Sky+ with component?

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Soldato
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Hi all,

I need to get Sky+, but don't want to connect it to my aging 42" plasma via SCART, as the picture is terrible!

(Last Sky box was scart, and the picture was very speckly, but the box worked 100% fine on another TV)

As I have 360 connected via component, and that works fine, i'm guessing there's a problem with the TV/Scart.


So, as the TV has no HDMI sockets, i'm left with 1 more empty component input.


So, my question - is it possible to get Sky+ that connects to my TV via component?

Many thanks :)
 
AFAIK the first few generations of sky+ had component outputs, more recent ones (last 2yrs) only carry the scart out.

The First HD boxes did and i assume they still do.

Sky's picture over scart can still look very good, you just need to ensure you have changed the picture from PAL to RGB for the best image.
 
Thanks for that, might be worth me looking on the bay for an older box then?

and no matter what I did, picture still looked terrible over scart!
 
Scart RGB is just as good as component for a 576 line pal signal. However you do need an RGB compliant scart cable, and an RGB compliant scart input on the TV.

RGB scart on my 42inch TV looks fine even though its just standard def. (But Panny plasma TV's do have very good scalers it has to be admitted).

You do need to go into the Sky boxes menus to switch from Composite output to RGB, or the picture will be rubbish, and being an analog signal, a decent quality cable can make a difference.

For component, you are pretty much limited to a Thomson SkyHD box.
 
Let's clear a few things up. Early Sky+ boxes did NOT feature component. Early SkyHD (Thomson) boxes did though.

You can get an external converter box to go from RGB scart to component. You could also go to VGA if preferred.
 
Thanks all

And as I said, no idea why SCART picture is so bad. Perhaps a fault with the TV?
Hence me aiming to get component to ensure it works...

Tesla - in your knowledge, am I able to purchase an early SkyHD (Thomson) box and then just take out a regular Sky+ subscription to use it with? They're not going to get funny with me using another pre-bought box?
 
Before you go and spend extra money on things that you might not need, just try something first.

Take your scart lead out and look at the connections on the cable. Are there 21 pins including the outer one?

If so then connect it to scart socket 1 on your TV as this will be the only socket that is RGB compatible.

Check that the other end of the scart is connected to the TV out on the sky box and not the video.

On your sky remote press services and go to system setup. Then go to picture settings and make sure that it says RGB and not pal.

If after that it is still a bad picture then you might have to look at another way of connecting it up, but I would be surprised if you got a better picture any other way.
 
Sky+ always looks pants to me when compared to the inbuilt freeview tuner on a 50" Samsung plasma (720p). Colours are off, edges are nasty and there is some bleeding. AFAIK it's setup right. It's a pace box.
 
alexhull24 said:
Sky+ always looks pants to me when compared to the inbuilt freeview tuner on a 50" Samsung plasma (720p). Colours are off, edges are nasty and there is some bleeding. AFAIK it's setup right. It's a pace box.
Click to expand...

In theory the built in turner should be better (it does not have to travel down a cable to reach its source and you only have one set of opptions to deal with). That said you could always check as well by following what I said above.
 
dandos23 said:
In theory the built in turner should be better (it does not have to travel down a cable to reach its source and you only have one set of opptions to deal with). That said you could always check as well by following what I said above.
Click to expand...

I think you're right. Just didn't realise how much worse it could be. I'll have to check those settings and the cable, thanks.

Actually, I also have a freeview PVR box connected by scart too, albeit to a different TV, and that's perfect. Interestingly, the other TV is a CRT, and SD content on that (with a good source) beats the plasma easily.

However, I have a 1080p LCD and SD through the inbuilt tuner is worse than anything, but with HD and blu-ray it's just outstanding.
 
I know that someone will say that I am talking rubbish but for SD TV I prefer CRT to plasma or LCD (this is my personal opinion :p)

You will be amazed at how many people do have their kit wired up wrong.
The most common one is to put the DVD player in to scart 1 even though the DVD player will not do RGB (I know that some do), and the sky box in to scart 2 that won’t do RGB. Then they call up sky and complain about the picture quality and when the engineer gets there and tell them that it’s been done wrong you can almost guarantee that an argument will follow.
 
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