Modding the Sega Saturn Video Encoder Chip

While this is almost true, there are the odd TV's in Australia that has SCART. Loewe and a few others.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Loewe-28-100MHZ-Tv-/181223591833?pt=AU_Televisions&hash=item2a31c48f99

But yea, pain in the bum to get one.

Not being a smart-ass, just making you aware, if you so wish to get one keep an eye out for a Loewe branded CRT TV.

 

You should be careful what you say, really.

Firstly, Rob's a good guy and his products are usually top notch. If you have a problem with his products, TALK TO HIM. Don't slag him off over the Internet. He's a small businessman and shit sticks... even when it's not necessarily true.

Secondly, not shielded? What a load of crap. I've NEVER seen an unshielded SCART cable.

The spiral copper wire he mentions IS shielding. If you really, really think there's no shielding on your cable, send it back within 14 days of purchase and point out it isn't as described.

To everyone else - Rob's a decent guy and he's worth giving a go. His cables aren't extortionate - sure, you can pay more for some, but I can't necessarily say they'll be any better. Try it, and if it's not up to your standard, I'm sure he'll offer a refund.

dc16, I sympathize that SCART isn't a readily available standard in the US, but please don't give us that "I've tried everywhere but I just can't find one on Amazon" rubbish! This is the Internet. Learn to Google. There are MANY sellers that will ship to the US and, if you really can't be bothered to order from abroad, you'll probably find an eBay seller in the US, albeit at some extortionate price, no doubt. Or try a console importer.

 

x

 

SCART may not be available in the US but if funds allow then upgrade to a Sony GVM/PVM or similar to get the best RGB picture.
Also if you've the skills to mod the encoder chip that making up a quality cable shouldn't be a challenge.

 

True, I had an ancient TV that had a SCART socket (I had no idea what it was at the time, I just knew I needed to plug in the adapter so I can plug in my composite cables). But we're basically in the same situation as the US, most of our TVs can't use RGB SCART, but we can use a converter box to turn it into component, which is much better than composite.

 

That it is. I have 2 lol! One for the retro stuff on the Sony CRT and 1 for the Dreamcast on the LCD. When we move house (and hope to have the room) I will be moving the Dreamcast to the Sony CRT so I can play House of the dead.

 

Epic awesomeness in lightgun form

 

It sure would!

thanks so much!. I love my Saturn but it has so much noise on the audio from the video signal. The white screen noise is just awful.

sorry for sort of taking over the thread

 

Interesting nonetheless. I must admit that I never had a problem with the analog sound from any of my Saturns. Perhaps I'm lucky and have good revisions? I'm using the original SEGA cable that I got with my very first Saturn when I was 12-13. In some european countries SEGA supplied RGB cables with their consoles I'm guessing you're using the original Japanese cable, and I highly doubt there's any quality differences between the two.

For what it's worth I've tried a third party cable from Lik-sang and it did in fact have a noticeable amount of noise compared to the original. The image quality was still a million billion times better than composite.

 

Pretty sure you are both talking about different things. You are talking about shielding to prevent outside interference by sheisling the entire bunch of cables within the scart cable. Druid is talking about each wire being shielded to preent cross talk/interference from the signals within the cable. This is obvious when there's a bright screen displayed and the audio interference gets worse etc.

 

x

 

Well shielding the entire cable isnt going to help with interference from within the cable (as its within the shielding, obviously!). This interference can easily be spotted as the noise changes based on whats displayed on the screen.

When making DIY cables, individually shielded solves all the problems.

 

x

 

If it is the shielding, how's adding a ferrite core to the regular av cable?

 

Anyone have a good source for some shielded wires to make your own scart cable?

 

Where are you located? This site has some amazing prices on very high end scart cables:
http://www.av-cables.dk/scart-kabler/ixos-high-end-scart-kabel-0-75-m.html
http://www.av-cables.dk/scart-kabler/ixos-high-end-scart-kabel-1-5-m.html
http://www.av-cables.dk/scart-kabler/ixos-high-end-scart-kabel-3-m.html
http://www.av-cables.dk/scart-kabler/tech-link-high-quality-scart-kabel-5-m.html
http://www.av-cables.dk/scart-kabler/ixos-high-end-scart-kabel-3-m-7653.html
http://www.av-cables.dk/scart-kabler/ixos-high-end-scart-kabel-1-5-m-7652.html

I've used them to made a few cables for my systems already. Here is a picture of the RGB cable and a consolized PGM I made for a good friend of mine:


Unfortunately they only ship to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Greenland and the Faroe Islands :/

 

Shit that looks like some beefy cables! But I'm in the states so I can't get it from there, any other sources that are located or deliver to the USA?

 

There might be other European cable shops that are selling out of their high end scart cables. No one wants them any more which is good for us. I would never have paid original retail price for these cables. Sure they are great and much better than standard cables, but the increase in quality isn't as big as you might expect.

It's cool to own a lot of these cables now, but I also feel like a total asshole when I cut open a cable that has a warranty card still attached, which promises lifetime warranty and has a handwritten signature from the employee who inspected it

 

I've found that good quality VGA cables make for great sources to make cables with. I rebuilt my Consolegoods Genesis 1/SMS SCART cable using one as it originally had some audio buzzing (and as Druid II stated, was not shielded at all), and using a nice, well-shielded VGA cable totally fixed it.

 

True. I remember the RPTV dad bought back in mid 90s had three Scart sockets at the back and one was colured red - told it's wired for RGB or something btut never tried.