VCR reception

Guys,

I have a sky digibox and a VCR. The ariel from the roof plugs into the VCR. The ariel then connects from the VCR to the in of the sky digibox and then there is a coax run from RF2 to a TV in a bedroom (digilink). The idea is so I can watch videos in bed.

The problem is the reception on the bedroom TV. It isn't 100% and the played video is very poor....however, if I unplug the ariel from the roof from the back of the VCR, the video playing is 100%. If I take the VCR out alltogether and plug the roof ariel into the digibox, I get perfect TV reception and sky reception.

I've tried changing the RF channel in the installers menu but no change.

Even when I plug the VCR directly into the digilink cable and play a video and the ariel is plugged into the VCR, the reception is very poor. As soon as I remove the ariel, the picture is 100%.

Looks like an issue with my VCR!!

The source of the roof ariel is from an NTL cable (no box).

Any ideas??

Cheers

Mikee

 

I have no experience with NTL cable so this is my guess...

It sounds what you have is that tunning clash problem (crosstalk?) that often happens with vcr/sat connections when using rf outputs. You mentioned you tried changing the RF channel in the installers menu but no change. Was this the menu in the vcr or sky digibox? You might need to change frequencies in both rather than just one or the other. This means retunning the tvs and video stations to the new allocated channels though which is a pain.
I connected my brothers basic tv-sat system about a year ago which has 2 vcrs, analogue sat box plus a digi sat box all connected to a single non scart tv set. I had to retune the 'installers menu' on both the vcr and sat boxes before the picture was acceptable.

A simple way of telling if a device is experiencing 'crosstalk' (not sure if that's the proper name though), is to switch off a device at the mains whilst leaving the tv picture switched on. Start with the vcr. Leave the tv on the vcr channel then unplug the vcr. If there is no crosstalk then the snowy picture should be just that- snowy. Anything other than 'snow' ie a faint tv picture, is what will clash with the device when switched on. If this is the case then use the installers menu to retune the vcr ect...

Good luck.

 

Cheers, I'll try it. Don't know if my VCR has that option but I'll have a look.

 

Older vcrs have a screw at the back to alter the rf output frequency. Most modern ones have a 'menu' method which is covered in the intruction manual.

 

Can't find anything on my VCR to change the RF.

However, if I use my roof aeriel instead of my NTL cable it works great - just got to get rid of the ghosting on the reception.

Cheers for your help

Mikee