Hardware Forum - RE: Sony Bravia 40W5500 review after a few months - Page 3

It'll work fine. It's just that a scart connection is analogue so isn't likely to be the best image possible (whereas hdmi probably is). I use Sky+ through a scart and it's fine.

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It doesnt say anything or anywhere that when purchasing the bravia i will need a HD box to get decent pictures.I have sky+ which as far as i am aware is digital so if have a good scart lead,which i have why shouldnt i expect a good picture.

You don't need to get SKY HD, but you have to accept that SKY+/scart is not the best possible feed.
Scart is an analogue connection, so your SKY+ signal is digital, converted to analogue, then converted back to digital by the TV.
It is my belief, and I think it's reasonable, that the TV manufacturers do not spend much time with the scart side of their TVs these days.
Why should they, when it's dying a death?
So the processing part of the TV that deals with scart won't be much cop.
You probably will get a half-decent picture with scart, but I reckon you'll notice a massive difference with HDMI, on all channels (HD and SD).

I gave my mother my old 32" LCD Toshiba the other day.
So that telly was changed from HDMI feed to scart feed (she has SKY+ too)
The loss of picture clarity was quite marked.

This item was edited on Tuesday, 10th November 2009, 09:51

Thanks for your replies,i will look forward to getting the hd box then,but at least can expect a reasonable picture in the meantime.

Roy

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The loss of picture clarity was quite marked.
I'm guessing here that you did check yuor Mum's set was on RGB out and not composite Bowf?
Both in the Sky services menu and in the TV input menu as I would agree on up to date movies and sports stuff that HD does look much better but on general Sky stuff the difference just isn't that powerful...

Actually, was at my mate's last night, he had Gattaca playing on it and it was 4:3, listed as widescreen and the EPG when you hit the info button was in wide! made it look crap and as it was showing on a plasma had the possibility of screen burning the sides... not good and definitely not a reason for me to even think about SkyHD.

Oh, and the picture from the statin in general (was HD btw) was poor, other HD channels looked better but not all.

Then there's the 1080i output and not 1080p... but as you can guess, Sky hasn't managed to get me to convert to being a fan of HD yet

One thing you could confirm for me though, I was under the impression that without an HD subscription then the HD features/channels just won't work including the ITV, BBC etc.. don't suppose you have a normal sky card kicking around to check that one do ya?

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

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I'm guessing here that you did check yuor Mum's set was on RGB out and not composite Bowf?

You need to ask?
Nah, the fact is there is a marked difference in picture quality between SKY/scart and SKY/hdmi, on most TV's.
Of course, many people may find the SKY/scart picture perfectly acceptable, that's a different matter.
I do have HD and normal SKY boxes in the house, but I don't think switching the cards would give the answer you seek.
Cards and boxes have to be 'paired' to each other, so I'm not sure I'd get anything at all.

This item was edited on Thursday, 12th November 2009, 14:19

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Nah, the fact is there is a marked difference in picture quality between SKY/scart and SKY/hdmi, on most TV's.
This is my point Bowf, except on HD programming there is very LITTLE difference in the displays, even to the point that initially Sky were getting loads of moans about their HDMi connection being crap.
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I do have HD and normal SKY boxes in the house, but I don't think switching the cards would give the answer you seek.
Cards and boxes have to be 'paired' to each other, so I'm not sure I'd get anything at all.
OK, first off it depends if the "normal" cards carry the HD subscription, this would be found easily by simply selecting a premium HD channel like movies or sports... if it works, the card has HD sub, if not, it doesn't and will answer the question ok.

Power off the box, remove the card, insert the suspected non-hd card, reboot box (by power off I mean shut the power off not standby).
It shouldn't allow the box to record but it should work.
If that still states the card is incorrectly paired, into the installer menu and do a "callback" (might need to repeat that when returned to it's own box) and it should work ok.
Again, may not allow recording but not what I'm trying to find out
Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

tele came today up and running on sky+ and rgb scart,picture is very good indeed and blue ray dvd via hdmi is awesome.
Cant wait for sat when my sky hd box is put in.

All in all very pleased indeed.


Roy

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This is my point Bowf, except on HD programming there is very LITTLE difference in the displays, even to the point that initially Sky were getting loads of moans about their HDMi connection being crap.

Well that goes against every upgrade from SKY+ to SKY HD I've seen, Choagy.
Everyone I know, including me, sees a marked improvement in picture quality on all channels when using HDMI.
But if you don't notice the difference, stick with the cheaper option.
I couldn't go back to scart though.

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Well that goes against every upgrade from SKY+ to SKY HD I've seen, Choagy.
<koff> CHOAGY!?!?!

Anywhoo, yeah, initially Sky had loads of hassle about HDMi out on their boxes as the signal quality was very poor. Whether this was content transmission or actual HDMi connection I dunno but the complaints were there.

People see differing things in differing sets. I can see solarisation in Plasma, I can see motion blur and an effect I can only describe as being like the text from the virus in ID4 , like vertical lines of blocks on LCD panels (some more markedly than others)

HD content and input reduces this but it's still there, it's inherrent with the technologies.
I have a PS3 running 1080p bluray, I have an upscaling DVD player thats always done a great job and normal Sky+. All operate fine on my setup and although there is an improvement on BD there isn't enough improvement to SkyHD to warrant the extra tenner.
If however, the other HD stations came through without Sky's HD stuff and without the extra tenner I'd probably hunt down an HD box.

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"