Quick question about Sega Saturn and RGB monitorhe s...

He should be able to sort you out without any problem. He really knows his stuff when it comes to making RGB cables.

yakumo

 

I just thought I'd post an update. As you may already know, I just finished dealing with ChaoticJelly, and he came through. He managed to construct the SCART 21 pin to DB25 RGB adapter, and it works like a charm. I thought I'd post a couple of pictures, although they're not a good indication because: 1) They were taken with an iPhone and 2) It's very hard to grab images off screen from a CRT.

 

Glad it worked for you. I must say, you're lucky it did. That's a pro video monitor, and second hand ones have usually been worked to death. Usually you're better off finding an old Commodore Amiga monitor such as a Commodore 1084 or a Philips.

That said, the pro monitor will probably be able to handle PAL and NTSC, 50Hz and 60Hz.

It sounds like you got him to make an adapter to plug a standard SCART device into the monitor. That's the way to go - use an official Saturn RGB SCART lead and plug it into your adapter. That way, you can use a SCART lead for any console (or other video device).

A word of warning - be careful if you get what looks like a SCART lead from Japan. It probably isn't - it's wired wrong and it isn't advisable to plug it in!

 

good to see that you are playing rgb euro-style i love my sony 32" CRT with scart RGB supporting 50/60hz... i would never change it with another one

BTW the work seems a quality one judging from the pics.

enjoy!

 

Even thought he images are from a poor quality camera it's easy to see that great RGB picture quality. I'm glad you've been able to sample what most Europeans take for granted. Stupid Japanese removing RGB from their TVs in the mid 90's!

Actually I had an idea! You can buy Sega Astro City Arcade cabs on Yahoo Auctions for about 100 to 200 pounds. Is it easy to hook up a console to the monitors in those things?

Yakumo

 

Retro,

I know what you mean about the Sony pro monitors being worked to death. These monitors are usually up to 17 years old, but because they're professional, the tubes were always superior to all the consumer models. Lucky for me, when I bought the monitor last month, the tube was in tip top shape. No visible aging or burn-in.


As for the whole RGB thing, I'm pretty good with technical data, and knew once I read the specs that it would be able to display a true 15Khz RGB signal from the computer (DB25) input. The specs from the computer input closely matched the Amiga RGB monitor, and it was a Sony and is 20 inches as opposed to 13 or 14 inches for the Amiga. As for the adapter itself, I just wanted to display a pure RGB signal, so I spoke with ChaoticJelly, and he assured me that the RGB signal from a Euro SCART 21 pin connector and the Japanese 21 pin RGB connectors were identical, it just that the pinouts are arranged differently. With that said, he made the RGB adapter for Euro SCART since the Euro RGB cables for all consoles are a dime a dozen. He also made me some excellent stereo RGB cables for the Neo-Geo, Saturn, and the Mega Drive. Europeans don't know how lucky they are, since 99.9% of us Americans never got to experience anything better that RF or composite with the classic consoles. The best TVs in the early 1990s featured an S-video jack at best, and the cables for these sets and consoles (if they could even support S-video) were nowhere to be found. It wasn't until 1997 that the Sony XBR sets added component video. As for the signal, believe me when I tell you that it is crystal clear, and about 20x better than these images indicate.


Yakumo, back in 1998, I bought a cheap Street Fighter 2 cabinet for around $200 bucks or so, and I used to own a ton of arcade PCBs for it, but when I left for the military briefly, my mom sold it because she was moving. In any case, I've always wanted to buy another cabinet, like the Astrocity cabs, but they are nearly impossible to find on the East coast, and when you do find one, they're a pretty penny. Aside from that, they would take up too much space in my NY apartment.

 

Now that you mention it, here is an image of the adapter itself, along with the RGB cables he made.

 

ChaoticJelly is one of the best cable makers out there. He really knows his stuff and the quality of his cables are next to none. He's a fellow gamer who shares our pain when it comes to piss poor image quality.

Yakumo

 

the work seems a quality one!

@corruption:
we had great rgb possibilities here in europe, but most games and consoles had the 50hz lock, and not all consoles had available RGB scart... so many of us had to resort to buying foreing, costy consoles....

one friend of mine got a scart cable for the psx (years ago when the machine was still new) only to discover that was a scart cable but NOT RGB so he would get B/W videon on 60 Hz...

funny old times

 

Yakumo, you're right about that. ChaoticJelly's work is top notch. Thanks for referring me to him. Also, Karsetn, I heard about the whole 50hz thing years ago, and it's one of the things that made me weary about dealing with any hardware, even cables ( I didn't know better at the time) from Europe because the games were window-boxed and ran at a slower framerate.

 

How much were the cables from ChaoticJelly? I'm interested because I don't have a RGB cable for my Genesis and Euro SCART cables aren't a dime a dozen from what I've seen. Also how much was that SCART to Sony PVM CMPTR adapter? I built my own contraption that connects to the BNC RGB connection. So the CMPTR is open and if I could I'd like to be able to have more than one thing hooked in at once.

I got my Sony PVM used, but it looks fantastic still. I'm not really sure what its prior use was but it didn't seem to bother it that much as it's not burned in or anything.

 

I've though about getting a scart to component convert for my hd tv. Will I get a sharper picture if I use a saturn with scart cable to component convert on a hd tv?

 

I thought about that too however they're pretty expensive for a decent one. I also don't know if it would look better than pure RGB on a RGB compatible TV.

Yakumo

 

Man, I'd love RGB...

 

Sharper than what? S-Video? Probably. Composite Video? Most likely. But if you can already take RGB over SCART, then you shouldn't use a RGB to Component Video transcoder. But if you have S-Video you could give it a try if you're unhappy with the results. But personally I think classic consoles look like ass on HDTVs anyway.

 

Well I am using s-video for my saturn. I was just curious if it would be much better quality using a scart cable with a component converter.

 

I can't say for sure but assuming the quality of the RGB to Component transcoding is good, there should be a marked improvement in color and sharpness over S-Video. Also, if you get a SCART RGB to Component box, then you could use it for other systems too incase you should have a SNES, Genesis, PS1, or some other system that outputs RGB.

 

RGB SCART cables are still cheap, though. We sold them for £5 when I was in retail. You'd pick them up cheaper, but be careful of quality.

You'll easily get them for Mega Drive 1, but the Mega Drive 2 has a dodgy connector and they're a little more scarce. It does give stereo sound, though. The Mega Drive 2 ones used to be available for £15. As for someone making them, if they're using quality cables I'd expect they'd charge more than £5, probably more in the £8-12 mark.

 

Beware of the Megadrive RGB cables on ebay, as they're mostly homemade. Mine came without resistors, so the image was washed out. I let the seller know, and his response was that he'd been making them that way for years and nobody had complained...

If you get a forum member or other online acquaintance to make a decent one, the cost will tend to scale with the materials. You can pay pretty much whatever you like for cabling - someone will always have a nicer one for a few quid more. Personally I'm too damn broke to go spending more than £15 or so just for a cable (and the times I have, I've ended up questioning the actual benefit).

 

Alchy, I'd agree with you there - £15 is a good limit. If they're going to be homemade, then there would be little benefit to anything more expensive. Whilst it is nice to use OFC or gold cabling (actually, silver has a better resistance but it's a bugger to solder!) and gold contacts, making these properly at home is rather hard and you're unlikely to get such good results as those made in a controlled environment.

Some cables work better without resistors / capacitors. I say put a switch on them if in doubt ;-)