PS1/PS2 SCART cable and vga to scart

[Dib]

Hi recently bought PS1/ps2 scart cable from Playasia.com. I recently received the scart in the mail this week. Of course my american US HDTV didn't have scart so a few months back I purchased a VGA connector to scart. So I got my ps2 console plug the scart + VGA into hdtv. Turned the console on and got a black screen. So I plugged the composite cable from scart device and got picture and sound. I chose RGB on ps2 and nothing changed. The quality on scart looks like ugly composite image. Did I do something wrong? There was no instructions. Has anyone ever done this before like me? On my hdtv I chose input VgA but nothing happened no sound or audio. Then I chose regular video input and get composite signal which looks dark and ugly. I want scart signal not composite.

I have something like this, but it has a switch that say 1 and 2

[s8n]

hi Dib , i need others to back me up on this but im pretty sure that SCART cant do 480p. When your TV is in VGA mode it wants a 480p signal ie 31k.

What you need is a XRGB or similar device to up sample the SCART signal to VGA as SCART is 15k.


s8n

[theclaw]

Also keep in mind scart cables aren't always, and don't have to be, wired for rgb. They can carry just regular composite. There's some chance you might own the incorrect able.

[Anapan]

Heh, if only it were that simple.

As far as I know Playasia's SCART cables are all wired for RGB and work well. Many SCART cables are wired for both RGB and Composite. The main problem you're probably experiencing is that console SCART RGB is not the same refresh rate as computer's VGA cards usually output and therefore most new VGA monitors (LCDs) do not support the 15Khz signal that your consoles are outputting through the SCART cable. Your TV is probably expecting a 60Hz (and could possibly support 30hz at the least). Also, when games output a 480 picture, they default to an interlaced one (480i) - something even some CRT VGA monitors have trouble with. Your PS2 is outputting the same signal as the PS1 when it's set to RGB, tho a modded one can run some ELF applications to output a 60hz picture and run games at 480P or better for an excellent picture that most games weren't even meant to be seen with. The problem then is very few CRT monitors (and no LCDs that I know of) support Sync-on-green (the vertical sync signal is mixed into the green color pin when the PS2 is forced to output a 60hz VGA signal). Most monitors will expect the green pin's signal to be unadulterated as well as the Sync signal to be on a separate pin. Without a sync splitter circuit in your SCART-VGA cable it will likely not work with anything but a select few old CRT computer monitors.

If you want your PS1 to look it's best on your HD TV, you'll need to at least get a SCART-YUV/component transcoder (much cheaper than a XRGB unit) so you can plug the good quality signal into your TV's component connection (assuming it can handle 240P component signal - some don't)
For your PS2, if you want a better picture than component cables will output (VGA pictures can be displayed 1:1 on most HDTVs rather than being interpolated and scaled), you'll need either a PS2 Blaze/Xploder VGA kit (pretty rare nowadays), a PS2 Linux dev kit (even rarer), or you'll have to make your own VGA cable with a sync-signal splitter circuit.

[theclaw]

Wait. So does that mean my RGB to component transcoder, would get around the fact my LCD TV does not whatsoever accept 240p over component (hence 99% of PS1 games being unplayable on PS2 when using a PS2 component cable)?

[Anapan]

Most PS1 games force a 240P signal, and a transcoder only changes RGB to YUV, it will not change the refresh rate. You could try using GSM to get around that. I've never tried it, but it does mention PS1 in the version I'm using (the one with a lot of text on screen). Probably won't work, but it's worth a shot.
edit:
According to the FAQ from the GSM topic at PSX-Scene:

Question
Is it possible to play PSone games in 480p?
Answer
That may be impossible to achieve since the program we use to force 480p is a PS2 program, which will not survive a switch of the console into PS1 mode.
It is true that some graphics enhancement is possible even for PS1 programs (the settings of the PS1 driver), and perhaps some of the things we write to the GS chip may continue to influence it even after a shift into PS1 mode. But most likely the PS1 driver will reprogram the GS from scratch, which then completely eliminates our influence.

[Dib]

Yeah, thank you everybody. There are two options to getting True RGB on my ps2 except for ps1 console route.

well this thing seems cheap. but I seem to get confused. I tried to find a video of someone doing this,but nothing comes up.
http://skygate.bravehost.com/PS2_VGA_cable.html

http://psx-scene.com/forums/f79/d-sub-v ... mod-61745/

[theclaw]

I'm not seeing how a ps1 console would help. AFAIK every model of ps1 and ps2 ever released in all regions, have identical RGB quality. Though PS2's YUV/RGB select option is an additional feature.

[skate323k137]

Without a sync splitter circuit in your SCART-VGA cable it will likely not work with anything but a select few old CRT computer monitors.

Yep. And even then, most of those are only going to work with a 480p signal. Finding a monitor nowadays that supports 15 khz is already next to impossible. SoG monitors are easier to find. I Have a PS2 hooked to a VGA monitor that supports sync-on-green for games that will run in 480p. It looks great, but really all I did was adapt a stock component cord to a VGA pinout and set the PS2 to RGB. http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 22&t=11448