I used to be under the impression that the French Scart Cable was the only officially released Scart Cable for the Mega Drive 1 / Genesis 1, but then I found this: Now my question is whether this is a legit official scart cable or just some cheap knock-off. I was unable to find even a shred of information on this item, so I'd appreciate it if someone could shed some light on this cable.
very nice, curious about the components on rgb lines. from the diagram on the back seems a only-composite scart cable ?
I thought so too, but in the text on the back, above the diagram, they mention 21 'poles' and "only for RGB-capable televisions".
21 poles is referring to the connector, just as 8 pole DIN is referring to the other. You'd never use every pin on a Mega Drive lead. That diagram is pretty poor. What makes you think this isn't the French cable? That sticker on the front reminds me of the Hills Components stickers. If it were 10 years ago, I'd ask our rep - I think his name was Donald. He was an older man, so probably had been with the company for some time... especially as he knew product codes off by heart!
Kaliki mentioned that, judging from the diagram, it could very well be a composite-only scart cable. If that were true though, the scart plug would most likely be missing some pins, but since it explicitly states 21 poles, as well as 'RGB-capable TV required' on the back of the box it makes kaliki's hypothesis a little less likely imho. Well the French Scart Cable looks completely different:
No, you're missing the point. It is a 21 pin connector. That DOES NOT mean "all 21 pins are connected". It means it's a 21 pin connector. They don't really need to say it, at least on that end. DIN connectors, however, come in various configurations so you would likely say it's an 8 pin connector. There is NO WAY that all 21 pins would be connected. Why? Because half of them aren't needed. And, in any case, the other end has 8 pins - you can't wire 21 pins to 8 pins! In the UK, we use a 3-pin plug for mains. That's what they're called. The earth isn't always connected, but it's there to open the security covers. That doesn't stop it being a 3-pin plug. One thing is certain - the English isn't great. It reads as if a French person wrote it. If Sega did it, then I'd say it's a French-region cable - perhaps a replacement for the original. It could well be pirated, though. It even looks like a generic SCART connector. My guess would be that it's a composite cable and they've used RGB to mean SCART connector, poorly. The diagram shows ground, composite video and mono audio connected - which makes it a composite cable. The SCART side wiring looks a bit odd, though!
You may be on to something here. As far as I know, they use SECAM in France, which could explain the odd wiring.
SECAM is a colour system. It's virtually identical to PAL, other than having a different frequency for the colour sub carrier. The oddities on the SCART side include the fact they seem to have tied the composite in and composite out pins together.
