SCART or Component for non-progressive? (PS2/GC/XB)

[baaq]

i have read alot about SCART and COMPONENT technically. and here is was i understand so far (correct me if im wrong)

SCART has better color than Component (RGB vs. YUV)
Component is better in audio (no hum or buzz) than SCART (unless you have good shielding)
Component can carry 480p and 720p unlike SCART (max 240p)

the question is Why would you use Component if the your PS2, GameCube or Xbox game does not support Progressive Mode? shouldn't you use Shielded SCART?

[Pasky]

This question makes no sense since you can have component through SCART. SCART is merely the plug type, not the video format.

[Ed Oscuro]

This question makes no sense since you can have component through SCART.

If the OP is in the US, you can't do that directly. The question might just be using "SCART" as a catch-all for plugs carrying RGB.

Technically you could get/make a SCART to RCA plug breakout for YPbPr component video but I don't know if anybody sells these, and there is little reason to use them with a set that has RCA plugs for component video (since many cables are available that move directly to that connector). I suppose you could use a hand-made SCART to RGBs plug and keep it permanently connected to a monitor for switching between RGBs and component, and swap out compatible plugs to save on the very slight wear to the monitor's plugs (and also the hassle) and the very slight cost of dedicated component cables / RCA to BNC adapters, which wouldn't be needed. Probably such a thing would be more costly than worthwhile for a regular television, though, since the base and expansion plugs are all rather expensive unless handmade.

[Pasky]

My point was to point out that perhaps he didn't read all too much about it if he's unable to identify the difference between the connector and the signal.

I think it's safe to assume he meant RGB through SCART.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, it would have been helpful to correct some of the statements before the question, which OP asked us to fact check. These are more important for users in certain countries than stating that the connector has some use for which those users will actually find no use (again, I think calling SCART = RGB is a dead giveaway the user is from the US, otherwise they would more likely know its widespread use elsewhere):

First the real basic stuff: SCART is a connector (and has two pinout types: EURO-SCART and JP-21). RCA is also a connector type (the yellow-white-red plugs on many consoles) that can carry different signal formats. In the US S-Video is analogous with a special connector type, but it's really a format and can be carried by different types of wires. Technically it's better to call it Y-C (which is what it is). RGB refers to various formats with unencoded "raw" video at maximum bandwidth, and no mathematical operations are needed to extract its content. RGB requires a special sync signal, and this is found in various types: RGBs or RGBHV. When we say RGB, we typically mean RGBs, not RGBHV which is typically the VESA computer format. When we say "Component" video, we mean YPbPr, aka Y, (B-Y), (R-Y). Y is luminosity, Pb is the difference between blue and luma, Pr is the difference between red and luma, and green is implied by the presence of the other signals. It's often said that component is technically as good as RGB for carrying information, but in practice the technology used to make a component signal is not as precise as staying with RGB - at even a stage of compression that should be lossless, in analog signals it shouldn't be assumed that it will be, since any extra step is going to take a toll on the signal quality.

- As mentioned above, the SCART connector is just the most popular standard amongst retrogaming enthusiasts for carrying RGB video + sync. It's important to know what kind of SCART pinout the plug has been wired with: The standard European type not only works on European TVs, but is also the standard for retrogaming enthusiasts in the US. The other major pinout is sometimes called JP-21, and its only major use outside Japan is in connecting RGBs sources to Micomsoft-brand upscaling devices (the XRGB series, the D-select, etc). It's important to know which you need to use because the two formats are not directly or safely compatible.

- RGBs vs. YPbPr component (technically, both these forms of video are component, as the video signal is carried in different components) is not often a useful choice. Consoles from the original PlayStation to earlier seem to all output RGBs, if they do output a high-quality signal, but not YPbPr component. So there is no reason to worry about component there, except in the case that you want to output directly to a TV with component video - something like the cheap "Specialty-AV" transcoder (RGBs to component) box on can do the job. For newer systems, RGBs sometimes is supported, but YPbPr with its three plugs is more likely to be found on a modern TV. Only in rare cases can there be a noticeable difference between component and RGB, for example if the system has noisy YPbPr output (Fudoh likes to use the PS2 memory card select screen's grayscale pattern as a common test). In short, most consoles offer a choice of RGBs or YPbPr component, or something else entirely - choose whatever is easiest to use, for the most part. Only look at moving away from component video if you aren't able to resolve quality issues with it; otherwise, it's a decent enough standard.

- I don't think consoles typically output RGBs for high-resolution (i.e., 480p or VESA 640x480) content. You're more likely to have the similar-but-actually-different RGBHV video type as the VESA standard, which carries two separate "s" sync signals. This is easily enough gotten from the Dreamcast with a special box so you can plug into the typical D-sub computer monitor plug of old. The Xbox 360, PS3 and apparently Wii all can make use of a VGA cable, and it can be useful if you've got a good computer monitor that you'd like to use. Most likely, high-resolution content is going to be carried over a more modern plug standard (like HDMI) or component video - and it seems even the Dreamcast has a lot of "VGA boxes" that also output YPbPr component.

- It's not true that RGBs is a maximum of 240p, though for reasons of convenience that's what it's typically used for. For example, medium-resolution arcade games and probably a variety of old computer systems use higher resolutions than 240p, while still using the RGBs format. However the "standards" dealing with higher resolutions over RGBs are older market-made solutions based on RGBs, not really codified standards, so they have to be carefully supported by monitor makers (very rare) or upscaler manufacturers. It should be noted that "240p" is itself not a standard; it's more a hack and partial implementation of the NTSC video standard (240p is the same number of fields per second, but aligned differently, and also potentially sent as RGB instead of encoded in the NTSC analog format.

- Audio buzz does seem to be better controlled over a typical off-the-shelf plug than across RGB types, but the quality of an RGB connector is in large part down to the maker. Did they actually use high quality shielding or did they cheap out and tell people that it can't be improved?

[baaq]

i have a Sony BVM and an LCD screen that i use with my XRGB-mini. i use my XRGB-mini the most so will there be a difference if i use RGBs through SCART or Component? the PS2 is known to have a noisy signal from components but what about the other systems?

[Ed Oscuro]

RGBs through SCART or Component? the PS2 is known to have a noisy signal from components but what about the other systems?

RGB and component (which means YPbPr) are signals. SCART is a connector. You can pass RGB (signal) through SCART (plug), and you can pass component through SCART (but you won't want to). You can't pass RGBs through component (YPbPr) - both are signal types - the phrase doesn't have meaning.

For connecting RGBs sources to your BVM, most likely you will end up using plugs from your systems to the EURO SCART pinout. Then you will plug those into a SCART to BNC cable (user daskrabs here has sold some, and I like mine) - unless your BVM uses another type of connector.

For connecting component (YPbPr) sources to your BVM, you will require a few things: 1.) the BVM must be compatible with YPbPr (either natively on its lower inputs, or via an input adapter board), 2.) the signal must be the right type (i.e., don't try to pass high-definition analog YPbPr to a standard-definition BVM), 3.) you will probably use off-the-shelf component cables for your systems, and if the BVM only has BNC inputs, you will have to buy some BNC to RCA adapters. They are really cheap and easy to get.

For connecting RGBs sources to your XRGB-Mini Framemeister, you will want to get a DIFFERENT SCART CABLE for each system. You won't need the SCART to BNC cable because the Framemeister has its own output, but you will need a cable connecting your system to a SCART plug wired for JP-21.

You can't mix and match SCART cables with the Euro and JP-21 plugins, so it's important to label them. You can't use cables with the Euro SCART pinout on the Framemeister, and you can't use JP-21 pinout cables with most of the cables being made for connecting to a BVM.

Whether to choose component or RGBs for a particular system depends on whether that system actually supports component or RGBs, or both. In the cases where both are supported, I'd save the hours on the BVM and just connect via component to a regular SD TV tube. You can search about for discussions on the topic of component output quality from various systems - in many cases, it's the best you can get; in other cases, you may be hard pressed to see the difference between RGBs and component, if there is any. I tried the PS2 via component on a PVM-20L5 and on a XRGB-2+ and didn't notice anything problematic.