SCART Cable Reviews? and RGB only is better Q?

[rlyoung]

I cannot find any of the above. I understand there may not be current reviews however I know from advertising that there must have been What Hi-Fi reviews, but I can't find them.

Is there an archive for these?

If not why not!?

I also see reviewers and sellers stating RGB only is better quality than sound and picture over SCART. But if sound is digital and therefore only picture is via SCART, then there would not be any sound signal present (would there?), so no possibility of e.g. cross talk, or for any contamination from the sound signal, so this (and advertising this) would clearly be completey wrong?

Many thanks

Richard

 

[professorhat]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

No current archive of old WHF articles I'm afraid - it's been discussed in the past but I think the cost to put it in place would be quite prohibitive - it would be no small task!

On your other question, SCART cables do not carry digital data, so your theory falls down there. Depending on the pins, some SCART cables did carry both sound and picture, whereas others only carried video in order to improve quality.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I think the point was more one of RGB-only cables carrying both sound and RGB video, rather than also having control signals, composite, S-video and so on, in order to minimise interference,

However, the prof's point about audio is correct - the best you're going to get over Scart is stereo analogue; for anything more you'll need a separate digital audio connection.

 

[rlyoung]

Hello Professorhat and Andrew

Many thanks for your replies. Shame no reviews archive as there's lots of older kit and cables around!

Sorry if I didn't explain my Q on SCART better! If audio is (already) digital, i.e. it is already carried by a digital cable, and therefore would not simultaneously be carried by (or it would be switched off for) the SCART cable, then there could be no audio signal in the SCART to degrade the RGB signal...?

Hence there could be no disadvantage between 'fully wired' or 'RGB only wired' SCART leads? (And no reason to purchase a RGB only SCART where you already have existing 21 pin fully wired SCART cables?).

Many thanks

Richard

 

[Andrew Everard]

The audio signal in a Scart cable is analogue, not digital, and of course there are all those other signals zapping back and forth through the cable. So there is a theoretical advantage in having one wired only for RGB video, and without all the other connections, but it's so long since I tested any Scart cables that it's hard to say whether you'd see a difference with your particulat components, or indeed consider it worth the extra expense.

 

[professorhat]

Hello Professorhat and Andrew

Many thanks for your replies. Shame no reviews archive as there's lots of older kit and cables around!

Sorry if I didn't explain my Q on SCART better! If audio is (already) digital, i.e. it is already carried by a digital cable, and therefore would not simultaneously be carried by (or it would be switched off for) the SCART cable, then there could be no audio signal in the SCART to degrade the RGB signal...?

Hence there could be no disadvantage between 'fully wired' or 'RGB only wired' SCART leads? (And no reason to purchase a RGB only SCART where you already have existing 21 pin fully wired SCART cables?).

Many thanks

Richard

I may be wrong but I think that, even if you had the device connected via a digital connection for audio, with a fully wired SCART, that analogue audio signal would still be sent via the SCART cable as well (even if it wasn't used). So the only way to stop it is to use a cable which doesn't carry the audio signal at all. Therefore, even if you use a digital connection, I think in theory there's still an advantage to a RGB video only cable. Happy to be told I'm wrong if someone knows better though!

As Andrew says, whether this would be noticeable etc. on your setup is debatable, just looking at it from a theory point of view.