Philips 32PW9618 & Sky

[gwladok5]

Has anybody any experience with the above set & Sky digital?

I'm getting a lot of pixilation with my set (3 mths old) & I wonder whether I should be turning off any settings to compensate for what is a strong signal source.

[JayCee]

Originally Posted by gwladok5

Has anybody any experience with the above set & Sky digital?

I'm getting a lot of pixilation with my set (3 mths old) & I wonder whether I should be turning off any settings to compensate for what is a strong signal source.

Try turning off Pixel Plus, it's nothing to do with a strong signal source but due to heavy video compression on Sky's part.

[Cynthia 7]

Hi gwadlok,

I have the 36PW0618 and Sky+ and generally have no pixellation problems at all. Occasionally during very bad weather, snowstorms or heavy rain this can happen and I know what awful weather you've suffered in your part of the world lately. It has reached East Sussex this week!

JayCee has given you good advice. I usually have Pixel Plus but 100 Hz digital scan might suit you better. I have seen that advised on a previous post. Hope it improves for you.

[gwladok5]

Thanks Jaycee & Cynthia 7

Jaycee, your reply suggests you have some technical knowledge.

This set relaced a Panasonic 32" widescreen that packed up after 4 years.

Even allowing for the fact that this would have been early technology, the Panasonic handled Sky very well.

This Philips set bothers me & I'm going to write to them to ask that they get someone to look at it.

The strange thing is that it handles what is in my area a fairly weak terrestial signal very well and I'm bothered that it struggles with Sky.

I've tried turning features on/off up/down but the pixilation can be bad at times.

I can't think of any else but to go down the road of having it checked out, but who would give me an honest report?

[Cynthia 7]

Hi gwladok,

It occurred to me that maybe you receive Sky through NTL. I remembered seeing some posts about that. Go to the top of our Forum page and click on Search, then put in the search box ntl pixelation; this will bring up a few posts on the subject. Even if you don't have ntl there is other information in the posts that may help, connections etc.

I also read somewhere else that this pixelating can happen if the ntl signal is either too weak or too strong and that ntl can put a restrictor on this. If you do have ntl and nothing else works, I will try and find where I read that. Hope something works for you.

[gwladok5]

No, I'm receiving Sky direct

I have to say that spending more & more time looking through these forums, I'm coming to the conclusion that it's impossible to obtain a good Sky picture through any widescreen TV without problems & yet I have a JVC 28" in our bedroom (£200 delivered) with gives me a better picture than my Philips.

It seems you must avoid sets with any picture enhancement systems but why are they selling them when the manufacturers know it causes problems?

I paid £700 for this Philips & I suppose if I complain, they will say its Sky's fault!

Is there any settings I can get to through the Engineers menu to help matters?

Thanks for listening!

[Cynthia 7]

Hi gwladok,

I wonder if the problem lies more with your Sky box. When I had problems of severe pixelation a couple of years ago the engineer said signal strength and quality had to be at least 50%. Mine was lower than that. Now it's 80% strength and 90% quality and I get a wonderful picture. On Google putting up "Sky signal strength signal quality" brings up some websites. The first one is from this forum and Lynx, our knowledgeable moderator, says the acceptable signal quality should be 90%. It may be that the Pixel Plus is more demanding of a good quality signal. My 36PW9618 is wonderful with Sky now my quality is so good. The problem is do you get a Sky engineer out rather than a Philips engineer?!!! I have read so many posts and it seems that the pixelation is common on a lot of different make televisions. Is your Sky box showing an RGB connection? It should ideally be on that. Some people have had a better result with this connected to PAL. Also your Scart control showing On in the picture settings. It can be easy to alter these by mistake, I found my RGB was on PAL recently as I fiddled with the Contrast setting.

I honestly don't know if speakers or video senders close to the television can cause problems. Do you get pixelation with just a terrestial signal or DVD? If so then it probably is the television. Otherwise it's probably Sky, maybe a faulty box or LNB or the dish isn't aligned properly. I know how frustrating it must be for you, particularly when you have just bought a new television, just wish I could find a solution.

It might be worth you posting a thread on the Sky forum or searching there, good luck.