SKY+ Flashing picture

[disneybrian]

Hello. I am a brand new member and I hope that someone can help me with a problem that I'm finding with sky+. (apologies if this problem has been posted previously....).

I'm new to Sky+ (approx 3 months), but have had sky digital for a number of years.

Since Sky+ has been installed, there has been an occasional "flashing TV screen" problem. To explain it further - the screen flashes from what is a normal picture to a black & white picture and back to normal in the space of about 1 second. It can go for days without doing it, it can do it once in a while, or it can do it repeatidly - so much so that you can't watch the TV. Seems more worse on some channels than others (nickelodeon and discovery are worse, but has also happen on ITV and others....). It happens on normal viewing and on recoreded programs (on Recorded programs, it happens at the same position every time - ie.. I rewind it and happens again and again).

I had the Sky Engineers out, and the box has been replaced 3 times (a Thomson box) - the problem has been there with all of them.

The TV is a Sumsung 42" plasma which I've had for approx 4months prior to the sky+... It never happened with the previous sky box and it doesn't happen when I watch digital TV through the TV's digital tuner.

However.... The last Sky Engineer tried the box with another TV (old portable tv) and the problem didn't happen!!! (We found a point on the recorded program where it happened on the Samsung, changed to the portable and it was OK).

I can only imagine there is some sort of incompatability between the Sky+ and the Samsung TV??? I've tried different connections between the TV and the Sky+ (Scart, S-video and ariel connection) and it still happens.

Has anyone else ever experienced this type of problem?? Any advice??

Thanks - Disneybrian.

[District69]

I have a Samsung 42 Plasma with a HD box which is used only as a Sky + box.

The only problem I get is the 'Ticker Tape' flickers occasionally on Sky News, BBC24 etc.

Other than that it's fine.

Is there any way you can try your box on another TV the same as yours, maybe in the shop you bought it from?

[zczcs12]

Mate,

I'm in the same boat at the moment. Have had a nightmare with it, but after four months of mucking about I finally managed to find someone in Samsung who knew what they were talking about. I'm still in the process of fixing this myself, but here's what he told me.

Basically, (I'm told) it comes down to an incompatability with Thompson Sky+ boxes and particular model of Samsung TVs. The Thompson box apparently manages to corrupt the software of the TV and the flashing occurs intermittently. Other manufacturers did find a problem and patched the software of their Sky+ boxes but I was told Thomspon refuse to fix this problem. What I was advised to do was to get the software reset on my TV (which you can do yourself through the service menu and resetting the software) and basically get hold of another skyplus box from one of the other manufacturers (Pace/Panasonic/Amstrad). I've just bought an Amstrad on ebay and am awaiting it's arrival.

The engineer told me that they had managed to get the Thompson to work if it wasn't 'talking' directly to the TV but was routed (via scart) through something like a DVD recorder or something like that. I tried passing it through a scart switch and that didn't work for me so I sourced a sky+ box on ebay. I should be able to get my money back by selling my Thompson up there - it should be fine with other TVs.

I hope this helps you chap - it's been a long road for me. I actually joined this forum with the sole purpose of telling you about this, as it's been such a git for me.

I'll post again to tell you if the sky plus box switch fixes the problem for good.

B.

[disneybrian]

Hello B,

Thanks for the feedback. Your reply makes perfect sense and it was an incompatability that I always suspected. My box is still under warrenty, so, I will call SKY back out again and ask them to replace the box with another make.
Keep me informed with the new Amstrad box. I'd like to hear of the improvement.
I tried the "scart through the DVD" thing a number of weeks ago and saw that it didn't work. I also changed the settings of the software.
SO - a new box it is.
Thanks for your help.

Brian.

[nefe]

Hi

I am having the same issue and can not find my manual for my Samsung TV.

Can anyone tell me how i do a software reset on my TV?

Thanks

Nefe

[jasonx1]

lol i my mother had this probelm on her old pace sky plus box

go to settings and go to picute settings . select and make sure all settings are like this 16.9. 16.9 then scart on, set coulor to PAL and not rgb

THIS SETTINGS HAVE WORKED GREAT ON SAMSUNG 42"PLASMAS MADE FROM 2008 and make sure scart is plugged in from tv output on sky box (as i seen sky pepps do fron vcr output) and the other end in the first scart socket on tv

also if the sound is bad on sports channels due to shouting in the mic ect change the sound volume bar one 1and a half " and save