[Westlander]

Hi all,

Can you help me please.

Im trying to wire together:
Samsung PS50A457 TV
Sky Plus satelitte box
Sony RDR-HXD790 120GB HDD / Hard Disk DVD Recorder With Freeview

The DVD recorder is replacing a std DVD player. Managed to wire it all previously using scarts and co-ax cables and it all worked. Problem is now the DVD rec cannot pic up freeview signal.

The setup shows lots of other leads, HDMI and RGB leads.
I would like to know the best wiring of my TV, sat and DVD even if it means buying additional leads.

Anyhelp with this would be great.
Steve

[davepuma]

Why can't the DVD Recorder pick up Freeview? You should simply connect the RF flylead (aerial cable) from the wall to the DVD Recorder and run another from the RF output to the TV. Does the DVD Recorder have twin tuners? It might have two RF inputs and you've connected to the analogue one. My Pioneer DVD Recorder has a loop cable so that both tuners get an RF feed. Just a thought.

The simplest connection would be SCART from the TV SCART socket on the Sky+ box to the TV. Set the Sky+ to RGB / 16:9 / SCART Control ON in the picture settings menu.

Sky+ TV SCART ==> TV
Sky+ VCR SCART ==> DVD Recorder SCART in

DVD Recorder HDMI ==> TV HDMI in

RF Flylead (aerial cable) Wall ==> DVD Recorder RF in
DVD Recorder RF out ==> TV RF in

You will need an HDMI cable from the DVD Recorder to the TV. Try the pro2 at hdcable.co.uk at £10.

Then connect another SCART from the VCR SCART socket on the Sky+ box to the SCART input on the DVD Recorder. You will then have to select AV1 or similar on the DVD Recorder to pick up the external SCART input to record from Sky.

Sky boxes only output RGB (Best picture quality available) on the TV SCART socket so to maintain picture quality you could output from the TV SCART socket to the DVD Recorder and use another SCART cable from the DVD Recorder to the TV for passthrough. So if you have a few SCART cables, try the various methods to see which one you can live with. The first option is the most simple.

Another alternative is a SCART buffer (JS Technology sell them for £50 or so) which splits the RGB output, so run one to the TV and the other to the DVD Recorder.

[Westlander]

thanks Dave, all wired up and working apart from DVD player.

Just got to wait for the Pro2 HDMI cable to arrive and should be able to view DVD's