Plasma & Tivo no no

A

Arty

Guest
Hi everyone,
I have just bought a second hand Tivo, it works on my standard Tosh T.V, but when I connect it to my Pioneer 503mxe whick has a VGA to plasma unit in line all I get is the audio, no picture. When I check the display button is states : FH 15.5 KHZ, FV 49.9HZ at 625i. So it must be getting something from the Tivo, is this a frequency which the screen cannot handle? Or is it something simple like changing a few pins in the scart lead or cutting lead 8? Or is the Tivo not compatable with this setup?
I've got no idea now, and could do with some expert advice, any idea's would be helpful as I've tried everthing I know.
Thanks in anticipation.:smashin:
Arty:hiya:
 
I'm not sure what your "VGA to plasma" is? Do you mean RGB to VGA?

If so, is your TiVo set to output RGB or composite?
 
The vga to plasma unit is a scaler I believe which greatly improves the resolution on the screen.
BTW I've coupled the tivo to my monitor by a svhs to scart cable on channel 3. I get the full setup etc and the channels through my Philips freeview, so it must be something to do with the scart config or the scaler, I had the same problem with my old video player, thats one of the reasons for getting the tivo:suicide:

OHHH woe is me:confused:

Arty
 
If you mean you have a cable with a box like this in line and then a vga cable to your plasma, then you don't have a scaler, this is mearly a converter, there is no change in resolution.
When you say you've connected your Tivo with a s-vhs to scart cable, how is this setup, as I remember it Tivo only has composite or rgb output?
If you are using a converter such as the one above, then you must make sure your Tivo and set top box are set to rgb as the converter wont work with a composite or s-vhs signal.
 
rscott4563,
thanks for the link, yes it is the JS Technology unit I have as an in line unit. That is how I can improve the reception from my freeview digi box otherwise it is quite poor. I thought it was a scaler, obviously not. I notice that the resolution is very low through the JS unit, is there any way to adjust the values? FH 15.5KHZ looks very low to me.
BTW I used a scart (tivo end) to svhs cable (plasma end) to make the connection. The result was poor. Should I be looking at a scaler then?
Thanks for your help everyone.;)
Arty:smashin:
 
I think you are refering to refresh rates and line frequency not resolution, the 15.5KHz is a line frequency, resolution refers to the actual number of lines that make up a picture, for example normal UK Pal signal is made up of 720 x 576 lines of picture information, a plasma will be either 852 x 480 (42" SD), 1024 x 768 (42" HD), 1280 x 768 (50") or 1366 x 768 (50").

The reason people use a RGB to VGA converter with a plasma is that the picture quality will normally improve over using the Scart connection, this is down to a number of reasons, either the Scart input on the plasma is not very good and the VGA input is a lot better or the plasma prefers the signal from the converter as it seperates and gives H and V syncs, the improvements are normally less noise, sharper image, better colour rendition, but not improved resolution. In fact resolution can never be increased even with a scaler, in that new detail cannot be added, a scaler will increase the resolution but the new image information has been created from what was already there.

Your currently using a Scart to S-Video connection, well this must mean you have your Tivo set to composite as it wouldn't work if it was set to RGB and Tivo has no S-Video output, I don't really no why the S-video connection is working but can only assume its passing a composite signal over the s-video connection!?

Check this link you'll see it talks about the 15.5KHz issue, but this should not be a problem with the Pioneers, the problem I'm sure is that you have not got your set top box and Tivo set to RGB output, please check this, in the Tivo menu the picture output should be set to RGB not Pal and same on your freeview box....
 
Thank you very much for that detailed report, I am much better informed now. I am as you may have guessed a complet novice at this at the moment, I will get better though as I am very intrested in the subject. Who knows, in a while I may be able to help someone out, just as you have .
Many thanks again, you are a credit to this board. :clap:
I'll post my progress ASAP.

Arty:smashin:
 
No problems at all, I was as you are now not very long ago, but these forums certainly give you a quick education, sometimes theres just too much information to take in! :laugh:

Ryan :smashin:
 
You might find that there is an issue with the display device not being able to handle the teletext stream from your Tivo.
I first used my Tivo last year with my big 36" Sony, it worked fine.

However whilst the Sony is off ill, I've been using a Grundig 30-7020, when I plugged my Tivo in the picture stayed on for about 20 secs then collasped into a single line and audio only.

Searching through the Tivo forum I found that this had occurred with a range of TVs, particularly Philips and a few others.

Tivo came up with a fix for this, a special version of the firmware, 2.5.5a I believe.

I rang Tivo support, always helpful, they confirmed that Grundig was affected as well.
The consequence of the download, it can't be reversed, is that you can no longer recored subtitles. I decided to live with that and Tivo downloaded the new version for me, joy of joys it worked straight away.
It may not be the cure for your problem but it's worth investigating with Tivo support.
 
TiVo - fantastic bit of kit!

Here's what I think is the problem. Simply that RGB isn't switched on in TiVo. Connect it up to a different TV, go in to the set up menus and tell it that you have RGB input and RGB output. Save settings, wait a couple of mins, and then pull the power on TiVo. Pulling the power does a hard reset, and you should be able to boot it back up again.

This will then give RGB to the RGB to Plasma VGA unit, and you should have a picture again.

All the best,

Dr John Sim.
 
Thats what I said! :rolleyes: :laugh: :smashin:

Though no need to pull the plug, just go to "system reset" and "Restart the recorder", then press thumbs down three times thn enter and the unit will reboot.

:hiya:
 
Thanks for the input Ryan I got tivo switched to the RGB setting and everything came on. I did'nt get a chance to complete the work until after 12PM yesturday and had to go to work shortly after that, so could'nt post a reply. Many thanks again!!
symanski, also thanks for your input, the more the merrier, its always great when more than one person adds some input, it sometimes gives just that bit of information that is required to complete the job. Thanks again.:smashin:

Arty:D
 
Hi Arty
Sorry to see you had problems setting Tivo to work with your plasma ,glad to see you have sorted it.
(Sorry I couldnt help more but my experience of plasma is nil)
I hope you get many hours of pleasure from TIVO
Just goes to show how great AV Forums are -Buy through classifed ads & sort any niggling problems through other forums

:) :)
 
Hi letitbleed,
As my set up is still new to me, and quite complex, I did not know what the problem was. However I really did not think it was a problem with the tivo. Not having a manual ( who uses them! ) was my best excuse, and I'm sticking to it. I got sore eyes looking at the down load version. BTW I have got a 120gb Samsung drive to install very soon ( my neighbour is a wiz with computers and Linux is his speciality ) then to couple it up to my multi sat system.So I hope to be for a few days getting it sorted.
Thanks to everyone who helped.:smashin:
Arty.:D
 

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