HELP tuning video

[belmont5]

Earlier this week we bought a new widescreen TV & I am having great problems trying to tune the VCR.

I have connected the new TV, VCR & skybox as shown in the skybox manual i.e. terrestrial aerial & satellite aerial to skybox, two scart cables from skybox, one to TV & the other to VCR, RF cable from skybox to VCR & RF cable from VCR to TV.

I have tuned the five terrestrial channels & sky to the new TV & can use the Sky remote to switch between TV & Satellite no problem.

I have tried tuning the VCR to the TV by setting the TV to channel 8 & playing a video in the VCR while automatically scanning on the tuning menu, it picks up everything but the video. I have also noticed that when the remote is set to Sky then I can switch the VCR on ok yet when I switch the VCR on when the remote is set to TV then Channel 6 which is where Sky is tuned to becomes unwatchable due to interference.

Hope you can understand this. Thanks for looking & I hope someone might be able to help.

Cheers

Jamie.

[Sparks]

Your video player may not have an RF modulator fitted, this means it will record off the terrestrial, or RF, but cant rebroadcast the signal back down the aerial cable to your TV (it will however pass through any signals that enter the VCR via the aerial.

Providing you have a SCART cable connected from your Sky box to your TV, you want to be watching both sky broadcasts and video tapes via this, and not through a tuned channel - you will get a much better quality picture, and better sound via the SCART (Try turning on your SKY box, and then changing the TV to AV1 (usually a square box with an arrow pointing into it on the remote control)

If this works, then try to turn off the Sky box, keep it on the AV "channel" and then play a video - In theory, the signal should go from the VCR, through the off sky box, and then into your TV

Hope this helps!

Sparks...

[Roger Mills]

As someone else has said, I'm not sure why you are using RF tuning when you appear to have direct video connections via Scart. However, if you *do* need RF (e.g. to distribute to other sets around the house) the chances are that your sky box and your VCR are outputting on the same (or maybe adjacent) channels, so that they interfere with each other. If this is the case, you will need to change the output channel on one or other of them - but be careful not to tune it too close to any of the terrestrial channels. [I'm talking here about the UHF frequency channels - all of which are in the range 21-68 - NOT the programme channel (1, 2, ... 6, ... 8 etc.) on your remote control]

HTH, Roger

[BigWallop]

Hi Jamie,

Remove everything from the equation except the TV and VCR. Plug your antenna into the VCR then out to your TV. Put the VCR on its test signal, then tune the TV to it. You now know the TV is picking up the VCR.

Now tune in the channels on the VCR. There, that's that bit done. You now know the VCR is picking up all the channels available to it through the ariel.

Next, you'll have to bring in the Sky Box, but make sure you only plug the ariel into them, i.e. Ariel to VCR then out to Sky Box, then out of Sky Box to the TV.

Now put the Sky Box on its test signal and tune the TV to it. Now this if where the fighting might start. The usual TV setting for peripheral appliances is channel 39 on the TV and both your Sky Box and VCR may both be set to this frequency, so it is your choice of which unit you select to give a different output. Usually the VCR's are the easiest, so take a look in the VCR instruction manual on how to change to RF output to a different TV channel.

If you can, try to set the VCR output to somewhere around the 45 - 46 mark and then re-tune the TV back in to it.

You should now be able to switch the TV between the VCR and Sky Box with no problems.

Now it's just a case of putting the SCART leads in place as the instruction says and everything should be hunky dorry. :-))

A bit long winded, but I hope it helps a bit.

[BillR]

And check here for channels used and for clashes

[Martin]

Find a Five year old, from experience they're naturals with videos.

[Bob Minchin]

What is this site supposed to do?

I get Microsoft VBScript compilation error '800a0400'

Expected statement

/diyha/scripts/SelectRegion.asp, line 7

Option Explicit ^

when I try it.

Bob

[L Reid]

Hmmm.

I have a different set-up, but before I tell you what it is, it'd be useful to know what scart sockets you have available (e.g. 2 x Video, 2 x TV (11 RGB + 1 SVideo), 2 x Sky box).

I have a slighly different set-up (as I also have a DVD player added to the mix) but this is how my set-up works:

For scart cables : Output of Cable box Input on Video. Output of Video via scart to scart input 2 on Telly. DVD connects straight from output to tv scart input 1 (not that that will be of any interest to you). This set up should allow you to watch Sky via your a/v channel on your video (which should give you as clear a picture as the direct connection, plus you get the best picture quality for recording programmes).

For RF cables : Firstly, check (via scart display) that the video and sky box are both set up to transmit an RF signal. Quite a few new fangled boxes these days have the option to switch off RF and just have the scart output. Go with your original set-up : ariel into skybox, skybox into video and video into telly. Normally boxes don't send out a signal unless they're switched on, so start with all the boxes (video and skybox, not telly) off and check telly is tuned in OK? Fine? Switch on video and set telly to a/v channel (i.e. video scart). Check all channels OK. Whack a tape in (or ideally use the test signal as this is more obvious) and select the channel you want to tune in to. Newer telly's allow you to enter channel no's so you should be able to key in the video channel directly. If not, scan about for it. I suspect it might be around the 35 - 39 range unless you've previously changed it. If you can't find it at-all, (but you can see it on scart and the RF modulator's enabled) I'd say your RF modulator's shot. Try disconnecting the ariel to make sure the video's not hiding behind channel

1. Hopefully now you have a TV and Video capable of picking up channels. Switch on the Skybox, switch off video and select video channel (RF not scart), if you can see the skybox channels, video and sky are broadcasting on the same frequency and you'll need to change one (probably video). If not, select a clean channel and tune in skybox. All should now be hunkey-dorey, though you might also want to tune in one video RF channel into the skybox.

HTH,

Leigh

[Dave Plowman]

Sounds like the VCR RF output frequency is the same as that of the Sky box. Try unplugging the aerial feed from the STB to the VCR and see if you can then pick up the VCR tuning signal.

But as others have said, you shouldn't be using an RF connection for either STB or VCR - you'll lose the stereo sound apart from possibly also picture quality.