HDMI needed?

Technophobe

Hey all,

Quick question….

I have recently moved house and brought my SKY HD box with me…..So I get the local Sky installation man around and explain that I have a TV point in each room and that I want to be able to access Sky in each room and also have a FTA box for people to watch in other rooms when SKY is being used at the primary TV point… I tell him I want the SKY HD box located in the sitting room as this is the main TV room and where I would want to watch SKY Sports, Movies etc in High Def…..Also my understanding is that there needs to be a direct HDMI connection for HD to work properly....

So he sets it all up with SKY box in sitting-room as requested and a FTA box in my “plant room” ( solar controls, plumbing central all contained in there) and I now have 6 channels to choose from....

He explains it thus:

1 is RTE 1
2 is RTE 2
3 is TV3
4 is TG4
5 is SKY
6 is the FTA box

So that all seems fine with the first 4 being off an aerial he installed and I have the TVs tuned into 6 stations to select from as above….

So last night was watching the match on SKY Sports and the reception was poor (which incidentally I now think was due to the bad fog….)
Anyways I started messing around with the cables etc to see if anything was loose and nothing was happening, so I then unplugged the HDMI cable from the SKY box to swap it out to see if it was the culprit……
BUT when I unplugged it, the SKY picture DID NOT disappear like I would have expected it to….?
Should it not have?

Does this mean that I don’t have the benefit of true SKY HD or what ? Or what do I need to do to ask this guy when I ring him…??

Thanks for any help…

Johnmb

Technophobe wrote: »

Hey all,

Quick question….

I have recently moved house and brought my SKY HD box with me…..So I get the local Sky installation man around and explain that I have a TV point in each room and that I want to be able to access Sky in each room and also have a FTA box for people to watch in other rooms when SKY is being used at the primary TV point… I tell him I want the SKY HD box located in the sitting room as this is the main TV room and where I would want to watch SKY Sports, Movies etc in High Def…..Also my understanding is that there needs to be a direct HDMI connection for HD to work properly....

So he sets it all up with SKY box in sitting-room as requested and a FTA box in my “plant room” ( solar controls, plumbing central all contained in there) and I now have 6 channels to choose from....

He explains it thus:

1 is RTE 1
2 is RTE 2
3 is TV3
4 is TG4
5 is SKY
6 is the FTA box

So that all seems fine with the first 4 being off an aerial he installed and I have the TVs tuned into 6 stations to select from as above….

So last night was watching the match on SKY Sports and the reception was poor (which incidentally I now think was due to the bad fog….)
Anyways I started messing around with the cables etc to see if anything was loose and nothing was happening, so I then unplugged the HDMI cable from the SKY box to swap it out to see if it was the culprit……
BUT when I unplugged it, the SKY picture DID NOT disappear like I would have expected it to….?
Should it not have?

Does this mean that I don’t have the benefit of true SKY HD or what ? Or what do I need to do to ask this guy when I ring him…??

Thanks for any help…

Generally speaking, a HDMI cable will have its own specific channel, i.e. not channel 5 on the TV, but one of the AUX channels. Plug it back in and try to find the AUX channel it is on to see if there is any noticeable difference in quality. How to find it should be in the TV manual, but usually it is on the remote as either "source" or "AUX', just try them until you find Sky.

STB

Technophobe wrote: »

Hey all,
So last night was watching the match on SKY Sports and the reception was poor (which incidentally I now think was due to the bad fog….)
Anyways I started messing around with the cables etc to see if anything was loose and nothing was happening, so I then unplugged the HDMI cable from the SKY box to swap it out to see if it was the culprit……
BUT when I unplugged it, the SKY picture DID NOT disappear like I would have expected it to….?
Should it not have?

…

You were doing this on the main TV ?

If thats the case then there is also a scart socket connected to the TV from the Sky box which is taking priority over the hdmi. Press the source button on your remote control what channel does it say ?

Technophobe

Hey Johnmb

thanks for the reply....I think I understand what u are saying....You think I may be picking up the Sky source i was on last night on a non HDMI source....

I know where to go on the TV to go into the various inputs, so will have a look tonight..thanks for the advice...

hey STB

Will check tonight re the SCART also..tks

Randyleprechaun

I would say the explanation put forward by Johnmb is most likely to be the correct reason why this problem is happening.

Also, whatever rf channel you are actually watching the sky on is probably being affected by signals being picked up by your aerial due to the current atmospheric conditions.

I have a set up simillar to yours(both my boxes are in a remote attic/crawl space) and I have noticed over the last few days that the sky+ box pictures are poor.

When I turn the sky+ box off, I can see a faint signal of some channel or other coming through, I'm going to change the RF channel of that box tonight, re tune my TV's and that should sort it.

p15574

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

I would say the explanation put forward by Johnmb is most likely to be the correct reason why this problem is happening.

Would it not be that the "RF out" on the Sky box is connected back to the wall socket, to provide a feed of the Sky signal all around the house?

Agreed, the 'pure' signal on the tv connected to the box would be via one of the Aux channels, but if there's a cable connected to the Sky Box 'rf out', I'd say that removing that will cause the picture on the tv to go.

Randyleprechaun

p15574 wrote: »

Would it not be that the "RF out" on the Sky box is connected back to the wall socket, to provide a feed of the Sky signal all around the house?

Agreed, the 'pure' signal on the tv connected to the box would be via one of the Aux channels, but if there's a cable connected to the Sky Box 'rf out', I'd say that removing that will cause the picture on the tv to go.

Removing the RF cable won't lose him the picture if he is watching on HDMI

Not sure what our point about the RF cable distributing out to the other TV's is. That's the way it should be done, but it appears that the OP is watching at the main TV through an RF cable,as opposed to on the HDMI channel, and that this signal(RF) is being distorted by something on the same RF channel no

p15574

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

Removing the RF cable won't lose him the picture if he is watching on HDMI

But he's NOT watching it via the HDMI, as he has proved by disconnecting it.

Randyleprechaun

p15574 wrote: »

But he's NOT watching it via the HDMI, as he has proved by disconnecting it.

That's exactly what I'm saying, and that's why the picture he was watching(on no.5 on his TV)may have been affected by another RF signal due to the current atmospheric conditions.

If he was watching through HDMI then the picture would have disappeared as soon as he pulled the HDMI lead

STB

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

If he was watching through HDMI then the picture would have disappeared as soon as he pulled the HDMI lead

Like I said I am guessing he has both a scart and a hdmi connected !

He should know by pressing the source button which will display the channel/Aux No

Randyleprechaun

STB wrote: »

Like I said I am guessing he has both a scart and a hdmi connected !

He should know by pressing the source button which will display the channel/Aux No

Guess we'll know in the next few days eh........I'll put €50 with you.....lol:D:D

STB

Nobody could do without Sky for that long could they !

Technophobe

Woah, this thread has just took off with a life of its own...:D
But that's the class thing about Boards, always someone with an answer and someone else with another one....:D

Anyways, mea culpa:o....I WAS watching it thru the non HDMI source and just panicked when I saw the crap picture compared to the beautiful HD pictures....I have just moved into my new build house and have been setting up (read trying...;)......) loads of stuff like broadband, amplifiers and so on...

I did what Johnmb suggested (and as agreed by randyleprechaun, does that get me a cut of the 50?) and hey presto fine clear pictures....looks like someone (:rolleyes: herself) was messing around with TV remote and as you say just selected channel 5 which is the SKY as distributed around the house.... So no SCART attached to box either just RF ins/outs as far as I can remember...

But thanks to all for helping....:)

Randyleprechaun

Glad you got it sorted, unfortunately myself and STB never shook on the €50 bet so nothin' to split with ya!!!!!!

I thought it would be an RF prob all right, seeing as mine was playin' up the other night too!!!!!

Happy viewing.

If you see probs on any of the other TV's while viewing your sky box(on channel 5 RF), try changing the RF out channel on your sky box as sometimes it can be interfered with by signals from different transmitters etc etc