If you are watching via a scart cable you are watching SD pictures which your TV will be upscaling to whatever screen your TV has.

If for example you are watching a HD channel and your TV has a full HD 1920 x 1080 screen.

It works like this the box gets a 1920 x 1080 pixels, it scales the picture down (losing detail) to 720 x 576 pixels (the best scart can do). Your TV then upscales the picture back to 1920 x 1080 by inventing/guessing the detail lost in the downscaling operation.

If you are sure the hdmi port on the spare TV is working it’s possible the freesat box hdmi output is not working. To be sure you need to try the TV with another source with HDMI out if you have one.

Before you panic try carrying out a reset to factory defaults on the freesat box. If you are lucky you may get hdmi out back.

groovyoldwoman – 12 minutes ago  » 

That’s really helpful. I will check the settings tomorrow and do a reset, I know I’ll lose recordings etc but to be honest there’s no point running it through a scart anyway. We’ve tried a new cable and two different tvs and freesat just won’t connect through hdmi. Our blu ray runs through the telly via the other hdmi port which makes me wonder… when the tv blew, would it have gone down the cable and damaged the freesat hdmi socket? Or am I just being daft?

Calming down a bit now, never been so scared in my life! Thanks for taking the time to get back to me.

Maybe in the morning we’ll get to the bottom of it. Thanks again.

You won’t lose any recordings, you will lose your recording schedule so make a note of it first. If you have some sort of digital camera, photograph the recording schedule before the reset.

You might want to try turning off the power to the box overnight first, this might also work and save you having to rebuild the recording schedule.

Right, your house just been struck by lightning, you’re still shaking, and all you’re worry about is a replacement TV and inability to get HDMI signal!?

I am sorry… I must be from another century…

Not that I am an expert on lightning, nor my house had been struck by one, but isn’t it overloads a power supply? And if it is so, that means the power hike (unless, it was direct strike to your TV) had blown your TV an burned some capacitor, rely, transistor or whatever internals of that box are made of, which means replacement is the only option.

Just out of curiosity; Had any other electrical device, like PC or microwave, had stopped working after that strike?

P.S. Buy your self a lottery ticket, who knows, could be a sign from above….

groovyoldwoman – 7 minutes ago  » 

Dear Catinaz

It’s actually quite good being this shallow as you don’t let the important things in life get to you. Following Graham’s very useful instructions I was able to record gogglebox last night and didn’t miss the double episode of Corrie.

We can rebuild the rest of the house anytime.

GOW

Or buy a printer and print one.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2014/mar/28/work-begins-on-the-worlds-first-3d-printed-house

Not forgetting the surge protector.