone
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Old 06-03-2008, 22:08
bobcar
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It's a Sony Bravia 32" and the sky is in socket 1 which the manual clearly states is RGB. As it stands I've now got 3 HDMI inputs and only 2 sockets (2 sharing 1 via a switch box) I'd have to spend even more money another box anyway which I'd rather not.
If you daisy chain via Sky+ you can probably do away with the need for the SCART switcher.
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Old 07-03-2008, 08:39
sancheeez
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It's a Sony Bravia 32" and the sky is in socket 1 which the manual clearly states is RGB. As it stands I've now got 3 HDMI inputs and only 2 sockets (2 sharing 1 via a switch box) I'd have to spend even more money another box anyway which I'd rather not.
If it has the same imputs as my Sony then you should still have VGA and component free. (unless you're using them for something you haven't yet mentioned)

I'd make use of these before I wasted money on a box thats just going to do what your TV already does.

You can only polish a turd so much. At the end of the day, a turd is still a turd .....
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Old 07-03-2008, 17:37
Jumbo_Holden
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If it has the same imputs as my Sony then you should still have VGA and component free. (unless you're using them for something you haven't yet mentioned)

I'd make use of these before I wasted money on a box thats just going to do what your TV already does..
TV
AV1 (scart) > Sky+
AV2 (scart) > DVD recorder

AV3 >>> Not In Use

AV4 (hdmi) > Switchbox >
A. Samsung DVD (Upscaller)
B. DVI > HDMI PC input

AV5 (hdmi) > PS3
AV6 (Component) > Nintendo Gamecube
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Old 07-03-2008, 19:29
Scorpio
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TV
AV1 (scart) > Sky+
Ensure that the Sky+ end of this connection comes from the 'TV' scart on Sky+.
This is the BOTTOM one - not obvious.
Also, after checking this, do Nigel's PAL/RGB switch test - the difference should be marked, especially noticable when viewing a Sky menu. The edges should be pin sharp in RGB.

Rgds,
Scorp
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Old 07-03-2008, 19:34
sancheeez
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Looking at the above, I can see two changes that would free up an existing HD input slot straight away:

1. Put the PC though VGA. Thats what I use and the picture is spot on. Certainly shouldn't be any noticeable degradation in quality from the existing HDMI connection.

2. Put the GameCube into the spage AV3 slot. It doesn't output any sort of HD signal so you're not really gaining much by using the component input.

Sony TV's have good upscalers built in. £70 spent on that box on ebay would be £70 wasted if you ask me.

Mind you, you went out and spent £40 or something on an HDMI cable to transmit exactly the same series of 1's and 0's that a £5 cable would send didn't you?

(You won't be allowed to forget that one you know!)

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Old 07-03-2008, 20:41
Nigel Goodwin
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Looking at the above, I can see two changes that would free up an existing HD input slot straight away:

1. Put the PC though VGA. Thats what I use and the picture is spot on. Certainly shouldn't be any noticeable degradation in quality from the existing HDMI connection.
I spent most of a day playing with a PC connection, using the VGA socket was absolutely perfect, plug it in, and it worked flawlessly, with a perfect picture. Via HDMI no matter how I adjusted the TV or video card, I couldn't get a decent picture - the TV seemed to scale it, no matter what I did.

So use VGA for a PC.
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Old 07-03-2008, 22:57
Jumbo_Holden
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1. Put the PC though VGA. Thats what I use and the picture is spot on. Certainly shouldn't be any noticeable degradation in quality from the existing HDMI connection.

2. Put the GameCube into the spage AV3 slot. It doesn't output any sort of HD signal so you're not really gaining much by using the component input.
I have already wasted hours messing around with my setup and got the best results with what I have now. I've tried the gamecube on AV3 and it's a clearer picture via the AV6 components. The DVI > HDMI cable also works well for me so I see no need to change it. Web browsing looks a bit crappy (but I've got a PC monitor for that) but what I wanted it for > Bringing up certain Images big on a digital screen and for video file playback. That comes out looking great*. The sky is connected from the bottom 'TV' output to the RGB1 scart1 and it is set to RGB. I already have played around with all this stuff.

I am not buying one of these scart > hdmi boxes. Iike I have already said. Just asking the question to see if anyone thought it might 'push' the sky quality that tiny little bit more.


*I have even copied an entire DVD disk onto my harddisk and then played it back and watched it on the TV using this lead and it gave a really really good picture, perhaps better even than my stand alone samsung upscaling player did.
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Old 07-03-2008, 23:10
sancheeez
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Just asking the question to see if anyone thought it might 'push' the sky quality that tiny little bit more.
As you are already using a TV with a decent upscaler, unlikely.

Certainly not £70 better. If anything, you're just introducing more interfaces/processing into the mix. If anything, they're more likely to cause problems than anything else.
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Old 21-05-2008, 16:16
bobcar
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I don't know what DVD player the OP has but on my Panny if you set it up to output progressive over component or HDMI (or upscale I think) then the SCART will only output composite not RGB - maybe that's what he's seeing. It will pass RGB through fine though, just not output it.
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