My RGB SCART setup

[socrates63]

Couple of months ago, I acquired a 27" Sony TV from a local technician who refurbishes CRTs. The performance of this TV was described as PVM territory without the PVM price. That got me very interested, and the fact that it was a curved tube was the deciding factor. I had been using a flat tube JVC, and I'm not a fan of CRTs that are completely flat--it feels unnatural.

The TV happened to have been modded to accept a SCART RGB signal. Having seen what RGB can do with my Intellivision that's RGB modded, I was totally intrigued when the tech told me that many consoles output RGB natively and you only need the right cable. RGB for the price of a cable? That was a no brainer for me, and I acquired the necessary cables for the NES, SNES, Genesis, and PS2. I still need to get cables for the Jaguar and Dreamcast.

I knew when I started this path that I wanted a SCART switch. I'm a big fan of the convenience that a switch offers. So now, the travails of the retro gamer aka first world problems... 😂

A month ago, I bought a SCART switch that does not work with my setup (ordered a switch that is not intended to connect directly to a TV--my bad). I sold that to a local gamer and ordered this SCART switch from AliExpress. It arrived a few days ago (took a little less than two weeks from ordering to arrive from China). I got it based on comments I read in this article about the passive 6 input 1 output switch by Otaku Gamer.

Well, things didn't work as expected when I hooked up my consoles to this switch. I had ordered this SCART cable to connect my TV with the switch (ordered together with the switch I previously got from retrogamingcables). All I got was an image that looked like there was a sync issue? I dunno. To troubleshoot the setup, I took the switch out of the chain and connected my SNES to this cable using a F/F SCART adapter. That produced a solid black image. Connecting the consoles directly to the TV produced the great image as expected.

I was hoping to hope that my problem was isolated to the cable that I got from retrogamingcables and ordered a replacement cable from Amazon. And boom! My consoles and switch are working as expected using the cable from Amazon!

I have no idea whether I got a bad cable from retrogamingcables or there is some technical difference between that one and the one from Amazon. Whatever the case, everything is working and I am satisfied.

The room is still a big mess but it is taking shape. Playing games on the CRT has been a joy.

[RickR]

Nice job troubleshooting.  How frustrating that it was a bad cable though!  I'm glad you got it working.

 

[CrossBow]

I'm confused...which cable did get exactly from Retro Gaming Cables? Because I've ordered a bunch of their stuff and never had an issue? Also I would have reached out to them as they are very standup types and would likely fix you up on that cable. 

NM I clicked on the links to see. No idea why that combo wouldn't have worked for you? I do know that SCART setups in JPN were different from the EU, but everything from Retrogaming cables would be based on the EU standards and if they were using the JPN format it would specify as such. So again, very strange to see you have such bad luck with their stuff as again, they are pretty much the ONLY ones I advise getting RGB cables from.

 

 

[socrates63]

Thanks for confirming that I did buy the right stuff, Jesse. The tech I got the TV from recommended retrogamingcables and insurrectionindustries.com (source of my console scart cables).

Maybe I'll reach out to retrogamingcables and see if I can get store credit for the cable.

Edit: @CrossBow here's another thing... I ordered on ebay this scart cable with audio breakout from Germany. It arrived a few days ago. This cable also produced no video like the one I got from retrogamingcables. Is that just extreme bad luck?? That would explain my success rate buying lotto tickets.

Edited July 4, 2023 by socrates63

[socrates63]

8 hours ago, RickR said:

Nice job troubleshooting.  How frustrating that it was a bad cable though!  I'm glad you got it working.

Thanks, Rick. This ol' brain is still working ok 🙂

Had I not gotten the cable from the UK, I would have reached out to the vendor to figure this out. But I didn't want to wait two weeks for a replacement from the UK, so the impatient me got the one on Amazon. For under $20, it was gamble I was willing to take to save me from the wait. I'm just super glad that it was not a problem with the scart switch.

[CrossBow]

On 7/4/2023 at 6:13 PM, socrates63 said:

Thanks for confirming that I did buy the right stuff, Jesse. The tech I got the TV from recommended retrogamingcables and insurrectionindustries.com (source of my console scart cables).

Maybe I'll reach out to retrogamingcables and see if I can get store credit for the cable.

Edit: @CrossBow here's another thing... I ordered on ebay this scart cable with audio breakout from Germany. It arrived a few days ago. This cable also produced no video like the one I got from retrogamingcables. Is that just extreme bad luck?? That would explain my success rate buying lotto tickets.

The cable from ebay only offers composite and audio near as I can tell and most RGB setups from a console are NOT going to provide a composite signal, only the Red, Green, Blue, and Sync in most cases. Although it is advised that at least +5 be present on the cable since a lot of switchers require that +5 power to know when the signal is active on the cable and switch to it. I know that I always wire up +5 on the RGB ports I've installed. That said, ONLY my more recent installs using 9-pin cables will provide a composite video signal along with the RGB. In the case of your Intellivision, I believe it is an 8-pin din and only has the RGB, S, L/R audio, Gnd, and +5 on it. So it is possible that without the full composite signal on the RGB, that the switchers you were getting weren't working right or something. 

 

All of my current RGB installs as I said will include the +5v (Yours should have that as well on your Intelly), along with a full composite signal when possible depending on the console. HDRetrovision cables, and the Rad2x cables require the +5 and composite on the RGB to work for instance. But I'm getting off track now...