Scart to VGA

[vroom6sri]

Hello out there!

Sorry to bother y'all with a question which I hope you will be able to help me with but here I go anyway...

I have a Belinea 19" LCD monitor and want to know if there are any cables or gadgets that will enable me to put a DVD, video, Freeview picute on it IE using it as a TV. I have listed some of my monitor's specs below in case they are relevant but please excuse my ignorance. I know VERY little about this sort of thing:

Viewing angle (Contrast ratio ≥ 10:1) horizontal 160°, vertical 160° (typical)
(Contrast ratio ≥ 5:1) horizontal 168°, vertical 168° (typical)
Response time 5 ms (typical)
Brightness 300 cd/m2 (typical) / 320 cd/m2 (max.)
Input signal Video: analog (15-pin mini D-Sub)
Display colors 16.2 mill. colors
Synchronization 31–83 kHz horizontal, 56–75 Hz vertical
Video band width 135 MHz (pixel rate)
Ergonomic resolution 1440 × 900 (60 Hz)

Sorry if this is not the kind of topic for this forum and site but a good friend of mine recommended this was a damned good place to try!

Cheers in advance.

[mats.hogberg]

Basically: No.

/Mats

[vroom6sri]

So this little gizmo would not be compatible with my LCD monitor:

http://www.marssystems.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=videoconsole

????

[mats.hogberg]

Yes, it would! Actually I've never seen one of those before. I stand corrected.

/Mats

[vroom6sri]

Cool. Do you think there is anything I should check or be warey of? I don't want to connect this little gizmo and have it knacker my monitor (but I presume the monitor would shut down if the signal could harm it??!!??) or buy it if it ain't gonna work.

Looking at the diagram of this thing again I can't see a Scart socket. Hopefully there is one out there with Scart.

[mats.hogberg]

No scart, but svideo + composite video - should be a simple thing to find adapters from SCART.
Only thing I can find on the minus side, is max res 1024*768 - not really up to todays monitor specs. Also, it's not clear if that's max res even if you use the PC "pass thru".

/Mats

[vroom6sri]

Sorry! Yet more questions from the un-educated one...

My freeview box only has SCART out so I presume I will need a SCART to S-Video converter but is it that simple?

Is Composite video out always the yellow plug? My DVD player has (I think) L&R audio output jacks (white & red) and a yellow jack of the same style. Is this Composite video?

With the gizmo mentioned above would I be able to connect my VCR to it which only has a typical aerial lead sytle (RF?) output?

DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS RELEVANT BUT I AM IN ENGLAND (??!!!!??).

[mats.hogberg]

My freeview box only has SCART out so I presume I will need a SCART to S-Video converter but is it that simple?

Yes, IIRC, in the SCART, the svideo signal is to be found. If not, at least composite is there.

Is Composite video out always the yellow plug? My DVD player has (I think) L&R audio output jacks (white & red) and a yellow jack of the same style. Is this Composite video?

Yes. All equipment I have yellow is video. I've come to take it for granted, even if I don't think it's a written standard.

With the gizmo mentioned above would I be able to connect my VCR to it which only has a typical aerial lead sytle (RF?) output?

No, that wouldn't work - but surely - a VHS has a SCART output too? I have a 18 year old VHS (the only one I've owned, and am ever likely to own) and it has a SCART connector.

DON'T KNOW IF THIS IS RELEVANT BUT I AM IN ENGLAND (??!!!!??).

Not with respect to this question, no...

/Mats

[vroom6sri]

Heh, man! Thanks for all your help. I think I might give this gizmo a go!

The VCR I have in my bedroom has Scart IN only. Doh!

Does S-Video include the audio signal the same as a Scart connection?

[mats.hogberg]

Does S-Video include the audio signal the same as a Scart connection?

No - svideo is video (only). see http://www.ghearing.com/?Gabe:ATI_All-In-Wonder_Pinout:SVideo_Pinout

The audio should still be connected thru the red/white connectors, same as if you use composite video.

/Mats

[ectc]

If you want to also watch TV on your monitor, you can get any of the commonly-available external TV boxes; for eg. the one below:-

http://www.chronos.com.tw/Products/tv/v-sharp%20Tv/v-sharp%20tvbox.htm

I have this attached to my plasma screen and it works very well.

The difference between a TV box and the Grand Video gadget is that the TV box has a built-in tuner. Of course, you may not need the TV tuner if you already have a cable TV box and can take the TV signal from there.

[vroom6sri]

Hmmm... Interesting. Presumably a device like that would also work in England as well.

Ideally all I need is something that will allow me to connect my DVD (Scart) and RF output (?) from my VCR to my LCD monitor. The Grand Video is the closest thing I've found so far but Ideally I need a Scart or RF input as well.

[mats.hogberg]

Scart is just a lot of different audio/video inputs/outputs bunched up in one connector. It's convenient, I admit, but you wont miss a thing if you have audio (l+r), composite video + svideo connections. That's basically all there is in a scart. (http://www.homecinemachoice.com/articles/wvarticles/hardware/200102_scart.php)
For anything to have RF input, it would have to be a tuner, and that is really something quite different from the Grand Video gadget.

/Mats

[ectc]

You can easily get a Scart to RCA converter such as the one shown below which will allow you to connect your DVD/Freeview box to the Grand Video:-

http://www.euronetwork.co.uk/acatalog/SCART_to_RCA.html

If you also want to connect your VCR which only has a RF output, I think the TV Tuner box will work because it has a RF input. It used to be possible to buy a RF to RCA converter but with the falling prices of VCRs, the manufacturers discontinued the product - see below:-

http://www.svideo.com/demodulator.html

[vroom6sri]

OK... latest thrilling (!?) instalment... I have bought a Logic 3 SuperVGA Box which has a built in TV tuner. Only problems were;

The Scart to S-Video lead I bought was only displaying the picture in Black & White.

There was some ghosting of the PC image making it ever so slightly lower quality than if directly connected.

This brings me on to what I hope will be my last question for this thread - Can anyone recommend a high quality switcher to allow me to connect 2 monitor cables to my single LCD? This is so I can bypass the SuperVGA Box completely for my PC signal and then switch over to the SuperVGA Box when wanting to watch TV, Video, DVD, etc.

HELP?!?!?