ArcadeVGA > Scart TV

[Minwah]

For those who are interested, I just posted this on Ultimarc's board:

Basically a bunch of pics showing the ArcadeVGA working with a Scart TV (RGB).  WOW!

Have a butch:

http://mamewah.mameworld.net/ArcadeVGA.html

[kalkin]

Those pics looks great, although it's hard to determine the exact improvement over s-video.

Have you tried using the same TV with s-video through SCART? If yes, is the quality much better?

It's killing me not to know whether ArcadeVGA combined with RGB output is going to give my current setup, a Radeon 7000/VE connected to a 21" Philips TV through s-video/SCART, the small extra push in sharpness and colour to justify switching

[Minwah]

I have used an ATI Radeon with TV out with the same TV...

The improvement using the ArcadeVGA + RGB is amazing.  IMO 100 times better than S-Video.

But I have always been very disappointed with S-Video TV-outs (even with ATI which are supposed to be the best).  Maybe I'm just picky.

If you saw it for yourself I think you'd appreciate the difference - as you say it's very hard to tell from the photos.

I don't know how you're going to decide, but if you want 100% arcade authentic, then order that card

[)p(]

I have used an ATI Radeon with TV out with the same TV...

The improvement using the ArcadeVGA + RGB is amazing.  IMO 100 times better than S-Video.

But I have always been very disappointed with S-Video TV-outs (even with ATI which are supposed to be the best).  Maybe I'm just picky.

If you saw it for yourself I think you'd appreciate the difference - as you say it's very hard to tell from the photos.

I don't know how you're going to decide, but if you want 100% arcade authentic, then order that card

I agree! Before I decided I wanted a pc monitor. I tested using rgb and s-video on a scart tv. And rgb made a real difference...no color bleeding at all. Color bleeding is not so noticable on modern games but for a game like galaga there was a great differnce between rgb and s-video.

By the way you don't need an arcadevga to get rgb working on a scart tv but it looks like much less hassle then using advance mame ;-)

I am curious how hardware stretch will work using the rgb scart route. I did my testing long ago well before mame added hardware stretch...mmm...I should just search that vga-scart cable and try  

peter

[Minwah]

I will take a few pics using hwstretch, as some games require this if they have too many vertical lines for the screen.

In my (limited) testing so far I have to say that even with hwstretch it looks great.  And that's coming from someone who HATES hwstretch normally.

I'll post here once I've uploaded some more photos...

[kalkin]

Wow, if it makes such a big difference I'll have to order one. Thanks a lot for convincing me

I'm assuming you had to build some kind of VGA->SCART cable. Are the schematics for the cable available somewhere or did you have to design it yourself?

[Minwah]

Wow, if it makes such a big difference I'll have to order one. Thanks a lot for convincing me

I'm assuming you had to build some kind of VGA->SCART cable. Are the schematics for the cable available somewhere or did you have to design it yourself?

Yeah I made a cable first, but it didn't work  

Andy posted what to do and then I got it to work...I'd missed the Pin 16 conection.  Here's how to wire it:

ArcadeVGA   Scart
R                  Pin 15 (Red)
G                  Pin 11 (Green)
B                  Pin 7 (Blue)
-                   Pin 13 (GND)
H }               Pins 16+20
V }                   "       "
+                  Unused (blank off)

Here is a site with the Scart pinouts:

http://www.diyha.co.uk/electronics/scart.html

Have fun!

[generousben]

its funny how little interest this and similar posts get compared with svideo topics.
i guess being a US site that not that many people realise how good scart is.
how many people on this site are from europe?

i keep reading things like

the small extra push in sharpness and colour to justify switching

this amazes me when i read things like this.
what every country we are from we all use crystal clear RGB monitors as pc screen .
no one one would ever ditch there pc monitor in favor on a svideo tv .
but people seam quite happy to rant how good they look compared to rgb.

in europe during the early ninties all games consoles used to be realeased in pal format with a composite cable.
where as  grey import models were realeased with true rgb and a scart cable(often just hard wired in)

the diference this made to console like the snes was Unbelievable  not only did the games run 10% faster
but the picture quality was almost unrecognizable to the pal version .
i would never play on a pal console as a kid because they looked so ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

have a look at Minwah pics!!!!!!!
 u all really do need to switch to rgb if u are still using svideo

[Magnet_Eye]

its funny how little interest this and similar posts get compared with svideo topics.
i guess being a US site that not that many people realise how good scart is.
how many people on this site are from europe?

i keep reading things like

the small extra push in sharpness and colour to justify switching

this amazes me when i read things like this.
what every country we are from we all use crystal clear RGB monitors as pc screen .
no one one would ever ditch there pc monitor in favor on a svideo tv .
but people seam quite happy to rant how good they look compared to rgb.

in europe during the early ninties all games consoles used to be realeased in pal format with a composite cable.
where as  grey import models were realeased with true rgb and a scart cable(often just hard wired in)

the diference this made to console like the snes was Unbelievable  not only did the games run 10% faster
but the picture quality was almost unrecognizable to the pal version .
i would never play on a pal console as a kid because they looked so ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---.

have a look at Minwah pics!!!!!!!
 u all really do need to switch to rgb if u are still using svideo

HUH??

[Cave]

I agree, I've been using s-video for a while, its certainly better than composite but compared to scart its totally different. Using andy's card connected to scart is identical to a standard res arcade monitor but with better color controls - this is displaying them side by side so this is not a guess.

btw Has any one tried a widescreen tv using this method with games like darius,ninja warriors, etc

Cave

[tom61]

i guess being a US site that not that many people realise how good scart is...
u all really do need to switch to rgb if u are still using svideo

And you need to to switch to driving a Corvete. What they don't have those in your country, or they're very expensive? Same here with RGB, the closest we have here is Component video.

[generousben]

why would anyone in europe want to drive a corvete?
we all ready have ,BMW,Mercedes,porsche,ferrari  
,tvr,lotus + all the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- hot jap imports........
american cars never do well here as there are so many beter alternatives .

[AndyWarne]

Hey, I just had to wade in here..
Having owned Lotus cars for the last 15 years (Europa, Elan, Turbo Esprit and currently Excel) and also having had the misfortune to drive a Corvette, that car does not do it for me (despite having a Lotus-designed engine!)
Yes very much like the difference between RGB and S-Video!

[RandyT]

I lived in Europe (Germany) for about 3 years.  I also saw how expensive some of those TV's were.  The average Joe at that time just had an RF connection and any connection to the SCART was from a VCR that was still only using the composite portion of it anyway.  

It'd be interesting to know nowadays how many of the current DVD players are actually putting out true RGB on the SCART connection or just using the Luma/Chroma (S-video) inputs, which are also present on that connector.

That's the funny thing about SCART.  The average consumer probably doesn't have a clue which inputs are actually being used by a device that is plugged into it.

Nothing like paying more for something that doesn't get used .  But the TV's would make good arcade monitors.

RandyT

BTW, I owned a BMW 320i while I was over there.  I'll take the Dodge Intrepid I have now over it any day .  Also, my German ex-Father-in-law drove a Ford Grenada and loved the car, but he finally bought a Volvo  .

The interesting thing about being in Europe where all these "great cars" are made, is that to Europeans, they are nothing special.  It always seems to boil down to what you have available to you and wanting what you can't have .  

[Minwah]

In my experience all (UK at least) TV's, VCR's, DVD players etc. have had scart for many years.  MOST of these have the RGB connected for at least 1 of the Scart connectors.  It is quite common for devices with 2 scart sockets to have 1 wired RGB, and 1 not however - which is a shame.  But you can get around this problem by switch boxes or whatever, I use one for my RGB DreamCast & GameCube.

[Cave]

I don't think you can buy a tv in uk that doesn't have at least 1 scart socket (i've seen 6 once on a large widescreen), also like Randyt was saying, some console scart leads i've had upon cracking them open revealed that only composite and audio pins were connected,But you have to buy them and open em to find out