Recommend me a Playstation SCART

[22point8]

Can anyone recommended me a good RGB SCART cable for Playstation/Playstation 2?

I have a bizarre problem with my current RGB SCART cables.

Last year before I got a Sony LS30U Flat Trinitron, I scored a Playstation (7502), official carry bag and Guncon for £5 local pickup. As an added bonus it came with 2 generic RGB SCART cables, both have the breakout composite/stereo in the middle. One is black, and the pins at Playstation end have everything except the s-video, the other grey cable is fully wired.

Both cables have thin crappy wires, thinner than Cat5. The Capacitors are 220uf negative at the SCART pins, positive to the Playstation.
Now to the problem I have…

I have 2 colorimeters (X-rite i1 Display 2 LT, X-rite Monaco Optix XR DTP-94) and a spectrophotometer (X-rite i1 Pro REV D). I use these to calibrate the greyscale, I measure red, green, blue and white test patterns with the i1 Pro, and then on the less accurate, but faster and better at low light levels colorimeter to profile the colorimeter to the spectrophotometer.

Now, what I have noticed is RGB seems to have less luminance than component. i.e. on my PVM-2044QM 100% white measures 87 cdm2 on component, either through a component cable, or component sent through the RGB pins of the SCART cable. Via RGB from a DVD player the 100% white is only 47cdm2, which is quite a dull picture.
I calibrated my flat Trinitron the other day, via composite because DVD via a Playstation 2 would be green via RGB. I used the breakout from the SCART cable. Afterwards I plugged the SCART end in and the picture was very dark. Then I plugged in the composite cable again and connected it to the composite in on the front panel on the TV while still in RGB mode. Voila! The picture was back to full brightness again, and I was definitely still in RGB.

I eliminated it being the fault of my SCART switch (didn’t use it on the TV, tried a different one for the PVM), my RCA to BNC cables (tried component and composite RCA cables with BNC adapters), and the SCART to RGBS adapter (didn’t use it on the TV).
My conclusion is that there is something wrong with the composite in the SCART cables, as it isn’t used when sending component via SCART resulting in full luminance, and a proper component cable gives full luminance on the PVM least.

You might say “Why don’t you just use component then?”
Well a Playstation 1 doesn’t output component, I don’t have a Wii component cable, and I don’t have a component switch box. Also, I noticed in component text wasn’t as sharp, and had some flicker.

Here are some pictures:
Anything under 3 Delta E is concidered accurate, measurements under 30% grey don't matter. If this stuff interest anyone this is a useful guide http://www.curtpalme.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10457

2044 Component


2044 RGB


2044 RGB Colour


LS30U Composite


LS30U Composite Colour


Bonus Pictures:
1454 Component


Bravia EX403 HDMI


Bravia EX403 HDMI Colour

[EllertMichael]

generic RGB SCART cables, both have the breakout composite/stereo in the middle.

I'm on the hunt for a PSX SCART cable myself, but have been staying away from the ones with the composite breakouts, figuring they aren't true RGB

I almost got an "Innovation" SCART cable on eBay, but the seller (cheapgamestuff) screwed me.
So my advice is to steer clear of those, too.
You can read my whole ordeal here: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 46#p899246

Now I'm on a mission to find official SONY brand SCART cables.
If I come across any, I'll let you know.

Futhermore, if you come across a 3rd party PSX SCART that is of good quality, please update this thread

[Speedkingfox]

Got a blaze scart which is brilliant. Has breakout audio too. Great picture. Try retrogamingcable.com in uk. All there cables are hand made and excellent quality

[RGB32E]

Now I'm on a mission to find official SONY brand SCART cables.

http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/sear ... &ei=euc-jp

[22point8]

Got a blaze scart which is brilliant. Has breakout audio too. Great picture. Try retrogamingcable.com in uk. All there cables are hand made and excellent quality

Hi, can you try to find a picture of it? Is is the blue one?

Is the Ixos SCART any good? I've read it can be a bit flimsy on the Playstation end.

Those Japanese official cables would need to be rewired, or have a converter cable, plus custom/import tax and postage costs. The euro version is SCPH-1052 or 10142.

I've seen a Joytech braided cable but don't know much about it.

The Snakebyte cable is out of stock at amazon.co.uk and amazon.de

[22point8]

Just bought a Snakebyte cable from amazon.fr for £29.34 or 33.50 euros.

http://www.amazon.fr/C%C3%A2ble-RGB-pre ... kebyte+ps3

[kel]

The official playstation 1 and official playstation 2 euro scart cables don't have any capacitors on the RGB lines, they are connected straight to the RGB pins. Maybe the capacitors in your third party cable are making the picture too dark.

[22point8]

The official playstation 1 and official playstation 2 euro scart cables don't have any capacitors on the RGB lines, they are connected straight to the RGB pins. Maybe the capacitors in your third party cable are making the picture too dark.

Might give that a go later and see what happens.

[BuckoA51]

Just bought a Snakebyte cable from amazon.fr for £29.34 or 33.50 euros.

If you're going to spend that much, might as well go for the Wolfsoft cable, which has luma for sync too:-

http://www.wolfsoft.de/shop/product_inf ... mized.html

Is the Ixos SCART any good?

No problems with it here.

[22point8]

Just bought a Snakebyte cable from amazon.fr for £29.34 or 33.50 euros.

If you're going to spend that much, might as well go for the Wolfsoft cable, which has luma for sync too:-

http://www.wolfsoft.de/shop/product_inf ... mized.html

Is the Ixos SCART any good?

No problems with it here.

What is this luma sync? I can't find any reference to it apart from the wolfsolf site.

[BuckoA51]

It's just an alternative to using composite video for sync, can give better results on some systems, usually won't make a difference.

[Fudoh]

@22point8: the fact that your luminance output varies depending on wether you connect the composite video line as well or not, clearly makes it an impedance issue with either the source or the monitor not properly terminated. I haven't seen such differences in luminance on any setup.

btw: I find it silly to calibrate video game system outputs, especially the way you do it with using one signal for calibration and another for actual usage. RGB, composite, component can all have different IRE offsets, different luminance ranges and god knows what else. Setting black and white isn't this complicated and you neither need a colorimeter nor special test patterns. If you avoid blooming and detail loss on bright images, you're good and the same (or oppposite if you want) is true for setting the black level.

[22point8]

I had the meters from a while back and figured why not.

I only have 2 point gain and bias settings adjusted at 90 and 30 ire and on the 2044qm the greyscale measured similarly in component or rgb, it was a global setting so it doesn't matter what inputs. I agree it could be impedance, the pvm is supposed to self terminate, but if thats gone bad I could try those terminators bvms need?

When I did the flat trinitron it was in a cupboard, couldn't be bothered to go round the back to the scart so used the front panel composite.

It is a strange problem though, less luminance but perfect colour decoding and everything looks ok on rgb. Component is brighter, the colour decoding is a little off, a bit less sharp but full luminance. The one time I did try composite the picture was a dark mess so never used it again. This is on the PVM.

The flat trinitron was fine before on rgb, fine on composite before, but in the circumstances of my first post I got the strange results. I never noticed a luminance difference between rgb and composite, but as a consumer crt it was really bright to start with.

Thats why I though the cables composite line might be at fault. Also the PS1 seems a bit darker overall than the ps2.

Am I right it thinking that a component signal has a boosted green y signal and red and blue are the difference between them and the y. RGB is r plus green plus blue and composite just tells it where to draw on the screen?

[broken harbour]

Has anybody tried this?

http://www.consolesandgadgets.co.uk/cat ... -1008.html

[22point8]

That looks like the grey generic one I have, but it may be fine if its just me having impedance issues.

[Fudoh]

Am I right it thinking that a component signal has a boosted green y signal and red and blue are the difference between them and the y. RGB is r plus green plus blue and composite just tells it where to draw on the screen?

on component you get two color channels (differences to green), but Y is a pure luminance signal - actually the same as the luminance channel on a s-video signal. You can plug it into a composite video input and you'll get a b/w picture. RGB has three color channels and the combination of the three result in both the color and the luminance. Sync does not include luminance information.

[neorichieb1971]

All SCARTS have worked for me. The only issue I had was with pin 8 forcing 16:9 mode (on the official scart) lol.

[brownvim]

I bought this the other week http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joytech-Fusion- ... B000NJXOLA

Was recommended in another thread, looks great on my CRT

[ThEmperorIsDead]

I used this one: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310231144142? ... 1439.l2649
Had no problems with it using a NTSC-J PS2

[22point8]

wap.ebay.co.uk/Pages/ViewItem.aspx?aid= ... l=0%7Cnull

Heads up guys qed scart cables on ebay.co.uk £2

[Fudoh]

that's excellent!

EDIT: There're reviews online stating that the QED Playstation Scart cables are internally COMPOSITE only. I wonder about that (?)

[ThEmperorIsDead]

The price in the link I gave should be £1.90 (not £91.90 >_<) as that's what I paid, seems they have made an error when re-listing. I can confirm it is a RGB cable and works perfectly fine.

[22point8]

Wow pretty bad of a prestigious company like QED to do that, I bought one anyway and I'll let you know if it turns out to be composite or RGB.
Also just bought 6 BNC 75ohm terminators in case I am having an impedance problem.

Found that Strider 2 on PS1 has a SMPTE pluge pattern, the brightness was set correctly and a blue filter shows the greyscale must be right, because the locked out (factory set) colour in rgb is perfect with a cheap blue gel filter (this PVM doesn't do blue only in RGB), as it was with the measurements above from a DVD player. If the greyscale was off the bars wouldn't match.

Hope this link helps someone.

http://www.glennchan.info/broadcast-mon ... ration.htm

[Speedkingfox]

Got a blaze scart which is brilliant. Has breakout audio too. Great picture. Try retrogamingcable.com in uk. All there cables are hand made and excellent quality

Hi, can you try to find a picture of it? Is is the blue one?

Is the Ixos SCART any good? I've read it can be a bit flimsy on the Playstation end.

Those Japanese official cables would need to be rewired, or have a converter cable, plus custom/import tax and postage costs. The euro version is SCPH-1052 or 10142.

I've seen a Joytech braided cable but don't know much about it.

The Snakebyte cable is out of stock at amazon.co.uk and amazon.de

Its transluscent blue i guess. Appears out of stock on amazon

[22point8]

Recieved the QED cable today, as far as I can tell its RGB, I can't open it without destroying it. It seems slightly sharper than the generic RGB, in outrun 2006 the "Sega Presents" text on the logo is legible, and the number plate on the car is very clear. The SMPTE pattern in Strider 2 looked good too. Yesterday I took some comparison pictures between the official composite and generic RGB. My god my PVM makes composite look awful! So in conclusion this is either the best composite cable in the universe ever, or a decent RGB cable. Maybe the bad reviews were people using non RGB sockets on their TV.

EDIT
DVD green screen and when ps2 is set to component and ext sync disabled a full colour picture. I think this confirms its RGB!

I'll post pics later.

[ThEmperorIsDead]

If you wanted to make sure, you could just bell the pins out with a meter to verify it is wired for rgb using a guide like this: http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/ ... escart.htm

[22point8]

PS2 Component via QED Scart With EXT Sync Off (so working without composite)

PS2 Component via QED Scart Colour EXT Sync Off

PS2 Component via QED Scart EXT Sync Off RED removed

PS2 Component via QED EXT Sync Off BLUE removed

PS2 Component via QED Scart EXT Sync off RED & BLUE removed


Outrun 2006 QED RGB

Outrun 2006 Official Composite

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus QED RGB

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus Official Composite

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus QED RGB

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus Official Composite


So, the QED cable produces a very similar picture to the generic RGB scart I already had, but there seem to be a lot of negative reviews floating around saying its composite only, did I get lucky or something? I don't have any multimeters or anything, but with composite looking so awful and the QED cable looking as good or better than the generic RGB I think it has to be RGB.

When the snakebyte cable arrives I'll compare again.

[Fudoh]

Either QED did something weird to the blanking and switching pins, so not all TVs go in to RGB mode with the cable. Or they had an inital batch whith was composite indeed. Picture looks good. I'm sure the snakebyte will look exactly the same.

[ThEmperorIsDead]

I just ordered one, can't go far wrong for that price...I'll bell it out and see what they did.

[stuntman]

I took a chance and ordered 2 (arrived today).
Tested PS1 -> Scart (QED) to JP21 adapter -> XRGB3.
Works fine. What a bargain