Outwitted by a SCART lead

[DAS]

Feel free to move this to The TX Suite if you feel that's a better home, although the interesting conversations about broadcast technology may be diluted by my incompetence with SCART.

OK. 1 x television + 1 x standard but elderly Sky box + 1 x SCART. In reality the setup is more complex but let's reduce it to the basics to save confusion. Everything has worked fine for years, perfect picture, no problems, until all of a sudden last week the picture started doing this kind of impressive trick:



A sort of flicker, unnoticeable for much of the time but exacerbated by bright pictures. No other interference present. Replacing the digibox with a DVD player replicates the problem, therefore proving the issue either to the TV or the SCART.

So, is anyone able to shed any light on how to solve this increasingly irritating problem:

1. Would a loose SCART socket in the back of the TV cause this kind of symptom? The case against would be that I can replicate the issue using both SCART 1 and SCART 2 sockets, plus the problem only suddenly occurred.

2. Would a cheap SCART lead cause this kind of symptom, again bearing in mind the problem suddenly occurred? I've also replicated the problem using five different SCART leads of middle-of-the-road quality, and don't particularly want to shell out on a super impressive one if it's not a guaranteed fix.

3. Are there any other elements that would cause this type of issue? The Sky box and TV settings are correct (RGB on, SCART control on) and the picture settings have been suitably played with.

It feels that short of buying an expensive SCART lead I've eliminated each potential cause. In this time of the credit crunch I do not want to buy anything too expensive to replace food. I'm just wondering whether any of you good people have had similar experiences or know of any tips and tricks.

[marksi]

It's not going to be the cable. If bright pictures make it worse I would suspect a voltage issue in the TV somewhere.

[Gavin Scott]

My last TV did that a couple of months ago, right before the scart input packed in completely.

In my case the scart socket was soldered directly onto a pcb, and the constant strain of a heavy scart cable hanging out pulled the socket off the pcb.

If your scart socket on your TV feels stable to the touch then it may be what Mark suggested - but I don't know whether that's any more fixable.

[Nick Harvey]

Not that this will make any difference to the problem, but is it a widescreen telly or squarovision?

My widescreen CRT beast decided to produce an almost circular picture a couple of months ago. I tried everywhere to get it fixed, but nobody was interested. Apparantly, picture shape on widescreen is done in the 'control chip', which is about £150 for the part, plus labour to replace it (there are 128 pins to be re-soldered or something), plus shipping it back and forth to the repairer, either by them or on your back seat. At the end of the day, it was only a few pounds more expensive to replace it. And as it was on the back seat anyway, we went to the shop via the recycling centre.

Sorry not to cheer you up!

[DAS]

Thanks chaps. Tis a widescreen. The picture above is quite dark but I've pillarboxed the picture to highlight the blurring at the edge.

I tried to put these nasty ideas to the back of my head (potential cost and effort etc) but have just had another poke around. Both the inputs are fairly loose, and one I can move about to create more flickering and picture loss. So I'm thinking Mr Scott may well be on the money here. Next step is to get the back off it I suppose.

Then after that spend some money I'd imagine!

[Sput]

Make sure you build a small wall, preferably out of video cassettes, around the TV area when you take the back off. The little people that live inside it might escape otherwise.

[marksi]

Thanks chaps. Tis a widescreen. The picture above is quite dark but I've pillarboxed the picture to highlight the blurring at the edge.

I tried to put these nasty ideas to the back of my head (potential cost and effort etc) but have just had another poke around. Both the inputs are fairly loose, and one I can move about to create more flickering and picture loss. So I'm thinking Mr Scott may well be on the money here. Next step is to get the back off it I suppose.

Then after that spend some money I'd imagine!

If the picture on the internal tuner is the same then it'll save you the bother of taking the back off as it'll prove it has nothing to do with the SCART inputs.

[Stuart*]

DAS, if it's a modern 16:9 model and you can't adjust it on the menu then you need to get the access code to the screen specs. I bought them for mine for $5 off the internet, it's not perfect cos you can mess about too much with the settings - there are loads for 4:3, 16:9, all your AVs; you have to be careful what you are doing

It's worth googling, cos I saved myself £100 for someone not to come out to look at my TV! It could be something alot worse though.

[DAS]

I'll try and keep away from the access code thing as I will almost certainly bodge up the TV for good that way.

If the picture on the internal tuner is the same then it'll save you the bother of taking the back off as it'll prove it has nothing to do with the SCART inputs.

The picture is as normal watching analogue through the standard aerial, perhaps I should have mentioned that. The problem only seems to occur when SCART is in play, hence my suspicion of the back of the TV or the lead itself. That's also why I was confused, as the problem was sudden rather than a degrade, and with both SCART inputs and all SCART leads replicating the issue it just doesn't seem like that type of issue. I haven't taken the back off yet but if I wiggle the input sockets around a bit it does worsen the picture so it does seem as though both have become loose or worked away from where they should be.

Make sure you build a small wall, preferably out of video cassettes, around the TV area when you take the back off. The little people that live inside it might escape otherwise.

What are "video cassettes"? Are they what my Ivor the Engine episodes are on? I've had a guy round to give me a quote for extermination anyway.