New TV - what to plug in where??

Ok it has been over 10 years since either my husband or I have bought a TV. Now we have a new 'digital' HDready job and I am wondering what with the NTL set-top box what should be plugged in where to get the maximum value out of all the doohickeys. Do I forgo the STB and plug the cable wire into the TV, or do I use a scart hook-up or the black aerial wire that came with the TV, connect the TV to the STB with that or should the DVD player get it? Too many choices! Do I need to get a HDMI lead or something like that? What do I do?

As well, the picture seems a bit dark, is it supposed to be that way? It's an LCD screen.

ANY AND ALL OPINIONS WELCOME PLEASE HELP

Ok, it came with a cable that had silver round ends (coaxial? antenna?), and that's what I had originally stuck to the STB and the TV. Had a good picture -- better than the old TV! -- but kinda dark. Adjusting the brightness did nothing to it.
So then I went and hooked it up via the Scart lead and the picture seemed to be better.
I then had the brain wave to try to auto tune the tv again. And for whatever reason, it then could not find any services or programs or channels.
So I now have the STB hooked up via scart and the other doohickey lead and it seems to be better.
If anyone can shed any light on what I am doing that would be great. The instruction booklet explains nothing even though it comes in 6 different languages.
Thanking you

To get good quality pictures from any source like dvd or a set top box or even a video recorder the best form of connection is a fully wired scart lead in RGB mode.  Guessing you have a nice amount of scart inputs due to the tv being HDTV so just connect your aerial lead to the TV and then connect everything else to the TV with scart leads (fully wired).  If you have a dvd recorder then feed the aerial input through that first and then to your tv. 

As for High definition and HDMI there is little use for it at the moment unless your paying the money to get the Sky++HD system via satelite.  Many newish DVD's have an in built upscaler for HDTV but they dont really give you a hugely improved picture so no need to invest in that yet.  The other thing to look at is if your DVD has component inputs because that is where your best possible dvd picture would come from, but would mean buying a decent component lead (around the £30-£70 mark).

Hope this is of use if not or you want to ask any more questions drop us a line happy to help with these fun things ).

The above was typed by my husband-- he loves these things and infact installs and sets-up tv's as a business. Just let me know if he can help out anymore (it's all foreign to me!!)--Helena

Thank you so much. Couple questions.
How do I know if something is in RGB mode?
Is the aerial lead that cable with the silver tips that comes with the TV, this should be going from the STB to the TV regardless, or is the aerial lead the cable for NTL that goes to the STB?
You say the scart leads fully wired - what does that mean?

Right now I've the small cable with the silver tips going from the STB to the TV, and also a scart lead connecting the STB and the TV. I have one dvd player hooked up directly to the TV via a scart lead, and a second dvd player hooked to the STB via a scart. Neither of them are recorders, just different region players.

So far the picture is looking good, better than it did when I just had the STB connected with the small cable alone.

I cannot believe how mysterious a television is!

RGB mode is set from your dvd players just go to their set up and look for connections and modes (usually video, svhs RGB) a fully wired scart is all 21 pins connected most are except very cheap scart leads usually under £10. 

OK I missed the ntl bit so am I right in thinking this is a cable set tup box? if so connect with a scart too and I think I am right in saying that it has a RGB out put too, (RGB = Simply Red Green Blue it splits each signal colour and sends to tv so is cleaner and nicer quality similar too but not as good as component connection).  small cable with silver tips I could do with more information on ie a description as it could be a coaxial or a svhs or a hdmi lead if you look head on at the connection part is it a full circle with a prong in the middle.

ALso if you let me know the make and model of everything I can have a squint round some drawings and give you a complete answer.

ps this is not Helena again ) honest

It's a Sony Bravia (sent my husband to have a look and I guess they saw him coming).
The NTL stb is a Pace.
The small cable the head on it is a circle with a prong in the middle on one in and the other end is similar but not quite the same (something different with the prong). I don't think it's a hdmi lead, doesn't that have a flat head at one end? The instruction book had a vague drawing that had arrows going to and from a couple different leads to the back of the TV, with different options as to what you could do but no real clear explanation of what was meant for what, and the cable just came in a plastic bag with no label or anything to indicate what it was for.

I think my computer is easier to figure out than this TV! LOL.
Thanks for your help.

ok sony (probably the best make of tv ) but need a model number.

the lead is a coaxial and the difference is that they are a male female end (you should be able to push them together if you want).  Take your aerial lead into set top box and then into tv, is the stb a cable box or just a freeciew box?

so just need make and model numbers for tv stb and your 2 dvd's.

The small cable the head on it is a circle with a prong in the middle on one in and the other end is similar but not quite the same (something different with the prong).

These are the standard coaxial connections used for antennas in Britain, sometimes called Belling-Lee plugs for the original manufacturer:

Male:


Female:

ok sony (probably the best make of tv ) but need a model number.

the lead is a coaxial and the difference is that they are a male female end (you should be able to push them together if you want).  Take your aerial lead into set top box and then into tv, is the stb a cable box or just a freeciew box?

so just need make and model numbers for tv stb and your 2 dvd's.

Is the aerial lead the cable lead (the lead that gives the STB its connection)?
If so, the aerial lead (which comes in through the wall) goes to the NTL STB (which is a Pace box).
The NTL STB is connected to the TV with the coaxial cable and also with a SCART cable.
When the STB was connected with the coaxial cable alone, the picture was dark. With the SCART it was much better and for good measure I hooked up both - should I have both hooked up?
I have a Philips DVD player (DVP 3005) that is set to region 1. Rather than bother changing the region code, I just kept the old DVD player for region 2 dvds - it's a Sony DVPNS300.
The Philips is connected directly to the TV with a SCART lead.
The Sony DVD player is connected to the NTL set top box with a SCART lead.

The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone...

Once I have everything hooked up the way it should be, do I do the auto-tuning and auto-programming again?

Thanks again for your help, and Paul, thanks for the photos, that's the cable with the silver tips that came with the TV.

Is the aerial lead the cable lead (the lead that gives the STB its connection)?
If so, the aerial lead (which comes in through the wall) goes to the NTL STB (which is a Pace box).

The NTL cable lead just goes into the NTL STB.  The aerial lead is the one which comes from the regular antenna on the roof (assuming that you are still using one).  If you want to be able to watch the regular broadcast stations from the rooftop antenna (perhaps because you have the cable STB set to another station for recording), then the aerial lead needs to go into the TV.  If you want to be able to record from the rooftop antenna, then you need to loop the aerial lead into the VCR and/or DVD recorder and then go from there to the TV's aerial input. 

The NTL STB is connected to the TV with the coaxial cable and also with a SCART cable.
When the STB was connected with the coaxial cable alone, the picture was dark. With the SCART it was much better and for good measure I hooked up both - should I have both hooked up?

Assuming that the NTL STB has enough outputs to feed to the TV and to any VCR/DVD you may want to record on, then you won't need the coax connected to it at all.

The coax cable carries the signal in the same form as a normal UHF terrestrial broadcast.  That means that the STB has to convert the signal to that form, then the TV has to decode it back again.  Every extra stage of unnecessary conversion gives potential for degrading the quality, so viewing from an STB, satellite receiver, VCR, or DVD player over the coax/aerial lead should really be only a last resort if no other spare video inputs/outputs are available.

Note:  Aerial = antenna.  Different terms for the same thing.

The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone...

Now hear the word of the FCC!   

So if I get you right, then I should:

1. Just have the NTL STB hooked up to the TV with only the SCART cable, and I should forget about the coaxial cable altogether as it's not needed for anything.

2. We don't have a roof antenna anymore, and none of the devices hooked up to the TV can record anything, so I don't need anything for those purposes; so aerial lead is needed anywhere.

3. Things are hooked up as well as they can be as described above, bar the coaxial cable which I'm going to pull when I get offline.

Have I got it?

I assume then without an aerial lead to any antenna, the auto-tune feature won't work very well on the TV?

Thanks again for all the pointers and making this less mysterious.

Have I got it?

Yep! 

I assume then without an aerial lead to any antenna, the auto-tune feature won't work very well on the TV?

Correct.  If there's nothing connected to the aerial socket, there's nothing to tune.  You'll select everything on one of the auxiliary inputs (SCART, AV1, AV2, or whatever they happened to be labeled on your set).

I've just posted a slightly technical discourse on the different video connections in the technical issues thread if you really want  o try to get to grips with the different types.

Paul, thanks so much for taking the time to write up the other post. I really appreciate the knowledge you share.

So, on my list is a good quality fully wired SCART lead, and on my wish list is a HDMI lead for whenever NTL gets the finger out.

Thanks very much to the two of you for your help!

Nothing I can add really to Pauls advice tbh never even considered you didn't have an aerial at all ( seams an alien concept but if you have nothing to record with I guess there is not much point).  I used to have dozens of scart leads hanging around here i'll look and send you one this week.  The only other advice I can profer is to look at your very versatile philips dvd player and follow this hack,

Press "System Menu" key to enter Set Up menu.
- Move to "Preference Page" using arrow keys to the left or to the right.
- Press the following sequence in the remote control: 135566
- A menu indicating "Region Code" will appear.
- Change region using arrow keys to top or down. Region Code = 0 will play all regions.
- Press "System Menu" key to exit Set Up menu.

Setting it to region 0 means whicever region disc you put into your player it will switch regions for you that might free up a bit of space for a dvd recorder or sky+ box hd ).

Am having the sky high definition fitted july so hopefully it is as good as it looks.

I almost set it at region 0 but wasn't sure if that meant it'd switch back and forth or only play the non specificed disks (a lot of music dvds are region 0). Having it be able to play both discs would be very handy, although since both players are hooked up to the TV now it doesn't make much difference (before I was switching the cable everytime we wanted to watch a different region disk from what we'd watched the last time).  I must say I am very pleased with that Philips player, it wasn't very expensive and does the trick nicely.

I am very tempted to switch to Sky, they have much better range of channels and the Sky+ seems miles ahead of Ntl's OnDemand, not to mention the HD option.

Let us know what the HD is like when you get it! :-)

& Thanks again for all your help.