I have just got a phillips widescreen tv. Despite having scart leads connected to the video and dvd player, I have got the dvd to connect to 'ext2' on the tv, I cannot get video to connect to 'ext1'. This is the default, because every time I press the video to play, it automatically goes to 'ext1', and I have to manually change the channel to '0' where I have ended up connecting it.
Is the fault in tv, my connection, or the scart lead?
Is there a secret I am missing out on?

Jeremy, January 2005

Another thought, I believe on 'some' philips TV's you can allocate CH Positions to EXT inputs within the manual tuning menus.

eg. you could allocate EXT1 to channel position 5, should you wish.

Cobweb, January 2005

The TV will switch to the corresponding EXT input if pin 8 of the scart cable has contact and active (high), ie. vcr switched to play or menus, video + etc.

It may be other pins (video, audio or both) of the scart are faulty or just have poor contact. Very common is either sound with no picture, or picture only.

Some scart cables have very thin pin contacts and result in unreliable connection. Use a quality scart lead with, quality 'thicker' pins (expect to pay upwards of £20 for a good lead). Also, it could be a combination of slack pin contacts on the TV socket and poor 'thin' pin quality on the scart.

A less likely cause is dry soldered joints to the TV scart socket.
That is quite rare. As is, internal TV/AV switching faults in the TV itself.

You can now buy scart leads with additional securing grips for a more reliable connection.

Cobweb, January 2005