Help Need Advice: active component to HDMI Converter?

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rarebreed

18 posts

Geek

#79099 12-Mar-2011 11:45

Hello,

Not sure if i am in the right Forum, i have this Problem nobody i ask seems to be able to help with........
Ok i bought a new T.v a couple of months ago ( 55" Sony LCD KDL55EX500). Prior to that i had an old Sharp 19" (it weighs a Ton!)
Sky looked ok on the old T.v. But now i hooked up to the new T.v some channels look awful.
My SKY Decoder is the old Motorola box with the card in the side and has scart/component cables output.
When i watch certain channels there is a visible "Ghosting" around objects/people, i did some research and it was made aware to me that LCD T.v's are prone to this?.

My question is i was thinking of buying an Active Component to HDMI Converter and would this work?
Would the picture improve?, or do i have to just bite the bullet and upgrade to My Sky with the $10 Hd Ticket per month?(1080i, i think?)...

Please any answers would be greatly appreciated.

jj

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3764 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#447799 12-Mar-2011 13:39

What you see is the hideous low bitrate output that Sky push to gullible people. Upgrading to mySky HDi will only improve things on the 4 HD channels, the rest will continue to look as they do in glorious crapovision. I tossed my 1998 technology Sky decoder in 2008 and gladly watched my Sky dish fall with the chimney on Feb 22nd. Really Sky is just a 3rd world service for gullible people and their standard definition images look like crap on all large screen TVs but most people don't seem to have the sense to realise this. Some channels are not Sky's fault as they are sourced elsewhere but even the Auckland based channels, e.g., Prime, are hard to tolerate in my opinion. Even Prime's DVB-T feed is barely watchable.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

ascroft

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

#447825 12-Mar-2011 15:26

Or watch Freeview through the inbuilt HD under it presumably has. Depend what you want to watch. Or buy a Freeview PVR.

common sense is not very common

rarebreed

18 posts

Geek

#447828 12-Mar-2011 15:34

Hi

mmm free view is not really an option as it limits the channels i watch.
Thanks to both replies ... Not the answer im looking for though

Cheers

Spyware

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#447852 12-Mar-2011 17:13

All you've done is to discover how poor Sky's transmissions are, nothing more. And what do you expect with a screen with more then 600% of the area of the 19". Ending my relationship with Sky was my solution. Until they can supply premium content, e.g., National Geographic, Discovery Channel, in 1080i I won't be getting Sky anytime soon. Examination of the transmitted bitrates and observation of the evident macroblocking on SD channels shows Sky's complete disregard of image quality. Some channels are only fit to be feeds for online conetnt in a web browser window and not a TV screen.

My guess is that the current DVB-S mpeg2 transmissions will be replaced by DVB-S2 H.264 transmissions in 2 or 3 years but this will require that Sky upgrade existing standard definition decoders to completely new DVB-S2 ones, and yes they will have HDMI output. This would cost Sky 10s of millions but will increase capacity by 200% thus allowing more HD content.

ascroft

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

#447866 12-Mar-2011 17:58

Ah, well the answer to your question then is obviously "yes - get My Ski HDi with the ticket"- but suspect you knew already that.

common sense is not very common

rarebreed

18 posts

Geek

#447889 12-Mar-2011 19:42

Damn My sky is really expensive ...... So do you guys reckon the Active Component Video to HDMI Converter will do anything at all?...

Is it worth trying just for maybe a bit of improvement ?

Thanks

ascroft

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

#447892 12-Mar-2011 19:55

Not being horrible but the TV looks really expensive - well north of $2.5k. If you are spending that kind of money you need to have a matched quality input ie Blu ray not DVD, digital freeview over analogue, maybe My SKY over basic sky. It a package.

If you don't want to invest in My Sky I would still setup Freeview for the free channels - at least they will look good and except for Movies and Sport the rest of Sky isn't HD anyway......

common sense is not very common

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rarebreed

18 posts

Geek

#447894 12-Mar-2011 20:01

Thanks for the input im buying a Blu-Ray soon so shouldn't have any issues there....

Fingers crossed!

SKY

Niel

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#447900 12-Mar-2011 21:08

I have/had the same problem. What you've got is an SD source driving an HD TV. Your cheapest solution which also looks good (or as good as you'll get without MySky HDi) is to use an s-video connection. As far as I know all Sky boxes will output s-video, just need a SCART to s-video cable and a setting in the menu. You can tell Sky you've got a new TV which needs s-video and they should give you a cable for free. Or there are cables available at all electronics shops and TradeMe.

Your TV is sampling the analogue component signal faster than the rate at which the Sky box generates it, and also the Sky box generates the signals with a very short delay between them. Your HD TV can sample fast enough that you notice they are out of sync.

S-video is what the Sky box (and all consumer SD video processing) processes natively so it is actually the best quality signal you can get on the SD Sky boxes (despite what people think about component). Also s-video was never available in HD (that I know of) so the TV knows to sample it at the correct SD rate. Then the colour components are generated from the s-video signal just like how the Sky box generates it. Which do you prefer to generate the component video, the Sky box or your TV?

You can never have enough Volvos!

rarebreed

18 posts

Geek

#447944 13-Mar-2011 10:29

Thanks for replying!...

Im not sure which i prefer as i have never tried any other combination of leads ...... Very willing to try Scart to S-Video.

Must check to see if the tv has a S-Video connection...!

sbiddle

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#447954 13-Mar-2011 11:02

rarebreed:

Damn My sky is really expensive ...... So do you guys reckon the Active Component Video to HDMI Converter will do anything at all?...

Is it worth trying just for maybe a bit of improvement ?

Thanks

Odds are the only thing it will do is make the picture look even worse. You don't need yet more A/D conversion.

rarebreed

18 posts

Geek

#447955 13-Mar-2011 11:03

Sh*t my T.v does not have a S-Video Connection so thats that...Next?

sbiddle

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#447967 13-Mar-2011 12:18

Are you using component now or composite? Composite will look terrible and will suffer from dot crawl.

Component really is your best option. There is nothing you can do to fix issues other than this - it's a limitation of

a) Sky's bitrates

b) The issue of feeding SD content into a HD panel. This means upscaling has to occur to fit a 720x576 pixel image into a 1920x1080 panel.

bfginger

1271 posts

Uber Geek

#450545 21-Mar-2011 22:36

The idea that a component to HDMI converter would improve quality is like the idea that reencoding an MP3 to a higher bitrate would improve quality :)

If you're unwilling to pay for MySkyHDI and you're in the Freeview|HD broadcast area you need to plug your television into an aerial to get high definition. Otherwise you're stuck with a low bitrate MPEG-2 SD Sky broadcast.

NzBeagle

962 posts

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#450603 22-Mar-2011 08:07

I've tried the Scart to Component idea, and it just ended up exposing the true quality of the feed. Partly decoder to blame though, but even without the HD ticket i've heard MySky does a better job on larger TV's. But IMO i wouldn't bother with standard Sky if you're after good quality images.

I followed Spyware's example and cancelled Sky.

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