Auto widescreen switching

chopster

This has been bugging me for a while and it's kinda annoying as well.
I previously had a vcr/sat/dvd connected to a scart box which in turn was connected to the tv.Whenever i watch sky ( digital , not thru a cable provider) and i watch a widescreen format programme the tv would auto switch to widescreen 16:9 format.

Recently i did away with the scart switch box after having bought a hdd/dvd recorder. Now both the sky box AND the second dvd player are connected to this new recorder as the hub which in turn is connected straight to the tv.
problem is now that when i watch a widescreen programme the tv does not now auto switch to 16:9 mode , in which case i now have to manually switch the tv over to widescreen format.

The sky box is connected via scart and the dvd player via rgb to the hdd/dvd recorder. I know it has something to do with the scart cables and the relative pin being active or not . Granted all the scart cables i use are the cheap ones but they all have the pins in place i think.

So what do you all reckon , should i go and buy expensive copper/oxygen free cables ? But on that point would the expensive ones have all pins connected and solve my 16:9 switching problem ?

Thanks.

rabbitinlights

99% sure its the scart, if its a cheapo scart lead its not going to switch for you, I think its called a "modulating scart". try an expensive one and see, they are about €20 normally. worse thing that can happen is that you get a better picture quality, could you not leave the tv in 16.9 all the time?

chopster

Hmm, so you reckon it's the scart not having the relevant pin active then ? Ok , will try with a quality scart and see what happens . The reason i don't leave tv in 16:9 all the time is that i hate watching a squished screen for non widescreen programmes .

Furp

On some TV's the RGB scart socket is also the only one with the relevant pin to allow switching to occur.

An easy test would be to plug your SKY directly into the RGB scart socket on your TV and see if it switchs, between the 16:9 formats.

So the way you have it configured is this:

SKY Digibox---\

> HDD Recorder --> TV

DVD Player--- /


When you Play a DVD does the Tv switch to 16:9 if so then your HDD Recorder is not passing along the switching signal from the SKY Box you could switch the scarts around on the HDD.

Then it will switch for the SKY box and you only have to manually switch for DVD's then.

If it does not switch then your HDD is not passing along any switching signals from its scar t inputs and you will have to go back to a scart switch box.

chopster

Right , got an expensive belkin scart cable to connect sky box to hdd/dvd recorder, but alas no joy there

Furp , will have a look at your setup later tonight when everyone's in bed for some peace and quiet. When i watch a dvd there is no switching to 16:9 as all movies seem to be in the 4:3 letterbox format so there is no need to change tv to widescreen ?

It's just annoying that everytime a sky program is broadcast in widescreen i have to manually reach for the remote to change format.

Btw if i haven't mentioned this already my tv is widescreen also.

byte

Is there only 1 Scart socket on the TV?

Sky box has 2 Scarts. HDD/DVD probably too.

So HDD/DVD AV1----scartlead--->Sky VCR Scart Socket.
Sky TV Scart socket

---

scartlead---->TV AV1

DVDplayer----scartlead----TV AV2
OR
DVDplayer----scartlead----HDD/DVD AV2

pH

Yep - If your recorder can't make use of the RGB signal from Sky TV OUT (Which it almost definitely can't) then the way to go is as byte says.

Go direct from Sky box (TV OUT) via Scart to the RGB Scart on your TV.

Connect your DVD rec to the VIDEO OUT of Sky.

This way the Sky box is working as the hub, and the Widescreen switching (which is only available on the TV Out of the sky box) is sent to the TV

chopster

Got it sussed guys thanks , was never that clued up on this rgb/scart stuff.
Anyway as per mentioned the rgb input of the tv was avi/scart input 1.
I had the hdd/dvd recorder connected to this socket and the sky box connected to tv input 2 which must mean this is not an rgb input socket , ( still not sure about this rgb stuff and that the switching can only work with one ).

So basically i just switched the inputs from the recorder and sky box around on the tv and all's well again in widescreen land .

Again thanks to all.

chopster

Update :

Grrr , just noticed since i switched over the tv inputs ie:

input1 = sky box
input2 = Hdd/dvd recorder ( second dvd/divx player connected to this now )

Normally i use the Hdd/dvd recorder as the hub of all activity so i can utilise the functions of the hard drive and so i watch sky through this as well ( connected to the hdd on the second scart input ).

But now every time i change the channel on sky not only does the sky channel change but also the tv channel !?!
So i'm watching sky thru the hdd/dvd recorder on tv input2 , change the sky channel and the tv channel changes also to the sky box input1.

What's happening now ?

Reason i originally discarded the switch box was that there was interference in the picture when selecting hdd/dvd.