Sky Digital Digibox - Audio Help Please

[Gerry]

I've just had Sky Digital(Not +) installed. I have the Digibox(Grundig) connected to the TV via a scart cable and also via an ordinary RF cable. When I press the "E" button on my remote this normally brings up some channel info i.e. Channel Name, Time, and Audio Signal(Stereo or Mono)when the channel is not an AV connection ie. channels 1-99. Of course when I press the "E" button on the channel the scart is connected to the info is slightly different i.e. AV(1,2, or 3), Time and AV Sound(exactly that "AV Sound", no Mono or Stereo). I have had the tv automatically search for the Sky picture from the Digibox and set the channel to tv station number 20(UHF, E68, 847.25, Pal). Now here is the problem, when I press the "E" button while showing any of the Sky channel's the info shows the audio signal is "Mono". The audio broadcast on the AV channel would be appear to be in stereo but this is hard to verify. My question: is this normal or should the signal still be stereo although it is input using an RF cable. On my last decoder(not Sky) it did not matter whether I connected to the tv using a scart or RF I still get a stereo broadcast. Any clarification of this would be appreciated.

PS: I have tried adjusting the settings on the Digibox i.e. Scart Control(on/off), RGB/PAL, 16.9/4.3 all to no avail. The audio setting on the digibox is always set to "Stereo".

 

[Starburst]

A digibox RF output only can carry mono, it does not use NICAM which is the method used by terrestrial analogue to allow stereo through an RF cable. Every stereo (As oppossed to a ProLogic or DD capable) TV that has indicators for a NICAM stereo presence from a rooftop aerial or VCR will fail to recognise a stereo signal from SKY via an AV input as it's not NICAM, it's still stereo though.

In reality the RF connection isn't needed unless you are feeding other televisions in other rooms, you should always watch SKY via a scart connection set to RGB if your TV accepts it.

 

[Chris Muriel]

As Starburst points out, the RF modulator in a $ky digibox is not a NICAM modulator/encoder. USe SCART for the radio channels as well as the TV ones like he suggested.

Chris Muriel, Manchester. (author of Digital Satellite FAQ)

 

[Gerry]

Thanks guys, now I can relax and enjoy my Sky Digitl(through AV2 of course) which I only had installed yesterday. All those channels, the mind boggles, though before anyone reminds me I know a lot of them will be rubbish.