Wanted: Amiga RGB - SCART cable

[odin]

Anyone got a spare of the above?

[Morley]

One for sale here:

[odin]

Ta!

[weirdami]

What does that do?

[Morley]

weirdami wrote:
What does that do?

Connect a SCART TV to the Amiga's RGB port :-)

[odin]

Or a SCART monitor like early Philipses :-) (CM 8852 in my case).

[weirdami]

So SCART is a brand of TV/monitor or some kind of weird connector?

[odin]

SCART is the defacto standard A/V connector in Europe (and elsewhere? At least not in the US I think) for connecting VCR's/decoders/god-knows-what-else to TV's. Kinda like SVHS only better and with audio included ;-). Wikipedia on scart. (Icky, seems like it's a French invention :-)).

[weirdami]

The French just couldn't be satisfied using something as simple as a coaxial cable, eh?

[odin]

You mean composite? That transmits all image information via one cable. SCART splits it, thus giving better image quality.

[Dan]

odin wrote:
You mean composite? That transmits all image information via one cable. SCART splits it, thus giving better image quality.

I think he means those BNC-connectors they got in USA.
How does they work???
I think they are RGB separated, one for each color but I don´t know really. Once again the US standard is weird(like Farenheit) and why does the british PAL system put sound at a different wavelength?

[spirantho]

SCART is a great idea that never caught on outside Europe for some reason.

What's perhaps not apparent in the above diagram is that one connector has information for:

Composite video in AND out
RGB video (very good quality)
Chroma/Luma video (also pretty good quality)
Stereo sound in AND out
Signal switching (so for instance a VCR can tell the TV when it wants attention, so for instance you can turn your VCR on and if the TV is set up right, the TV will turn on automatically).
... and also various other stuff I can't remember.

Incidentally, if you want to run a SCART cable on an A2000 or A1500 then you'll need to rewire it to use the +12V line instead of the +5V line (which isn't connected in these Amigas on the RGB port). SCART has tolerance from about 3V to 15V or something.

They're really a very good idea, especially as you can chain things up: for instance,
Satellite Decrypter
to
Satellite tuner
to
VCR
to
TV
to
another TV.

All connected by SCART cables (most peripherals have at least 2 connectors).

[Martyn]

@spirantho

Incidentally, if you want to run a SCART cable on an A2000 or A1500 then you'll need to rewire it to use the +12V line instead of the +5V line (which isn't connected in these Amigas on the RGB port). SCART has tolerance from about 3V to 15V or something.

They're really a very good idea, especially as you can chain things up: for instance,
Satellite Decrypter
to
Satellite tuner
to
VCR
to
TV
to
another TV.

That's very interesting, could you help me with this?

If I connect my A500 directly to my TV scart input (it only has one) I get a normal picture.

If I connect my VCR to my TV with scart, then connect my A500 to my VCR with scart (through it's 2nd scart connector), the amiga picture is completely washed-out grey, so much so that you can hardly see there's a picture there at all.

Does anyone have any idea why?

Thanks,
Martyn.

[spirantho]

Nope, not really.

However, I would suggest connecting the Amiga to the first connector and the TV to the second, as usually you should have it in a logical sequence (some dodgy peripherals expect this), i.e. input (Amiga) into VCR into TV.

Unfortunately, while the standard is fine, not every appliance follows the standard very well...

If switching connectors doesn't work, maybe between us we can find something else wrong, but if it works with your TV it's probably your VCR that's misbehaving... or you're using it wrong.

[Martyn]

@spirantho

If switching connectors doesn't work, maybe between us we can find something else wrong, but if it works with your TV it's probably your VCR that's misbehaving... or you're using it wrong.

Thanks for the reply.  I think I tried swapping connectors at the time.  I think it may be the VCR.  I wondered if it was a macrovision problem, that for some reason the auto gain control wasn't kicking in.  But knowing how macrovision works, that doesn't really make sense (does it?).

But then what really makes me think it's a vcr problem (and maybe macrovision related) is that i'm unable to watch my dvd played through the vcr scart sockets either - i get the MV light-dark screen effect.

Annoying.

Martyn.