[stevenoon]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of cleaning and re-cabling my own entertainment setup and that of my parents but I'm not certain on how best to cable things up so any advice would be greatfully appreciated.

My setup is as follows:-

1. Widescreen CRT television with 2 scart and 1 set of composite sockets.

2. Sky+ box with the usual 2 scart sockets called TV and VCR.

3. Panasonic DVD/VCR combo recorder with 2 scart sockets - AV1 and AV2 and 2 sets of composite sockets.

4. XBOX classic with composite cable with scart adapter, if required.

5. XBOX 360 with composite cable with scart adapter, if required.


The Sky+ manual says connect the TV scart to the television and the VCR scart to the DVD recorder.

The DVD manual says connect the AV1 scart to the television and the AV2 scart to the Sky+ box.

Wouldn't that mean I'd have a scart cable from the Sky+ and another from the DVD recorder both doing the same job? Which one, if any, could I leave out?

I've read that the TV scart on the Sky+ offers better quality signal - but is it still true that recording from the TV scart would have disadvantages - I think I read that it causes problems with the widescreen setting?

Would it be best to use the composite cables with the XBOX's or would using the scart adapters have any benefit? I have a scart switcher that I thought about connecting both xboxes into and then into the composite sockets on the television. This switch would accept inputs in composite or scart (I think) so I could use either with the XBOXes.



My parents' setup thankfully is a lot simpler (and with the best will in the world it needs to be easy to use).
They also have a widescreen CRT but with 2 scarts only. They have a standard Sky box with the usual scart sockets and they also have a video recorder. My Dad has complained that he cannot record from Sky. I'm not sure if it is all connected correctly or not. Ideally, I would like to set everything up to allow Sky, the video and ideally the DVD to be used with as few channel changes as possible.


Which is better scart or composite?

Finally, if scart is better, would there be any advantage in buying some flat scart cables for my setup?

Any advice, as always, would be greatfully appreciated.

Kind regards,

Steve.

[RobAnt]

Try to avoid composite cabling if you can, it gives a very poor quality image.

There are definitely SCART RGB adapters for your XBoxes.

You should be able to daisy chain your SCART devices, but one of the XBoxes will need to be connected to the second SCART socket on your TV. Ensure that each device is set to output in RGB.

Quote:

Which is better scart or composite?

SCART carries composite signals, along with RGB and/or S-Video. Think of it as a flexible, multi-purpose, interconnect. To get the best out of it you need to check the output signal type of the devices you are connecting, rather than whether or not it is SCART. RGB is best, then S-Video, with composite coming out as substantially worse than either of those.

You'll find that most DVD and STBs have a menu item giving you control of the output type on the SCART socket.

With regard to your parents setup:

Set it up TV - recorder - STB. This way the recorder will (should) be able to record from the STBs SCART output while still delivering the picture to the TV.

[Scorpio]

In essence, your system

Sky+ TV scart ---> DVDR AV2
DVDR AV1 ---> TV AV1
Xbox as RobAnt above

Parents' system

VCR AV1 ---> Sky VCR scart
Sky TV scart ---> TV AV1
DVD ---> TV AV2

Set VCR 'channel' to AV1 and leave it there - then by pressing record it will be 'tuned' to the Sky channel.
With the TV set to AV1, this will normally show Sky - turn on the VCR and press PLAY and the picture should change to the VCR. Press STOP and it will revert to Sky - easy peasy!

Leave DVD out of the loop by watching this via TV AV2.

Rgds,
Scorp