[jamesmor1]

Hi there,

I have an Hitachi 42" Plasma tv... well my parents do, with Sky HD. Thing is, age old channel 5 on the TV remote for sky still comes through the bog standard RF lead, which makes all sky broadcasts look and sound sub-VHS.

Of course, to get the proper HD quality sky broadcasts all we have to do is press 'HDMI1' but it's in an awkward area of the remote, nowhere near the larger channel 1,2,3 etc buttons, and if pressed twice it switches over to HDMI2, which is annoying.

I know it sounds lazy, but is there anyway to make it so when we press '5' on the remote it switches to the HDMI1 source?

It's not me that can't be bothered to press HDMI1 all the time, it's just my parents don't really know about all this HD stuff and I feel it's a waste of money, and I know they won't take kindly to me ripping the 5 button out.

Many thanks,

James

[Scorpio]

Surely you need to allow the TV to default to HDMI1 when it starts up? This way the TV will always 'tune' to SkyHD as soon as both devices are turned on.
All that is needed is to then choose which Sky program to watch, BBC, ITV, Sky One etc.
If you program the Sky remote to turn both the TV and the Sky box on (this will also allow volume changes on the TV) then there will be no need to touch the TV remote except, perhaps, to choose another connected device, say, DVD player.

I know parents can be real technos, but EVEN mine now operate a PVR/DVD/VCR/TV .............altho the wife struggles!!!

Rgds,
Scorp

[martytoo]

Since having Virgin V+ installed we watch all channels through it can't you do the same with Sky?

[goomba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by martytoo

Since having Virgin V+ installed we watch all channels through it can't you do the same with Sky?

Of course you can, he is just saying his parents tend to press 5 rather than change to Sky and press 105.

[Scorpio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by goomba

Of course you can, he is just saying his parents tend to press 5 rather than change to Sky and press 105.

I think the OP was saying that his parents hit '5' on the TV to select the Sky channel (a hangover from the RF days) prior to selecting the appropriate Sky channel, thus giving poor quality pics.

It's incredible that a customer invests in HD (a technical solution) but cant get technical enough to understand how to view it?

Rgds,
Scorp

[bobcar]

If the aerial is not connected via Sky then they can't do this and a quick learning curve as to how to use the TV properly will result.

Some TVs I've had in the past would allow you to assign an external connection such as SCART to a channel number, I don't know why this useful feature has been discontinued other than that it's more difficult with Freeview because of the number of channels (it's still possible to though though such as assign Channel 0).

[Gilbertoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesmor1

Hi there,

I have an Hitachi 42" Plasma tv... well my parents do, with Sky HD. Thing is, age old channel 5 on the TV remote for sky still comes through the bog standard RF lead, which makes all sky broadcasts look and sound sub-VHS.

Of course, to get the proper HD quality sky broadcasts all we have to do is press 'HDMI1' but it's in an awkward area of the remote, nowhere near the larger channel 1,2,3 etc buttons, and if pressed twice it switches over to HDMI2, which is annoying.

I know it sounds lazy, but is there anyway to make it so when we press '5' on the remote it switches to the HDMI1 source?

It's not me that can't be bothered to press HDMI1 all the time, it's just my parents don't really know about all this HD stuff and I feel it's a waste of money, and I know they won't take kindly to me ripping the 5 button out.

Many thanks,

James

Do they do the same with all terrestrial channels or just channel 5? It would seem odd that they'd happily press 101 but not 105...

[Scorpio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilbertoo

Do they do the same with all terrestrial channels or just channel 5? It would seem odd that they'd happily press 101 but not 105...

I think the OP was saying that his parents hit '5' on the TV to select the Sky channel (a hangover from the RF days) prior to selecting the appropriate Sky channel, thus giving poor quality pics.

This is not about viewing channel 5 per se but about being used to an old system where 'Sky' was tuned to channel 5 on the TV.

Rgds,
Scorp

[RobAnt]

Quote:

know it sounds lazy, but is there anyway to make it so when we press '5' on the remote it switches to the HDMI1 source?

I doubt it, unless you substitute the remote control for a Learning remote which will allow you to program the keys as you require.

You could then set up various macros to control several devices at once - say an AV AMP, STB and TV could all be set-up to turn on each unit, then set the preferred options at the press of a single button.

Although quite expensive at about £100, the Logitech Harmony is generally regarded as being the best once programmed according to your needs - with an extensive on-line database of equipment codes as well as being able to learn commands from the original remote control if the device isn't listed.

[+3dB]

My dad's got digital cable but still watches the terrestrial channels in glorious analogue!

[skinj]

If you can set up the remote to operate the TV volume following the steps on the sky customer page on the sky box you might be able to try this.
Once the sky remote can operate the TV you can tell it to turn the tv over to the right station or possably input on the tv. To do this press TV then press and hold "select" and "green" untill the red light flashes twice. then press "help" (1*),followed by "select". The red light will again flash twice.
When you now turn on sky, the remote will tell the tv to switch to an av input, if the last input the TV was on was HDMI it should go straight there.
You can add an extra button press in at 1* if needed but it does depend on the TV and the remote. What set is it?

[jamesmor1]

Sorry if I've been unclear, what Scorpio says is what I mean - they press 5 to get Sky.

It is odd I know, the reason they do it is because if anyone else in the house is watching sky and they want to watch '101-105' downstairs they watch it not on sky... analoguely?

The set is a 42PD9700N. I'll try what SkinJ said, but I think we have already tried to get the Sky remote to control the tv and pressing Sky (to my knowledge of our TV) makes it go to the AV2 input which is RGB but still not the full HD deal.

[skinj]

Have you got a scart lead plugged in as well as an hdmi lead? If you have that might be why the set auto switches to av2.

[skinj]

Having looked at the remote for your TV you will not be able access the HDMI connection directly. But the set may always default to the last manually selected av connection. If you select the HDMI input using the tv remote control, then switch back to tv using the DTV button, by turning on sky with the sky button on the remote the set should go back to HDMI. This is on the assumption that you have set the sky remote up for the tv, and in the sequence mentioned only pressed help once.

Other than that I think your parents may have to get used to pressing a single button on the tv remote to get sky hd.
I would also tell them to watch all the different stations using sky only to save confusion.
Good luck

[goomba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesmor1

Sorry if I've been unclear, what Scorpio says is what I mean - they press 5 to get Sky.

Connect the Sky box only via HDMI. Job done.

[Scorpio]

My TV can be set to 'default' to a particular AV channel - mine goes to Sky HDMI1 as soon as Sky is turned on.

This is a slightly different way of doing it than the old 'scart control' which sent a pushing signal to the TV - with my Panny this is a pull saying that it will show HDMI1 as soon as there is a presence there, perhaps you can do the same with the Hitachi?

Rgds,
Scorp

[jamesmor1]

Thanks everybody for your help, I will try and configure the sky remote to make it properly work and do what skinj says.

Goomba, solely plugging in the HDMI lead would mean no sky in any other room... I have no idea how it was done but there's a box in our loft that sends sky to every room over RF since a while back, maybe even pre-digital, and no other TVs in the house have either a spare scart or are HD ready for HDMI/Scart splitters/long leads to be trailed around the house.

Thanks again everyone,

James

[skinj]

When we say only plug in the HDMI lead we mean instead of the scart. The rf leads can stay exactly as they are. They will have no bearing on the TV switching to an AV input.

[jamesmor1]

ah, gotcha.

I think the only reason we had the SCART plugged in was because we used to have a VCR to record sky but we don't anymore and haven't for a while.

I sound so lazy

Thanks,

James