I have an old Avant (28", VHS) which is connected to an HTPC via a SCART cable (S-Video + Stereo sound). This is connected to the 'AV' socket on the back of the Avant and springs to life when I press 'DVD' on my BEO4. From the day I built the HTPC and SCART cable it has detected the video source as widescreen and filled the display appropriately, without having to select LIST > FORMAT > 6.

A couple of weeks ago I connected my Wii to this SCART instead and enjoyed some games. After restoring the original configuration the Avant is no longer automatically detecting the source format.

How can I get the Avant to remember/store FORMAT 6 for the AV socket?

It's driving me crazy because it used to work. And my wife keeps forgetting to select the correct format so I catch her watching people with hideously squished faces!

In case anybody stumbles across this thread in the future, with the same problem, I will post the solution.

The HTPC w/ my custom SCART lead was not sending any voltage down pin 8 to the TV, by design. I discovered the Avant remembers the last signal it received on this pin and uses the same value in the absence of a signal in future! When I connected my Wii cable it was sending 12v down this pin which told the Avant to display a 4:3 image.

As a fix, I temporarily connected my old freeview box to this SCART socket. This device sent the necessary 5v down pin 8 to kick the Avant back into widescreen mode.

For fun I also rewired the crappy Wii SCART cable to send 5v instead of 12v since I, like most of the civilised world, play in widescreen and don't want to have to "LIST > FORMAT > 6" whenever I fancy a bit of Guitar Hero.