Hi,

I have searched through the forums but could not find the answer i needed, so was hoping someone could give me some advice.

I have recently bought a benq w100 DLP projector and an 80 inch screen. At the moment it is connected to my sky+ box via a 10 meter s-video, I am happy with the picture most of the time but on some programmes, definitely the England match yesterday the image was a little disappointing. So i am considering buying a QED Scart RGB to Component Video Adaptor to improve the picture quality, the adaptor and a 10 meter component cable would be around £120 and i am wondering if it would be worth it?

i have my DVD player connected via component and the picture is simply amazing so i know the projector can do a lot better, i also know that the sky image is not going to be the best in the world, especially when watching older programs.

Has anyone else has experience with this? And can you tell me if you think it would be worth spending the money on the adaptor and a new cable?

Thanks in advance.

Edward

[The Fatty]

umm no. £120 for a cable? thats mad. you can get a scart to RGB cable adapter for like £6, saying that i think you can get a scart to component for the same price...

Hi, thanks for your reply, the £120 is for a QED adaptor and cable.

sold here: http://www.futureshop.co.uk/qed-scar...tor-p-399.html

then plus about £40-50 for a 10 meter component cable.

[The Fatty]

oh right i see. still, i wouldnt buy it. if theres one thing iv learned over the past few years is that you cant make a bad signal good (without proper REALY expensive equipment). if it converts thr RGB to component, then the output is going to be nion the same, just in a different format.

[The_Wierd]

Apparently these are good:

http://www.js-technology.com/product...199bd4f02dcaf3

You can probably find more info with a search of the forums. I was considering one of these to simplify connections to my plasma and projector. A little more expensive though.

[mrmoo]

Originally Posted by The Fatty

oh right i see. still, i wouldnt buy it. if theres one thing iv learned over the past few years is that you cant make a bad signal good (without proper REALY expensive equipment). if it converts thr RGB to component, then the output is going to be nion the same, just in a different format.

You've missed the point, at the moment he uses s-video and this adapter will take the STB's RGB output a much better signal source. It will be an improvement, one thing though, scart RGB doesn't like distance, you may have problems. But you can get cat5 converters to send component as far as you like if your really determined.

£80
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35810[/QUOTE]

[The Fatty]

Originally Posted by mrmoo

You've missed the point, at the moment he uses s-video and this adapter will take the STB's RGB output a much better signal source. It will be an improvement, one thing though, scart RGB doesn't like distance, you may have problems. But you can get cat5 converters to send component as far as you like if your really determined.

£80
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=35810

[/QUOTE]

im not sure i see you point either.

why not just use RGB connections? (i dont know anything about your pj, so ignore if it dosnt accept RGBS)

[Knyght_byte]

i use the QED QCV RGB SCART to Component adaptor from a sky+ box to my Infocus 7205and it kicks the living hell out of S-video...lol

MORE than worth the money........films on the movie channels look almost as good as DVD when the bitrate is reasonably good......big budget scifi TV shows likewise look pretty damn good......other shows still show enough improvement, especially sports....

how long a run of component do you need? if you actually need around 8m or more then do spend a reasonable amount on it, component cable like any other high quality cable over a long run can suffer some degredation.....i ended up forking out £120 on a Wireworld one because i wanted the image to stay as good as possible and it worked, i tried another 8m one the shop had for £80 (QED possibly, cant remember now sadly), and a friend once i'd bought the wireworld let me try his £70 one and both removed things from the picture in a not so good way......the wireworld on the other hand keeps a lovely crisp colourful image (it comes from my 3803 amp, everything is plugged in to that.....i did have HDMI direct from DVD player as well but the end got knackered one day and altho it worked still in a sense, it has jaggies appearing and i could see there was a split in the rubber connection going to the cables so it was getting some interference somewhere, probably the mains cable going in to the PJ right next to it..lol)

anyhow, if you can get a shop to loan you a long cable and see how it works out....but i would definitely say worth getting the QED QCV :-)

edit: just so ya know, the adaptor is a mains powered device, so make sure its near a plug socket...lol...i almost didnt have enough sockets till i realised i could make do swapping my Gamecube and DVD-R over when i didnt need one or the other..lol

[kdr1066]

I've just ordered the HD72i package from www.discounttv.co.uk, but as I only have standard non + Sky I was advised I would need to convert from scart, so went with the QED option. I also took their advice to upgrade my DVD player instead of using S-video. All sounds like them just increasing their sales, but given they get very good feedback on this forum I went with it. Cost a bit more of course, but in for a penny as they say... My budget was blown away, so hopefully I will be by the picture, due for delivery tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be posting some comments once I've figured it all out

[The Fatty]

yep defo get those commets on m8! would love to know how much of a diff they make (if any that is). try to take some pictures if you can

[richard plumb]

svideo is fine for SD TV. I'd keep what you have.

Do you not have component for your DVD player? For the same price you could wire up your DVD player with component (and get a cheap progressive scan dvd player if needed) and that IMO would give you a better improvement than from svideo-RGB for TV.

[ZippyCat]

Originally Posted by kdr1066

I've just ordered the HD72i package from www.discounttv.co.uk, but as I only have standard non + Sky I was advised I would need to convert from scart, so went with the QED option. I also took their advice to upgrade my DVD player instead of using S-video. All sounds like them just increasing their sales, but given they get very good feedback on this forum I went with it. Cost a bit more of course, but in for a penny as they say... My budget was blown away, so hopefully I will be by the picture, due for delivery tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be posting some comments once I've figured it all out

If you went with the HD72i could you have not just used the supplied SCART adapter to feed the projector with an RGB signal direct from your standard Sky box?

[kdr1066]

Being a complete newbie I have all scart at the mo'; standard Sky box, oldish Pioneer DVD, no component anywhere.

Shane at DiscountTV told me I would need to convert the Sky signal, although I could stick with my DVD player if it had S-video out, and he could then make up a suitable S-video cable to the PJ. So all told I'd be spending money on cabling of one kind or another. My bill ended up being approx £100 more to include a new Pioneer DVD that upscales, and I'd be getting an HDMI cable to the PJ rather than S-video. I asked him if it was worth the extra £100. He naturally said it was, but I believed him when he said the picture quality was noticeably better. He said they'd had the HD72i and the DVD on test together for a couple of weeks and they'd been really impressed.

For the sake of £100 I didn't want to put it all together and be thinking I could have had better. I knew I'd end up ditching the S-video eventually so just did it sooner rather than later. Don't know if I've done the right thing, but what's done is done, we'll see.

[fallwood]

I use the js converter and it is very good, I did not however spend £60 on component cable as the van damme cables from farnells are excellent quality at a fraction of the price.

Results are quite good for sky but the increased clartiy does show a lot of mpeg blocking on poor channels.

If your only using it for SD Sky I dont think its worth bothering with , if you intend to route your dvd player throught it then you will definately see a big difference.

[mrmoo]

Originally Posted by The Fatty

im not sure i see you point either.

why not just use RGB connections? (i dont know anything about your pj, so ignore if it dosnt accept RGBS)

The point is s-video is worse than RGB. RGB is not far from component. Ignoring sync, there is a simple mathematical relationship between the two. But its not directly converted without adaptation

The Benq has no RGB inputs. The nearest it has is DVI-A so an RGBs to RGBHV converter may also work. Assuming the DVI-A will sync to PAL 15.625 kHz

[The Fatty]

Originally Posted by mrmoo

The point is s-video is worse than RGB. RGB is not far from component. Ignoring sync, there is a simple mathematical relationship between the two. But its not directly converted without adaptation

The Benq has no RGB inputs. The nearest it has is DVI-A so an RGBs to RGBHV converter may also work. Assuming the DVI-A will sync to PAL 15.625 kHz

ahha i see the point now

Only skimmed thru the thread and i'm not trying to be a smart arse but why not just spend a bit more money and get a Sky HD box!

You will definetley see the difference then!

Sorry, just realised that the original posters PJ has not got a HD panel. You would still benefit from the higher bitrates though, especially with the football.

[kdr1066]

My mate ordered his Sky HD box 'in time' for the World Cup and he still hasn't got it. I was originally considering an LCD TV, then a plasma, but got hooked on the idea of a bigger screen.

I've blown the budget already on an HD72i, so Sky HD (and a nice surround sound set up) will just have to wait

PJ arrived today, can't wait to get home to set it up, hopefully in time for the Brazil match

[Big Slick KA]

Originally Posted by eddyj443

Hi,

Has anyone else has experience with this? And can you tell me if you think it would be worth spending the money on the adaptor and a new cable?

Edward

HI Eddy

After watching the footy for the first time via my Benq 7700 using an S-Video connection, I too looked to the forum for a magic answer to stop the blurring & blocking. I now have the QED adaptor and a 5m component lead.

For the football my picture has improved but not enough to justify the costs if thats all you want it for, (football on terrestrial channels).

The setup has removed most of the blurring but the blocking remains. (but only from the high stadium camera) Other channels have improved significantly so from this point of view its a good investment. I think as mentioned above, its a signal issue, some channells are better than others.

Whichever setup you choose try watching the football on different regional channels, BBC1 looks far better on BBC west than BBC wales etc.

BS

WOW thats a lot of replies, never expected so many.

Thanks for all your help.

in reply to paul_mowbray, i do have a HD plasma TV but i do not want sky hd as i will be moving in September to a flat and im not definite that i will be able to have access to two feeds from the dish.

Thanks to everyone else that replied, think i will keep using the s-video cable, as i will be using it for movies more than sky anyway and my DVD player is already connected via component.

From what people have said i don’t think the adaptor will improve the image as much as i would have hoped, obviously sky is just not up to the size of the screen.

Thanks again.

Edward