Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Well, I gave up on component output for now and connected it the following way: NTL Box > SCART > DVD Recorder > SCART > TV. The picture looked OK until I tried changing the DVD recorder output to "RGB" and then the picture quality went back to being poor, similar to the problem with component out. The strange thing is that again, watching a DVD on it looks great with these settings.

I can only conclude that the DVD recoder is faulty, as if I connect the NTL box directly to the TV I can get a great quality RGB picture :(

---------- Post added at 21:13 ---------- Previous post was at 21:12 ----------

Its 576 lines. Interlaced or progressive is a selectable option, although the PQ is terrible on either setting when watching NTL.

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Having re-read your original post slysy, how you wired things up in post #16 is how mine was set-up - but I got the poor quality picture.

I since bought a multi scart adapter so that all my RGB equipment can be set to that, as my older Sony TV doesn't have RGB on all scart sockets.

My Samsung NTL STB is connected via scart from the video out socket to the input on the DVDR. If NTL produced a STB with RGB on the video socket (as the future is not DVDRs and hard disk recorders) this would solve a problem of wiring through DVDRs :)

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Whats to stop you connecting the SCART labelled TV on the NTL box to the recorder, instead of the one labelled video/VCR? Or did I misunderstand you?

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

I'd normally recommend that a DVD recorder be connected to the TV scart of the STB because the other one cannot output RGB.

However, I suspect that the recorder is ignoring the RGB information anyway and just looking at the composite signal. Does the recorder have a menu setting to configure the scart input? Can you set it to RGB? If not then try setting the STB to output composite instead of RGB, it might be better.

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

I dont think you can configure the scart input. Setting the STB to composite output still gives a poor quality picture. Clutching at straws here but the scart cable supplied with my NTL box is capable of an RGB signal right?

Really appreciate all the help :)

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

It should be, but just to check connect the STB direct to the AV1 input on your TV. Go into the STB settings and flick between RGB & composite. You should see the picture change.

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Because like you I get poor picture quality when I do that. It sort of goes blurred or feathery - I call it extreme RGB lol!

We may end up taking the DVD recorder back because we have had a number of jerky recordings on good discs - but that's another problem entirely :)

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Tried that, I do see a picture change, so I guess thats not the problem.

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

It's possible that this issue is being caused by the DVD Recorder having AV.Link capability, which enables it to negotiate it's input video signal format.

Although NTL boxes do not support AV.Link, it could be that for some reason, perhaps spurious noise voltage on SCART AV.Link pin 10, the DVD recorder is defaulting to a different type of video input signal than the one required.

Why not try recording from another SCART source, although not a DVD player, as any CGMS-A signal present will inhibit copying and only serve to confuse matters further!

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

The only other thing that I can try is an xbox 360 connected using a component to SCART adapter. Would this be enough to test with? Whatever the result is it fair to say this looks like a fault with the recorder?

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Have you got a freeview box - you could always try that :)

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Well I tried connecting the 360 to it. The resulting picture was very strange: It was kinda squashed into the top 3/4 of the screen and the bottom quarter was just snow/noise/flickering. I have arranged to return the DVD Recorder to amazon, it is being collected next Tuesday :(

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Do you guys think that it is worth picking up another unit of the same model, or am I likely to get the same problems? I phoned Samsung about it and they said that my unit sounded faulty.

Re: Poor picture quality watching NTL through DVD recorder
 

Sorry for posting several times in a row, but I have found a post about another Samsung DVD Recorder with a similar sounding problem here http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/...d.php?t=394410 . Perhaps it would be a good idea to avoid this brand in the future. Can anyone recommend me another entry-level budget DVD Recorder with an HD (80GB+), that has been fairly recently released (preferably in 2006)?

Thanks again for your help.