New and in the Pooh - Please Help

L

lizaradley

Guest
Hi

New Panny 37" arrived today; kids were dead excited. At the moment I can only afford to use S-Video so bought a BTech box (BT121S) so I can have scart in and S-Video out. DVD (Sony Nav 400) works a dream and sound through my old Denon is excellent. Connect up mt NTL Pace 1000 - and I get a grainy black and white picture (sound is fine). No matter what I do: swap scart, new scart, change from composite to RGB in the Pace menu, nothing works; I'm still left with a grainy black and white image.

The kids were really understanding which made me feel worse!

Any idea's from the good and the wise as I haven't got a clue what to do next.

Many thanks

Neil:confused:
 
Does the digibox need a restart to change output signals ?

Jon
 
tried that but no joy. Strangely enough I just tried a Composite input to the Panny and they both work. Quality isn't brilliant but at least there is someting there.

The DVD was on S-Video but I had to change it to RGB to work with the composite lead.

Neil
 
From the options you describe, I doubt if your NTL digibox outputs S-video via the SCART. Unless the SCART in / Svideo out device you refer to is a signal convertor, then what you may be seeing is the result of running a composite video signal via S-video. I assume that you have the terminal board, so you have options for VGA, Component, S-video & composite. Given you say that your DVD player is on the S-video, for the time being you'll have to connect the NTL cable via composite. The problem with that is your plasma 'sees' S-video & composite as the same input (I think) so you'll have to un-plug one to use the other.

I'm sure I saw a post from a member selling a used JS RGB to VGA convertor (www.rgbtosvideo.com) on the hardware classifieds. Get one of these and run both your DVD & NTL box via RGB into a SCART switcher into the JS RGB to VGA. To save buying a SCART switcher (if your DVD player supports it) you could loop the NTL box via the DVD instead. You will then be running both devices with the best possible signal type into the plasma VGA socket, getting the best possible picture quality on a low budget. You can use the composite (yuk!) input for your VCR.

Theres plenty of guys on these forums (me too) burning more & more quids to squeeze a little bit better picture out of their plasmas.

Welcome to the money-pit! Don't look, just jump.
 
Thanks for replies. NTL doesn't really like S-Video - on my setup anyway. I bought a new scart switch from Argos and a local electrical store has a young guy who makes cables. He is making me a scart (RGB) to component for £60.00, around £10.00 dearer than a Lectropak mail order but I'd prefer to deal locally.

Thanks again

Neil:

clap:
 
Going in circles

Lizardley

Sounds like a bad case of mixed up video formats!

I take it the cable you are having made up is SCART to RGB+ Composite!

It'll be mighty fancy soldering if your man can turn RGB+Composite at the SCART end into YUV Component on three RCA plugs at the other end of your cable (if he can do it for £60.00 he should make a fortune selling loads of them).

I'm guessing that what your actually planning is to output RGB+Composite on SCART from both your DVD and your NTL box into the Argos SCART switch and then output RGB+Composite from the Switch to your display on your 'made up' cable.

Best regards

Joe
 
"I'm guessing that what your actually planning is to output RGB+Composite on SCART from both your DVD and your NTL box into the Argos SCART switch and then output RGB+Composite from the Switch to your display on your 'made up' cable."

That's it exactly. Excuse the poor terminology. Is this a reasonable solution to my original problem?

All the best


Neil
 
I'm still pretty sure that you can't have both composite and S-video connected at the same time on your input board. If you intend using sync on composite, then you may have problems with the DVD which you say is input on the S-video. Don't say you were not warned. Save your £60 on the lead you are having made and go straight for the JS Technology RGB to VGA box.

There's one more thing I'm not clear on. You called your DVD player a 'NAV 400' there is no Sony NAV 400. Because you said that you are running the sound through your old Denon, I am concluding that you have the DVP-NS400 (which has RGB out via SCART) rather than the DAV-S400 (which has S-video & composite only + onboard amp).

If you do have the NS400, then use a SCART switchbox to run BOTH NTL & DVD via the JS RGB to VGA box, it will give you the optimum picture quality on a tight budget (£120 retail).

Many of us have taken wrong turnings already with our setups or have been fortunate enough to have the resources to experiment with different solutions. You can benefit from our experiences without the cost and frustration!
 
Thanks for the info Andrew. I remember when I first got into computers, it was just as complex. I didn't give up and now am very confident except that is on Linux where I nearly chewed off my own arm off.

I now have my Sony NS400 (the DAV refers to the speakers prefix - talk about getting confused!) and the NTL box going through a scart switch box and outputting via a scart to rgb+cs lead. More than happy with the outcome at the moment but no doubt that will change.

Thanks again to all who have offered their advice.

Neil
 

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