VGA to SCART webpage

[Stormdemon]

MAMESCART. Turning your SCART TV into an Arcade monitor.
http://www.mamescart.5xn.com

I've just finished this webpage about the making of a VGA to SCART cable. I've called it MAMESCART, since it is with MAME that you will obtain the best of it. This project is based on my own experience as a new ArcadeVGA user. I can guarantee it works. Used with ArcadeVGA or AdvanceMAME, this cable offers the possibility of enjoying MAME with games' native resolutions and perfect, vibrant, scanlined, non-interlace picture! You are, in fact, getting the same quality you would achieve with the best Arcade monitor. I think it's very interesting to many users, particularly in Europe, because now you can get cheap TVs with scart sockets everywhere. Moreover, the building of this cable is so simple that anyone could do it. The information on this webpage is not original. I've just tried to put together what I have read here and there (vga and scart pinouts, cables matching...) and made a brief writing explaining the building of the cable and the reasons why it's a good idea to use this method, rather than using cards tvout, etc. I hope you find it useful. And please if you find any mistake (poor English, html bugs, errors in the schemes, etc), don't hesitate to tell me.

[RedSquirrel]

MAMESCART. Turning your SCART TV into an Arcade monitor.
http://www.mamescart.5xn.com

I've just finished this webpage about the making of a VGA to SCART cable. I've called it MAMESCART, since it is with MAME that you will obtain the best of it. This project is based on my own experience as a new ArcadeVGA user. I can guarantee it works. Used with ArcadeVGA or AdvanceMAME, this cable offers the possibility of enjoying MAME with games' native resolutions and perfect, vibrant, scanlined, non-interlace picture! You are, in fact, getting the same quality you would achieve with the best Arcade monitor. I think it's very interesting to many users, particularly in Europe, because now you can get cheap TVs with scart sockets everywhere. Moreover, the building of this cable is so simple that anyone could do it. The information on this webpage is not original. I've just tried to put together what I have read here and there (vga and scart pinouts, cables matching...) and made a brief writing explaining the building of the cable and the reasons why it's a good idea to use this method, rather than using cards tvout, etc. I hope you find it useful. And please if you find any mistake (poor English, html bugs, errors in the schemes, etc), don't hesitate to tell me.

does this work with any graphic card? Its kinda annoying cos I ordered a radeon 7500 as it has the best s-video out, but obviously id like the best quality.

Any chance of you making these cables to sell? (if your in england that is).. thanks

EDIT; sorry i see it is best used with arcade vga. I might get one of the cards in the future, but for now I can not afford it. But still, would you make one to sell?

[Minwah]

Nice webpage

It may be noteworthy to add in the part about controlling picture size/position that most newer sets have a 'service mode' accessable using an OSD and often the remote control.  We're not supposed to know about this really, but info on this for some sets is available on the web (thanks for whoever pointed this out to me a while back!).

Also, Ultimarc's pre hacked VGA cable is worth a mention - it comes labelled and with your pinouts you could solder a Scart plug on in literally a few minutes

Good work, it took me a few tries and some help from Andy to get the wiring right!

[Stormdemon]

Thanx very much for the tips, Minwah, I'll mention those issues in my webpage. Redsquirrel, I'm afraid it's a little more complicated to get this to work with other cards. I suppose the same problems you would find with an Arcade monitor, will happen with the SCART cable. It's all about frequencies and res modes. If your card is capable of it and you're able to configure it, it will work. In Windows, you'll have to use Powerstrip or a similar program in order to force your graphic card to output 15khz. With Dos, I know that Advancemame is a solution, but it's very hardware dependent. A friend of mine succeded with a Voodoo3 and Advancemame, but it required many hours of configuration. That's why my advice is to get an ArcadeVGA, because it's all so easy with it!

[Stormdemon]

Oh.. and I'm not selling this cable. I work as a graphic designer, and my knowledge on electronics is very very limited. I don't really know why it's not available as a commercial product. Maybe somebody should produce it and sell it. How about Ultimarc?

[AndyWarne]

Great site! Thanks to Stormdemon for taking the time to do this. I feel humbled when all I could do was produce a pin list a while ago on our message board!
A few weeks ago I found someone who was selling some SCART to VGA cables and I bought his entire stock, which unfortunately only numbered 8 pieces. These are sitting under my workbench somewhere.
I have been thinking about getting our Far Eastern manufacturers to produce some SCART cables for a while but not sure about the demand as the min order is pretty high. Sadly only European customers can take advantage of this feature which, as I have said before, is the only good thing I can think of which has come from European Integration!
I think I will contact our Asian dept (otherwise known as my wife, so useful having an Oriental contact when it comes to getting stuff made!)

[Stormdemon]

I've asked my friend about his experiences with the VGA-SCART cable and his voodoo and AdvMAME. He's told me that the main problem of using different cards from the AVGA is not getting the right picture on screen, but getting it synced. I mean, getting the exact frequency in order to obtain perfect scrools. Maybe it's a matter of time and knowledge, but he wasn't able to get perfect synchronism to 60hz with his card and DOS AdvMAME (hiccups all the time in scrolls).

[RedSquirrel]

yeah im not too bothered if it doesnt work with other graphics card, because well.. later on i can buy a arcade vga card. It will have to be maybe later in the year though once my cab is built. It would be nice though to play at proper resolutions, but i will see how how good the svideo output on the radeon 7500 is as its supposed to be pretty good.

[Minwah]

Just a word of warning on VGA > Scart pre-made cables:

Sometimes you can buy these, or I got one that came with a Scan converter.  The chances are they are NOT made for the application like the ArcadeVGA - mine did not work (and I heard another report the same).

Of course if Andy gets them made up you can rely on those