My Tosh 52" DLP RPTV behaves oddly with my now aging Pioneer 3100 DVD recorder. I always used to have it connected via direct S-Video cables, both in from my Sky+ box (necessary as this vintage of Pioneer doesn't have RGB in recording) and S-Vid out to my TV. All worked fine, though I had to manually switch screen formats, of course, as direct S-Vid doesn't carry any switching lines.
However, when I changed my TV from a Pioneer CRT RPTV to the new Tosh I decided to connect the 3100 by RGB scart. This is when the fun started. If I press play then up comes the picture and everything's fine. But if I just try to watch something off it's internal tuner, or see what's coming in over any of the AV inputs to the 3100, all I get it a blank screen. I can hear the sound, but no picture. Nothing appears until I press the menu button on the 3100. Then instantly I get the menu up in RGB glory, plus whatever's on in the background (the opening menu is an overlay with large parts of it transparent), even if the thing being fed to it is S-Video, so I know the machine is capable of transcoding directly from S-Vid to RGB, else I wouldn't be seeing it. But the moment I quit out of the menu the picture disappears again, leaving it dark.
The odd thing is that if I press record the picture does go to the disc, even though I can't see it directly on the screen at record time. If I stop the recording and press play, up it pops. It's a weird thing and obviously something curious. It's my belief that only the menu switches the RGB fast blanking pin on and so my Tosh then recognises it as being an RGB signal and shows it. When the menu goes, the pin goes low and the Tosh drops the line. Though the odd thing is, is that the Tosh normally reverts to a blue screen in the absence of a signal. But in this instance it remains black. So I think for some odd reason the Pioneer actually blanks output from the RGB scart entirely, unless play or menu is called for. So I'm not convinced it's the Tosh's fault here, more the Pioneer's.
There is some mention in the manual that having certain devices connected to AV2 can cause anomalies, but my problem persists whether there's something plugged into the unused AV2 scart or not, so I'm at a loss as to know what to try next. It's not a total loss to me as I can always watch Sky directly, or Freeview, or whatever, while the 3100 records. So I don't actually need to try to watch it through the 3100. But it's still niggling. I like things to work as they're supposed to. It kinda puts me off buying another Pioneer DVD recorder just in case they still suffer from this odd design 'feature'.
Regards
Mark