Hey guys, I recently got some new capturing equipment and I have a way now to capture SCART based systems. I just compared the quality of a third party Nintendo cable to a first Nintendo party one and the Official one wins hands down. This has me a bit ticked off now though, and I'm looking to replace my Scart cables. I already have the official Gamecube one which will work with the SNES, N64(modded), and the Gamecube but I've been trying to find any information about First Party offerings for the Playstation consoles (any of them) and Sega Saturn. I cant seem to find any information about whether these exist or now, so can anyone inform me if they do? Thanks guys! Heres a quick quality comparison between Third Party and First Party Scart for SNES: First Party: 3rd Party (note the artifacts, especially in the logo):
Saturn I don't believe was sold - It was included in the PAL consoles by default (Possibly the first console to do so outside of france?). An RGB cable for PS2 should work fine with PS1 (I seem to remember doing this) and should be easy to get hold of.
the_steadster is right, the PAL Saturn's did came with a RGB scart, the PSX did not, however official sony cables were available and expensive like all other official rgb cables! (around 35EUR)
i have some official sony scart cables (some grey PS1 verions and black PS2 versions - no actual difference that i can see). I will happily let you have one for nothing if you do want one to test (you would need to cover the shipping though, sorry!) If i had to guess i would say that there will not be such a noticable difference on a ps1/ps2 between an official cable and a third party offering - there always seems to be something 'better' about Nintendo Scart cables in particular! Cheers Matt
Matt, that would be great! I dont think there would be any difference between the ones for PS1 or PS2, but if you can check to see if any of them have more pins than the other that would be great. I noticed that the official Nintendo one has a lot less pins yet gives superior quality. Ill PM you with my address so you can calulate the shipping Heres another question, is there an official Dreamcast VGA box? I've seen the knock off's but Im not entirely sure if there was an official Sega released one. Anyone know? I dont suppose anyone out there is willing to sell me their official Sega Saturn Scart cable?
Im almost 100% that there WAS a VGA box by Sega. Eva had one a long time ago, it commands a fair bit more.
The Nintendo SCART cable in this case might have better shielding and/or better metal contacts. Hot darn, it is a close call though!
I dont have a PS2 but I recal some bug with RGB cables and green dvd playback! I think some cables solved this bug so there might be PS2 specific cables to adress this issue OFF TOPIC: I have 2 oval-button saturns and none of these output RGB,only composite! All the round-button model output RGB without problems. Anyone else have a similar problem??
Yeah, but when capturing that pattern that the third party one produces will play hell with the compression so its worth it for me to get the best quality possible. Borman, any idea how much they go for or where I can find one? Ebay is full of third party ones, including the one I own at the moment.
Well, I think when Eva was selling his it was 75$ or more, it was over a year or two ago at this point though. Definitely not common, its been a while since ive seen it.
All Saturns output RGB, it might be the Saturn isn't driving enough power through Pins 16 and 8 to tell the TV it needs to display an RGB picture and is defaulting to Composite video (which is on pin 20, RGB uses Composite Video and strips out the Sync from it). To fix this remove any resistors from Pins 16 and 8 and manually set TV to RGB mode. In terms of RGB / SCART cables here is a fairly accurate list. Master System - Yes, but I am not sure if it was released in the UK (Model 3085) Megadrive - Yes, but I am not sure if it was released in the UK (Model 3085) Megadrive 2 - Yes (MK-1637) Saturn - Yes Dreamcast - Yes Playstation 1 / 2 - Yes (exactly the same internals, only colour of cable is different). Xbox - Yes Atari Jaguar - Yes
According to the PS2 Portable project on benheck.com, the RGB output turning green on DVD playback was intended as Sony felt that the consumer was going to make high-quality analog copies of movies and IT HAD TO PROTECT SUCH FROM HAPPENING AT ALL COSTS. IT'S THE LAW. EVEN THE CONSUMER GETS ARRESTED. *sigh*
Hi, Yes, the official cable does have less pins - much like the official nintendo cables. there was indeed an official Sega VGA box for the DC - havnt seen one for sale for ages though. yes that's right about the green screen - DVD playback in RGB mode will result in 'green screen' - some scart cables have a switch to select RGB or Composite - selecting composite when watching a dvd would remove the 'green' (but then you wouldn;t get the nice RGB picture!) Dot50cal - i'll reply to your PM later - om out for a few hours now. Cheers Matt
Ahh, I didnt realize there were multiple levels of Scart cables. So I take it the composite scart offers little in the way of quality over standard RCA composite cables? I guess I can stick with the third party one for the Saturn if thats all thats out there in the way of RGB. Thanks Matt
h:h: Oh my! You should've told me, I would GLADLY have chucked you a tenner for one to go with my TEST :banghead: I've been after these for months since mine got stolen. They're impossible to find on ebay, as everybody and their dog's selling cheap fakes that feel like they assrape the AV port. Do let me know if you're in for a deal! (tried to PM you, but your box was full, it said)
Here in the UK it was - The one that came with my Model one does both composite and RGB (wired for both) Dot50, on different levels of SCART, bear in mind scart is the connector and can carry multiple signals. The most common configurations that are output are: Composite only Composite+RGB Composite +S-Vid (pretty uncommon outside of S-VHS players TBH) The signal type is simply signalled to the TV with a couple of pins, depending on their voltage will tell the TV what signals the cable is carrying Therefore of course if the cable is only carrying composite, or is only signalling composite and you can't tell your TV to force RGB, then there is absolutely no difference over composite through yellow RCA connectors.
Ahh interesting, I think this SCART box I have accepts RGB, so I should be ok there? But if anyone has an official Saturn Compsite+RGB cable and is willing to sell it, please contact me!
Are there caps in your 3rd party RGB SCART? You know the US SNES (and all Gamecubes) need to have caps (100uF++) in the cables to filter out the DC offset. In the European SNES the DC offset is removed inside the console. An official GC RGB SCART therefore gives an extremely dark picture with a European SNES, whereas it works perfectly with a US SNES. Since the SCART connector is used a lot in Europe, most 3rd party SNES cables don't have caps (if they had, they would not work). These cables without caps may seem work pretty good with a US SNES, but they might cause the video DAC to get a bit hot, and the picture can also be less then perfect.... I am sure official RGB cables can be better than 3rd party cables, but I was just wondering about the caps since the difference was so noticeable in this case.
