VGA to Scart cable, where??

[lettuce]

Hi, this will probbaly be more for the UK members on here, but i have a spare 28" toshiba TV kicking about, and have decided to use it for my next mame project, as its cheaper than a monitor of the same size, and have been told it will produce the same picture quality as a monitor when using a scart cable. So the question is where can i get a made up cable that has all the relative Vsync and Hsync wires sorted??

[Fozzy The Bear]

You can't is the simple answer...... It's not a VGA monitor. You can't connect a VGA signal directly to a TV set the scan frequencies are wrong. VGA signal frequency is twice as high as TV frequency.

What you need is a either a graphics card that outputs composite video  (most of the ATI cards have a TV out, and some of the Nvidia cards do as well)  Then you conect a composite to SCART lead and you have your output, OR you need to buy an Arcade VGA card which also outputs the correct frequency and is in fact based on an ATI card anyway.

Whatever you do! DONT try to connect VGA directly to a TV set!  You'll fry the TV and probably the graphics card feeding it.

You can get a composite to scart lead from most HiFi or TV shops.... But remember that scart is a one direction cable.... that is that the scart end of the cable must be a signal out scart.  When you buy it make sure you get one that has signal in at the composite end and signal out at the scart end.

One other quick note if you still want a better image than that, is that the current batch of ATI cards also have a "component video" out adapter available for them.   You can have that connected to a scart lead. I don't have the exact details of that at the moment, but if you intend to do it that way, then you will need to make sure that your TV takes RGB in with separate sync. Most older sets don't.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Gh0sty]

hi lettuce,

i know what you mean by VGA 2 Scart, we in europe are luck to have such
Scart, it is a good & cheap way to get close Arcade Feeling,
check this links out:
Btw. i dont think you can buy such a cable, but its not to much work to build your own,
check this this, this, or  this link out.

R
Gh0sty

[Fozzy The Bear]

hi lettuce,
i know what you mean by VGA 2 Scart, we in europe are luck to have such
Scart, it is a good & cheap way to get close Arcade Feeling,
check this links out:
Btw. i dont think you can buy such a cable, but its not to much work to build your own,
check this this, this, or  this link out.
R
Gh0sty

Ghosty..... Be extremely careful about passing on those links...... Some of the information there is extremely dangerous (and some of it is actually plain wrong). The reason you can't buy such a cable is because you're not supposed to connect those two things together that way.

Potential for serious electric shock there. TV sets have enough voltage and ampage stored to kill, even when they are unplugged. I work with arcade monitors every day, and have only once made a stupid mistake and been given a serious belt by one. Trust me IT HURTS! You don't do it again after that happens. Either because it really hurt or because you're dead.

Lettuce please take note of this! if you are at all unsure of what you are doing, don't even think about trying to use the infomation at the above links. Please be careful. The best and safest method, I have already outlined for you in my first post.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)   

[Gh0sty]

Fozzy, calm down, i just posted some link where people succesfully
build vga 2 scart cables, nothing more or less. IT IS possible with the
right know-how. Lettuce asked for a ready-to-go cable and such thing
dont exist, but IT IS possible like in the links i posted ( i still search an
old link with exact documentary on vga 2 scart).

And im sure Lettuce is still living and ok.  

[Fozzy The Bear]

IT IS possible with the right know-how.

Granted it is of course possible.... as you say, with he right "Know-How" The point is that Lettuce doesn't have the right know-how at the moment, otherwise he wouldn't even have been asking the question that he did.

Without the right know-How hacking that sort of cable is pottentially lethal as well as risking the TV and his graphics card and his computer. Which is entirely why he should go the route I outlined. Use a graphics card that has a TV out or buy an Arcade VGA card that will also do it safely and provide the correct signals for the TV without hacking high voltages.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Gh0sty]

Without the right know-How hacking that sort of cable is pottentially lethal as well as risking the TV and his graphics card and his computer. Which is entirely why he should go the route I outlined. Use a graphics card that has a TV out or buy an Arcade VGA card that will also do it safely and provide the correct signals for the TV without hacking high voltages.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

you are 100% right here.

[dennis808]

I'm not an electronics expert, actually, I only know how to use a soldering iron
But iI followed the great tutorial on this page http://ryoandr.free.fr/english.html to make my own VGA to SCART cable and it turned out REALLY well.
I didn't need to open up my TV, since the SCART connector is on the outside.
The only thing it costed me was some time researching and reading up on how to make the cable.

Lettuce, if you have a friend with some electronics/soldering skills, he'll build you the cable in 10 minutes.
Then it's up to you to adjust the software. I admit that there's a risk involved if you send your TV a signal that's completely out of spec, but I've seen some tinkering going on in these forums that were WAY more riskier than this VGA-to-SCART-RGB hack.

[lettuce]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies and sorry for the arguments its caused  . I own a VGAarcade card so the sync shouldnt be an issue, and i have found a place that makes these cables, http://www.keene.co.uk/cgi-bin/searchxx.pl?11lea,RGB,15

If you look half way down the page, theres a few, SCART TO 15 PIN HD MALE RGB, just have to decide which one i need

theres aslo some on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VGA-to-Scart-lead-for-windows-media-center_W0QQitemZ5875411069QQcategoryZ15067QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Fozzy The Bear]

Haha  No you didn't cause an argument.... That's just a debate.... It's normal! Chill out.

Ermmm However, you didn't find somebody who makes these cables.

Those cables you point out are Scart TO 15pin male......   You need a 15pin TO Scart.  They're not the same thing.  You can't send a signal both ways in a scart plug.

It's either an in or an out plug.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[lettuce]

Looks like ill go for the one on ebay then, will powerstrip sort out any overscan problems i may have with the TV? or will i still need to access the service menu for the TV?

[Fozzy The Bear]

Looks like ill go for the one on ebay then, will powerstrip sort out any overscan problems i may have with the TV? or will i still need to access the service menu for the TV?

Powerstrip should sort that out for you.... To be honest most genuine arcade monitors are overscanned to a degree in any case. So you'll be getting the look of the real thing if it is a little overscanned.

As you say though... if it doesn't sort it, you can always take a look at the TV service menu.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[dennis808]

If you already have an ArcadeVGA card, I don't believe you need to use powerstrip, 'cos all you're going to do with powerstrip is tell the graphics card to output a 15KHz signal, which is what the AVGA is built to do... :s

[Fozzy The Bear]

If you already have an ArcadeVGA card, I don't believe you need to use powerstrip, 'cos all you're going to do with powerstrip is tell the graphics card to output a 15KHz signal, which is what the AVGA is built to do... :s

No that's not quite correct.... It also allows you to adjust the overscan and image size/position. Which in this case is what he wanted to do.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[dennis808]

Well, it was correct but not complete 
Do you mean it's possible to adjust overscan with an ArcadeVGA or with Powerstrip?

Mind you, it can be really hard to find the right code needed to enter the service menu of a TV.
I wasn't able to find the one of the old Panasonic TV I'm using.