video feed from Sky

Hy there, this is my first post so please be gentle.

I have built my own basic htpc/hcpc out of the following

Duron 850 on a Chaintech mobo
ATI All In Wonder 32 mb AGP
SB Live 5.1

Connected to...
Philips 32" ws TV
Grundig Sky Digibox

i had problems with the sound quality, which we put down to my the way everything was cabled up. But that is sorted now

Anyway...to the problem at hand
My Digibox is connected to the ATI via a UK Coax arial adn the picture is pretty bad.. My ATI will accept a feed via either Coax, composite or s-video, however I dont know what my Grundig digibox is able to output. All I know is that it has 2 scart sockets and 2 Coax sockets.

While my pic is not too sharp from the Coax it is acceptable. How can I make it better?

The use of the Coax (to transmit video and sound) was causing massive sound distortion problems. ( sound then running from ATI card to SB Live card). We solved this by running a stereo feed from the stereo out on the Digibox direct to the SB Live.

But this still leaves me with a simply acceptable picture.

Does anyone know what the Grundig box is capable of outputting and the est way to transmit to my card?

Thanks for any help in advance

[tryingtimes]

ispartacus75

Your Digibox can output RF, Composite and RGB only.

You will find Composite is better than RF and you can get this through a scart to composite (and stereo) lead.

The only way to improve on this is to use a RGB to s-video transcoder which will give a picture very close to a native s-video signal. These are available from a few places (do a search for transcoder) and cost about 60 quid.

Side note - with the Pace box (might affect yours as well) the only way to get Dolby ProLogic from the digibox is by using the stereo out of the scart plug. The seperate Stereo plugs are stripped of the DPL encoding!

Good luck!
Alex

Thanks a lot for your help.

Are scart to composite leads easy to get hold of?

I have an IXOS s-video to scart lead to transmit signal to the telly and I have found this to be a very good cable. But fromreading another thread by my good friend pygmy-hippo there are problems with getting leads and using them the wrong way around.

Do IXOS do a scart to composite lead?

Thanks for your help

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Alex,

I am afraid I don't believe you about the DPL from Scart only....

DPL is encoded within the Stereo Signal. I seriously doubt that there is ANY difference between the feed to the phono outputs and the feed to the scart socket.....

You will not get any DPL if you take the feed from the RF output though as this is MONO. Sky boxes do not have stereo modulators in them for the RF feeds.

Gordon

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Alex,

I am afraid I don't believe you about the stereo from Scart only....

DPL is encoded within the Stereo Signal. I seriously doubt that there is ANY difference between the feed to the phono outputs and the feed to the scart socket.....

You will not get any DPL if you take the feed from the RF output though as this is MONO. Sky boxes do not have stereo modulators in them for the RF feeds.

Gordon

[Jeff]

Another option is to get a Sky Plus box, even if you don't do the £10 per month recording subscription. As a standard digibox replacement they are great, very fast, built-in s-video and Dolby Digital support vis tos-link. Well worth the £299 and you can use the existing digibox in another room.

Jeff

[Pygmy Hippo]

Good grief you are an impatient bugger!!

if you gave your old mate a ring you'd find that there is a very nice scart to composite lead sitting here for you.

and try and convince tracy to pay up - i need 60 quid for my transcoder!!!!

Lots of Love

Steve

[tryingtimes]

Alex, I am afraid I don't believe you about the stereo from Scart only

You know Gordon - I'm starting to believe I've dreamt it!
I could have sworn I remember a big thread about it on the Sky section or maybe on another forum. I've just searched here and on google groups and can't find the merest hint of the problem!

I can't get to the back of my box very easily or I'd test it but you're right in that (in theory) it shouldn't make any difference.

It's just that I thought I remember exacly that argument being discussed and eventually disproven!

I think I'm going mad! suffering from information overload.

Sorry

Alex