Help with sound system

[BillyBatterbee]

I'm not very learnt on all this stuff but I would appreciate if someone could help me. I have a dvd player/sound system with good sound quality but because its old it uses a scart lead which isnt very good picture quality and doesnt have a hdmi slot. I have another dvd player which uses hdmi and is really good picture quality. Is it at all possible to use the sound from one dvd player and the picture from the other?

 

[Mickster]

You probably need something like this, to connect your scart system to your HDMI TV.

Would that work for you?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I depends entirely on what inputs the sound system/DVD has, and what outputs the DVD has - however, the inputs (if any) are only likely to be stereo.

But in any case, as both are only DVD (SD only) there should be no difference in picture quality, but it's ESSENTIAL that you use RGB SCART, which is just as good as HDMI for SD - if you only use Composite SCART then quality will be much inferior. Generally, your TV will only have RGB on one SCART socket, make sure you use that one, and make sure any settings (on the DVD) are set to RGB.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Not really, you would have to sync the same disc on both machines and use a lot of external conversion devices...

If the TV has HDMI input, that will include digital sound.
HDMI audio is available in formats far above those of the SCART cable. The most basic format is "CD quality" and it can also pass anything up to HD 7.1 etc., from a such as a blu-ray player.

The DVD player should support anything up to AC3/DTS 5.1 format.

Just make sure the DVD audio selection [DVD player menu and disc menu] and the TV audio settings match up; eg. sending surround to a stereo device that does not have a centre channel out can lose most of the voice parts...

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I suspect all replies are assuming completely different things

My understanding of it, as is common in my experience installing TV etc. is that the OP wants to use his old DVD/Audio system purely as an amplifier, taking the audio feed from his newer DVD Player which will feed the TV via HDMI. And that he wants to do this, in an attempt to get a better picture, which is why I pointed out that RGB SCART is just as good a picture as HDMI for SD sources.

 

[JimB]

I suspect all replies are assuming completely different things

Oh come on now Nigel!
That sort of thing never happens here on ETO, does it?
[sarcasm=off]

You are probably correct.
When I first read the post, I thought that the idea was to use two DVD players, each with an identical disc and playing at the same time.
One DVD player feeds the video screen.
The other DVD player feeds the audio system.

Even if you could start them together, I think the probability of them remaining in sync for more that a few seconds is very low.

JimB

 

[Mickster]

When I first read the post, I thought that the idea was to use two DVD players, each with an identical disc and playing at the same time.
One DVD player feeds the video screen.
The other DVD player feeds the audio system.

Likewise, but then realized now impractical that notion would be, so looked for a converter.
Another option would be to keep using the new DVD player and take an output from the TV, assuming there may be one, and put it into the old DVD/Amp system.

 

[crutschow]

If the SCART player has RCA input sound connectors, and the other player has RCA output sound connectors, then it's simple to connect the two.
They also make pass-through converters that extract the sound from an HDMI signal and output it to RCA connectors (I use one to provide sound for my house audio system), if that's helpful.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Likewise, but then realized now impractical that notion would be, so looked for a converter.
Another option would be to keep using the new DVD player and take an output from the TV, assuming there may be one, and put it into the old DVD/Amp system.

Which was why I queried what inputs were available - as for feeding the TV audio to it, it also (obviously) depends on what outputs the TV has, and the only current (or modern) sets with audio outputs is usually Sony. Sony sets commonly provide a 3.5mm jack that can be set to headphones or line out, pretty well nothing else done this has for years.

 

[BillyBatterbee]

I suspect all replies are assuming completely different things

My understanding of it, as is common in my experience installing TV etc. is that the OP wants to use his old DVD/Audio system purely as an amplifier, taking the audio feed from his newer DVD Player which will feed the TV via HDMI. And that he wants to do this, in an attempt to get a better picture, which is why I pointed out that RGB SCART is just as good a picture as HDMI for SD sources.

Yes sorry you are right. I want to know if i can use the old dvd player as an amplifier for the sound system and the other dvd player just for video. I dont know if the speaker system can just be used for the sound coming out of the tv so it will work for tv, chromecast and the blueray player.

 

[BillyBatterbee]

I depends entirely on what inputs the sound system/DVD has, and what outputs the DVD has - however, the inputs (if any) are only likely to be stereo.

But in any case, as both are only DVD (SD only) there should be no difference in picture quality, but it's ESSENTIAL that you use RGB SCART, which is just as good as HDMI for SD - if you only use Composite SCART then quality will be much inferior. Generally, your TV will only have RGB on one SCART socket, make sure you use that one, and make sure any settings (on the DVD) are set to RGB.

I watched a dvd on the old player ysing scart and the same dvd on the new player ysing hdmi and there was an obvious difference from what i could tell. So maybe I’m doing something wrong I don’t know

 

[BillyBatterbee]

If the SCART player has RCA input sound connectors, and the other player has RCA output sound connectors, then it's simple to connect the two.
They also make pass-through converters that extract the sound from an HDMI signal and output it to RCA connectors (I use one to provide sound for my house audio system), if that's helpful.

I’m going to be honest, I don’t really understand what you mean because I just don’t know these things haha. And I’m find it hard to explain what i mean. The old dvd player is a dvd player/amplifier but i just want to use it for the sound system and use the new bluerayplayer for video

 

[rjenkinsgb]

I’m going to be honest, I don’t really understand what you mean because I just don’t know these things haha. And I’m find it hard to explain what i mean. The old dvd player is a dvd player/amplifier but i just want to use it for the sound system and use the new bluerayplayer for video

OK, understood, can you take some photos of all the connections on each machine so we can see what is available?
Make sure any label text for the connectors is readable.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I watched a dvd on the old player ysing scart and the same dvd on the new player ysing hdmi and there was an obvious difference from what i could tell. So maybe I’m doing something wrong I don’t know

How many SCART sockets on your TV?, and which one did you use? - for that matter, what make and model is the TV.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

If I remember right from the last time I messed about with SCART and RGB, the TV must also be switched to RGB mode for the SCART socket being used (via its setup menus).
I think the default is composite and the one I had, at least, did not auto detect RGB.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If I remember right from the last time I messed about with SCART and RGB, the TV must also be switched to RGB mode for the SCART socket being used (via its setup menus).
I think the default is composite and the one I had, at least, did not auto detect RGB.

Generally it would be EXTREMELY rare to find such a setting on the TV, as it's done at the source end. There are two switching wire on a SCART socket, pin 8 going high forces the TV to switch to that SCART socket, and pin 16 over-rides pin 8 and switches the TV to RGB inputs instead. The pin is actually labelled as 'fast RGB blanking', as one of it's intended uses was for adding external teletext decoders to a TV, and this can switch ON and OFF fast enough to 'cut' windows out of the picture and insert text, for sub-titles etc.

As I mentioned above, it's usual for only a single SCART on a TV to have RGB - but it's important to use it if you have an RGB source (like a DVD Player) as the difference is spectacular.

A common 'problem' with many satellite receivers was that they mostly had two SCARTS, one for the TV (giving RGB out) and one for VCR (or DVD) giving RGB IN, this was so you could loop a VCR (or DVD) through the satellite box if your TV only had one SCART. If you placed the SCART's in the wrong sockets, it still worked as long as you manually selected the SCART socket on your TV (the switching pins on the VCR SCART are inputs), but only for composite video, and the loop though wouldn't work either. I've been to countless service calls where all that's wrong is they have the plugs in the wrong sockets

 

[rjenkinsgb]

Generally it would be EXTREMELY rare to find such a setting on the TV

You are likely correct, its 20+ years ago since I was messing with such things.
It may also have been a cable problem to start with, I do remember I gave up buying ready-made scart leads and made them all myself, as many commercial ones that were supposedly fully wired had connections missing or used cheap multicore rather than decent cable with coax & screened cores.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You are likely correct, its 20+ years ago since I was messing with such things.
It may also have been a cable problem to start with, I do remember I gave up buying ready-made scart leads and made them all myself, as many commercial ones that were supposedly fully wired had connections missing or used cheap multicore rather than decent cable with coax & screened cores.

It's important to get 'decent' SCART leads, NOT expensive ones - often the only 'expensive' thing is the price. Essentially you want individually screened leads, that are fully wired.

Where I used to work we bought a large number of good quality SCART leads REALLY cheaply - their only flaw was their colour, they were bright blue - but as they are normally hidden from view that wasn't an issue.