SCART cables for RGB output of your oldschool consoles

[puduhead]

I have this SNES SCART cable shipping just in time for Christmas:

http://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/nintendo.html

This is a reputable company. I've ordered SCART cables from them before for Sega Genesis and Saturn. I can't say they are of the highest possible quality due to the lack of shielding, you can have some noise on the audio lines, but that's no different than the standard AV cables. Can't hardly beat the price though and they process and ship fast.

You pair these with a SCART-RGB to Component converter box. There are many available on Amazon and elsewhere. I use the CSY-2100G. It does the job. Playing a little Sega Genesis this morning on the living room 55" LED and it reads 720x240 Native resolution (to the TV [upscaled from the converter]).

You could probably also pair these SCART cables with higher-end gear like an XRGB. They are pretty pricey though.

 

[puduhead]

Got my cables, everything is working great. One thing I neglected to mention: When interfacing to a converter box like the CSY-2100 (or all those like it), there is no audio output from the other end of the box. And a lot of these cables are just the console A/V port to SCART without separate RCA audio outs. Easily remedied.

In this case, simply splice an RCA left/right cable. The outter copper on the individual lines gets twisted together to be the ground which is wired to pin 4. And as the diagram shows, you wire the inner shielded cable right to pin 2 and the left to pin 6. A quick dirty soldering job on those pins will secure it and you're ready to put the casing back on. I'm not getting any excessive noise on the lines, just the average amount you get at high volume just as with standard A/V cables.

SNES at 720 x 240. Looks pretty decent on my Samsung LEDs with the settings adjusted and Game Mode turned on to reduce latency. Looks great on a nice CRT like a Sony Wega. Would look optimal interfaced with a multi-sync arcade/PC monitor if it had the proper inputs as a select few do. Or interfaced with the likes of an XRGB type device (however i understand you need to patch the SCART cable through an adapter like this for the jpn pin wiring).

 

[compac]

Super Nintendo, you can rip the samples from the SPC and load them up and sequence them in the sequencer or tracker of your choic- ModPlug Tracker, SchismTracker, Psycle, or Renoise, to name a few trackers.

adil