Ive recently purchased a 50" lcd tv and the problem i have is that the picture is looking blocky whilst connected to my sky box through scart cable, the rest of the units connected to like ps3 through hdmi and 360 through component is amazing and blu ray movies are , so is there a better way of connecting the sky box as i take it the poor picture is down to scart ??

 

Get Sky HD, or just a better quality Scart lead.

If you dont want Sky HD replace your box for the best one they supply, I changed my Scart lead and got the best box Virgin Media supply and it made a massive difference.

yodi

 

its down to the box, the best virgin media box upscales thats why yours was improved Yodi.

The lead wont make a difference.

 

mine is just a standard sky pace box, dont really want to pay over Ł300 for a hd box so what are my options ?

 

Make sure the settings on your sky box say 'Component' not 'S-Video' on the scart output mode option.

Chris

 

the only setting like that in my sky menu is rgb or pal ?

 

Coswurv, there is nothing you can do but bite the bullet and buy a sky hd box. The reason the picture looks bad on your 50" TV is; the normal sky box only outputs a small number of pixels (blocks). Lets say 100,000 pixels makes up the image, this looks ok on a 20" TV as the 100,000 pixels fill this ok.

When the TV is a 50" these 100,000 pixels are increased in size to fill the screen. This is why you see blocks at times on your screen, probablky more on fast moving images. Sky HD uses more pixels and the picture looks sharper on larger sets such as your 50".

***This is a basic explanation of how this works and is obviously more complicated****

edited to add, Comet are doing a SKY HD deal for Ł99.

 

thought that was the problem, ive had a look on the comet website and i cant see teh hd box for Ł99, its Ł299 plus a Ł30 set up fee ?

 

Just watch blu-ray films and play ps3 all the time

 

ive seen some replacement reciever boxes that have hdmi outputs on the back so i could buy this box, pair my viewing card with it and connect it to my tv via the hdmi cable rather than scart, would the picture be any better then, http://hisat.com/proddetail.php?prod...omecast&cat=59, this is the one i was looking at ?

 

Coswurv, That box will upscale the images but it will still not look as good as Sky HD as a true HD Image starts with the Higher number of pixels.

As for the Comet Ł99 deal, it appears it was an Xmas offer although I have seen some people post that they got a deal of Sky themselves for Ł199. May be worth giving them a call. I would sooner spend Ł200 on a Sky HD box than Ł150 on the one in the link.

 

Scart connections don't upscale - they pass a maximum of 576i (minimum "HD" is 720p (progressive) and 1080i (interlaced) and max "HD" is 1080p)


Well said that man - nice easy to understand explanation

I'll try to make it a bit more confusing

Standard def video in this country is all 576i. 576 relates to the amount of horizontal lines of picture, and the i relates to the scar type : i being interlaced (with p being progressive) Interlaced pictures show lines 1+3+5+6+7+8+9 etc, followed by lines 2+4+6+8+10 etc alternating, whereas progressive shows all lines, err, progressively ie in correct series and order - producing a more natural image, less flickery and has the ability to house more data, hence more lines.

HD is 720p minimum, 1080p maximum. So if your TV is a 1080p set, you have one-thousand-and-eighty horizontal lines of picture on your screen

If the screen is fed a 576 line source (such as Sky, Freeview, analogue TV, normal DVD etc) the TV has to enlarge the image so it fills the 1080 lines it has from the native 576 lines. Otherwise you would just have a small picture in the middle of the TV surrounded by blackness.

So it blows it up, and everytime you enlarge something, you lose quality. Moreover, blockyness is accentuated by bit rate (the quality of the source in binary form) - the lower it is, the worse it will be and the more artifacts will be visible. Hence why I bet standard def DVD films look better on your TV than Sky.

The reason the PS3 looks insane is becaue it outputs in HD (games in 720p, BluRay films in (mostly) 1080p) so using all the lines (720p=1080i so still uses all lines in a 1080p set) so naturally looks tonnes better

Sufficiently confused?

 

not to confused to be honest, if i went down the road of sky hd then would all the channels look better or just the hd channels for example sky sports hd 1, so would the normal channels like bbc 1, sky movies 1 etc just be the same quality as the box i have now ?

 

I just got the virgin V+ fitted
and i use a hdmi cable i chuked the scart

 

All the channels look better, but only the HD channels will show a vast difference. The best bet is to go into a PC World as they have a Sky HD demo running on a single TV. Turn it to an HD channel and the look at the difference between it and a normal channel.

If you go to www.avforums.com you will get good information on all aspects of HD.

 

Not all the channels will look better persay.... The non HD channels are still broadcast over satellite in exactly the same way, using exactly the same bitrates. The only difference is the box outputs them via HDMI (digital interface, like scart carries sound and video, but fully digital - much higher bandwidth - uncompressed video, up to 8channels of uncompressed audio etc). The upscales non-HD channels as it outputs a master resolution of 720p, so anything non 720p neds to be up (or down, tho nothing is broadcast in the UK higher than 720p yet) to fit the resolution. This shows some improvement, but not a whole lot. What it does do is reduce the ammount the TV needs to upscale, as the TV is being fed a 720p res constantly.

 

Well seeing as it seems you know what your on about what is the your best advice to get a better pic ?

 

sit 50 feet further away from the telly

 

I had a Sharp digibox with HDD connected to my 42" Pioneer Plasma through Pioneer LX50 AV amp but using a composite cable then HDMI to the screen, looked really shit! I've since bit the bullet and got Sky HD (for Ł99 before Xmas) and with HDMI connection looks spot on. So bite the bullet! Some HD stuff is awesome, some not really that great but overall every channel looks soo much nicer now using HDMI (or component is as good for picture apparently).

 

[quote="Thrush"]Scart connections don't upscale - they pass a maximum of 576i (minimum "HD" is 720p (progressive) and 1080i (interlaced) and max "HD" is 1080p)


I know that, but the best box virgin media do out puts via HDMI

 

I actually found using a Sky+ box that the quality of Scart cable made a huge difference!

Obviously we're talking the difference between some Ł2.99 job, and a proper piece of kit, but it improved picture quality no end, with that being the only difference.

Whether the signal was picking up some interference I don't know.

Only shame is that fast moving pictures still look absolute toss on LCDs!

 

Bet you have no worries watching all your old track day vids on the LCD though do you Rich


Nath, Pionner ROCK... I have that one.. one of the best thing I ever bought. It could be relegated tomorrow though... a local HIFI shop in Brentwood have a 60' in stock and are getting it set up so I am going to have a look tomorrow morning.

Pionner... SEXY tvs

 

ROFL

 

Low blow from leftfield coming through

 

Yeah, but I got no comebacks to return!

 

He still hasn't pulled Maria yet has he

 

Porkie, couldn't agree more mate, I love Pioneer stuff, without sounding anal about it I recently bought the following setup

Pioneer 428XD Plasma
Pioneer LX50 Amp
Pioneer DV600 upscaling DVD player
PS3
Sky HD
Kef IQ9 fronts
Kef IQ1 rears
Kef Iq6c center
Kef PSW2500 sub

...that little package is fucking awesome in my tiny 12 x 12 lounge!!!

 

Fook me that was good...

 

Now there is a line that Rich has never heard from any of his old passengers or girlfriends

 

 

Nice work Nath Sweeeet set up.

Is that amp a HDMI switching one?? Mine wasn't so I just got a Thor HDMI switcher. Its made my system work ALOT better....

before you needed a Masters degree in Nuclear Physics to swap quickly between the HD sources....

Now its just one button and even Carl-xr2i could work it out.. and he is a bit 'special' lets face it

AND it has a wicked blue display and a cool blue LED which makes me go 'ooooh'

 

Normally I'd be sniping back with little remarks, but I'm having writer's block! I have no comebacks!

 

writers block? or Wankers cramp...

 

Fuck it, I give up

 

back on topic, i had normal Sky on my HD Plasma (albeit through a decent gold-plated scart) and noticed it was a bit naff on some channels (especially some of the cheapo music channels who broadcast in very shite quality!). i have a DVD upscaler, so after watching films on that and switching back to the TV it was a bit of a disappointment.

i recently got sky HD and there is a slight improvement on all the channels, but the HD channels are absolutely stunning. i find myself watching programs all the way through ( that i wouldnt normally watch) because the scenery and special effects is so droolworthy.

and the footy looks amazing.

Sky HD is a bit pricey, but well worth shelling out to make the most of your HD telly.

and you get the sky plus free with it.

there is 12 HD channels on ours, they seem to be adding extra ones quite regular now.

you can buy the sky HD boxes a bit cheaper off ebay but i couldnt be arsed.

 

if i buy a hd box form ebay, do i just use my sky viewing card from my sd pace box and just ring sky to pair my card with the hd box ?

 

Just phone sky and they will pair the card for you, usually takes about an hour.

 

Would any of you AV Legends (those that have spoke horseshit that is), care to explain why certain channels have blocky pictures and others don't. Just perhaps it has nothing to do with the box, tv, scaler or lead and is EVERYTHING to do with the compression / bandwidth used or allowed for on that channel.

SKYHD is better, but only on the HD channels..... all the others will be the same whether it is through a SKYHD or SKY+ box.

 

Fagin - yeah I would - I already mentioned bandwidth and bit rates

 

Did I say YOU specifically.

That was a "if the cap fits" statement.