Best way to connect Sky Digital

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americanbeauty

30 posts

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#30859 23-Feb-2009 23:14

Hi there,

Today I had Sky Digital installed in my building. The tech was in and out in about 5 minutes. He plugged the cable straight into the wall plate, using a little converter to change it from an rf connection to the standard sky connection (just the single wire) and plugged the other side into decoder. Then he used a composite (yellow, red, white) cable into AV1 and left.

Now, I see that he used an oldish looking decoder (Zenith?) It does not appear to have component in the menu, as I would like to connect it via component to my hi def LCD.

If it doesn't have component, and the only connectors on the back are a 9 pin rgb?? and two scarts, what is the best way to connect to the LCD?

Would Scart to S-Video be the best with a separate white and red for the audio which it also has connectors for on the back of the decoder??? Any other ideas for a better signal?

Thanks.

timbosan

2159 posts

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#197641 24-Feb-2009 07:06

Hi,

The BEST way would be to get MySki HDi which has an HDMI connection and run that straight to your TV, giving the ability to view programs in HD.

Failing that a standard decoder can apparently use component through a SCART to Component adapter, but I am unsure if this is model dependant. S-Video is third down the chain in quality and whilst OK, on anything over 42 inches may look a little soft.

cyril7

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#197657 24-Feb-2009 08:05

Hi, the Zenith does not support component video, it does however do S-Video, although beware that some TVs dont like the current source driver used in the Zenith output stages, this causes blotchy colours through to no colour, a small 470ohm termination resistor on the chroma channel will fix this.

Regardless to get S-Video out use one of these plus a S-Video lead, the improvement from S-Video to Component is small compared to the one from Composite to S-video, so the hassle to have your STB upgraded to one that supports Component is marginal.

Cyril

americanbeauty

30 posts

Geek

#197708 24-Feb-2009 11:53

Thank you both for your assistance.

Unfortunately, I can not afford my Sky HDi, so that is out of the question.

I had been thinking, Cyril, that the colour looked a little bit "washed out"...is this what you meant when you said "a small 470ohm termination resistor on the chroma channel will fix this."

Also, am I able to purchase a straight Scart to S-Video cable with white/red rca? Or do I need the adaptor you recommended?

Thanks.

geekiegeek

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#197731 24-Feb-2009 13:01

Why not call sky and ask for a component capable decoder and then just get a scart to component cable.

americanbeauty

30 posts

Geek

#197894 25-Feb-2009 02:45

Not sure it is worth the hassle dealing with them.

Ok...so I have connected it via scart to s-video plus 2 rca for sound into the back of the tv. I used an adaptor to convert the scart and plug an s-video cable into it.

Picture looks better than composite...but, what is RGB? The decoder seems to say in the advanced setup that it has rgb as well. I thought that was component, but I tried a Scart to component out of the decoder and didn't get any picture.

Could someone tell me what the RGB is? I presume it is Scart -------> RGB...and would this cable be better than what I'm currently doing.

Could someone provide a link?

Thanks!

cyril7

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#197905 25-Feb-2009 07:20

The video drivers on these boxs sometimes arent to the liking of some TVs in certain modes, the Chroma channel in SVideo mode is one of those where in particular Panasonic TVs will not terminate the chroma channel correctly and this causes misclamping, the end result is washed out and unstable colour reproduction, a 470ohm resistor acros the circuit will sort this.

RGB is also a component video format, however not the same as what we normally refer to as Component. Normally we refer to component which is infact YCrCb (aka YPrPb but in a different state) where as RGB is the native RGB channels that construct YCrCb and actually can be directly sent to the CRT driver. Unless your display supports RGB then its of no use, most older European TVs would accept RGB via SCART. All VGA monitors also use RGB as the connection method, however most computor monitors will not scan down to 15625 which is the scan rate of SD TV.

Cyril