Recording Sky and Freeview into the same DVD+HD recorder

[pbirkett]

My folks have had so much problems with Sky+ they have decided (without my knowledge) to get a DVD recorder from Pioneer (model DVR-420H). They have a Sony 32" widescreen Wega TV which has a built in freeview decoder. They were planning on utilising the Sky+ box as a simple set top box instead (as they have all but given up on it).

However, when setting the device up I noticed the DVD recorder can only receive an analogue terrestrial signal from the TV and not a freeview digital one. After doing some reading on here it seems to be the case that using an existing decoder is not really a good solution, as the TV will have to be left on. Otherwise, we are stuck with poor quality terrestrial analogue and a mere 5 channels.

So, is it possible to connect a freeview box and the sky box at the same time, and have them outputting to the TV via RGB so they dont "conflict"?

This might be a pretty simple answer for someone who knows, but frankly I am struggling to get my hungover head around this.....

[Nelviticus]

According to Pinoeer's web site, it has three sets of input - one Scart, one S- or composite video rear and on S- or composite video front.

So yes, you would be able to connect up to three devices to it. Only one of them could supply RGB video (via the Scart) - for the others you'd have to use S-video or composite.

If you'd be mostly using a Freeview box it would seem sensible to hook that up to the Scart socket, assuming you get one that can output RGB. My understanding of Sky is that it outputs either RGB or composite, but not S-video. Composite isn't terrible but it's not as good as S-video and even less good than RGB.

Output to the TV from the Pioneer will be RGB. It should "up convert" any composite or S-video signals that it's fed. This won't increase their quality but it will make them viewable over the RGB Scart cable.

Regards

[bobcar]

A simple scart switcher will let you decide which box to watch and most work with RGB.