I'm SCARTing!

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Herschie
Posts: 1180
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:44 pm

I'm SCARTing!

Postby Herschie » October 11th, 2018, 4:12 am

Not too long ago, I came across a video on YouTube about how to make your consoles look their absolute best on your TV. I had heard about SCART here and there, but never really paid much attention. Sounded like you needed a mod, and I didn't want to deal with it. So I suffered with composite for the longest time.

Then that video changed everything. You mean that all I needed was an RGB port? Oh, and the Framemeister happens to have one? No kidding! They mentioned how in many cases, it could actually look even better on an original console. So I asked my wife to order an SNES SCART off of EBay. I was quite disappointed when it didn't work, but after doing some research, I needed to use the European SCART adapter, instead of the Japanese one that came with the Framemeister. I had to order it and have it shipped from England, but it finally came today!

Now I have SCART. I'm a SCART guy! Would I say I was absolutely floored? Well, no. But I can honestly say I see quite a huge difference. The graphics look more well-defined, and the colors definitely pop more. It's still a 240p signal, but that's not any sort of problem for the Framemeister! Here, see for yourself:

Mario via composite without scanlines. Notice the muddled picture and the dreary colors:
Image

Mario via RGB SCART without scanlines. Looks MUCH better, more defined, better colors:
Image

Mario via composite with scanlines:
Image

Mario via RGB SCART with scanlines:
Image

Even though the difference diminishes a little with scanlines, there's still a clear difference. Now I'm trying to see which other consoles can pull off RGB SCART, because now I'm hooked. The SNES cables were cheap since I just wanted try it out, and so they have a buzz in the audio. I hear better ones can fix that, so now I might spring for it.

How much I missed out all this time! By the way, a telemarketer called and distracted me, and I ended up walking into a pit shortly after I took those photos. If anyone is wondering. And no, I didn't buy anything from the telemarketer!

Sut
Posts: 845
Joined: April 8th, 2015, 4:23 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby Sut » October 11th, 2018, 6:17 am

Thankfully after years of suffering with 50hz PAL our TV’s all started coming with RGB Scart as standard in the mid to late 90’s.
The difference is night and day especially on a CRT where the picture is gorgeous on older systems.

To let you know Herschie these are the systems I have hooked up by Scart without any system mods:

Master System (Model 1 only, Model 2 doesn’t support Scart without a mod)

Mega Drive (Model 2, not sure about Model 1)

Saturn

Dreamcast

You probably won’t have these as they are predominately ‘Euro’ systems but ZX Spectrum and Atari ST are also Scart enabled out of the box.

bluenote
Posts: 290
Joined: August 14th, 2015, 5:16 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby bluenote » October 12th, 2018, 10:37 am

Herschie wrote:Not too long ago, I came across a video on YouTube about how to make your consoles look their absolute best on your TV. I had heard about SCART here and there, but never really paid much attention. Sounded like you needed a mod, and I didn't want to deal with it. So I suffered with composite for the longest time.

Then that video changed everything. You mean that all I needed was an RGB port? Oh, and the Framemeister happens to have one? No kidding! They mentioned how in many cases, it could actually look even better on an original console. So I asked my wife to order an SNES SCART off of EBay. I was quite disappointed when it didn't work, but after doing some research, I needed to use the European SCART adapter, instead of the Japanese one that came with the Framemeister. I had to order it and have it shipped from England, but it finally came today!

Now I have SCART. I'm a SCART guy! Would I say I was absolutely floored? Well, no. But I can honestly say I see quite a huge difference. The graphics look more well-defined, and the colors definitely pop more. It's still a 240p signal, but that's not any sort of problem for the Framemeister! Here, see for yourself:

Mario via composite without scanlines. Notice the muddled picture and the dreary colors:
Image

Mario via RGB SCART without scanlines. Looks MUCH better, more defined, better colors:
Image

Mario via composite with scanlines:
Image

Mario via RGB SCART with scanlines:
Image

Even though the difference diminishes a little with scanlines, there's still a clear difference. Now I'm trying to see which other consoles can pull off RGB SCART, because now I'm hooked. The SNES cables were cheap since I just wanted try it out, and so they have a buzz in the audio. I hear better ones can fix that, so now I might spring for it.

How much I missed out all this time! By the way, a telemarketer called and distracted me, and I ended up walking into a pit shortly after I took those photos. If anyone is wondering. And no, I didn't buy anything from the telemarketer!


I love my Framemeister! I have a modest sized basement, so having a CRT and HDTV is a no-go. My systems look great through a Framemeister using Scart/RGB. The Genesis and Master System can use RGB without any modding. I modded my NES for RGB and it looks fantastic through the Framemeister! It was pricey (about $180), but it's my favourite system, so it was worth it. To me, if I'm going to spend hundreds of dollars on games, then why not have they look the best they can?

User avatar
Rev
Posts: 1487
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:31 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby Rev » October 14th, 2018, 1:46 pm

I switched all my consoles over to SCART this year as well. Took a while but I really, really like how my consoles look. Here is my setup:

Retro Consoles:
NES2- RGB SCART modded
Sega Master System- SCART
Genesis/SCD- SCART
SNES- SCART
Pc Engine DUO R- Region Modded, SCART modded
Saturn- SCART
PSX- SCART
N64- Ultra HDMI Mod
XBox- Component
PS2- Component
NGC- HDMI box
DC- Akura HDMI box

Herschie
Posts: 1180
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:44 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby Herschie » October 14th, 2018, 3:05 pm

Rev wrote:I switched all my consoles over to SCART this year as well. Took a while but I really, really like how my consoles look. Here is my setup:

Retro Consoles:
NES2- RGB SCART modded

N64- Ultra HDMI Mod



I'm curious as to how these look, especially the N64 compared to the Virtual Console versions.

User avatar
Rev
Posts: 1487
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:31 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby Rev » October 14th, 2018, 5:06 pm

The Ultra HDMI mod is definitely the best looking way to play the console however it isn't a huge step up from a SCART setup... the problem with the N64 is that to get it SCART modded you would need a first generation N64 console, which a lot of people don't have... But the mod itself is fairly cheap to get. The Ultra HDMI mod is a bit pricey though. This video does a good job showing what it does:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpy1M6v2_MI

(about 12 mins in)

The NES RGB mod is great. Huge step up in picture quality. Really happy with that mod and works great on my 4k TV.

GTS
Posts: 232
Joined: January 29th, 2017, 2:43 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby GTS » October 15th, 2018, 12:27 am

Three questions. How does SCART compare to S-video? Are you playing on a modern TV? Can you play light gun games?

User avatar
Rev
Posts: 1487
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 7:31 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby Rev » October 15th, 2018, 9:13 am

GTS wrote:Three questions. How does SCART compare to S-video? Are you playing on a modern TV? Can you play light gun games?


1. SCART is definitely a better picture quality then S-Video. On the framemeister I get a crazy good picture quality. If you cannot do SCART, S-Video is definitely the second best option. Also, for most retro consoles, there is no modding or tinkering needed, you simply need to buy the cable and have either 1. a tv that accepts SCART, or 2. a framemeister and the adapter which also accepts SCART.

2. Yeah, I'm playing on my 4k television. There is little to no lag through the framemeister (which was my biggest concern initially). For example, when I play some games through the Retron 5 there is a noticeable lag however through the original console through the framemeister if there is a lag it is not enough to notice (at least to me).

3. Unfortunately you can not. I do have a Trintron which I have a few consoles hooked up. I believe you can do SCART through a tube tv which supposedly is good, although you might need special cables. Honestly,I just use component for the tube tv since that is what I did for years before I started converting my consoles.

Herschie
Posts: 1180
Joined: April 7th, 2015, 11:44 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby Herschie » October 22nd, 2018, 8:16 pm

I'm back to CRTing. Just that nothing beats it.

bluenote
Posts: 290
Joined: August 14th, 2015, 5:16 pm

Re: I'm SCARTing!

Postby bluenote » October 23rd, 2018, 9:10 am

Herschie wrote:I'm back to CRTing. Just that nothing beats it.


Wow, that's quite a change in only 2 weeks.

What happened?


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