WTB: RGB-SCART for model II/32X (FULL SCREEN!!!)

[Zebbe]

Gaah!

I bought an oh so sucky RGB-SCART cable for my black mushroom from some German moron. It squashes the picture to 1/3 with two giant black bars up and down on the TV, making full screen with composite better, believe it or not (actually, you can't get full screen on this terrorist 50 Hz PAL piece of crap TV system, but 83.3% anyway). Therefor I want a FULL SCREEN RGB-SCART cable for my 32X (it will be full screen with my 60 Hz switch and NTSC games). I had one which I used with my model I before getting the mushroom, but I can't use it with the 32X, because the 32X uses model II stuff.

So, please sell one to me cheap, or tell me where to get one cheap. Anyone who does this will have my respect for many, many years to come.

[David J.]

http://www.segagagadomain.com/hardware-mega/xmd-3.htm

[Joe Redifer]

How can a cable squash the video? The signal has to be doing the squashing, not the cable.

[Joe Redifer]

Anyway about the XMD-3... I have one and am not impressed. The S-video picture has rolling noise bars (faint, but there). The 8-pin RGB out rolls like crazy and is the wrong color. The Sega Mega Drive has analog RGB out, so I don't know where that page gets off saying that it converts the Mega Drive output to analog RGB.

[David J.]

And I was thinking about buying one of these in the future... well one for my Model 1 Genesis, and one for my Model 2/32X.

[Joe Redifer]

Mine may just be faulty, I dunno. But definitely don't use it to pass RGB through, as that would be redundant. For s-video it might be OK if it didn't have the video noise mine does. Maybe mine has a blown cap somewhere.

[Zebbe]

Because the cable owns the signal, it is responsible for the squashing. Anyway, I don't want that XMD-3, it is too expensive.

[Joe Redifer]

But the cable has to have something inside to cause the squash. Resistors? Capacitors? Even those would only strengthen or weaken the signal, not change its aspect. Open up the SCART and and see what's soldered on. I blame your display.

[Zebbe]

My first guess would be the pins. Where the squasher has all 21 pins, my model I full screener has about half of that. I don't know why less pins would give full screen and more squash, though. Then again, I suck at these things.

[Joe Redifer]

eBay is a great place to buy SCART cables. Just search for Mega Drive RGB SCART.

[j_factor]

eBay doesn't seem to be a great place to buy RGB SCART cables when it comes to Model 2 Mega Drive. They're all 12 quid, and all from the same one guy. I asked someone in the UK about the expense of MD2 SCART cables on eBay on another board, and he said the following:


The one I bought was £12. They don't seem all that common, and I think the guy who's been selling them recently makes the cables himself? Guess it wouldn't be that hard to do if you can get hold of the connector bits.

For the record, the fucking cable I bought was a waste of time. I dunno if it was a problem with the cable or a problem with my system, but when connected with the scart cable there's no sound and the picture occassionally flickers. Load of balls.

So I'm now slightly wary of purchasing such a cable.

[Joe Redifer]

I purchased 2 model 1 cables (one for my Neo Geo and the other for my RGB modded TurboGrafx-16) as well as a model 2 cable. None have had any sorts of problems. I removed the resistors from the one I use with the TG-16, though. But I use the model 2 cable with my Genesis since it connects to the 32X output. It is perfect. Never a problem, not a one! There's no sound from my cable because the 32X does not emit any sound when connected to a model 1 Genesis... all sound goes out of the Genesis except 1 mono signal out of the 32X. So I use the Genesis headphone jack, as always. I've never hooked it to a model 2 so I have no idea if the cable supports stereo sound.. don't really care much.

[KillerBean2]

My first guess would be the pins. Where the squasher has all 21 pins, my model I full screener has about half of that. I don't know why less pins would give full screen and more squash, though. Then again, I suck at these things.

Both cables make use of (almost) the same pins. The rest of the pins are either removed or just not connected to anything.

... I would know, cause I make the damn things myself :)

If you want the squishy 16:9 nightmare to stop, you have to kill pin 8 on the SCART plug somehow. Just wriggle it till it breaks off...
or someting ;)

Here is the pinouts on my (crappy!!!) web page:

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/blackbox/sega_av.html

[Joe Redifer]

Ah, so it's sending the 16:9 flag. Interesting that would have it's own pin. Problem solved.

[David J.]

So a Model 2 RGB SCART works with a 32X? Really?!

If that's true... So how would I convert RGB SCART to, say component video?

[Joe Redifer]

I dealt with that in my article I think. But you need to by a SCART RGB to component YUV converter. They usually go for around $100 or so US plus shipping... from Australia! I do it and it is awesome. I use the same converter for all of my systems.

This is what I use (http://cgi.ebay.com/SCART-RGB-to-Component-YUV-Converter-improved-images_W0QQitemZ320036482805QQihZ011QQcategoryZ328 38QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

The unit does not support sound, so you must solder on a pair of wires to the connections inside. Pretty easy. Also you need to go to Radio Shack and buy a US AC adaptor.

And yes, the 32X output DIN is the same one as the Genesis 2 so it has no choice but to work.

Note: Do not use your Genesis or any pre-DC system on an HDTV. Bad bad bad image quality will result since the HDTV cannot properly display 240p. Many people cannot perceive the difference, but they need Lasik eye surgery anyway.

[David J.]

What about something like this?

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/YUV-RGB-SCART.html

[j_factor]

heh. I bought that one. Read the fine print -- it converts SCART to component, but it only works with SCART cables that are already carrying a component signal (which an RGB signal isn't doing). Component SCART is really uncommon (and as far as I know, doesn't exist at all for any classic videogame console), so that converter is essentially useless.

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah. It doesn't do any transcoding.

[Zebbe]

What is "16:9 flag"? And why do you have it? Piece of crap. Bah!

[108 Stars]

Why don´t you try to make your own RBG cable? The parts cost less than 5,-€, and the thing to melt the parts together (don´t know the english word for "Lötstation" can be bought for less than 10,-€ too.

[Joe Redifer]

What is "16:9 flag"? And why do you have it? Piece of crap. Bah!
In case you hadn't noticed, many newer TVs are wider than others. Thus the invention of anamorphic video. Why anamorphic? Because non-HDTV video is limited to about 720x486 for NTSC (and a similar 4:3 aspect for PAL). So the video is squeezed for higher vertical resolution. With the 16:9 flag on, the wider TVs will know to stretch the compressed image so it fills the whole screen. But some 4:3 TVs will squash it to it doesn't look compressed. ths is how DVDs work. But the DVD player itself is supposed to do the squashing, but some TVs do it themselves so you can experience higher vertical resolution. Why this is engaded on a Sega RGB cable is beyong me.

[Zebbe]

Thanks a lot for the info, Joe. You're always great at explaining things so I can understand them :).

[108 Stars]

This page may help you...

http://members.optushome.com.au/eviltim/gamescart/gamescart.htm#megamstr

[Zebbe]

Both cables make use of (almost) the same pins. The rest of the pins are either removed or just not connected to anything.

... I would know, cause I make the damn things myself :)

If you want the squishy 16:9 nightmare to stop, you have to kill pin 8 on the SCART plug somehow. Just wriggle it till it breaks off...
or someting ;)

Here is the pinouts on my (crappy!!!) web page:

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/blackbox/sega_av.html

Been playing Kingdom Hearts II for weeks... so I put this whole thing to rest for awhile. But, this mighty night, I tried your idea. So I wriggled the eighth pin 'til it fell off. Then came the trouble, getting the horrible SCART into the non-flat extremely fat TV and then into the 32X. After dozens of tries I finally got it in. And... IT WORKED!!! Thanks a lot for your help, you are my new hero. :D

[KillerBean2]

No sweat ;)

[TheGZeus]

You don't, really.

I'm assuming you mean color-difference video? 3 cables?

The only way that you MIGHT get RGB into those jacks is to use this circuit:
http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/sync_r.html
You won't need the diode. Just the resistor and cap.

Once you have the sync on green, hook things in according to the more obvious color codes.

You now have a maybe 30% chance of your TV seeing that it's getting RGB, and switching modes.

If it does, you now have ultra-awesome video.

[TheGZeus]

Oh, I'll be able to let you know if Toshiba direct-view TVs accepts sync-on-green RGB on their componant ins in a day or so.

I just made an AV/RGB cable for my model 1 using a DIN connector I got on ebay(nice seller) and a serial cable from my old Palm 3's sync thing.

I'm putting the SOG circuit in a seperate box so I only need to make it once for each system I have.

[Joe Redifer]

Color difference = component video. I currently have all of my systems hooked up via component video except for the NES. You must transcode the RGB signal into Y, Pb, Pr. Your TV cannot just accept it, especially since the green cable is luma-only. If you look at the feature articles here on Sega-16, you'll see an article I wrote about the different video connections for the Genesis. It's called "Seeing is Believing" or something like that.

[KillerBean2]

You don't, really.

I'm assuming you mean color-difference video? 3 cables?

The only way that you MIGHT get RGB into those jacks is to use this circuit:
http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/sync_r.html
You won't need the diode. Just the resistor and cap.

Once you have the sync on green, hook things in according to the more obvious color codes.

You now have a maybe 30% chance of your TV seeing that it's getting RGB, and switching modes.

If it does, you now have ultra-awesome video.

What!? There is no way i hell, you can get both HSync and VSync from a MegaDrive. It only outputs CompSync :confused:

Besides, if the MegaDrive/Genesis had VGA output, it would be downright stupid to convert it to RGB. I'd just hook it up to my PC monitor :p