Basic connection sequence, TV, DVD, AV and skybox

[Uffcat]

Would someone please give me the basic connection sequence for these please?

We have a French Samsung TV (two scart sockets but one is for a computer set up I believe), an Eltax 280 AV unit (connected to the tv with an optical lead) a Pace skybox (currently connected to the TV with a scart lead) and a DVD player (2 scart sockets) which I cannot seem to wire into the system successfully.  It does work as I can plug it directly into the TV if I disconnect the Pace skybox but I'm sure we should be able to leave it in the setup and have it working.  We don't have an aerial for French TV as we only use the sytem to pick up Free to Air TV.  We have various spare scart leads.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Clair]

Try this: http://www.dtg.org.uk/consumer/connection_wizard.html

[Martin963]

Have you actually tried plugging the DVD player into the second Scart socket on the TV?    I'm not familiar with the set up but a SCART socket is designed to receive composite and RGB signals (and of course audio) from audio visual equipment,   and generally that's not the type of signals that most computers actually output,  so I'm a bit puzzled as to why it's designated for use by a computer.   

If you connect the DVD in this way and turn off the Sky box,  does the DVD output now appear on the screen?   If not,  you might have to force the TV to "look" at the second Scart socket,  often achieved by repeatedly pushing the AV button on the remote (it may be marked AV,  0,   or a little screen shaped rectangle with an arrow pointing in from outside to the middle).

If that doesn't work,  what happens if you plug the DVD into the VCR socket on the Sky box and play a DVD?   In theory the DVD should "over-ride" Sky and appear in its place,  which isn't very convenient but might do as a temporary measure....

Are there any phono sockets on the TV (often coloured red white and yellow)?   If the DVD player has phono outputs you could link these up with a suitable phono lead (if the lead only has two cables link the yellow and one other colour,  it just means you're missing one of the two stereo channels until you buy a three-wire version).   You might have to select AV3 or even AV4 on the TV to access these sockets,  only try this if the previous advice hasn't worked.

As you say,  it must be possible to link the DVD up less awkwardly than unplugging the Sky box each time...   In extremis you can buy a little Scart switcher box and plug both the Sky and DVD boxes into it and then manually change from one to the other (which is often what people like me who only have a TV with ONE Scart input have to do!).

[Uffcat]

Thanks for both of those suggestions.  The second scart on the TV is in fact not to do with the computer connection.  That was a translation problem in the instruction book  which we managed to inteprete when we looked at the Spanish instructions.  I've wired it as per the website posted by Clair and this ties in with your first suggestion Martin. 

Thanks so much for this almost instant solution, we have been messing around with this all evening trying to make it work.  Now watching the Grand Prix with total surround sound!

[Martin963]

Brilliant!

(although I wonder if the Grand Prix is actually transmitted with true surround sound.....   still,  I expect the overall effect is impressive!)

[sikhim]

Hello, just wondering how you connected your skybox to your Samsung TV ?

Just bought one and I have linked the Skybox (Pace) to the TV via a scart lead but the TV does not recognise it. We have a satellite dish and a Freesat card from Sky. On the remote control, I have pressed the key to get the external sources (EXT.1 and EXT.2), but I think I need something that says AV1, AV2, etc, but can't seem to find it in the instructions.

I am sure it's a connection problem ? what else have I forgotten to connect ?

If I connect the scart lead back to the old TV, it works fine

With the JO approaching, I would be (or rather my husband) so grateful for a bit of help

Best regards

Dominique

[sikhim]

Me again !

The reason I cannot find the AV1, AV2, etc, is because the TV does not get a signal from the Skybox. I have found the menu set-up for external devices, but the option is greyed-out, so obviously the TV does not recognise the decoder. (I have also found the button on the remote control )

I have rang the company where I bought the TV but am not too  hopeful of any help since I have "foreign" equipment ! Anyway they have not rang me back.

I am usually quite good as setting these things up and just wonder if it is possible that the TV is faulty.

I have looked at the link given by Clair to connect various equipments,  and it does look as if I should have a cable from the decoder to the TV as well as a scart lead, but this does not mean anything to me. The old TV was just connected via a scart lead from the decoder to the TV and it worked perfectly.

Thanks again for any help.

Dominique

[Martin963]

It's difficult to say without seeing the actual problem,  but if your Samsung TV has SCART sockets then it ought to work perfectly well with your Sky box.   No additional cables necessary,  Scart carries sound and vision,  and into what would one plug the additional cables on the Sky box anyway?

The only thing I can think  of (apart from there indeed being a fault) is that possibly the menus in the Sky box are set to - say - RGB (ie separate wires carrying red green and blue signals within in the scart cable) and that the TV is set to composite video (ie the entire colour signal going down just one wire in the Scart).    If (and it doesn't sound that likely) the box is sending one type of signal and the YTV is diligently searching for the other then there might not be a meeting of minds!    Without seeing the menus on both though I can't say.

Does anything else (such as a DVD player) work with the Scart sockets on your TV?   Does it have yellw/white/red phono sockets elsewhere?   If so you could try a phono to Scart lead and use the phono sockets on the TV temporarily until we find out what's wrong with the TV....

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="Martinwatkins"]Brilliant!

(although I wonder if the Grand Prix is actually transmitted with true surround sound.....   still,  I expect the overall effect is impressive!)

[/quote]

You will only get true surround sound if you are connected digitally (and of course if the signal is transmtted digitally). You only get analogue surround sound through scart and rca leads, which does sound ok, but when you hear it through digitally connected systems, it's awesome. eg a dvd player connected via a digital co-ax lead to the surround sound system.

[sikhim]

Thank you very much for replying to me; it's now working; the only thing I changed was,  I put a scart lead with a much bigger diameter and I pressed the button no 1 on the Sky remote control.

Don't know which worked, can't remember what I did on the remote control yesterday either !

Thanks again

Dominique

[Martin963]

In which case I suspect (and indeed should have suggested at the time) that you had a "partially wired" cable,  and the TV was looking for RGB and only being fed composite.

Glad it's sorted now,  always good advice to try another lead!