Insane Need to Maximise Digital Equipment - Help Needed

[Griffin NoName]

Green wires aerial -   external -> digi-box -> VCR -> dvd/tuner -> TV

Red wires scart
                  digi-box -> VCR -> scart splitter
                  dvd/tuner -> scart splitter

                  scart splitter -> TV

TV is analogue. One scart socket. Analogue reception irrevocably so bad unwatchable.

Connectivity all works fine.

Reason for connecting it like this:

I Record from digi-box to VCR so video recording digital not analogue.
I want to ALSO Record (digital tuner) to DVD recorder while watching another digital channel on TV. (DVD recorder has this capability).
This would allow me to record two digital programs while watching a third digital program live, meaning I don't have to scream curses at the hopeless analogue.

This all up and running but has one fly in the ointment.

I can record no problem to the VCR while the DVD recorder is ON.

I can switch between them all - TV VCR DVD/Tuner.

The DVD tuner display on the TV is execllent, providing the VCR is off.

If the VCR is on, the DVD Tuner produces a pitcure on the TV that rolls around, splits up a bit, is identifiable as what expect to see, but is a bit scrambled. I am assuming this is caused by interference. It happen whether the scart on the DVD recorder is set to video or to RGB.

Any bets on most likely cause, of the ones I can think of, or any I cant think of:

1. Only one of the Scart leads - new one - is high quality fully shielded.
    The others are good quality but without the individual wire shielding. Is it worth outlay to see if replacing one of the old ones with a better one would solve it. They are so expensive!

2. Is the DVD recorder channel too close to the VCR channel?

    Detail: remote from TV has 2 buttons. One labelled TV/AV, t'other is  button 0 labelled VCR. I can switch to the VCR with the 0 button labelled VCR and to the DVD recorder with the button labelled TV/AV on the TV remote.
    When in VCR or TV mode on the TV, I can manually tune the TV and see what channels everything is set to including the VCR (channel 50).
    When in TV/AV - switched to the DVD recorder (VCR off) the manual tuning on the TV menu doesn't exist. It gets "disappeared". The DVD recorder is a bit of a control freak. I can't find a way of accessing anything relating to the channel for the DVD recorder. The TV Remote is basic, the TV instruction book's level of information sticks at how to turn the power on. (I was going to program the DVD Recorder to channel 8 on the TV remote rather than having it on the TV/AV button but I can't do that unless I can find the channel to store and anyway it's a bit of a red herring).

3. The TV could go on AaaaaaarghBay!!! and get replaced by a digital TV with two scart sockets, but I can't afford that.

4. I refuse to be beaten.

HELP!!

[beagle]

How does the scart switcher box determine which of the vcr or dvd/tuner to send to the output scart going to the TV? Has it got a switch/remote-control to select input channel 1 or 2?

If so I would:

Turn off the vcr and dvd/tuner.

Set the scart switcher box input to the DVD/Tuner channel.

Pull the Dvd/Tuner input cable out of the switcher box.

Look at the TV picture (probably speckled dots).

Turn on the VCR.

If you get anything resembling a picture despite it being set to the DVD/tuner channel then it sounds like the Scart switcher is not isolating its input channels correctly and the mixture of signals wrecks the sync.
My own experience of these boxes is not good.

Unfortunately any solution involving routeing the DVD signal through the vcr will mess up your parallel recording ability (which is probably why you devised this cunning plan in the first place ), and probably give you a similar scrambled picture effect when playing Macrovision protected DVDs (unless the player has been chipped).

[Long rambling anecdote]
About 1984 I blew my first month's wages, of my first proper job, on a £250 14" Sony Trinitron portable TV.
It has proven indestructible and is still going fine 23 years on. It however, has no scart socket, so consider yourself blessed:-)
I am resigned to the fact that it will outlive me and become some sort of family heirloom, like the early Georgian CD rack I bought at a shady antique shop in Hove.

[Griffin NoName]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes, that is the reason for the cunning plan.

(if chaining, the VCR would have to be fed through the DVD/Tuner rather than the other way round, but that's immaterial in this scenario but may be useful to anyone reading this thread. Don't ask me why, the manual doesn't explain properly - only says poor image the other way round).

I've managed to clarify more exactly what happens. With the digi box ON, the VCR OFF, and the DVD/Tuner ON, I can watch BBC News 24 coming from the digi box and Film4 coming from the DVD/Tuner all at once on the TV screen. Now that's real parallel processing! Both signals are good, so it is actually possible to view both at once. (Both set to transmit the same programme is equally amazing !!)  Unfortunately my brain is finding it hard to follow two programmes at once, so I don't think it's a long term solution.

Indeed the Scart switcher isn't isolating it's input. For some reason (distrust?) I hadn't thrown away the packaging. It has everything in huge letters claiming to be multi-adapter and so on and so on, and tiny lettering (magnifying glass needed) saying just turn on the device you want to see. Can't believe I failed to see the small print.

If the VCR could record in standby mode I'd be sorted. But it can't.

So I will

a) take your advice that switching is not a very good way to go and reduce my expectations to only being able to watch digital while recording one digital programme not two (which is still an improvement on before)

b) keep looking for a switching option that works to satisfy my insane needs

(I record on a second TV VCR set up AND on my laptop (DTV) so my insane need is to be able to record 4 programmes at once while watching a fifth. I blame Choice. We were much better off when there was only one programme available and that was black and white).

If I am blessed with my TV with one scart, it is only because MY Sony portable bought in 1971 conked out 18 months ago forcing me to scrap it. Digital worked fine on it via digi box with loop through using the aerial. ( yours should last a few more years !).

Can you fit Big CDs in that rack ? (those ones like chunky toast slices?) I always wondered why they had to invent DVDs and not just make CDs fatter.

[beagle]

I had a scart switcher which was supposed to switch input channels, but it was still pretty useless. It separated them all right but whichever channel you watched had some ghosting.  I suspect that (even with the benefit of Chinese child labour) it's hard to build a decent amplifier down to the £20-£30 maximum that most people would be prepared to pay for a scart switch.

[Griffin NoName]

I dithered over an expensive one I saw on sale - good price too. Too late now. Clearly someone should go into the Dragon's Den with some great proposal on this one. Doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

[Griffin NoName]

Know anything about either of these:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?detail=full&ModuleNo=46677&doy=4m3#more_info

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?detail=full&ModuleNo=47412&doy=4m3

[beagle]

No, I'm afraid not. The blurb sounds believable. But then it usually does...

[Griffin NoName]

Thanks.

One bad review at amazon, all the rest seem fine but I have the feeling they might all have been written by one person

I spoke to the manufacturer today - bluedata - to check it would actually do the specific thing I want. It will, and more, apparently I would be able to watch two programs at once - I explained that means three then ... (with or without ghosting).

I'm beginning to think there may be a market for this for couples who can't agree which channel to watch !

[Griffin NoName]

Progress slow on the switch. Forgot I needed yet another scart cable. Hard to believe one still needs cables at all.

More digital ranting tonight. I can no longer get Five or CBeebies via DVB-TV on my laptop. I guess I can manage without CBeebies. But where has Five gone? It's been missing a month or so now. I know it's spreading to more areas; is it doing so be leaking out of the areas it was already in ?

[Black Bart]

You can manage without CBeebies...good grief you've caught Scart cable madness!!!!

[Griffin NoName]

Gaaaaaarrrrgghhh!  Don't talk to me about Scart Cable Madness !!
It's getting worse.

I just discovered a potentially lethal "dependency" flaw in my wiring diagram (above). The aerial loop-through only works if the digi box has "power" ON (tho it can be in standby mode as it usually is). The digi box is a bit dodgy or I'd never have discovered this Scumsoft type "feature".

[Black Bart]

I've spotted another major flaw in your diagram...you've got the whole kaboodle linked up to a ship's mast instead of an aerial!

[Griffin NoName]

I'll mention that possibility to the next lot of cowboys we get in. (see analogue thread).

[Griffin NoName]

My insane needs have been re-triggered by spotting this tilevision.

[ivor]

I like it!  Everyone needs a TV in the shower.