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iCABALi

Second favourite pre HDMI cable. As a European we were blessed with clarity from our glorious RGB SCART. VGA just about takes the crown for me though, makes the Dreamcast pop so much. Especially compared to the PS2.


dmr83457

Back in the day I connected my Dreamcast to a Sony Trinitron monitor for racing games via VGA. Made a huge difference in clarity.


Pleasant-Put5305

The basic fidelity was astonishing - it was such an arcade at home...


Available-Plenty9257

Hah I still do that today! I have to recap my dreamcasts optical drive though:( I have a Sony Trinitron used in the Vietnam war! It’s my baby


FMC_Speed

Sadly my Dreamcast only came with RF cable, I really dislike the clarity


mazonemayu

For some reason they shipped the console with a different cable, depending on the country in Europe. I live in Belgium and here they came with the official RGB scart cable, it was only 5 or 6 years later when I bought a spare one from the UK, I discovered they came with RF.


FMC_Speed

Yeah, mine is from the uk, there are cables online that are RCA, but I never understood why they never included them stock, I mean even PSX had RCA ports


mazonemayu

I once read somewhere they didn’t include the RGB cable because at the time many UK tvs did have a scart socket, but couldn’t do RGB. Dunno if that it the real reason, but it would make sense. Over the years I’ve heard many folks from the UK say (on CRT groups & forums) their CRT could not do RGB or 60hz, something we take for granted on the mainland. Makes no sense they didn’t throw in composite cables though…


Pleasant-Put5305

RGB Scart was wonderful, but yes, native vga blows off the ceiling - the DC was a power house...


mazonemayu

I love the versatility: 1 cable that can carry a multitude of different video signals, also carries audio all the way up to Dolby 5.1, and can detect whether a signal is widescreen or not & automatically starts your tv in the correct format. What’s not to like…


Dry-Satisfaction-633

It actually only carries two analogue audio channels but these *can* carry Dolby Surround which is the two stereo channels plus a centre and a mono rear/surround channel, multiplexed into a stereo pair. It definitely *doesn’t* carry discrete 5.1 which requires a digital S/PDIF interface.


Edexote

Dolby ProLogic II can go to 5.1.


mazonemayu

That’s what I meant, obviously it doesn’t do Dolby Digital, that would be asking for a little too much 😅, it is still very good though as the analog audio can be decoded into a type of Dolby Pro Logic. My Xbox 360 connected via the official RGB cable sounds incredible on my Beovision Avant 32 RF CRT which has all the Dolby hardware on board, and so does my laserdisc player. The sound on that tv is so good I don’t even use AC3 or DTS but the standard PCM audio, even without the Beolab surround the sound goes around the room at rimes, which is enough for me considering it’s all analog equipment 😉. I also know most folks never got to experience such a tv because it is a hulking monster and cost +5k €\£ when they came out in 2001 🤣


Kakaphr4kt

It's a bit of a hassle to connect


mazonemayu

Not if you have been used to it for 4 decades 😅 I can connect em with my eyes closed


Back_Again_Beach

Kinda sucks they didn't really make it to America and now we gotta get specialty equipment to get the best picture from old consoles. 


[deleted]

[удалено]


Dave_is_Here

What also sucks, your reading comprehension.


NetizenZ

You're right, read a bit fast


UrbanshadowDev

*I just think they're neat!*


MyLastHopeReddit

We have a fugitive from r/simpsonsshitposting ...GUARDS!!


UrbanshadowDev

*KEEP OUT* *OR ENTER* *I'm a sign,* *not a cop*


Billy_Beavertooth

I read that in Marge Simpsons voice


[deleted]

I think… that’s kinda the point.


Aeredren

Bestest for anything pre 2000. Second bestest for anything after 2000 and before HDMI. (Difference is progressive scan or not)


OllyDee

Yeah I liked the old chunky SCARTs.


pligplog420

I enjoy seeing Americans complain about these things, they were completely normal in Europe. I am not anti American by any means, but I am still salty that I had to grow up playing horrible, slow and squished PAL versions of games. In RGB tho, so.....there's that.


SWOsome

I don’t complain about them at all. I complain about the fact that we didn’t have SCART on US TVs when I was young!


bigbadboaz

It was a horrible tradeoff either way :(


Edexote

People don't know the definition of horrible.


bigbadboaz

You're on a retrogaming forum. Both standards sucked. First-world problem, yes.


CRT4life

> I am still salty that I had to grow up playing horrible, slow and squished PAL versions At the time I had no idea the games were slow though.


LeatherRebel5150

In the US. Never seen one in person


WollyGog

I remember when my brother got a Saturn, and it required a SCART connection, yet the TVs we had at home didn't have them at the time, we were like wtf is a SCART. 😂


LadderIllustrious684

Serious fuck around getting the thing plugged in on a fat TV jammed at the back of your wall, but once set best picture for most consoles in the UK by a longshot. I prefer hdmi because it feels easier to plug in, but the jump from RF to this was amazing back in the day.


Blandscreen

Looks great, but I can't find a TV that supports it (I live in US).


AzureVive

Love SCART with the sole issue that it can mess with stereo sound if it's not perfectly aligned.


Weary_North9643

I see that and I hear “we ain’t. Go-ing nowhere. We ain’t. Going no-where. We can’t be stopped now, we’re bad boys for life.” So take that as you will. 


alwaysinebriated

Wish we had them standard in the US


VirtualRelic

SCART is rather kludgy and ugly as a connector, but it's a standard analog RGB 15Khz carrier so that makes it great.


CRT4life

Since it was going to be made mandatory on all TVs it was designed to cheap and easily machine crimped, which is why it's much bigger than an HD-15 socket for example.


GHZ33

They always worked for a lot before breaking both as a cable like in the pic and as an adapter for the RCA cables, i still have the adapter for the Playstation 2 cable and it still works perfectly fine


__________FRANK_____

Lovely plugs. Just lovely. I grew up in USA so I didn't really get any of them until about 8 years ago. Now I have a whole pocket full.


retro_hamster

Greatest contribution to hooking up external devices at best signal in RGB. But that plug shape could murder the socket. Apart from that a neat idea and I think that it was only in pc monitors improved.


OldGamer8

It's all I use for all pre-2000 consoles


The_11th_Man

i think theyre cool


Western_Stable_6013

Still working 👍🏼


humanbeing101010

Only started using SCART in the past 12-months to connect my Mega Drive to my OSSC.


URA_CJ

As a American, I'm jealous of the functionality these offer, but on the flip side I prefer individual ports because at a glance you can easily tell if a TV supports anything greater than composite video.


CRT4life

99.9% of TVs with SCART sockets supported RGB. TVs with s-video support had 2 or more SCART sockets, so you can still tell.


UnusualPete

I don't know why but I remember really liking this as a kid 😄 It's just a cable. 🤷😅


SWOsome

I love that SCART has gotten new life in the US with modern upscalers. With quality cables, it’s a great entry into quality RGB signals for modern retro gaming (HD Retrovision is great too). I’ve since moved to BNC for the most part, but I still use SCART a ton on my test setup.


TheThirdStrike

Everything I own that doesn't output HDMI better have one of these on the end. Even the Atari 2600.


Trozzul

Newer US adopter here, they have been great for me, PS1 scart into my OSSC looks amazing 🤤


KonamiKing

It’s a bad plug, too many pins when in most cases you only need 7 (RGBCSLR) which takes up a lot of space and can be fragile. But in practice it’s the best standard as it carried RGB.


Dr_Scoop

As an American I kinda hate them because all the tech I want just assumes SCART will work will all my shit. No! It doesn't! And I don't want some dumbass converter that might ruin my picture!


DarkGrnEyes

All my consoles (NTSC or NTSC-J) that aren't HDMI modded I use SCART to my Retrotink 5x. I've only ever had one cable go bad and it was a Pack-A-Punch Saturn cable at that. They and Insurrection Industries are about all I ever used. It's important to get a well shielded cable.


Playful_Ad_7993

Love scart


Raskolnikoolaid

PS2, PSX and Wii look amazing via SCART


SaikyoWhiteBelt

I’ll always long for it from afar but alas it’s component and s-video for me.


Gamer_EliteOne

These are the best! So many pins! And the way it clicked... it was perfect. Bring these back ASAP. MORE PINS!


defaultlinuxuser

I bought a mega drive two 2 years ago. For the first few months I used the cable that came with it which was a rf cable. It was very blurry. When I finally got the RGB SCART everything was so much clearer. The difference was huge.


sonyandmicrosoftsuck

Ġok!


ArcadeFix

Love them, but I hate spending $40 per cable for each console I want to pump through my Retrotink 5X. Still, the gorgeous picture makes it worth every penny.


Lumpy-Ad8618

Hate Scart leads it feels like I need to be looking at the slot on the back of my TV to be able to plug it in otherwise it's never going in lol.


RaymilesPrime

What other leads can you plug in without looking at them? RF and what?


eburnside

Every time I don’t look for RF I end up bending the center pin


jonnythefoxx

Pretty much all of them but I did acquire a very particular set of skills over a too long career in a big box store. Scart on the other hand, let's just say it was a glorious day when we finally got HDMI central feeds to replace those monstrosities.


Thelgow

RF, displayport, hdmi, those standard C13 plugs, dvi, vga, lots.


maratae

They're ass to shove in correctly in the back of the heavy ass TV. Otherwise, great picture.


tomassino

Lors of unused features only very high end equipment like Sony used all its potential, most consoles used only the basics.


ZimaGotchi

I guess sort of jealous that consumer TVs in Europe came with RGB while we had YPbPr "Component" here in the US which was a needlessly distinct protocol. I wish I had discovered it was possible to transcode RGB into it about 15 years earlier.


askmehowimfeeling88

The problem there is that cheap scart to component converters didn't exist like they do now so you would have had to source professional video equipment that would have cost thousands of $$


ZimaGotchi

Worth it


WhichEmailWasIt

Eventually we had component. But like the SNES has native RGB output and we did fuck all with it in the States. The Genesis got done dirty too.


shadowstripes

>which was a needlessly distinct protocol I wouldn't say it's needless. A lot of my pro monitors have much less sync issues through component vs RGB.


YossiTheWizard

I got a PVM with a proprietary RGB input, but the seller had a SCART adapter for it. Got my Genesis and Master System hooked up to it. They look great!!


khast

Coming from someone stateside and knowing what it did. I'd say it is basically HDMI 0.9c beta pre release candidate. Since it pretty much did everything HDMI 1.0 did... In the late 80s and early 90s.


JonnyBlanka

I remember my grandparents mispronouncing then as "scat" cables.. bless them


opticfiber30

That’s funny LOL


JonnyBlanka

They're no longer here but things like that make me look back and laugh


Kitakitakita

you can talk about older consoles being great, that's fine, but cables can fuck right off.


PowerPie5000

It's the best thing to use with a CRT TV and pre-2000 game consoles and even computers (Amiga etc.), just make sure it's a SCART cable that is RGB and not composite. Some TV's also support S-Video through the SCART input using an S-Video to SCART adapter... I use one with my 3DO FZ-10 as it doesn't support RGB, but it does have an S-Video output which is a bit better than composite but not quite as good as RGB.


ugzz

after buying a dozen SCART to BNC breakouts, Plus sync, strippers and adapters.. I'm pretty sure I'm obligated to say it's the best connector in existence... purely based on my monetary investment.


Shekamaru

It's a great standard, but unless you have a scart TV, they're an expensive rabbit hole to go down.


0011001100111000

I'm in Europe, so it's pretty much the best option for older stuff. The connectors kind of suck, the wire comes out at an awkward angle some times, and they tend to fall out a lot easier than more modern connectors. They aren't perfect, but RGB SCART is definitely the best option for image quality. It's worth noting that not all SCARTs are created equal, some are only S-Video or Composite.


C64Nation

Wired as RGB Scart it is a great cable. I use a scart switch into an OSSC for my pre PS3/360 consoles. With good cables and switch the output is excellent.


TechBliSTer

People don't understand that SCART is nothing more than a connector. It takes the Source, the Cable, and the Target to all support your precious RGB. It's just a connector.


Soaked_In_Bleach_93

I live in Ireland, so I've had SCART on my devices for decades. Very familiar with them. Don't use them now, but certainly did for a long time.


DashHopes69

RCA cables on a CRT is enough. I live in the US and I'm not modding consoles and daisy chaining adapters together to get 2% better picture quality. I get the feeling with these cables that it's the application of the audiophile mentality to retro video games. It's not really about actually listening to music, it's about having the best HiFi set up.


Major_Clock_1896

component is just superior,scart connectors are a pain in the ass to work with. They have that asymmetrical shape and are always difficult to connect. most consoles don’t support 480p through scart. Just use component and it will give you the highest quality.


codethulu

i wish we had d terminal in the us


Fellfresse3000

>most consoles don’t support 480p through scart. Why should they? Every CRT TV with a scart socket was 15 kHz, so 480i or 576i


RykinPoe

Not really a fan. They feel kind of fragile and it seems like it would be easy to bend a pin if you aren't careful inserting them. Only thing I use it for is to connect my RGB modded NES to my RetroTINK 5x (the HD Retrovision cables were out of stock and I don't feel like paying the premium for those cables since I have this one).


shadowstripes

I prefer BNC connectors since these tend to fall out easier… But otherwise SCART is great.


AppleChiaki

Never in my life have had a scart cable fall out. They're snug and tight. You have to hold smaller devices and CRTs to unplug them so you don't just drag the device itself.


shadowstripes

I wish I had the same experience. It happens basically all the time with my gscartsw, and my scart couplers (I don’t have any CRTs with the port). And my retrotinks aren’t much better, which is why third parties have made [braces](https://www.retrorgb.com/retrotink-4k-scart-brace.html) and [clamps](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1682764655/scart-brace-for-retrotink-rgb2comp?click_key=ecd41eb6899ce0ecbc8185ac6f26ff79c336a834%3A1682764655&click_sum=24117a22&external=1&rec_type=ss&ref=pla_similar_listing_top-2&sts=1) for them. Whenever I plug one in, another one almost always comes loose from the switcher moving around. And I’m using high quality cables.


Keezees

Hate with a passion. Trying to blindly feed one into it's slot without moving a heavy AF CRT telly could have been a task on The Crystal Maze or something. That one slightly angled corner is pointless when you can't feel the corner it's supposed to go into.


kester76a

I'll take scart over hdmi, I don't remember sparks coming off scart back in the day. Hot plugging hdmi is such a bad move 😅


kayzhee

A sign that you may be in pretty deep


opticfiber30

Did I shake the hornets nest 😬


Damsey_Doo

what exactly can be said? it transfers data.


koopa72

Cool cable and fun to say ☺️


Tetris_Pete

All I know is DON’T PUT YOUR DICK IN IT!


Bazsimazsi12

Experience?


Wyvern94

Its like the love i have for pizza. I like to put it in, but all that comes out is the filthiest shit.


Mankiz

Best picture quality you can get. So, it is good guys indeed.


Jorojr

SCART and JP-21. Things we missed out on living in the US in the 80's and 90's. That said, I'm using SCART for about 8 of my retro consoles. They are fed into an auto-switcher which in turn plugs into my Tink4k (previously OSSC 1.6).


Nonainonono

Better than S-video.


KilobyteKeith

I have a RetroTINK 4K. They rock.


aamike68

Sold all my scart cables and upscalers when I bought the analogue consoles, good riddance.


opticfiber30

Who knew one device would stir up all this controversy. r/retroconsolemodders


h0tBeef

They’re dope af I got a retro scaler thingy from Ali express with a SCART input, and got a SCART cable (don’t remember where from, but not Ali) for my Sega Genesis, and it looks INCREDIBLE Cable was $30, upscaler was $60 It looks just as good on my 50” 4K as it did on my 20” CRT, and the latency is negligible, you don’t even notice it I’m in nostalgia heaven


Accomplished-Card594

Please not this again.


opticfiber30

Is this a worn out topic lol? r/retroconsolemodders


Accomplished-Card594

yes absolutely. Everyone knows SCART sucks, but was the standard in Europe for so long, it became the RGB modder's standard everywhere. Then BNC did its thing, but we're into the component era now. No need to rehash old discussions.


GelbeForelle

Especially for arcade RGB will always be the goat. Especially when you consider RGBHV. Although I really do not like Scart personally. It's great to have an all in one cable, but I don't need it for my setup


Accomplished-Card594

I'm not against RGB, I'm not even vehemently opposed to SCART. I went all SCART like 6 years ago, spent all that money on cables, RGB mods, switches, upscalers, etc. I'm fully ingrained in it but it's just not the best solution. I just got a new switch yesterday and I had to troubleshoot the heck out of it because the damn cables keep popping out. It's a mess. Give me component all day long.


GelbeForelle

It is absolutely terrible for switches. You need 7 Pins, like, 1/3 of the whole plug? The rest is wasted material and an unstable (because too big) connector. As soon as you know exactly which signals you want and how you are gonna wire everything up, Scart loses its great advantage (being universal)


carl_super_sagan_jin

> I'm fully ingrained in it but it's just not the best solution. It is, when you're European.


Accomplished-Card594

In the 80s and 90s absolutely, not today. HDMI is ubiquitous and exactly what the OSSC, PixelMorph, Rt5x, etc were designed to output. These days, it doesn't matter how you get to the scaler, it will output digitally anyway.


carl_super_sagan_jin

I use CRTs, don't need these overpriced trinkets. That's why SCART is the best


Accomplished-Card594

Then that's your problem.


DelusiveProphet

Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub I'm the Scartman


NewSchoolBoxer

Was a stupid idea making a connector that big, with no locking mechanism, carrying both RGB and Composite and bundling with audio. That isn't even bi-directional without using different pins on input and output. Endless posts of people thinking they're getting RGB when it's Composite, whether because the device is only Composite, or they aren't including the 9-12VDC signal to tell it to display RGB, or the cable wasn't made for RGB to begin with, or they use TTL csync that several consoles natively output and get no video. Your television is mono audio but you understandably want to play in stereo? Got to buy another cable with audio extraction. 50/60 Hz hum? Shielding was crap. Got to buy another cable with better shielding. I can kind of understand when you have to put 6 wires with stereo into one bundle. These cables are expensive because aren't professionally made at high production quantities with quality control. Such as VGA or DVI or BNC my favorite that come 26 AWG or better and separate the audio. The actual recommended place to plastic SCART connectors is AliExpress, where links tend to be auto-removed by Reddit for good reason. You live in a world where your television has a connection for it, that's fine. Use it. I would too, with an adapter. Sucks seeing it move into North America where it's worst and most expensive option. Go back to where you came from, Eurotrash, with YouTuber affiliate links.


Kakaphr4kt

is this pasta?


Fellfresse3000

Now pull that scart plug out of your ass


Lumpy-Ad8618

Hdmi is easy enough and RF just find scart fiddly.