Non-interlaced screens on TV?

[LeedsFan]

I was at an auto-jumble today and picked up a 10" CRT TV with a view to a new Mame project. I want to build a bar-top and have a motor turn the 10" screen through 90 degrees for horizontal/vertical games.

The TV comes with a Scart input and from reading Level42's excellent stickied post here I see I can use this to make the TV act like an arcade monitor. I intend to use an Ultimarc VGA card too in order to get the native resolutions for games. But in their arcade monitor FAQ I did come across this paragraph in the TV section. Basically they don't advise using the TV-out on the VGA card due to poor quality and fixed resolutions. I understand that fine, but then I read this paragraph......

"But there is one way we can use a TV very satisfactorily, which is going in via the RGB pins on a SCART connector (US readers look away at this point, SCART is a European standard!). This actually turns the TV into an arcade monitor because it by-passes all the signal-degrading PAL or NTSC decoder, We can even run native resolutions providing the TV is happy with non-interlaced screens."

I bolded and underlined the part I need help with. How do I know if my TV is happy with non-interlaced screens? I don't really know the difference between interlaced/non-interlaced and have no idea if my bargain TV will support native resolutions via the ArcadeVGA.

Also, is there anyone who makes the VGA-out to Scart-in lead that is documented in Level42's post? It looks quite simple to make myself if I have to. But I don't mind paying a few pounds if it's available off the shelf.

[LeedsFan]

Hmmm.... I've dug around on the net and done a bit more research. Is non-interlaced mode anything to do with a PAL TV supporting up to 60Hz refresh rate? The TV I have states on the back 50Hz (which I believe is the European PAL standard). So is non-interlaced mode the ability to display at up to 60Hz? (the US NTSC standard).

I'm thinking that if I try using a VGA card with this TV set and try playing a game that originally ran at 60Hz it either won't work at all, or will be slowed down. 

EDIT:  On some forums (namely XBox360) some users state that using the RGB Scart input will nearly always allow a PAL 50Hz set set to display at 60Hz. It's when using other inputs such as Composite etc. that the non-60Hz problem crops up for PAL TV users. Is this true?

EDIT #2  Managed to borrow a friend's XBox360 and we hooked it up to my 10" set using the scart input, but we had to use a scart adaptor with three plugs in for audio L/R and Video. It seemed to work fine and we were able to select PAL 60Hz settings in the Xbox dashboard. FIFA10 played fine although the text was unreadable. Not surprising really on such a small TV but then again it should be fine for original resolutions in Mame.

So... was I worrying about nothing? (So long as I use a home made VGA-RGB Scart cable?)

This is the first project I've done using a TV. It's the 10" dinky size for a bartop using original resolutions that makes me so interested in this new project. My other projects used genuine arcade monitor or PC LCD displays, so I'm hitting new ground here.

[MonMotha]

Most televisions will do progressive (non-interlaced) modes just fine.   You're still limited to whatever horizontal scanrate range they will accept, though.  For a SDTV, this is 15kHz.  This means you can only do ~240 imaged lines progressive while you can do ~480 imaged lines interlaced at 60Hz (you get more if you drop the field rate to 50Hz).  Some of the modern stuff with lots of digital scalers won't accept progressive video at such low resolutions, but most of those will accept progressive video at higher resolutions (480p, 720p, 768p, 1080p etc.), so you can just use that.

The TV does not control the video timings.  The video source controls the timings.  The monitor just syncs to them and attempts to display them.  As long as the timings are within the acceptable range for the monitor, things will work.

My understanding is that most European televisions will accept 60Hz timings and will also demod NTSC color signals (only relevant for composite and s-video).  Many American ANALOG CRT sets will accept 50Hz timings as well as 60Hz but will NOT demod PAL color signals.  This means that you often CAN feed them "PAL" via component and get something usable, or you can live with B&W if you have PAL content and only composite or s-video.  Many of the modern sets with digital scalers seem permanently stuck in "NTSC" mode where they assume 525 line 60Hz inputs, though.

[apfelanni]

get a cheap ati vidcard like radeon 4350 or 46xx , solder a mamescart cable , install soft 15 and ur done with it for a few bucks .  dont see any advantage in using an ultimac video card.

arcade pcbs can be easy adapted as well to work with scart tvs.