Author Topic: Will this downgrade the scart signal  (Read 2428 times)

Will this downgrade the scart signal
« on: January 24, 2014, 03:49:07 pm »
Im new to upscaling retro games to HDTV's. If you use a composite to SCART adapter (shown here: http://tinyurl.com/pem4xay ) into the SCART to HDMI, will the video quality be degraded from going from composite to SCART? Or is it better just to get a SCART cable for each system?

scott

Re: Will this downgrade the scart signal
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2014, 03:52:22 pm »
I have no idea when it comes to playing with video. But welcome to the site and nice username!
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sin2beta

Re: Will this downgrade the scart signal
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2014, 06:27:32 pm »
There is no point in that. You will just be getting a strangely modified composite signal. I'm going to use the word garbage and I'm not trying to be a snob, it's just the saying. But you will be getting "garbage in garbage out". Converting from composite to scart will do very little. Your composite input will essentially be the output. Not that composite is bad, it just won't change much. And depending on the equipment, could be worse.

Composite cables basically have 3 channels. Video, audio left, audio right. Scart is a general standard. What I mean by that is the cable is standard, but you can have all kinds of video. The cable has 20 pins (channels) that support several video modes. SCART is not necessarily better. This is because there is RGB SCART and composite SCART. RGB SCART is better. But not composite scart is the same as composite. Refer to the diagram below.



A composite to SCART converter will remain three channels. It will use pins 1,3, and 19. This will provide no difference in quality. It is simply a pass through with a different cable.

RGB scart uses a lot more pins/channels for higher fidelity. It will use several of the RGB channels for video plus channels for sync and audio. It's essentially a jump in quality due to the separation of channels. The jump in quality from RF to composite is due to separating the audio from video. This is similar in the jump from composite to RGB.

Now the composite to RGB converters do not separate the mashed up video on one channel to several channels. This is really hard to do. So, composite to RGB is still composite.

You might gain a jump in quality due to the HDMI conversion. But this is entirely due to the upscaler. Most are crap. Some are good. But expensive. Really expensive.

TLDR: Get a scart cable. More specifically, get an RGB SCART cable. 8)
« Last Edit: January 24, 2014, 06:54:36 pm by sin2beta »
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Re: Will this downgrade the scart signal
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2014, 06:34:27 pm »
I don't know all of the technical terms and info but here is what I do and what I would recommended to you.  Not sure what retro systems you are referring to but for me, I have my 16 bit systems (snes and genesis) hooked up with the rca cables directly to the input of my dvd recorder.  My dvd recorder happens to be an 1080p hdmi upscaler for dvds.  So that upscales my 16 bit games directly and they do look better on my hd tv with hdmi but its not a heck of a difference.  I also do this for my ps2, dreamcast, nintendo 64 and my gamecube.

Now for anything before 16 bit, I have my regular NES, Gamecube with gameboy player for original game boy/color games, my sega master system and famicom hooked to a standard tube tv via composite cables because they actually looked very good.  I have my Atari 2600 hooked up to a VCR with a gold rca plug adapter from radio shack, in which the vcr is rca hooked up my standard tv. 

Hopefully thats not confusing.  Sin2Beta is more technically inclined and maybe you should use what he stated but thats how I do mine and they all look and sound very good :)


p.s.   I'll tag along with Scott and say very creative and awesome user name handle and welcome to the site friend  :D

Re: Will this downgrade the scart signal
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2014, 09:52:43 pm »
That was super helpful and totally makes sense, GIGO. I guess there are no cheap shortcuts. Thank yall for the warm welcome!