Is it possible to hack a US TV into using a SCART input?

[rockin_rick]

Can you get a US TV to accept arcade RGB singals as a Euro TV does?  I hear all of you typing, "US TV's don't have SCART inputs" but perhaps US TV's have SCART type inputs, just that they are not brought out to an external connector?  Or maybe the scart inputs are somewhere on the PCB?  Or maybe those signals are at the pins of an IC?  Perhaps this would involve bypassing US TV input circuitry.  Perhaps the S-VIDEO input of a US TV outputs to RGB, and then you could "remove" (either physically or electrically) the S-VIDEO input stage of the TV, and connect directly to the RGB. 

Anyone ever considered or looked into this?

Rick

[BobA]

Some US TVs may have some of their circuits in common with a euro TV with scart input but to determine which ones and to active or isolate the proper circuits to use would be difficult for someone without a prof knowledge of TV repair.   Even a US TV without common circuit board areas could be hacked if you know where to isolate the circuits and what conditioning may be required for the signal.  I am sure that the hours involved in re engineering the circuit would be way more than the cost of an arcade monitor.

[StephenH]

Yes, this is possible.  However the time and research required may not be worth the effort.  If you wanted to approach this, find someone who is knowledgeable and confident with TV repair and the internal circuits of a TV, and then find a schematic forall the TV in question.  Beware TVs use high voltage internally, and the power supplies aren't always isolated from the A/C line.

[horseboy]

Perhaps somebody could do this for some particular brand of TV, and then everyone else could reap the benefits in the future.

[ahofle]

8liners.com will build a chassis for you to convert your TV into an arcade monitor.  You just have to send them some measurements.

http://www.8liners.com/datatech/monitor.html