Dreamcast - Iffy SCART connection?

[GenesisBits]

Hey guys.

I have a PAL dreamcast, great condition and I purchased a brand new Dreamcast RGB SCART lead. It worked fine for a while then I put it all away.

I've just set up my Dreamcast now and the connection barely works on my TV. Takes some cable fidgiting and console restarts to show up. Putting it through my XRGB-Mini will ONLY give me sound everytime and nothing else.
Any ideas?

It seems fine on my tv now after a couple of more tries, no need for anymore reboots of the console but the XRGB still won't display it.

I'm not sure how official the cable is. It has a red and white audio input hanging off next to it. Surprised me a bit when I saw it.

[Fudoh]

Sega's RGB cables for the DC were notorious for missing neccessary ground connections.

Open up the scart connector and rewire the ground. Connect the outer metal shielding to at least video ground, blanking ground and possibly audio ground.

[GenesisBits]

Sega's RGB cables for the DC were notorious for missing neccessary ground connections.

Open up the scart connector and rewire the ground. Connect the outer metal shielding to at least video ground, blanking ground and possibly audio ground.

Thanks! I don't think I'd be able to do any of that but my younger brother does all that in college working on chip boards so I'll pass on that information and maybe he can do it for me.

Anything else I need to know?

[GenesisBits]

Right, we opened up the scart cable and not too sure where to go from here.

Here's what it currently looks like:
http://imgur.com/a/FpWsT

He's not to sure what to wire if you can expand on what you said above, thanks!

[HydrogLox]

If you have a look at Game Console RGB SCART Cable Diagrams - Sega Dreamcast then you see that on the 21-pin SCART connector pin 4,5,9,13,17,18 and 21 should be connected to ground (do a Continuity test - don't forget to also check pin 1 on the Dreamcast AV connector).

[GenesisBits]

If you have a look at Game Console RGB SCART Cable Diagrams - Sega Dreamcast then you see that on the 21-pin SCART connector pin 4,5,9,13,17,18 and 21 should be connected to ground (do a Continuity test - don't forget to also check pin 1 on the Dreamcast AV connector).

Hey thanks for that info! Very helpful indeed. My brother just soldered it all up there but unfortunately the XRGB still only outputs sound with no picture. Still works fine through the TV directly.

I might just buy this:
http://www.retrogamingcables.com/sega-d ... -sale.html

[Fudoh]

as suggested by HydrogLox did you check the continuity through the cable ? I could imagine that you now bridged all the GND Pins on the scart end, but they don't really connect to the proper GND pin on the other end of the cable.

[Fudoh]

PS: from your pictures: if the black cable is GND coming from the DC then you could try and cut the white cable eventually connecting it all to the outer metal shield. You might have two different ground potentials there.

[HydrogLox]

I might just buy this:
http://www.retrogamingcables.com/sega-d ... -sale.html

There is also the (pricier) Toro - in addition to 240p/480i, it can also get the Dreamcast's 720x480p into the XRGB-mini.

TORO - Advanced Video Box for the Dreamcast!
Using a Dreamcast on the XRGB-Mini
http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php/Dreamcast

[GenesisBits]

as suggested by HydrogLox did you check the continuity through the cable ? I could imagine that you now bridged all the GND Pins on the scart end, but they don't really connect to the proper GND pin on the other end of the cable.

Yeah I think you might be right. I'll ask him to have a look again. He also said he has nothing to test the continuity? So I'm not so sure about that.

I might just buy this:
http://www.retrogamingcables.com/sega-d ... -sale.html

There is also the (pricier) Toro - in addition to 240p/480i, it can also get the Dreamcast's 720x480p into the XRGB-mini.

TORO - Advanced Video Box for the Dreamcast!
Using a Dreamcast on the XRGB-Mini
http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php/Dreamcast

Thanks! I'll take a look at those.

[gray117]

Is it just this cable or any cable? ...

Could be an entirely other (and common) thing :

http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/dreamcast-ran ... mon-fixes/

[NGAES]

Bit of a high jack on the thread..

I have a DC with scart and the image is pushed to one side. Is this a common issue?

[HydrogLox]

It's something that is more commonly observed with the DC's 31kHz RGB (VGA) rather than with the 15kHz RGB (SCART) mode.
This typically happens when equipment is expecting a VESA 640x480 signal rather than the 720x480p that the DC is actually sending (the image is only on the center 640 pixels).
So some equipment will simply ignore (truncate) the rightmost 80 pixels (rather than taking the center 640 pixels) which makes it look like the image is pushed to over to the right.

For a better explanation refer to http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/ and find "A note on format recognition on the VGA inputs" and "If you check my review for the Gefen HD Mate".

Now equipment with a SCART input should not have this issue - it should "know" that only the center 640 pixels carry image information and center the image accordingly - unless there is something in your processing chain or display that assumes a 640x480 rather than a 720x480 frame.

[Fudoh]

different problems. RGB is usually shifted to the left on your average TV set. On your classic 29" CRT this can result in a 1 inch border on the right side of the image. Centering controls in the service menu will help with that.