Virgin Media box and VCR - any suggestions?

tjfs · 02-02-2008, 23:52

At home my VCR has the useful property that when you turn it off (standby) the second SCART input is fed through to the main SCART output, so all I did was plug my cable box SCART output into the second SCART input on the VCR, plug the main SCART output from the VCR into the TV and all works as you would expect. Want to watch Cable, just turn on the cable box and TV.

Unfortunately, my mother in law has an unhelpful (JVC) VCR which pays no attention to what's happening on the second SCART if it's in standby and also ignores Pin 8 so if I connect her cable box out to her video then the only way she can watch cable is to turn on the TV, select AV on the TV, turn on the VCR, select AV2 on the VCR, which is frankly awful - three remotes to play with.

It doesn't get better if you put the cable box (Samsung) in the middle of the chain, as it seems the cable box also doesn't feed through when it's on standby. It will feed through if Pin 8 is raised on the VCR input, however her VCR only does this when it's in Play mode, so this isn't any good as you can't view the VCR menu, program the VCR timer etc.

My VCR has a nice button on the remote handset which allows you to toggle Pin 8 (it's marked TV/VCR) but hers doesn't. It also has a helpful mode where you can set it up so that it automatically starts recording if Pin 8 is raised on the input, unfortunately Virgin Media's cable box doesn't go back on standby at the end of a timed programme reminder so this is of limited use.

I've asked Virgin Media if there's a way to tell the cable box to feed through the VCR input and their representative in India seemed very confused.

Anyone out there got any ideas?

Thanks

Tim

**Rob** · 02-02-2008, 23:56

How many scart sockets does the TV have.

Usual setup would be:

STB #1 > TV #1
STB#" > VCR in
VCR out > TV #2

At least then autoswitch would work where supported.

If the TV only has a single scart maybe an autoswitching multiadaptor could be a better bet?

tjfs · 03-02-2008, 00:02

Mm, clever idea. The TV has two SCART sockets, however she also has a DVD player which is plugged in to the second SCART on the TV, so presumably your suggestion won't work as we don't have enough free SCARTs.

Instincts · 03-02-2008, 00:18

If the vcr wont output constantly and autoswitch doesnt work the best bet would be to get a scart video splitter which would let them have there own scart sockets unless you want to record tv then they would have to be daisychained, mine is connected STB> VIDEO>TV and my video is old and the video just has to be turned on all the time and set to channel av but ive only had to do that once and its stayed, dont know if ive helped in any way lol!

spiderplant · 03-02-2008, 10:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjfs

Mm, clever idea. The TV has two SCART sockets, however she also has a DVD player which is plugged in to the second SCART on the TV, so presumably your suggestion won't work as we don't have enough free SCARTs.

Does the DVD have two SCARTs? If so, you could do :
STB-DVD-TV
STB-VCR-TV

DVD Cinema · 03-02-2008, 11:06

I have 4 boxes into the one RGB scart of my telly. All show RGB output on my tv.

Boxes with 2 scarts are designed to be daisy chained together like this.

If you have a box with one scart, like my dvd player, put that at the start of the chain.

Like this...

DVD player > Virgin > DVD-RAM recorder > Freeview > TV.

Scart 1 goes into scart 2 of the next box and then scart 1 of that goes into scart of the next and so on.

tjfs · 03-02-2008, 22:06

As I mentioned in my original post daisychaining devices doesn't work because of poor design in the Virgin Media box and the VCR. Specifically:

- the Virgin Media box won't pass through the video signal unless pin 8 is high, and the VCR only does this when playing a tape

- the VCR doesn't pass through the signal on its 2nd SCART unless you select AUX2 on the remote, i.e. it ignores Pin 8. Also, if you put the VCR on standby it doesn't feed through.

Combine these two and you have a problem. My Ferguson VCR does feed though the input to the output when it's on standby, which means I get away with just one SCART on my TV.

I have now manufactured a Y cable. This worked for my TV and should work for hers. The idea is that the Y cable has three SCARTs, one in/out SCART with two cables coming out, outputs on one and inputs on the other. This cable can be used in a variety of ways, in this case I'm going to use it by linking VCR SCART1 to TV SCART1, STB SCART1 to TV SCART2, STB SCART2 goes to the middle of the Y cable, the "outputs" SCART goes to VCR SCART2 (to enable recording from cable) and the "inputs" SCART goes to the DVD player. I made the cable out of two Tesco Value SCART cables at 97p each so the total outlay was less than £2, if it works it's certainly cost effective

Tim

mlayzell · 03-02-2008, 23:00

Why go to all this trouble for a VCR, why don't you buy a cheap £50 Analogue DVD recorder.

What are you going to do when your VCR dies or only being able to record the program that you are watching (when the analogue tuner is no more)

tjfs · 03-02-2008, 23:15

- this is my mother in law's setup, not mine;
- how is she going to play all her tapes without a VCR;
- I don't see why an analogue DVD recorder would work any better than her VCR?

mlayzell · 03-02-2008, 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by tjfs

- this is my mother in law's setup, not mine;
- how is she going to play all her tapes without a VCR;
- I don't see why an analogue DVD recorder would work any better than her VCR?

Unless it is a matter of cost for your mother in law, she can have the best of both worlds with a digital VCR/DVD recorder.

If the cost of VM gets to much she can use the digital tuner to watch freeview and still be able to view those vhs tapes to boot.

You must admit it is getting harder to get a VCR, so it is better to future proof your love ones TV recording equipment. My dad loves his HDD/DVD recorder and he is 72

ntl.wotcha · 05-02-2008, 14:34

Eh ? My old STB setup was:

Scart: VCR > STB > TV.
RF: STB > VCR > TV

Always worked fine for me. When you record on the VCR you can use either RF or scart input and the VCR would only override the STB when in play back mode.

Anyway, V+ is your solution. VCR > V+ > TV easy peasy. let the V+ do all the recording

altis · 05-02-2008, 15:33

This is the standard setup that used to be recommended by NTL in the old VCR days excluding the FM radio bits that I have added myself.

You could try the DVD player on the 'in' Scart of the VCR.

I think you are most unlikely to find a DVD player with two Scart sockets - they all seem to have only one. On the other hand most DVD recorders have two Scarts. One big advantage of having an all-in-one DVD recorder/player is that it cuts down the number of connections that you have to make and the number of menus you have to learn. One with a digital tuner should also be able to record the Freeview digital stream directly, without lots of unnecessary analogue/digital conversions.