Sky Digibox and New HD TV - Picture is poor

[flex]

Hi!

Im new to this forum and was hoping you guys could help me with a problem i now have after upgrading to a HD TV at the weekend (Panasonic TH-42PZ82). I have a couple of questions so bare with me.

The picture quality from my sky digibox on my new HD TV is fairly poor, when the channel selection blue box is up the edges look very grainy and not as crisp as they should be. The TV has freeview built in and when i compare the picture on the same channel (such as bbc1) with it looks a lot crisper on the freeview.

Im sure the quality should be better and i am going to invest in some better scart leads as the ones im using at the mo are probably a bit cheap. Ive been reading about something called scart RGB which should provide the best picture via SCART, i understand for this i need a full 21 pin wired scart lead, so my first question is this:

How do i enable this RGB mode on my sky digibox and will it support this. Its a black Pace digibox about 5 years+ old. (Will get the full model no later tonight when im at home.)

My second question is will i get a better picture by purchasing a more up to date sky digibox?

My dad is going to lend me a sky+ box he is no longer using at the weekend. Do you think this will improve my picture quality, and will i still be able to use it with my current card etc? will i loose the recording functionality of the box.


Wow thats a lot of questions!! sorry guys. Any suggestions would be more than welcome! I am just trying to get the best SD picture from my sky i can as im not paying for the HD subscription until it comes down in price and there are more channels worth watching and my PS3 is serving my HD needs at the mo

[TRIaXOR™]

Thats the nature of the SD display of the standard box m8, and I have a V3 Sky+ box and the quality is also crap on my HDTV too, as for your dad loaning you a sky+ box, you do relise that a standard box only has 1 cable from a single LNB on the dish, a Sky+ and SkyHD require 2 from a dual LNB on the dish, so a direct swapout isn't as easy as you thought, and if you do get the dish upgraded to dual LNB you have to phone Sky to have your existing card paired to the new box

[richone54]

I'm sure there are some settings you can change in the services and set up on the sky box, see if changing from RGB to ??? helps (of the top of my head cannot remember what it is, but will have a look when i get home)

[Sam Radford]

I have a couple of questions so bare with me.

What would you like us to take off first?

see if changing from RGB to PAL helps

In theory PAL (actually composite) should produce a worse picture than RGB.

To get a decent picture on a HD TV, obviously you need a Sky-HD Digibox. Anything else is a compromise.

[dholdi]

a Sky+ and SkyHD require 2 from a dual LNB on the dish, so a direct swapout isn't as easy as you thought, and if you do get the dish upgraded to dual LNB you have to phone Sky to have your existing card paired to the new box

A + box will work on 1 lnb feed, you wont be able to use the functionality of + tho, you will however need to phone sky to pair the box and viewing card. An HD box is the pricey answer as sam says.

[TRIaXOR™]

An HD box is the pricey answer as sam says.

lol, Hence why I dont have one.. but I did hear they may be dropping in price soon from a mate who works at one of the call centres that Sky use..

lets hope its true

[flex]

I'm sure there are some settings you can change in the services and set up on the sky box, see if changing from RGB to ??? helps (of the top of my head cannot remember what it is, but will have a look when i get home)

Changed the setting from PAL to RGB! Loads better picture is a lot sharper now. Thanks a lot!!

[garyhopkin]

ive just bought a 42" vistron from ebuyer (lg panel,so not super crap quality),and suffering from major artefacts now with my amstrad box.

image quality is fine on my media center dvi ti hdmi...sky+ via scart is horrendous though,anyone have any ideas(i tried it via s-video,there is no artefacting but wavy lines across the screen...fixes one problem and creates another)

sorry to hijack your thread,but you look fixed now.i have also tried the pal/rgb switching.rgb is slightly sharper but artefacting still remains intermittantly more often than not.

[snakehollywood]

If I get a sky HD box, will this give improved pciture quality on ALL channels or only the HD channels ?

[Woodster]

ive just bought a 42" vistron from ebuyer (lg panel,so not super crap quality),and suffering from major artefacts now with my amstrad box.

image quality is fine on my media center dvi ti hdmi...sky+ via scart is horrendous though,anyone have any ideas(i tried it via s-video,there is no artefacting but wavy lines across the screen...fixes one problem and creates another)

sorry to hijack your thread,but you look fixed now.i have also tried the pal/rgb switching.rgb is slightly sharper but artefacting still remains intermittantly more often than not.

Unplug everything except the sky box, it sounds like you have other sources bleeding over the picture.