sky tv with hd tv

[j.o.s.h.1408]

I heard somewhere that when you connect a sky digital box via scart into a hd tv, the picture quality is fuzzy. in this case its the same with me, how can i make the picture from the sky + more clearer? it looks worse compared to using my old massive crt TV..

I have dvi,vga, scart and the phono plugs at the back of my hd tv. any suggestions?? cheers

[directhex]

have you considered getting sky hd?

[Steve B]

using the DVI output should give u higher quality than the scart, as scart is just composite

[j.o.s.h.1408]

but dont i need sky hd for the dvi output? sky hd is too expensive for my liking plus i got sky + a couple of months before sky hd came out.And not every channel on sky is HD

[Funkstar]

are you using the basic cable that came with your TV or Sky box?

Might be an idea to get a half decent cable. Personally i wouldn't spend silly money, but getting a nice well made cable has to be better than the cheap plastic pieces of rubish you get bundled with most equipment.

[chrestomanci]

Sky HD boxes have an HDMI port that can be connected via an adaptor cable to a DVI port on a HD tv or computer monitor. All other sky boxes have just scart, UHF and S-VHS.

When you connect any standard def signal (from any source) to an HD tv, The video scalar in the the HD tv has to convert the 480i signal to the native resolution of the panel (usually 1280x720). If the video scalar is good, the resultant picture will look almost as good as an HD broadcast. If the video scalar is rubbish you will see all sorts of combing, moire and other artifacts.

Basically the picture quality you see when you hook your Sky box to an HD tv will depend on the video scalar in that TV.

If you have Sky HD and hook up via HDMI, then the sky box will do the video scaling when you are watching SD channels. Lucky the video scalar in the sky box is fairly good. In thought it was better than most of the HD TVs I compared it with.

[BigBry]

Put the Sky signal into a cheap HTPC (Home Theatre PC) and use the free Dscaler 4 to improve the picture quality.

You can run Dscaler with a low spec machine (an old Pentium or AMD system around 2Ghz or equivalent is a more than adequate spec) with a suitable TV capture card getting the Sky picture via s-video.

[Skinleech]

Originally Posted by chrestomanci

Sky HD boxes have an HDMI port that can be connected via an adaptor cable to a DVI port on a HD tv or computer monitor. All other sky boxes have just scart, UHF and S-VHS.

When you connect any standard def signal (from any source) to an HD tv, The video scalar in the the HD tv has to convert the 480i signal to the native resolution of the panel (usually 1280x720). If the video scalar is good, the resultant picture will look almost as good as an HD broadcast. If the video scalar is rubbish you will see all sorts of combing, moire and other artifacts.

Basically the picture quality you see when you hook your Sky box to an HD tv will depend on the video scalar in that TV.

If you have Sky HD and hook up via HDMI, then the sky box will do the video scaling when you are watching SD channels. Lucky the video scalar in the sky box is fairly good. In thought it was better than most of the HD TVs I compared it with.

Whislt this is true, the upscaling can't add detail that is not there - if the signal is noisy or low bitrate anyway, no upscaler, eitehr the internal tvs, Dscaler, or an upconverting dvd player for example, will help.

[BlueMagician]

Originally Posted by k0m0d0_dragon

... as scart is just composite...

I thought SCART usually carried RGB as well, which is effectively component video, and superior to composite.

S.

[Funkstar]

not always. SCART *has the ability* to carry RGB as well as just about everything else as well, it just depends if the pins on the cable are wired (most bundled cables are not), the output and input ports have to be RGB capable as well.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART probably all you need to know about SCART, including a pin out diagram