Connecting Panasonic Freeview box

[paulw77]

Hi all,

Will be installing the Panasonic TU-CT20 freeview box for my parents this week. They have a TV with 2 SCARTS and a VCR (not sure how many SCARTS, it's a Loewe VCR.

The manual for the Panasonic TU-CT20 tells you to connect the RF aerial to the freeview box, then from the freeview box to the VCR. Nowhere on the diagram does it show the aerial lead going to the TV.

Is this right ?

Also, it doesn't show a SCART connection from the VCR to the TV, just from the freeview box to the TV.

Surely the connections should be :

1. RF lead>freeview box>VCR>TV
2. Freeview SCART>RGB SCART on TV
3. VCR SCART>SCART 2 on TV.

Presumably, this will then allow recording to be made from freeview to the VCR by selecting L1 as the input on the VCR.

Any thoughts ?

The freeview box has only 1 SCART by the way.

Any commenyts

[Kevo]

If the vcr has 2 scarts then....

scart from stb to vcr then scart from vcr to tv.
RF aeriel to stb then to vcr and to tv.

That way you'll still be able to watch DTV in RGB and record from the scart which will give you a much better picture as well as stereo sound.

[paulw77]

Originally posted by Kevo
If the vcr has 2 scarts then....

scart from stb to vcr then scart from vcr to tv.
RF aeriel to stb then to vcr and to tv.

That way you'll still be able to watch DTV in RGB and record from the scart which will give you a much better picture as well as stereo sound.

Assuming of course the VCR passes RGB through its' SCARTS.

[Kevo]

Originally posted by paulw77
Assuming of course the VCR passes RGB through its' SCARTS.

They may not all do this but I've yet to see one that doesn't.

[Flimber]

AFAIK, only fairly recent/high end VCRs will pass through RGB. Just because something connected is outputting RGB into a VCR doesn't mean that RGB is going 'through' the VCR; it's more likely to be the composite signal which is (also) being sent through. Not trying to be an authority on the matter, just speaking from my own experience (and I'd be very interested to know if I'm wrong).

Mike.

[Kevo]

Fair enough, we can only speak from experience.

I have had VHS and SVHS vcrs from the early 90s and they all have had RGB in/out on the scart sockets.

Namely Panasonic and Philips.

[Flimber]

I know Philips do (particularly SVHS machines) but unless it's specifically mentioned as a feature I'd be inclined to think that most other VCRs will only send on a composite signal. When I've peered within I've usually found nine pins soldered to the inside of the scart socket (i.e. no RGB possible). Wouldn't be surprised if RGB passthrough had creeped into VCR design in recent years as there is obv. a 'demand' for it from some people.

Mike.