Connector Conspiracy - please help

[Penguin]

I have just bought a TVOnics twin tuner 160gb DTR (the new one that can record 2 channels at once), to replace my old panasonic VCR and cheap digibox.

So I want to connect the DTR and my cheap DVD Player to my 10 year old Panasonic TV. I have the following connectivity problems:

The TV has 2 scart sockets but only one works, the other one only gives a black and white picture. So I have to use scart from one device and normal arial from the other.

The Arial Out on the DVD Player is not the standard size, it seems too small so I can't use the arial from that to the TV.

The TV cannot find an arial signal from the DTR. Does the TVOnics just pass through the arial signal without adding its own channel?

I don't want to buy a new TV yet so the only option I can see is to buy another cheap DVD player with an Arial Out that an arial lead will actually fit!

Does anyone else have any other suggestions?

--- Penguin.

[joegib]

The Arial Out on the DVD Player is not the standard size, it seems too small so I can't use the arial from that to the TV.


Don't understand. While there have been a few DVD players with a modulated RF (aerial type) output these are pretty rare. Anyway, why would you want to connect a DVD player to a TV via that connector rather than player SCART to TV — the latter is the conventional way of connecting these devices?

[doogie]

Does neither device have a through scart port? You could always buy a scart switch box for less than the price of a cheap dvd to allow you to connect two devices to the one scart socket.

[neilalford]

The TV has 2 scart sockets but only one works, the other one only gives a black and white picture. So I have to use scart from one device and normal arial from the other.

That could be a setup or cable problem, check the TV isn't set up to use S-Video through that scart connection, and if it is switch to composite (sometimes called Video I think) or RGB (RGB is best) and check that the DVD player is set to output the same thing. If the TV is expecting an S-Video signal through that scart and the device it's connecting to is only outputting composite (or the scart cable isn't wired for S-Video) you will get a black and white picture.

Also, I would imagine that what you are calling an aerial socket on the DVD player is a phono composite socket (is it yellow?), in which case you may have a suitable socket on the TV to connect it to (possibly on the front).

[Penguin]

That could be a setup or cable problem, check the TV isn't set up to use S-Video through that scart connection, and if it is switch to composite (sometimes called Video I think) or RGB (RGB is best) and check that the DVD player is set to output the same thing. If the TV is expecting an S-Video signal through that scart and the device it's connecting to is only outputting composite (or the scart cable isn't wired for S-Video) you will get a black and white picture.

Also, I would imagine that what you are calling an aerial socket on the DVD player is a phono composite socket (is it yellow?), in which case you may have a suitable socket on the TV to connect it to (possibly on the front).

Thanks for that advice, I was unaware of the different types of scart signal. It probably is a mismatch there. In the end, I found that the DTR has a passthrough scart and I also got a scart 'hub'. All is now sorted. Thanks.

--- Penguin.

[Lorne.t]

Connector Conspiracy

Sounds like a song by The Fall!