I got a Thomson DTI1000 STB today and have been having fun trying to set the system up as Her Indoors wants it. Doing it by the book, digital works fine, but we lost the analogue TV & Smartlink features like Direct Record. The TV picture's set to Panoramic, so when the transmission is some odd-ball ratio it still fills the screen, but this doesn't happen with the digital picture. Top & bottom bars, side bars, She Who Must Be Obeyed don't like that... so she wants the option to switch over to analogue. There are 2 scarts on the Sony 710 VCR and 3 on the JVC 28-WFR1EK TV. Question is, will it work if I get a 3rd scart cable, so cables are 1. STB to VCR line 2 IN 2. STB to TV (socket E1) [1 & 2 are by the book and work, digital and VCR only). 3. VCR to TV (using Smartlink socket E2 on TV and 2-way Line1 on VCR) (DVD is already using E3)
See no reason why that wouldn't work. But what is it you want to achieve with that? So you can watch the digital without having to go through the VCR? (What's your current setup). Have you got RF loops as well?
RF - yes, coax leads from STB to VCR, VCR to TV. It's set up exactly like the diagram at the bottom of this page but that setup doesn't use a direct tv-vcr scart smartlink. I don't think the Thomson stb is SmartLink capable, but one aim is to keep the TV-VCR SmartLink capability on analogue stations if possible. I can't touch anything tonight, she's taping stuff. I'll get another scart lead tomorrow & mess.
Back at home, the rents have a FreeView STB, VCR, and TV all inter-wired. This is the setup: With that, they can record from the STB and still watch analogue TV, or record an analogue program, and still watch the STB. They also still have Smartlink (or whatever the Panasonic one's called) between the TV and VCR. The Coax is only used if wantign to record from one source and watch another. Other than that it's all through Scart. Dunno if this helps.
Thanks, Sam, looks like a 3rd scart will do the trick. Got everything else OK, but with only the 2 scarts SmartLink won't work. Market day tomorrow, they've got some cheap gold-plated OFHC ones
Postscript, for anybody buying the Thomson box, get 2 extra scarts and another male-female coax as well if yur've got Smartlink, Megalogic, EasyLink, Q-Link, TV-Link or whatever. Wired up like Sam's picture it works a treat. Press record button and it tapes whatever yur watching, digital or analogue. Eee, gradely, lad