SKY remote conrol delay when powered on

[audiolab]

I have been trawling through the web (avforums, digitalspy etc) to try to see if anyone else has experienced this problem but so far no luck. Thought I would post this here to see if anyone has come across this or has any suggestions.

I have a new Samsung LE37R LCD TV connected to ordinary SKY box using a Thor SCART cable, this is plugged into SCART1/RGB on TV. Also have a Samsung DVD Player connected to TV via HDMI cable.

The problem is when I power on the TV the light on the front of the TV flashes for a few seconds before the picture appears. During this time I can switch the SKY box on and can change channel. (am doing this blindly as there is no picture TV yet ie SKY was on BBC1 when I switched off but punch in 103 before the picture appears on the TV it will come up on ITV or any other channel.

This is when the problem starts, once the picture comes up on the TV for a good 30-40 seconds after the remote will not operate the SKY box at all. I can adjust TV volume ok but any use of the sky buttons doesn’t even register a flash on the front of the SKY box. If I leave it for a minute and then press SKY all of the SKY functions are then available, I don’t understand this delay.

So far I have tried,

Disabling SCART control in SKY setup
Disabling “AnyNet” function of the Samsung TV (allows the TV remote to control other Samsung products like the DVD player)
Left SKY box on (when I tried this I did not get SKY function at all, had to power both off then on and wait the minute as above to regain SKY functions)
Forced firmware update to SKY box and EPG rebuild

I know I could just learn to be patient and wait a minute when I switch the TV and SKY on but this is one of those things that is bugging me. It all worked fine on previous CRT TV but not on the LCD.

Checked Samsungs site and can se no firmware updates available for download (no Freeview in my area till 2009/10)

Thinking on trying moving the SCART from socket one to socket two on the TV (which is not marked RGB)
Possibly switch back to the cheapo SCART that came with the SKY box (but would rather use the new cable as the original SKY cable exits to the side of the plug rather then out the back like the Thor cable.)
Lastly try just completely unplugging the HDMI cable but not sure if this is even relevant (not ideal)

Takes a few hours after switching off before the problem will appear otherwise I would have tried all of the above by now.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[audiolab]

Thanks for the reply,

Am powering on with the SKY remote, have tried powering on the TV with the Samsung remote then using SKY remote but no joy.

 

[audiolab]

Hi There,

OK will try that, problem only happens when the TV has been off for a few hours so will leave it till tomorrow morning and report back.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[audiolab]

I don't think switching scarts, etc will help any... If you're getting the red light from the remote when you try to change channel (and assuming the batteries are not low) those symptoms would point to your actual Sky box being responsible for the delay.

How long ago did you test with the CRT? if possible, it would be good to check if there's still a difference. I'd be surprised if the TV was responsible.

The other possibility is that if - like my wife, for example - you stab furiously at the remote as if trying to get a 'Hadouken' combo or something, sometimes I've noticed the box try to keep them in a buffer of sorts, but that results in more of a delay than just pressing once and waiting for the box.

Another possibilty is that the remote 'forgets' the mode its in. That is, you occasionally have to press Sky before changing channels even if was in Sky mode prior to that.

Hope some of those suggestions help in some way...


BTW in case you're wondering, our original Sky remote has recently died. New batteries couldn't resuscitate it. It will be much missed...

We now use the my aging touch-screen one-for-all Kameleon universal remote which I bought years ago, but was hardly used on the grounds that it cost too much to risk using... hmmm...seemed to make sense at the time...

Just when I read your post I remembered that the old remote did not work with the new Samsung TV. I had to buy a new Rev8 remote that had the code to work the LCD TV so perhaps this is not a TV or SKY box problem but a remote problem. When it is in the blocked mode pressing the SKY button doesn't work it even register a flash of the red light on the SKY box, only thing that works is TV volume up and down.

Thanks very much for that, some food for thought there. Not really a huge problem if I can't get it fixed (I can wait 30 seconds unlike the kids) just one of those things that I hate not knowing why it is happening.

Cheers.

 

[audiolab]

Hi, my LE40M87 does exactly the same, I think you'll have to live with it, what's 40secs anyway, as it's due to some interference that's taking place...
Chris

Thanks, I guess I was really wanting to make sure that I hadn't missed something in the menus. I thought it was something I had done (or not done)because I searched various forums and found no mention of it. So it is good in a way to hear that you also have the same "feature".

 

[audiolab]

Try this and report back.

On sky remote:

TV - POWER - (Wait for TV to turn on) - Press Sky button which should auto switch the TV to the correct AV channel - then punch in a Sky channel number.

What happens with this method?

Tried this and when TV powered on and wait till I get "No Signal" on the TV the new Sky remote won't turn on the SKY box at all, I have to power down the TV and power it back on and power SKY up before the TV picture comes up.

I dug out the old original remote (which doesn't carry the code to operate the new LCD) and it does not suffer from any lag at all. So this seems to be a remote problem. The old remote won't operate the new TV but the new remote (Rev 8) has a delay and also can end up blocked but its not a huge problem.

I thought perhaps I have a duff remote but the fact that chriscatt above gets the same issue with his Samsung LCD suggests that the problem is not just a faulty remote. Just for the purposes of anyone else who comes across this problem and reads this post as if I ever come across a way to get it working I will update this post.

Other than that thanks to everyone for the replies.

Cheers.

 

[audiolab]

Thanks Tesla,

I have a Sky+ box upstairs so I could swap the two boxes round, I could also get the original CRT I had with this box (its in the spare room now) and try this with the new remote. It does seem like some sort of blocking is going on because after 30-40 seconds it works fine.

I assume that which scart socket on the TV the SKY box is plugged into doesn't matter, Scart1 is labelled RGB and this is where I have plugged the Philex Thor cable which is not an RGB scart cable (it is audio and video). Scart 2 is not RGB. The SKY box is set to output RGB in the picture settings, but it was set at that with the CRT TV so I think this is a red herring.

It is an old SKY box, (8 years old now) and in the future I may upgrade to a SKY HD box if they drop the price a bit.

Thanks again.