Hi all,

Wonder if you can help.

I've just bought the above Panasonic with built in freesat. What I'm keen to do is connect my Sky box (not HD version.... yet!) and be able to view both sources - the freesat for the HD channels, and the Sky for my sports subscription, music channels etc.

I've read that you can make changes to your satellite connections, using splitters, extra cables etc........ but I have a minor issue with this.

I live in a flat with a communal sat dish on the roof, and it is really difficult to get the factors or Sky to make any changes to the communal dish..... and we're not allowed to install our own dishes.

Is there any way of allowing both the TV (to enable the built in freesat) and Sky boxes to be connected to my single wall socket without requiring a new cable and/or change to the satellite installation? Are there splitters you can use internally?

Many thanks!

[tikigod19]

Ian, unfortunately I can't answer your question but I was wondering in the mean time if you could tell me if you are able to record freesat channels with an external dvd recorder whilst this tv is in standby?

Does it have some sort of loopthrough for this to happen? Or does the tv need to be on to record?

Thanks

Hi there,

I'll let you know - I've only just ordered the TV and collect it on Thursday!! Once I've got it sorted, I'll come back on and let you know.

Cheers

[steb]

I've got this TV and would like to know this too!
I was told it couldn't output Freesat programmes but the manual seems to suggest the timer will switch on the TV and therefore the programme if its set, so that it can be recorded....

I've now read the manual, it says that recording is possible in composite video via scart only - including HD content.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by ianmowat

Hi all,

Wonder if you can help.

I've just bought the above Panasonic with built in freesat. What I'm keen to do is connect my Sky box (not HD version.... yet!) and be able to view both sources - the freesat for the HD channels, and the Sky for my sports subscription, music channels etc.

I've read that you can make changes to your satellite connections, using splitters, extra cables etc........ but I have a minor issue with this.

I live in a flat with a communal sat dish on the roof, and it is really difficult to get the factors or Sky to make any changes to the communal dish..... and we're not allowed to install our own dishes.

Is there any way of allowing both the TV (to enable the built in freesat) and Sky boxes to be connected to my single wall socket without requiring a new cable and/or change to the satellite installation? Are there splitters you can use internally?

Many thanks!

Normally you need a seperate feed from a seperate lnb or on a communal system a seperate feed from the distribution multiswitch. It's possible to connect one cable to two sat stb's but you can only use one at once. You can't split sat signals as you want to do.

[tikigod19]

Originally Posted by steb

I've got this TV and would like to know this too!
I was told it couldn't output Freesat programmes but the manual seems to suggest the timer will switch on the TV and therefore the programme if its set, so that it can be recorded....

I've now read the manual, it says that recording is possible in composite video via scart only - including HD content.

so does this mean you could record freesat when the tv is in standby but not in HD even if you had a HD recorder, as you can only output via scart?

[steb]

Originally Posted by tikigod19

so does this mean you could record freesat when the tv is in standby but not in HD even if you had a HD recorder, as you can only output via scart?

The TV has to be in standby as it switches itself on when the timer starts. I think the output in scart format isn't capable of supporting HD format. The manual says that viera devices can be linked with an HDMI cable but it doesn't seem to suggest that this is an output path for the video signal....?

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by steb

The TV has to be in standby as it switches itself on when the timer starts. I think the output in scart format isn't capable of supporting HD format. The manual says that viera devices can be linked with an HDMI cable but it doesn't seem to suggest that this is an output path for the video signal....?

The only HD signal that you can copy is analogue HD from a component connection. HDMI and DVI use HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection) this requires a handshake between the sending and recieving hdmi ports. It is possible to convert HDMI HDCP to HD Component but this won't work with the TV as it does not have a HDMI out (Google HD Fury2)

[steb]

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson

The only HD signal that you can copy is analogue HD from a component connection. HDMI and DVI use HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection) this requires a handshake between the sending and receiving hdmi ports. It is possible to convert HDMI HDCP to HD Component but this won't work with the TV as it does not have a HDMI out (Google HD Fury2)

& I guess analogue HD from a component connection is pretty similar in quality to SD? (I take it this is scart out) So not all bad I guess, at least it has some kind of output if you already have a PVR without a tuner (if such a thing exists!).....

[davemurgatroyd2]

Originally Posted by steb

& I guess analogue HD from a component connection is pretty similar in quality to SD? (I take it this is scart out) So not all bad I guess, at least it has some kind of output if you already have a PVR without a tuner (if such a thing exists!).....

No analogue HD via component can be as good as digital via HDMI or DVI - depending on the source and TV. No it is NOT scart out - usually it is via 3 phono/RCA sockets for the video and another output for audio (RCA phono or coax or optical).

The only recorders that will usually record from external sources are those with analogue tuners/inputs - HDD/DVD recorders.

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by davemurgatroyd2

No analogue HD via component can be as good as digital via HDMI or DVI - depending on the source and TV. No it is NOT scart out - usually it is via 3 phono/RCA sockets for the video and another output for audio (RCA phono or coax or optical).

The only recorders that will usually record from external sources are those with analogue tuners/inputs - HDD/DVD recorders.

This is totally wrong. Analogue often offers better pictures than digital. A good analogue TV signal will deliver more picture information than a digital one unless you could use an unlimited sample rate and totally eliminate mpeg compression artefacts. Digital TV does not improve quality but quantity (more channels in tha same bandwidth). Many Foxsat-HD owners and thousands of HD fta stb's owners will testify that HD component often outperforms HDMI. I have desktop PC with a double headed graphics card feeding twin identical monitors, one is DVI the other is VGA and the desktop spans both monitors, I defy anyone to tell which is which. HDMI was not introduced in the UK to improve quality but to satisfy the non copying requirement of the Hollywood Studios. The American and CAnadian home markets stick doggedly to component recognising the smoother pictures analog often delivers (blue ray players over there have to still deliver 1080p over component). And as for SD upscalers with HDMI connections unless you have a very poor TV the RGB scart output which allows the TV to scale the signal is usually better quality than the cheap scalers such devices can deliver. I used to have a Toshiba SD50 upscaling DVD player (highly reviewed) but the picture quality over HDMI was dire but superb over component (As every test confirmed).
Taking number of possible colours as an example, in digital 24 bits are normally used to define the colour of a pixel (8 each for red, green and blue), this gives around 64 million colours. An analogue chrominance signal can deliver a virtual unlimited colour spectrum.

Sadly so many people are brain washed into the Maxim because it's digital it must be better without knowing how digital compression works.