Problems with Sky and RGB Scart

blizeH

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Hi guys,

We've got a problem with our Sky+ box, or possibly the cable, whereby for some reason it's going through some channel that isn't RBG Scart, I'll try my best to explain it as basically/clearly as possible anyway:

Whenever you turn on the Sky+ box, it automatically changes to AV1 and the contrast is very bright, with reds being kind of fuzzy and the text often being fuzzy or hard to read to.

Channel 5 on the TV has been setup to basically display AV1, however, if you view Sky through channel 5 instead of through the actual AV1 channel it looks absolutely perfect as if the RGB settings are working fine, the colours are good, the text is clear and there's absolutely no fuzz.

No problem, just disable Scart control and leave the TV on channel 5 constantly, right? Wrong! For some very strange reason if you disable scart control on the Sky+ box, channel 5 now has the same problems as AV1 originally had, which makes absolutely no sense to me.

Any advice or suggestions would be great, at the moment we just have to turn on the Sky and then grab the TV remote to change it to channel 5, not a massive hardship I know, but it'd be great to sort this as it'd save quite a bit of hassle and using one remote is better than using two! :) Thanks
 
What make/model is your TV?
Are you outputting from the "TV Scart" on the Sky box?
 
I get a similiar problem whenever my tv (Toshiba) switches on. If it was left on the sky channel, it will restart on the sky channel - but with a composite picture rather than RGB. I find that pressing either the sky button, or the program guide etc causes the signal to switch to RGB (so no need for two remotes). I suspect both signal types are present on the scart cable, and the TV defaults to the dodgy one.
 
Ahh, thanks for clearing that up Platelet, is there anyway around it do you know? Pressing the Sky button doesn't seem to switch it to RGB unfortunately.

JayCee it's a Sony 32" Widescreen Triniton, unfortunately I've no idea of the actual model :(
 
well one thing that might give you a work around is to program the sky remote to set the tv channel when you press the sky button:


  • Press tv on your Sky remote control.
  • Hold down select and the green button together for about two seconds, until the red light on the Sky remote control blinks twice.
  • Key in the number of the channel on your TV that you use for watching satellite TV - 5 in your case.
  • Press select on your Sky remote control. The red light blinks twice. The remote control setup process is complete.


hopefully then when you press the sky button, it should switch your tv to channel 5 for you
 
It won't...he has scart control switched off.

It will - scart control has nothing to do with which channel you set up in the macro to change the TV channel - it will even work without a scart lead it is using the Sky remote to tell the TV via a macro to switch the Sky box on and change the TV to channel 5.

BUT this method will only give the normal poor quality of a RF coax connection if his TV does not automatically switch channel 5 to AV1 input - as he is implying it does - in which case it should work.
 
It will - scart control has nothing to do with which channel you set up in the macro to change the TV channel - it will even work without a scart lead it is using the Sky remote to tell the TV via a macro to switch the Sky box on and change the TV to channel 5.

Ageed, what I meant was that it will not give scart auto-switching and no RGB.
 
Ageed, what I meant was that it will not give scart auto-switching and no RGB.

Unless the TV autoswitches channel 5 to AV1 as he implies it does and with the Sky dodgibox set to RGB output.
 
Thanks for the replies guys, I've actually got Scart Control switched on if that makes any difference, like I said, if I turn it off, even when I go to channel 5 it looks horrible so at least with it turned on I have the option :)

What would you say is the best solution then? I think first thing tomorrow I'll try Platelet's suggestion, seems like a pretty good workaround, although if there's anyway of making AV1 look as it should that'd be fantastic.
 
Sorry about the delay JayCee, it's KV-32FX20U
 
Sorry about the delay JayCee, it's KV-32FX20U

AV1 on that model is the only RGB enabled scart...and it must be connected to the scart socket marked "TV Scart" on the Sky box as that is the only RGB output...you stated in your first post you thought the problem may lie with the cable between your Sky box and TV so it would be wise to make sure you are using a good quality fully-wired scart lead first before going any further...on that model if the source is RGB you will see in the top-right corner of the screen an icon of a TV screen with an arrow and 3 dots in it...if you see this the TV is receiving an RGB signal...an icon with an arrow and no dots is Composite video...you can press the input select button (2nd button down from the top) of your remote and it will cycle through AV1 (Composite video), AV1 RGB...AV2 (Composite), AV2S (S-Video), AV3 etc.
 
Many thanks for the reply, hmm, I've honestly never noticed the arrow with, or without dots but I'll definitely take a look tomorrow! :)

Does the fact it's on AV1 and channel #5 picks it up perfectly though not mean the RGB is setup correctly? I'll check all the same tho!
 
Many thanks for the reply, hmm, I've honestly never noticed the arrow with, or without dots but I'll definitely take a look tomorrow! :)

Does the fact it's on AV1 and channel #5 picks it up perfectly though not mean the RGB is setup correctly? I'll check all the same tho!

On that model you can manually select any program number (no 5 in your case) to accept a Tuner input or an AV input...double-check that scart lead and make sure it is connected to the correct scart sockets as detailed earlier.
 
The sky box is capable of being connected to your TV via an Aerial lead (channel 5 as you have it) and via a scart.

If you use a 'fully connected' scart cable then you need to use the TV out scart socket on the sky box. The other end of the scart needs to connect to AV1 on your TV. If you then go into the Sky Services menu and select system setup (4) then picture(1) you can select RGB as the video output and then remember to save the settings.

I dont know your tv model but you may or may not need to go into a menu and set AV1 to accept RGB as the scart cable can provide both RGB and composite video.

If you use the aerial cable, channel 5 then you will only get mono sound and in theory an inferior tv picture.

So hopefully you can get a scart RGB picture to your TV to give you a good picture and stereo sound. I have found that even cheapy argos/tesco scart cable for about £2 seem to work fine. Others will probably say that better (more expensive) cables give better pictures, well I agree that more expensive cables may give a better picture but I think that there is a limited return on expensive cables vs picture quality.

Good luck.

PS please try and get a decent RGB picture, it will be so much better than a aerial (RF) connection.
 
Nope, I think you are missing something here. His channel 5 is not tuned to an RF signal, it's set to select the scart input. Sony sets allow you to assign the different inputs to "conventional" channel numbers as well.

On the scart cable issue, as long as it's fully wired the biggest problem lies with shielding. Cheaper cables tend to be poorly shielded and I've had some that seemed better suited to being aerials that leads. As long as you are not getting interference, then I think you've "paid enough" for your lead.
 
Thanks again for the replies, but here's something to add even more confusion to the situation:

I cycled through the channels like JayCee suggested and there is indeed one called 'A RGB' with the four dots which works absolutely perfect with an RGB signal, but the thing that confused me is when I went back to AV1 Sky was being sent through an RGB signal too? Why is it that it only seems to have the poor quality picture when it first switches to the AV1?
 
but the thing that confused me is when I went back to AV1 Sky was being sent through an RGB signal too? Why is it that it only seems to have the poor quality picture when it first switches to the AV1?

There's the answer to your problem...the 1st push of the AV input (and what is automatically selected by scart control) is composite video on AV1...the 2nd push selects AV1 RGB...it's not a fault, just poor design on that particular model.
You can probably manually select AV1 or AV1 RGB for Prog5 in the EDIT setup.
 
Hmm I see, I don't think the problem is what channel 5 is, like I said channel 5 always displays it just fine; but how do I set it so that Sky and it's Scart control thing use the RGB AV1 instead of normal AV1?
 
but how do I set it so that Sky and it's Scart control thing use the RGB AV1 instead of normal AV1?

Do you have the user manual for your TV?
The Sony user manual site is down at the moment so I can't check if it's available there.
I want to refer you to a particular page in the manual...if you don't have it and it's not on the Sony site I can email you the KV-28FX20U manual.
 
I'm not sure where the manual is at the moment I'm afraid, and like yourself can't find it online at all apart from one place which is trying to charge £15 for a pdf download! o_O So if you could e-mail it to xkratosx (at) gmail (dot) com that'd be fantastic, thank you so much :)

btw I've messed around with some settings, and managed to 'break' it so that for some reason when I turn on the Sky it automatically goes to AV2, no idea why since that's the DVD player, however, turning off scart control now and leaving it on channel 5 seems to be RGB! woot! So as messy a fix as it was, something seems to of worked.

I think it was mostly down to your suggestion of changing channel 5 so it showed A-RGB instead of AV1 :D So again a massive thanks for that.
 

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