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Other SCART to HDMI Converters - Have you used one?

Discussion in 'General' started by Byron C, 6 Mar 2017.

  1. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    If you have then I'm interested in your feedback. Note, that's SCART to HDMI, not HDMI to SCART (since the latter is a silly idea).

    I'm lining up another gaming marathon to raise money for charity, and I'm thinking about doing retro games this time. RGB SCART cables are available for pretty much all the systems that have come to mind so far: SNES, Mega Drive (Genesis... whatever), Atari STe, and Amstrad CPC 464. I refuse to use composite video since the quality is utter garbage compared to SCART, and S-Video isn't really that common (plus I already have a SCART cable for my Atari STe...). Capturing RGB SCART seems to be quite the challenge: the only remotely capable card I've found is £149+VAT (plus a separate adapter cable at £39+VAT) and it's dubious as to whether it's supported in Win10 or even Win7. HDMI capture devices however are ten a penny: therefore converting SCART to HDMI and using one of a multitude of available HDMI capture cards seems to the simplest solution.

    My question isn't specifically directed at gaming types: it's perfectly plausible that you might have used one of these devices to keep a beloved piece of A/V equipment compatible with this fancy new HD stuff.

    Have you ever used such a box? How did you find the quality of the HD up-scaling? (By that I mean: did it introduce any artifacts or glitches; I know you can't magically add pixels to turn an SD video stream into an HD one.) Did you have any problems using it on your HD TV?

    I will probably buy a converter anyway to play around with, since they're cheap, but it'd be good to get an early indication of whether this is going to be a Bad Idea™©.
     
  2. Freedom

    Freedom Minimodder

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    Buy a load of old school CRT off ebay you can get them for peanuts for a proper old school gaming experience.
     
  3. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    But the problem is that I want to capture the video using a PC, and that's not cheap when it comes to RGB SCART.
     
  4. Freedom

    Freedom Minimodder

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    hmdi splitter and capture card.
     
  5. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    Yeah I know. I said that in the OP.

    That's why I was asking for opinions from people who have used SCART to HDMI converters. I want to see whether there are any problems involved with the upscaling process.
     
  6. Freedom

    Freedom Minimodder

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    It all depends on what upscaler your using as to quality.
     
  7. jinq-sea

    jinq-sea 'write that down in your copy book' Super Moderator

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    Right - I'm going to ramble briefly 'cos I'm busy but I was idly reading this and seem to remember something called an HDFury or something, but I don't recall whether it took an RGB input and upscaled it or indeed if it outputted to HDMI, but it's something to look for.
     
  8. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    I bought an AV to HDMI converter. Basically I bought a car stereo head unit that I needed to output HDMI because I stupidly did not check the back of my TV (I just assumed it had SCART or some form of AV).

    It works OK man. Does get some sort of interference in the form of lines but it's far better than nothing. There are not artefacts or glitches either, just as I say these lines that look like interference.

    Which could be caused by something else, due to it being a car head unit.

    [​IMG]

    Pic there. It was about a tenner IIRC.
     
  9. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    Thanks guys.
     
  10. Dr. Coin

    Dr. Coin Multimodder

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    Living across the pond I was stuck with Never The Same Colour, and unfamiliar with SCART. If down grading to component video isn't an option have you consider and intermediate step before HDMI and looked at converter to composite?
    A quick google turn up the following.
     

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