SCART

You will get a better picture from a standard set-top box if you can connect your digital box to your TV using a SCART lead.

All set-top boxes have SCART sockets, but your TV needs to have one too. SCART plugs are quite big, have 21-pins and plug into sockets which look like this:

Once you have connected you set-top box to the mains and and plugged it into the SCART socket on your TV it may be that your TV will display the set-top box straight away. If it doesn't you will need to select it on the tv, probably by pressing the AV or EXT button on your TV remote.

The SCART lead myth

When you go to the shops and buy a DVD player, a digital set-top box, or any other TV add-on, you will very probably find that the salesman seems desperate to sell you an extended warranty and a SCART lead. Now, here’s a secret the TV shops would rather you didn’t know - the sales commission on warranties and SCART leads is far higher than on a large screen TV set! Why? Because there’s more profit on warranties and SCART leads than there is on TV sets!

Firstly, you should check that you actually need a SCART lead. Have you got a spare one at home? Does the item you’re buying have one included? (They often do.) If you actually do need a SCART lead, never pay more than £15 for it. Avoid the very cheap ones (less than a fiver from those High Street stores that sell a lot of rubbish – you know the places we mean) but whatever you do don’t go for one of the absurdly expensive ones from the TV shop. These places are selling SCART leads at prices ranging from £20 to £80, and frankly it’s just a ridiculous rip-off. As long as you avoid the very cheap ones, all SCART leads should give exactly the same picture and sound quality. A SCART lead is a simple mass-produced item; it doesn’t need to have gold-plated contact or Oxygen-free copper, nor does it need elaborate packaging, and it certainly doesn’t need to put thirty or forty quid of pure profit into the till.

For those who use the Internet, you can find excellent SCART leads, with all 21 pins connected and with individually screened cable (which is important) for sale at around £8.

High Definition equipment should be connected using and HDMI cable and verything we’ve said here applies equally to HDMI leads. And warranties? Ask yourself why the shops are so keen to sell them. Then decide.