Dmr-e50 & Rgb

[pwiles]

I had wanted a HDD but will have to wait till finances sort out, the E50 is coming so low now that It might be worth getting one in the mean time, but I have some questions.

My TV only has 1 RGB compatible scart can I get RGB from the Sky Box to the TV via the E50? AV1 & AV2 appear to be 21 pin so can I input on AV1 and output on AV2 (or vice versa) in order to get (and record) RGB signals from Sky and output them to the TV?

Audio out is there a digital out to connect to my reciever for 5.1/6.1 discs? I know there is no digital audio in.

Finally does the E50 support loop through i.e. will I have to have the E50 turned on to watch sky in RGB if it is looped through the E50.

Feed back from owners would be appreciated.

[Ged]

The E50 does do RGB loopthru as does the Sky box should you want to add to this. I have a loopthru of 4 components onto one RGB scart, when you record Sky you need to use the optical audio output from the E50 due to sync problem.

[Rasczak]

I had wanted a HDD but will have to wait till finances sort out, the E50 is coming so low now that It might be worth getting one in the mean time

If you get the E50 now then the cheapest way to upgrade to HDD functionality of an HS2/E100 would be to get a PC DVD burner. This would cost you around £100 and provide the same ability to convert editted recordings (on RAM) to DVD-R (highly compatible). Anyway...

y TV only has 1 RGB compatible scart can I get RGB from the Sky Box to the TV via the E50?

Yes most people do this. Sky Digibox TV Out (RGB) to AV2 on the E50 and then AV1 on the E50 to your TV. That way you will record in RGB and watch RGB when the unit is on or off. Hopefully that answers your lopp through questions as well.

I should point out that if you are watching Sky in this manner you can do so with the unit on or off - but if you have it on then you can quickly press record and benefit from the advantages of Timeslip should you be 'interupted'.

Audio out is there a digital out to connect to my reciever for 5.1/6.1 discs

Yes there is. For the life of me I can't remember if it's optical or electrical. I think it's the former but don't quote me! Have a look on Panasonic's web page - they MAY have the specs on there!

[pwiles]

Originally posted by Ged
The E50 does do RGB loopthru as does the Sky box

Does not look like my sky box loops through the RGB signal, tried plugging my Toshiba into the VCR socket and no RGB out from the TV socket. I did get a picture Just not RGB.

For information a quick way to tell if a picture into your display is RGB assuming it is not totally obvious – Turn the colour down on your TV, if it is RGB signal the colour control will have no effect.

Rasczak - I was going to ask how you knew I had a PC, Doh! I wont bother turning it into a recorder writer it is in another room and not so easy to hook up to Sky/TV but thanks for the information on the E50, it will be definitely worth a look if it goes below the £200 mark.

[Ged]

Paul, just nipped downstairs and gave the Sky loopthru a test and it does pass through, the TV showed AV1/RGB and the only thing on was the DVD at the end of the loop, I was sure it didn't use to do it in a previous set up. It maybe a Panasonic thing but it does say RGB.
Ged.

[phelings]

Make sure you change the AV2 input to RGB on the menu,then it will loopthrough

[Bogside]

Can I ask whether this means that you would be unable to watch sky if the recorder was recording say ITV? If the only input to the tv is from the recorder, surely you'd have to watch whatever was being recorded - which seems to defeat the object a little.

Originally posted by Bogside
Can I ask whether this means that you would be unable to watch sky if the recorder was recording say ITV? If the only input to the tv is from the recorder, surely you'd have to watch whatever was being recorded - which seems to defeat the object a little.

You can still watch sky as you should have the digi box connected independently as well, eg. AV 1 digi box > AV? TV. You are only connecting to the recorder via the video out on the digi box. Works in much the same way as VCR.

Only downfall is if your TV has only one RGB connection you have to decide which component uses it, I decided to have digi box via the RGB connection as 90% of our viewing is through the digi box and the recorder connected via S-Video.

[Bogside]

Originally posted by bob007
You can still watch sky as you should have the digi box connected independently as well, eg. AV 1 digi box > AV? TV. You are only connecting to the recorder via the video out on the digi box. Works in much the same way as VCR.

Only downfall is if your TV has only one RGB connection you have to decide which component uses it, I decided to have digi box via the RGB connection as 90% of our viewing is through the digi box and the recorder connected via S-Video.

That more or less confirms what I was asking. It's not actually a problem I have personally as I've 2 RGB sockets on my telly (so one for recorder and one for digibox). I was just curious.

[pandrew]

I think I am misunderstanding this thread. Are we saying that it is possible to get RGB from the E50 when the STB is connected using it's RGB out scart connection (TV out) but also get RGB from the STB when connected to the TV via the other scart connector (video in/out). I am questioning this because I believe my set-up is pretty similar to most peoples.

My TV has 3 scarts
AV1 (RGB in, composite in/out)
AV2 (RGB in, composite in/out)
AV3 (S-Video in, composite in/out)
AV4 (S-Video in, composite in)

STB has 2 scarts
AV1 (RGB out, composite out) - labeled TV out
AV2 (RGB in, composite in/out) - labeled video

My DVD recorder is a Panasonic E50

How with my set up can I get RGB when watching the STB if the E50 is recording, lets say ITV (terrestrial)?

[pwiles]

Originally posted by Ged
Paul, just nipped downstairs and gave the Sky loopthru a test and it does pass through, the TV showed AV1/RGB and the only thing on was the DVD at the end of the loop, I was sure it didn't use to do it in a previous set up. It maybe a Panasonic thing but it does say RGB.
Ged.

What an Idiot, no that’s me, I did have the RGB turned on but when I plugged my dvd into the sky box I did not change the sky box Scart on the TV it was still in AV2 the non RGB Scart.

Problem solved.