Digital Tv picture setting

Energizer

he sky digital picture on the family TV is blurried.

E.g. The score display in a soccer match is hard to read.

When i switch off the digital the picture on the tv is perfect.

Is there any certain settings on the Digi box that i can tweak to remedy this?

Could a poor Quality scart cable or bad connection also do this.

Its a fairly old 29inch Sony Nicam tv.

Its an old Grundig digibox too, would this effect the picture?

Any advise would be great.

Sparky

is the video setting on the digibox on the PAL setting or RGB in Services---4---1

watty

Are you really using the AV input or have tuned in a channel to the Digibox RF out?
PAL or RGB on the scart, nor SCART quality would make this difference, only miss-tuned RF signal.

Energizer

I think its set to pal. I think we're using the av input. When i turn off the digibox it switches back to the terrestial channels e.g. rte and tv3.

watty

Try fatter SCART cable (Gold does not help).
Try different AV in on TV if more than one.

Energizer

What do u mean by a fatter cable, do not all scarts come in the same size?

watty

No. Most even the Gold ones bundle all the skinny wires in one outer screen. The proper SCARTS are harder to find now. They have the following separate screen connection or minature Coax in them:
2 x Audio in (L, R)
2 x Audio out (L, R)
3 x Video i/o (R,G,B)
1 x Video in (Composite or RGB Sync)
1 x Video out (Composite or RGB Sync)
usuually the rest of the wires are as per the the skinny SCART cable.

The bunch of wires in one screen creates buzz on audio from video, ghost of video out on video in and flicker on video from audio.

ixtlan

Guys what are we all doing here on Saturday afternoon!

Anyhow, Watty is probably typing as I write, but a fat SCART cable indicates that each of the individual wires is shielded, rather than just shielding them as a group. This prevents interference between the wires, which can sometimes be an issue if there is a signal being fed (for example) from the SCART output on the TV, potentially interfering with the signal into the SCART.

Usually the more expensive SCART cables are fat.

I used to have such a Sony TV. Is the digibox going to AV1, which is the only RGB one? And if it's in AV2 have you checked the TV settings to see if AV2 output is set to maybe TV? Better to set to something blank, like AV3.

Ix.

Energizer

Thanks for the Info.

Here's the picture settings on the digibox:
Picture Format: 4:3
Second Location Format: 4:3
Scart Control: oN
Video Output: Pal
Contrast: High

Where in dublin can i get one of these cables? And how much are we talking?

Ye i think the the tv is set to AV1, problem is my parents lost the original sony remote for the tv! :mad:

watty

Try Format = 16:9 (Your Sony TV should actually do this by automatic height reduction as if it has a WS tube).
Scart ON
Video Out = RGB (Always better, especially on text).
Contrast Medium

The Sky remote will control the following on the TV if it is setup (See TV Remotes on the Digibox Interactive or Sky box manual, on on ICDGopedia) correctly:

TV / Sky button: Switches SCART signal on/off on AV

After pressing "TV"
0.. 9 Channel
Up / Down Channel
Help = Cycle through AV channels or cancel Teletext
text = Teletext
Coloured buttons = Fasttext.
Power = standby / Active

Volume should do volume in TV or Sky mode of remote.

Argos hasn't got them, nor PC world/Dixons/Currys the last time I looked. Though they have some very expensive Gold Rubbish. Gold plugs are only for Gold sockets they cause damage to non-gold connections!

About 15 Euro. They are about twice as fat as the commmon rubbish SCART. You can unscrew the cable clamp and the cover unhinges from clamp side without damage to plug or cable. You then can see if the cable is skinny wires with one overall screen (bad) or at least ten minature coax (individual screens on video / audio signals = good).

Though ai'd be surprised if the problem is the SCART.

Is this recent or has the TV always done this? These TVs are good for over 15 years, with perhaps just a readjust ment after 5 or 6 years for RGB drive, Anode voltage/Sub brightness and focus (not really user adjustments for the uninitiated of the instide of TV sets). A very few sets have an engineering menu for these settings.

Energizer

Thanks for the information, i'll have to play around with it tomorrow.

The tv isn't widescreen though.

The picture has always sort of been like this. Just started to really bug me lately.

watty

Energizer wrote:

The tv isn't widescreen though.

The picture has always sort of been like this. Just started to really bug me lately.

Something is installed wrong. Or a faulty cable.

Though your TV is 4:3 shaped screen, you may find it does infact do real WS. For 16:9 programming this will work better than Digibox 4:3 crop or Digibox Letterbox.

Most older Philips, Sony and Mitsubishi 26" and larger 4:3 TV do have true WS mode. It will only autoswitch via SCART on a Digibox though.

Energizer

I had a look at the cables last night. The scart connecting the digibox to the tv is a fat scart cable.

I switched it with a normal scart, made no difference.

I think it may be the tv settings but i cannot alter them due to the loss of the original remote.

Luckily i can get my hands on one but it won't be till next week!

Could it be a technical problem with the digibox itself. The thing is fairly old and dirty!

byte

Is the whole picture blurry, or just the outer corners?

Energizer

Whole picture.

It can be very hard to tell the score in a match sometimes!

Energizer

Finally got to mess with the tv setting yesterday, no luck. no matter what i changed the picture still appeared blurry.

Could this be the RGB cable issue. Its coming from my digibox to the tv?

Also i was thinking of contacting SKY to see if i could get somebody to visit to fix problem! Should i ask for a free technician visit or a new digibox?

Could the actual digibox be the problem, it's fairly old and been through a lot! (Building works, etc...):(

byte

Do you have a DVD Player, that you can connect via Scart, just to make sure it's not your TV that's at fault?

watty

I've never heard of this fault on a Digibox...

Energizer

Look like its the TV actually. I connected up a small tv to the digibox and the picture was fine.

Also i turned off the tv and when i went to turn it on the picture did not appear for at least a minute, i could hear the program just no picture.

The tube could be on the way out.

10 year old sony trinitron- so not to bad.

watty

Energizer wrote:

When i switch off the digital the picture on the tv is perfect.

Doesn't sound like tube. It's worth taking to a good TV repair shop as these sets even at 10 years old are seriously better quality picture than similar size LCD or Plasma or WS :LCD or Plasma of same height screen.

Energizer

Ye thats what i'm going to try.

No point in upgrading quite yet, until hd and such become more standard.