onkyo and virgin (old telewest) box upscaling

[admin_exported]

ok firstly if this came up already dont burn me for posting again.

ok i have a sony 40V3000, Onkyo 606, PS3, tangent evo E5 surround speakers, yamaha sub and a virgin cable box (old Pace telewest box)

everything works just peachy but i have a problem with the onkyo and the cable box. when i try to connect the box to the reciever the sound is passed through but not the (unscaled) video. i tried it with S-video, and component, and still nothing. when i tried switching the inputs on the receiver to dvd or vcr the video displays in 576p with these weird vertical lines, but the quality isnt as good as if i connected the box straight to the tv. only thing i can think of is the cable box is way too old i mean it only has scart in and out, usb and ethernet no clue why tho. i really cant get me head around it, if someone can help i would really appreciate it.

thanks

L.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a bit confused: If the cable box only has scart out, I take it you are using some sort of converter for S-video/component connections etc...? Could this be the problem ? Apologies if I've missed something here. SC

 

[Anonymous]

oh sorry yeh i tried it with the converters after the scart to composite cable didnt work.

 

[pete321]

You've noticed a drop in quality because there's more connections involved. Everytime you add a connection there's the potential for signal loss/degradation. Personally I'm not a fan of video switching for that reason.

Use the best quality cables you can in order to rectify the problem.

I'm using a V+ box but that connects to my Onkyo 905 via HDMI.

 

[pete321]

Incidentally, Virgin Media have a special for new customers on a V+ box for £75 one off charge at the moment. If you ring them and say you're thinking of leaving to get Sky HD, you may get yourself a V+ box for at that price, worth a try.

With that you can connect to your amp via HDMI (get a decent one, Monster HDMI leads are cheap on eBay) and set the V+ box to output at 720p, not 1080i and you can set your Onkyo to just pass through the signal.

 

[Anonymous]

I'll be sure someone like QED must offer a scart to component cable, which will be good quality....If the fault IS in the cables and conversions, a decent dedicated cable may help.....

 

[Anonymous]

well the composite cable i have isnt the best but the s-vdeo and component are gold plated, they are from an archos dvr station so i guess they're not too bad. i actually had a simular problem with that too but it just needed some switching in the dvr options.