Standard Sky Picture problem on new Plasma

mykro28

Hi All,

So I am having a little issue with pixelation on a new TV that I ordered for my brother. Basically he has SKY connected to the new Panasonic 42" Plasma (42PY8E) via scart and it is set to RGB. I have turned off NR on the TV, set it to normal etc and tunned it as best I can.
It seems that espically on Sky Sports when you are watching a football match there is some very obviuos pixelation. When the image is up clise it is perfect.
I have purchased a new good scart cable, and it is the new type Pace DS440NB Sky box.
Now here is the twist.. I also got the same TV for my Father and he has a SD Sky+ box and he is not having the same issue! Pace TDS470N Sky+ box.

I am at my witts end, the only think that I can think of now is that there is inferior processing power on the standard box that results in the pixelation.

Any help is really appreciated, I am pulling what little hair I have left out... :-}

The Ritz

This may not be a practical proposition but the only way I can think to eliminate the Pace box as the cause of the issue is to borrow the Sky+ box and try it on your brother's tv - I realise that this may not be a runner, I don't have a sky subscription but I understand that the box needs to be kept connected to a phone line. I assume you have checked all the settings on your Dad's TV and made sure that you're using the identical settings on the TV that's giving you problems ?

The lads on the Satellite forum may have some insight into this - given that there's been no response to your problem here for the last couple of days, I'm moving your query over there to see if they can help. If you want it moved back here, send me a PM.


Ritz.

snaps

Pixilation (Signal break up) or do you mean the picture seems blocky when say there is fast moving action on the screen?

mykro28

When you are watching a football match and you can see a good bit of the pitch, all the players are a little pixelated as is the ball. when it zooms to a players face it is perfect. as i mentioned on the same model tv with a sky+ box it is perfect.
The only thing that I can think that it could be is the standard box, i don't think it is faulty, just inferior??
any thoughts???

thanks...

jonnygee

Were you watching the liverpool v everton match on itv sd on a skybox and comparing it to football on bbc1, say match of the day. The football on itv sd is rubbish , almost unwatchable in my opinion, due to low bitrates or something on this channel. Compare like for like and i think you wont notice any difference, especially on a panasonic plasma. The itv hd football in comparison on a freesat hd box is a pleasure to watch, excellent quality.

snaps

Yes its down to bitrates on certain channels which make fast moving objects blocky. I do find my sky box is worse than a lot of 3rd party receivers for this when viewing via scart.

Ive a TM6900 which connects to the TV via HDMI and standard SD transmissions seem much better with this output option. Scart though is still rough from the TM6900.

Also the bigger the TV screen the worse the picture will be.

mykro28

Thanks for your replies.
I understand the bitrate issues, but I am comparing the same channel, sky sports 1. I was just wondering if anyone knew if there was a difference in the decoding hardware / software or upscaling properties of the standard sky box and the SD sky + box.

Anyway I guess the only true way to find out is to bring out the sky + box and connect it to my bro's tv.

One more question, how do you get ITV HD on freesat? I have a tv with a built-in freesat tunner and I can get all the regular stations including BBC HD but i can't seem to be able to get ITV HD. I have tried it with and without a postcode.
Thanks again!!!!

byte

ITV HD isn't a standalone channel. Basically, when ITV1 have a programme on, that is also in HD, you'll press the Red button. ITVHD is simply an interactive channel.