DVD Setup Question....

Mr E

This is going to sound incredibly stupid, but I'm having trouble setting up a new DVD player I bought..... Can someone let me know where I'm going wrong?

Current setup:

Sky Box:
RF Out 1 -> VCR RF In
Ariel In -> Wall Socket
VCR scart (Unused)
TV scart (Used by Digisender, but has an extra scart port on it)

VCR:
RF In -> Satellite RF Out 1
RF Out -> TV

So its a pretty simple setup at the moment. I want to take the VCR out of the equation (we never use it). The TV has RF only - no scart.

The DVD player has scart only. There was no scart lead with the player, so I bought one.

I tried a few different combinations of everything last night, but couldn't get the DVD player working in conjunction with the sky box.

What do I need to do?

- Dave.

JazzyJ

Plug the DVD scart into the VCR scart on the SKY box. Whenever you turn on the DVD it should take precedence over the SKY box. Works for me anyway...

J.

Mr E

Nah, didn't work.

Plugged it into the TV Scart socket on the back of the VCR and it works (as long as the TV is on AV, and the VCR itself is on the AV channel).

- Dave.

robbie1876

You need to be careful using a DVD through your video, cos when you are DVD discs with a certain type of Macrovision copy protection through a VCR, and depending on the type of VCR you have, the picture may become muddled or may not come through at all.

Really the way jazzy suggested should work, and would be the best way for you to set the system up. Maybe check the output of the DVD is not set to RGB then try again through the Sky box.

Also, is there any other inputs on your TV, as in S-VHS or composite video?

byte

Originally posted by JazzyJ
Plug the DVD scart into the VCR scart on the SKY box. Whenever you turn on the DVD it should take precedence over the SKY box. Works for me anyway...

J.

That will only work if the Digibox is connected to the TV via Scart too. It doesn't affect the RF output (you'll still have Sky via RF).

Your TV must be old if it doesn't have a Scart socket, or at the very least a composite input (BNC etc).

If the worst came to the worst, I guess you could get a Scart to RF Modulator but it'd be very expensive and hardly worth it.

Your only solution with current setup is just DVD>Scart>VCR>RF lead>TV having your VCR on the AV channel, as you've already done. Just Macrovision encoded discs could be a problem as robbie1876 has mentioned.

Mr E

Thanks, byte.

Was watching LOTR today, and the sound wasn't great at all..... I wonder if this is as a result of current setup?

- Dave.

robbie1876

That will only work if the Digibox is connected to the TV via Scart too.

Good point, byte, never thought of that.

The best solution I think would be to see if Santa has a few scart-enabled TVs that he's flogging off cheap in January....

byte

Dave: Yes I'd imagine that setup watching through RF via the VCR would deteriorate the sound quality a bit. As Robbie says, I'd get looking for a new television in the January sales.