Now This Is A Thick Question

R

Ricardo

Guest
Now I've got my big flash widescreen I am taking more notice of my DVD player. Looking at the TV manual it says that the DVD should be set up with Scart for picture AND Optical or coaxial cable for sound. I have all the necessary cabling but wonder (I've yet to find time to check it out) if an extra cable makes much difference to the sound.

Any thoughts on this please? Thanks

By the way
TV - Tosh 32ZP18Q
DVD - Tosh 220E Multiregion
 
the optical or co-axial cables are for connection to an av reciever or pre-amp.

EDIT: although having a look at it, your TV is picture frame dolby digital model, so presumably you can connect the dvd via optical or coaxial to the back of the TV? This is the only way you will get dolby digital from your DVDs with your present equipment as the scart will only carry a downmixed stereo signal from your player to the TV, so yes connect it, Dolby Digital will sound much better than stereo for movies (depending on the amplification and speakers that come with the TV of course)
 
I have the exact same setup as you and I connect the following:


EXT1 Scart (RGB) - Sky Digital
EXT2 Scart - Toshiba NICAM Stereo Video
EXT3 Scart - Not Used
EXT4 Component - Toshiba 220E Multiregion DVD

EXT4 Audio - Optical

If I read your post right, you are currently running Scart only for your DVD player. Connecting either optical or coaxial for your Dolby Digital sound will be a load better. With having scart only, you will be getting Dolby Pro Logic only.

If you still want to connect your DVD through EXT1, connect an optical lead (£25.00) from DVD to optical input and then change your settings within the menus to select digital input EXT1.
 
Thanks for your responses. My set up is as follows
ext1 - Sky
ext3 DVD

But here's another thing, the cable which I assume is coaxial (I know what the optical is!) has three plugs. Red, white and yellow. They don't correspond with the colours at the back of the TV which I think are red, white and green. Would it be OK to stick the yellow into the red?
Thanks
 
No No No stop... three cables? a co-axial cable for digital sound is like a single chunky phono cable. Did you buy a digital co-axial cable? they don't come in the box!

The only three cable systems are composite (which carries video through one lead (yellow)and stereo sound through the other two (red and white) and is by far the worst quality connection).

or, and this is far more likely in you case, Component which really is the best form of video connection (only a few tosh tvs take it). Component is a video only signal and has nothing to do sound.

It sounds as tho you've got the bog standard composite lead from the box and are talking about the component connection in the back of the tv.

As for supplying your TV with a video signal from the DVD you should definitely use component (preferable to a scart sending RGB) if both devices support it which New Bloke says they do, again you may need to buy a set of component leads.

This will leave you without sound however. If you look at the back of your DVD player you will have possibly two digital outs; a co-axial (which looks like a single phono) and an optical (which will have a plastic plug in to prevent dust from entering the port).

Look for similar connections on the back of the TV (I don't know your Tosh so PM New Bloke if you are unsure) and choose which to use. You will need to buy which ever cable you decide to use and then tell your dvd player to output the correct signals through the correct output in the set-up menu.
 
Thanks James45 and Newbloke! You've been a great help. You've made it much clearer for a confused newboy.
Best regards
 
you should be blown away by the difference in picture quality going from component (which is what your scart will be sending) to composite, sound too will be light years ahead of what it's putting out at the moment. You'll start noticing all those surround effects behind you.
 
To Make it even simpler...

You will see at the left hand side of the picture a connection called DA1 (Digital Audio 1) this is where your optical lead will be connected.

At the right hand side of the EXT3 scart, there is Component Video Input (Red, Green & Blue), this connection is called EXT4. A descent set of component video leads will be about £60.00 but do start about £30.00

On your DVD player, you will see corresponding Red, Green adn Blue connection and a similar connection for your optical lead.

For connection details, go to www.toshiba.co.uk --> Televisions --> Picture Frame --> 32ZP18Q --> Connections (This will show you the panels on the back to the TV.

There is a similar section for the 220E DVD player.
 
May I add another dumb question?

If I get one of these sets, I'll hook it up to my Wharfedale DVD player via RGB scart. Does this note imply that I need to also hook up sound outputs from my dvd player to the tv using separate cables, to get the best sound out?

I haven't been able to demo one of thee sets properly yet. As I mentioned elsewhere, I was worried about the sound quality if I just listened in 'normal mode' - ie, not using the extra speakers, just those built into the tv itself. I need to go listen to it to hear for myself really.

All I need to do then is find the money!!

mikef
 
The set will give out a good standard of sound just using the integrated speakers but why buy a dolby digital television and not use the dolby digital? If this is the case, there is no point spending £1000.00 on a TV when a £600.00 NICAM set will do.
 
Hi Newbloke,


I won't use the extra speakers all the time - only really when watching films on dvd. My current set is a Sony Pro Logic, and thats how I do things. Mainly because I can't be having with extra speaker cables and stands around the living room all the time when I have two small kids. The time will come when I get a separate amp set up probably, then I'll bury cables and hide speakers.

One of the main appeals of this set is that for a 36", it is (or at least looks) smaller than other 36" sets. There is no large mass of plastic body around the screen, so wouldn't dominate the living room as much as other sets. I'm lucky in that I have a large living room, but I don't want the tv to be the dominating item in it.

Hope that answers your question.

While this is the dumb question topic...can you adjust the picture colour when watching dvds via the rgb input? FOr some reason, my current set can't do this.

thanks

mikef
 
I haven't got mine permanantly set up. I only use all speakers when watching DVD's. After all, there's no point in using it while watching normal TV programmes anyway. I have set the front two up with enough cable slack to put them where I want them when watching DVD, all other times they sit on top of the TV. The rear speakers I sit behind and to the side when not in use. The cable is tied with small plastic ties which I undo when I want to use them. Easy!
 
Cheers Ricardo,

I'd still put mine out of sight when not using them. Theres enough clutter in my tv area as it is, and leaving them out only increases the chance of them being used as obstacles for Thomas the Tank Engine to drive round/over/through...!

When I win the lottery, I will buy a large house so I can have one room just for me, and it will be completely bare apart from a tv, a chair, and possibly the hi fi, though that may be in another room....


mikef
 
I certainly will! If I can get the Componant Vid leads this weekend I'll give it a go. I feel Gladiator beckoning once more.

Here's a thing, I said I had optical cable (and it's true, I didn't lie!) But rooting around Richer Sounds yesterday I found they were much like hi-fi interconnects. The one I have is little more than 1mm thick. Kind of thinking this won't do...
 
...and when I say "behind and to the side" I meant of the TV, not the sofa with cables exposed. By the way, is it worth upgrading the cable? What comes with it is little more than bell wire.
 
co-axial digital cables look virtually the same as standard interconnects while the optical leads have a different design altogether, although I've never used optical. Gladiator always looks great, although it will blow you away in Dolby Digital. I won't comment on changing the speaker wire tho as I never done an A/B comparison. Do a search on the Speakers forum.
 
Just spent half an hour playing with the 32" version in Currys. I have to say that I wasn't over impressed with the sound from just the internal speakers, but it was't a good place to have a proper demo, so I'll try and find somewhere I can have a good listen. They sounded very forced with no real depth. I may be a little spoiled though since my Sony set has quite good sound.

Currys have it for £1920, but throw in a free Tosh dvd player, video recorder, and free to air digi box as well. Thier prices for a five year warranty are huge though, but you'd probably go direct to the company that does them as someone in here noted recently.

The guy in the store seemed to think the extra speakers were specifically so I could hear bullet casings hit the floor when someone got shot in a movie, but if I had to wear a yellow shirt all day I'd probably lose sense of reality also.

I'd also be interested to know if you could repleace the speaker cable to the satellites?

mikef
 
I've asked the same question on here about speaker cable. You can definitley change them, the back of the TV and speakers both have these "spring loader" type things. I just don't know if it'll make alot of difference. I find the normal TV speakers fine, no worse than anything else I've heard.
Why not take a look in John Lewis, not surew about their price of a 36", they don't have a full range on their website, but they do offer a "free" five year warranty (in inverted comma's as I spose it's all relative to the price you pay) and there after sales service is excellent. I asked for them to send out an engineer (screen tilt) and they even followed it up with a courtesy call to see if the engineer had called me yet. May sound petty but it's little things like that that make a difference to me. I was beginning to think that "customer service" was in the past.
 
Well, I've got my optical cable and have wired up (haven't got the componant vid leads yet, saw one set for £50 and one for £15. Thought I'd try and find aset for around £30 if I can. Having said that, do I really need them? Have scart at present.). Anyway, the sounds great. I stuck The Mummy on last night for a quick check and I am impressed with what I heard. I need to position them properly and need to get rid of the mother in law before having a proper go but suitable impressed so far. I did have problems switching the TV to the right input/output etc. Maybe I'm stupid but I'm sure the instruction book that comes with the TV is crap!

Anyway, got there in the end. Thanks to all for your advice in recent days. I've learnt much from this forum and will be posting more stupid questions as and when.
Regards
 

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