My apologises if this topic has already been covered, but I would appreciate any advice on the benefits (or otherwise) of switching to a large capacity (1TB) Sky HD box.  At present I am on my seventh Sky HD box which attached to a BV7-40 Mk II.  There are perpetual problems with the "handshake" between the box and the 7-40.  For example, there frequently is the message"this diplay doen not support HDMI".  Sometimes there is sound but no vision, just a blue screen.  The local B&O dealer has been very helpful and re-fixed all the connection, but these problems still occur.  The SCART is connected and is on.

So are the electronics on the large capacity Sky box more robust and less sensitive to minor connection variations than the standard HD box?   The 1TB box is priced at about £250, but if using it leads to more consistent connections when my wife switches on the tv, it will be money well spent.

Villarsch

Seven Sky HD boxes? I know all products can have one which may be troublesome, but if you have had connection problems which have persisted through seven boxes then I would have thought you should be looking for a solution elsewhere than just changing to a higher capacity box.

I can't advise on your particular TV but surely the problem lies somewhere in the connection setup menu on the TV? You say you have sought help from your dealer, so I presume he/she has sorted this particular aspect, but what do you mean by the dealer re-fixing all the connections? Taking them out and plugging them back in again? It will need more than that I think!

Finally, what's the scart reference got to do with anything? Surely you should be connecting solely via HDMI. Dispense with scart as a first step and access the connections menu in the TV.

Now over to the experts!

I wouldn't have thought that the 1TB Sky+ HD box will be any better. It's an AMSTRAD at the end of the day. I'm gutted that you can't actually buy a SKY box by a resectable manufacturer like Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer etc. I have the Samsung box and it crashes, restarts its menu etc. The problems from this box has made me steer well clear of Samsung blu-ray players etc.

Thank you, Kokomo for your advice.  Apparently the SCART needs to be connected on these older 7-40s in order to have sound.

Also, thank you Paul.  Although the large capacity box is an Amstrad, I am still hoping that anyone using this could report on its reliability.

Villarsch

Didn't realise that about the necessity of the scart for sound on this model of TV.

I still don't fully understand why you have had 7 HD boxes, can you clarify? Was it because of unreliability /breakdown problems with the previous 6 or is the reason for replacing each of them that none would connect properly to your TV? The fact that you use the word 'reliability' suggests that they have all failed mechanically for some reason.

Unfortunately it is a known issue for BV7-32 and 7-40 MK's I & II. DVI to HDMI adapter for the HDMI cable (picture + 5.1 sound) and SCART for stereo sound. I have it also between my HD Sat box and my BV7-32 MKII (with HD Ready kit installed)

Yes, Kokomo, all the Sky boxes were replaced by Sky because they were faulty.  On looking at some other sites, there are claims that Sky's high capacity box is a "premium" product.  Can anyone confirm this?

Villarsch

Thanks for the explanations. Sorry I couldn't help, but at least I've learned something (again!).

Well, I can say that we upgraded our BV7-40 with problematic Sky HD box to the larger 1TB Sky box at the same time as upgrading the tv to BV7-55 and now we have no problems!!

The Sky box doesn't crash all the time like the last one did and no handshake issues.

The difficulty is that I can't say whether the solution was the box or the tv!!

But...the new box is definately better.

Mike

I suggest anyone with a flaky sky box gets on ebay and searches for SKY PSU or similar.

I have a SKY HD box that would stick in standby, lose signal, drop recordings seemingly at random. 

All cured by fiiting a new psu.

Now  works 100% via the STB - before it would sometimes lag behind the beo4 a bit.

There are various suppliers - it took me about 5 minutes to replace the board....a doddle - or you can buy a kit of capacitors - as it is duff caps that are the root of these problems - if your handy with a soldering iron.

The seller I used even offeres a part refund when you send the duff board onto him - so about £20 all in...

Found a video...

And a whole series about component level repair, rather than whole board swapout....

Hi, Ive got the same set-up! If you dont have the inbuilt DVB module then get your dealer to upgrade the software to 30.03 (this software is meant for the HD module  to work with the TV! It doesnt matter! you only need the higher software combo Chip&flash

You can then turn off the inbuilt TV tuner ect I found this sotware makes the TV more stable You also have strangely enough the complete 4 STB controllers & V-Aux is DTV2

Regards Douglas

P.s There are  2 software levels/groups first is to 7.9... & the other starting from 30.01

the latest is I think 30.03

Many thanks for all your helpful replies.

The approved way forward is to install a large capacity Sky HD box now, followed by the new BV 7-40 with LED.  This should be available before November this year, when the EU regulations on power consumption labels come into force.  

Villarsch