The Inquisitive Yankee (Bunch-o-Questions PT. II)

[zedrein]

1.) Does the European SCART standard have a built-in sync separator inside the video circuit? I was observing that the European Nintendo Wii doesn't have a sync pin of any sort. Do their tv's simply strip the sync inside the tv from regular composite (CVBS) video?

2.) Besides making a AV cable more rugged and durable, does the outer PVC jacket (black "coat") serve any other purpose? I need to take off a considerable amount of that black jacket off so I can route my audio lines from my SNES to my receiver while the video lines go to my display, but I don't want to discard important parts of the cable assembly that can contribute to shielding from RF or EM interference.

3.) Can a gaming console that is only equipped with a proprietary "multi out" connector benefit from having standard RCA/BNC connectors attached to it to that will instead bring the audio/visual from the console? Besides maybe convenience, can these connectors provide an improvement in fidelity to the signal coming from the internal processors? I would imagine with the shortened leads from chip to connector there would be a substantial increase in electrical conductivity, not to mention being able to use higher quality interconnects between console and display.

Thanks for your thoughts...I'm back, baby, I'm back!

[albino_vulpix]

1.) Does the European SCART standard have a built-in sync separator inside the video circuit? I was observing that the European Nintendo Wii doesn't have a sync pin of any sort. Do their tv's simply strip the sync inside the tv from regular composite (CVBS) video?

The SCART standard calls for regular old composite video to be applied to pin 20. The TV gets its sync from that.

2.) Besides making a AV cable more rugged and durable, does the outer PVC jacket (black "coat") serve any other purpose? I need to take off a considerable amount of that black jacket off so I can route my audio lines from my SNES to my receiver while the video lines go to my display, but I don't want to discard important parts of the cable assembly that can contribute to shielding from RF or EM interference.

As long as you don't cut any of the actual copper wire, or expose different wires to each other, you'll be fine cutting away at the PVC. The plastic itself does not provide any protection from interference.

3.) Can a gaming console that is only equipped with a proprietary "multi out" connector benefit from having standard RCA/BNC connectors attached to it to that will instead bring the audio/visual from the console? Besides maybe convenience, can these connectors provide an improvement in fidelity to the signal coming from the internal processors? I would imagine with the shortened leads from chip to connector there would be a substantial increase in electrical conductivity, not to mention being able to use higher quality interconnects between console and display.

If there is a difference, you won't notice it.

Thanks for your thoughts...I'm back, baby, I'm back!

[zedrein]

Thanks, Mr. Albino. The only answer I was unsatisfied with was the question regarding whether or not standardized connectors such as RCA or BNC could result in better AV fidelity coming from a gaming console. You said that if there was a difference, I wouldn't notice it. How can this be when in any other electronic application using the shortest possible electronic connection coupled with the maximum amount of surface contact possible results in better performance of the equipment? Printed circuit boards that use solder-like leads seem also to be more susceptible to interference...please explain how my method wouldn't be preferable.

[albino_vulpix]

Bascially I'm saying that you can add RCA connectors to your machine, and if you do it right, you will get a higher fidelity signal. However, if the AV cable that came with the console is of decent quality, you won't notice a difference between the two signals.

[zedrein]

Fascinating. Here's another one for ya: in a 480i resolution picture signal, is the television displaying half of a 480 line signal at a time (field 1 first half of 240 lines then field 2 second half of 240 lines) or is it displaying a 240 line signal all at once (all 240 lines in field 1 then all 240 lines in field 2)?

Don't ask me why I want to know this...just plain curiosity.

[albino_vulpix]

Fascinating. Here's another one for ya: in a 480i resolution picture signal, is the television displaying half of a 480 line signal at a time (field 1 first half of 240 lines then field 2 second half of 240 lines) or is it displaying a 240 line signal all at once (all 240 lines in field 1 then all 240 lines in field 2)?

Don't ask me why I want to know this...just plain curiosity.

When you're talking about a 480i signal, you're talking about 480 lines interlaced. Basically, each frame (complete still image) is made up of 480 lines. Being interlaced, the entire frame is drawn in two sweeps of the screen. Each sweep is one field, and because the signal is interlaced, two fields make one frame. First, the electron guns draw the first field on the screen, which is made up of the first line, the third line, the fifth line, etc. This field is made up of 240 lines. Then the TV goes back to the start to draw lines two, four, six, etc to create the second field, completing the frame.

So in direct answer to your question, the TV displays all 240 lines in field one, then the rest of the 240 in field two.

[zedrein]

So it doesn't matter if the original source was a complete 240 line image or a 480 line image, interlacing can work with both?

[albino_vulpix]

I see no reason why it wouldn't.

[zedrein]

Here's a new one: How come when I buy a RGB SCART cable for my NTSC SNES, there are already 220 uf caps on the RGB lines? I thought the PAL standard didn't call for that?!

[albino_vulpix]

Manufacturer didn't read the diagram properly