AV Help

Sorry, been trawling the AV forums all day but can't find owt. Hopefully one of you smart people can help lil old me.

Here's my setup-

Sky Box > SkyLink > DVD/HDD Recorder > TV

The Sky box is in another room, so Sky comes through a coaxial cable with a Skylink thing on the end. Take away the DVD Recorder and Sky works fine, picture and remote control work perfectly.

However, when I add the DVDR to the mix, the picture is poor quality and sometimes the remote control interferes (wavey lines) with the picture when a button is pressed.

Any ideas on what's interfering? Could my DVDR be incompatible with Sky and/or the Skylink? I've removed the SL from the loop but the picture is still poor, can describe it as almost scan lines but not quite.

It wouldn't be a problem if I could use only scart leads, but I cant.

Thanks.

Is the DVDR working OK on it's own? Say in a terrestrial setup. Or could it be a connection/faulty cable problem?

It may of course be the God of real life trying to tempt you away from the telly, but I digress..

What's SkyLink?

Sounds like the DVD Recorder & SkyLink/Skybox are using the same frequency, which is causing a conflict in picture. Can you retune your DVDs base frequency as you used to be able to do on video recorders (with the little screw at the back)?

Quote: Frankie Rage @ August 12 2008, 2:55 PM BST

Is the DVDR working OK on it's own? Say in a terrestrial setup. Or could it be a connection/faulty cable problem?

It may of course be the God of real life trying to tempt you away from the telly, but I digress..

View original

The DVD player itself works fine; it plays DVDs and previously recorded programs fine, but I guess that's because they run through the scart lead.

It's always been a bit iffy when it comes to terrestrial, the colours appeared washed out or grainy but nothing I couldn't live with. It's not until I installed it in my girlfriends bedroom (oo-err) that the problem occurred.

I'm pretty sure the small power supply running out of the Sky box to power the Skylink is the problem. But I want to make sure first.

Quote: Aaron @ August 12 2008, 2:58 PM BST

What's SkyLink?

View original

It's the magic eye thing which allows you to watch and change the channel in a different room to the Sky box.

It could also be a wireless router (if you have one), using the same channel number as your SkyLink.

Quote: Nil Putters @ August 12 2008, 3:04 PM BST

Sounds like the DVD Recorder & SkyLink/Skybox are using the same frequency, which is causing a conflict in picture. Can you retune your DVDs base frequency as you used to be able to do on video recorders (with the little screw at the back)?

View original

No but there is a frequency option in the setup menu when you tune the channels.

Quote: Leevil @ August 12 2008, 3:10 PM BST

No but there is a frequency option in the setup menu when you tune the channels.

View original

No, that's not it. If it has the option it'll probably be similar to video recorders. A small screw (inset) on the the back. For a quick fix, I'd try changing my wireless router channel (again, if you have one).

Quote: Nil Putters @ August 12 2008, 3:12 PM BST

No, that's not it. If it has the option it'll probably be similar to video recorders. A small screw (inset) on the the back. For a quick fix, I'd try changing my wireless router channel (again, if you have one).

View original

There is a wireless router but it's not mine and I don't fancy messing with it. It hasn't effect it before but if that's the case then I think for now it's just going to have to be a standard DVD player.

Thanks for the help.

If you can't alter the routers channel, have a look to see if the Skylink has an adjustable frequency channel. I'd imagine it probably would have, that sort of thing is normally little switches. Or switch off the router for a moment to see if the problem clears. Illiminate each device.

You could try just turning the router off and see what happens.

But highly unlikely to be that, or you'd have noticed your net being a c**t as well.

Anyway, it sounds like your DVD recorder is interfering with the signal. Is there a way to change the frequency the SkyLink adds itself into the cable on?

Do different degrees of your girlfirends nudity affect it?

Ok, so I connected another coaxial lead as if it were an extension and the Skylink is in the middle and far away from the input socket of the DVD player and yes it seems to have worked. Still some slight interference but nothing I can't fix with a better quality cable.

Thanks guys.