How well does the Sky remote control Philps TVs

[Jon Weaver]

I currently have a Sony TV and I find the Sky remote controls most of the commonly used features.

This includes the 'Screen Aspect', as Sony use the 'Blue' fast-text button to do this.

How well does the Sky remote control Philips TVs (namely the 36PW9607).

I am sure that it will be OK with channel numbers, volume and hopfully text..

But what about AV inputs and Aspect ratio (and anything else)?

I understand that the Sky remotes are actually designed/built by Philips, so I would hope that they can control most functions, but there is no guarantee of this.

Any info would be appreicated.

[Jon Weaver]

Just to pre-empt any comments about 'Magic Keys'.. When I had Sky-Digital I was able to use the hidden 'Magic Key' function to program most control for my Sony onto the remote (including the cursor keys and Picture&Picture functions)

However, I now have Sky+ which doesn't support Magic Keys.. So what I am interested in is what the remote will do using standard Philips codes.

[rct]

I don't use my Sky+ remote to control the TV (Philips 32PW9617), but after seeing your post I decided to have a play

1st thing I noticed is that when you put the remote into TV mode, it switches the Digibox to CVBS out instead of RGB obviously, pressing Sky brought it back but it's still annoying!

Volume, text, channels etc. are fine as expected.

Play contols the aspect ratio.

The colours control the "useful" feature of Nextview categories!

The "help" button cycles through the AV inputs.

BackUp takes you to terrestrial.

That's all I could find!

[Jon Weaver]

Thanks for the info..

One thing about the 'TV' puts it in CVBS mode.. Thats a limitation of the Sky box (I know this as its the same on my Sony)

When you press TV, The 'RGB Status' pin drops, which makes the TV switch back to the tuner (Assuming that it was on that channel before)...

But worse still, the digbox stops outputting RGB (There is no signal on the Red, Green and Blue pins) and only outputs CV.. There is nothing you can do to stop it.. Its just the way that the Digibox works. The only way around it is to cover the IR part of the Sky remote, every time you press 'TV'.

This is really annoying in a household that has multiple remotes connected via TV link.. If anyone presses the TV button, anywhere in the house, the main TV goes back to CVBS.

I am relieved that you can change the aspect ratio using the Sky remote.. Atleast I won't loose the functionality that I have now.

Weird, when I press TV on my Sky+ remote when using bedroom TV, the digibox isn't affected at all. Using a Toshiba code on the remote.

[Gerry]

HI Guys,
I am in Ireland and am getting Sky Digital(not +) installed next week. I have a Loewe Aconda 32" and am wondering which is the best way to connect the digibox to the t.v. I use a PS2 on AV3 to watch DVD's(for now) so there is no question of pass through there. The only other item I have is a VHS video(2 Scarts) but am not sure if they are RGB or not. I know AV2 on the Aconda is RGB capable. Can anyone tell me if there are 2 scarts on the digiboxes supplied by Sky, one to take in the signal from the dish and one to output(in RGB) to the t.v. or whatever, or is the set up different to this. Any help would be appericated as I want to get the guy installing the system to rig up the best possible sceanario for me, as I might never see him again.
Thanks.

Dish connection is an f-plug.

But there are 2 SCARTS on the Sky+ box, best to use one from the PS2 RGB into Sky+ then the other into TV RGB socket (AV1?), and assuming you're going to keep your VCR use a SCART from video to TV for 2-way playback & recording on whichever socket allows that, often AV2 but I don't know the Aconda so can't be sure.

[Gerry]

Much obliged Choddo!