sky component - how much better is it?

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geekiegeek

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#9872 19-Oct-2006 19:36

Hey guys,

All of you who have recently upgraded to component video with the upgrades to the decoders. I'm just wanting to know how much of a difference there is.

I currently use s-video to a sony hx32 widescreen so I'm wondering if its worth buying a scart component cable or not.

Cheers.

sbiddle

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#49132 19-Oct-2006 21:05

This question might be worth asking again in a few weeks once D1 is cut over. Sky's biggest problem at the moment is that their channels are so heavily compressed because of their limited bandwidth that their picture looks crap and if anything better cabling will only make the picture look worse! :-)

Once D1 is operational it may be another story - but remember it may only be on some channels such as movies, channels such as news, discovery etc are all only average anyway.

allstarnz

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#49181 20-Oct-2006 12:56

yeah, that's a good point.

They really need to pump up the bandwidth on the Sports Channels, that's all I care about

tallPete

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#49185 20-Oct-2006 16:12

I posted this on the other Sky thread...

I thought I would post in here to tell of my success with this.

I have a Motorola DTH325-4 and an Acer AL2671W LCD. Video was being fed to my LCD via SCART set to Composite. I looked at the software version screen the other day and saw that I had received the 0340 update, and having already been very impressed by the difference using Component cabling for the DVD player direct to the LCD decided to try this with the Sky box.

Popped down to Jaycar and bought the WQ7255 cable. Plugged it in and went into the Sky Box menus which were initially very confusing. When you select to change the SCART setup, you get asked twice what type it is, it took me a wee while to work out (until I saw the title of the menu change) that the first selection is for the TV scart, and the second is for the Video Scart.

The TV Scart is the only one that allows component, the video scart is limited only to S-Video and Composite - Component only out of one scart.

When looking at the back panel of the Sky Box from the back, the TV Scart is the one closest to the Right hand edge, the Video one is the left most one.

Plugged it all in, and it worked first time. Audio and Component Video present. Someone on this forum said 30% improvement in Video, I would agree with that, I'm very impressed, picture improvement is very obvious. Things such as the Sky On screen menus in particular now very sharp and clear.

Picture improvement fantastic on high bandwidth channels such as the Movie ones, although low bandwidth feeds (such as my faves BBC and History) the pixelation because of Video compression is more obvious because the video feed from the decoder is now very clean. Your mileage may vary, the 'smoothing' engine on your telly may cover it better than on my Acer.

So I'm very happy with the result. I have a component video feed to the TV, and the old scart cable is now feeding composite video and audio to my (VHS) video recorder. A good upgrade - I'd love to see more bandwidt allocated to my fave channels now - perhaps it will happen with Optus D1 firing up.

geekiegeek

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#49200 20-Oct-2006 20:16

Thanks for the great post tallpete - sounds like it would be a worth while upgrade.

cyril7

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#49422 24-Oct-2006 08:21

Firstly I doubt you will see any real improvements in pic quality once D1 goes up, why? well two reasons as I see it:

1. Sky is a business and the share holders place returns as their prime interest.

2. 90% of the views think the picture looks just fine.

So if you had the option of providing 10% of the viewers with better pics or shareholders with fatter cheques, which do you think you would do? Also by international standards of both pay and FTA operators, the compression levels used by SkyNZ is not too bad, many other operators get away with a lot lower.

As for component, well I think the main issue is that by going to component you bypass (throwaway infact) a big heap of processing and technology that was usefull 40-50yrs ago but totally not needed in these days. And when you concider that most digital panel displays and many 100Hz CRTs have pretty poor PAL (required for composite and s-vid) decoders then bypassing them with a component interface can bring about some pretty reasonable improvements. Essentially you bypass a lot of not needed and very much last centry technology that can make for reasonable gains.

Cyril

Quidam

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#49500 24-Oct-2006 15:37

I'm assuming this question is related to your other question about purchasing a HDD recorder.

As you are probably aware, the HX910 accepts RGB in via the scart. I was unable to find any other brands that did this, so it is rather unique in that regard.

If recording quality is your top priority, this is the unit to get.

The Panasonic EH65 has HDMI upscaling (which the 910 does not have -at least not the version they are selling on NZ shelves) but the best input it can take is sVideo. So it's a difficult decision, but I suspect there is a certain amount of hype surrounding upscaling. I also think that HDMI ports are likely to be a scarce resource for most, so if you are using it for upscaling, then what happens when you want to plug your PS3; Blu Ray or HD-DVD player into the TV as well?

Bottom line is with the 910 you can input an RGB signal from sky, then feed a progressive scan component picture to your TV. It's an unbeatable combination, IMHO. (The conversion from RGB to component is top notch).

The biggest drawback of the HX910 is the fact that you can't pre-name recordings. This really sucks and if I rated usability over quality, I would have purchased the E65.

As it relates to your question about component over sky, with the HX910 you don't need the feature, you just need a scart cable, and then a set of components from the HDD to the TV. If you did decide to get a Scart to component (to support the firmware upgrade) then don't get a HX910, because you can't have RGB and component output at the same time. In this case, the EH65 is the best choice: Component from the VT scart, and SVideo from the VCR scart.

Cheers
b

"There is no way to Peace -Peace is the Way" (A. J. Muste)