Quick RGB question

[downsouth420]

Hello. I am after RGB for an American Saturn. Alas, I can't afford XRGB-2 and all the RGB monitors that I have only start at 30 khz horizontal, so I can't use those. A look at the Maplin site shows a couple of promising converters at a price more affordable than XRGB-2.

Of course, I am doing this because I want picture quality. Will the SCART to YUV converter downgrade the image during conversion? If so, will the quality still be better than S-Video (which was severely disappointing and looked almost just like composite.) ?

Also, is the convertor compatible with Japanese SCART or just European SCART? I would like to use a Japanese cable since I know it will be compatible with my Saturn, which is NTSC.

[NFG]

There's no such thing as "Japanese SCART".  If it's SCART it conforms to the European specification.  Japanese RGB cables use the same connector but a different pinout and are not called SCART - at least not by anyone who knows anything, heh.

RGB is the pure source, you should -technically - be able to get quality component video output from an RGB source via a convertor.

S-video though is almost as good as component.  If you're getting disappointing svideo I'd blame the TV or the cable before I'd blame the format.  I used to have a great little JVC TV with svideo input that looked far, far better than any of the RGB monitors I had at the time.  I would not be at all dissatisfied settling for svideo if RGB was not available.

[downsouth420]

Actually, I don't think its the cable or TV. My TV produces much better S-Video output with other systems. The component cable for the PS2 did make a huge difference in bringing out the color while retaining picture sharpness. (SVideo looked way sharper than composite but the colors looked faded.) I don't think it is the cable because I have heard many other people complain about the Saturn S-video cable who, when they switched to RGB, found RGB to be a marked improvement. I dunno, I guess different people have different opinions about video quality...

And my second question is will an SCART work with my NTSC Saturn hooked into an NTSC TV or will I have to buy a Japanese RGB cable and an SCART connector and rewire the NTSC RGB into the SCART connector?

Even better, does anyone know of a straight up RGB to component converter?

[NFG]

Actually, I don't think its the cable or TV. My TV produces much better S-Video output with other systems. The component cable for the PS2 did make a huge difference in bringing out the color while retaining picture sharpness. (SVideo looked way sharper than composite but the colors looked faded.) I don't think it is the cable because I have heard many other people complain about the Saturn S-video cable who, when they switched to RGB, found RGB to be a marked improvement. I dunno, I guess different people have different opinions about video quality...

I think it's more likely that there are different revisions of the Saturn hardware.  My units look awesome in Svideo...

And my second question is will an SCART work with my NTSC Saturn hooked into an NTSC TV or will I have to buy a Japanese RGB cable and an SCART connector and rewire the NTSC RGB into the SCART connector?

The signals that are used - RGB, GND, video - are identical, it's only the pinout that changes, so you can use the RGB cable on any Saturn and get the same result (except the HiSaturn Navi which has no RGB).

SCART uses 12V for signalling.  The PAL SNES has 12V on the pin NTSC units use for SYNC.  As far as I know there are no differences in the Saturn pinout, but I don't have a PAL one to check...

[Joe Redifer]

Get a Saturn RGB SCART cable from Europe and also get the RGB to YUV converter from there as well.  You'll have to go to Radio Shack and get a proper power adapter as the one from Europe won't fit into your wall and also wouldn't know how to handle our awesome 60Hz power.  It will work fine as I have my US Saturn set up just like this.  The quality is indeed a bit better than s-video, but I think the Saturn outputs a very good s-video signal indeed.  I don't think there is much, if anything lost in the RGB to YUV conversion.  Theoretically they should both be able to produce the same exact picture.  But your screen and your cables will make all of the difference.

PS - Have fun getting the audio out of the Saturn, as if the RGB to YUV converter doesn't support audio, you'll have to solder your own wires on to it.