Wife has bought herself a Wii console and we already have Sky and a DVD recorder plugged into the TV S cart sockets.
I have what I believe is an auto switching adapter. Basically, it is a flying lead with a plug on the end connected to case that has 2 scart sockets on it.
On opening it, there are no electronics inside it. Can the switching be done via the way it is wired up internally?
The switching is done via volts on a pin from the source. So if either is on, the TV should switch to it. But if both are on via a passive combiner I'd say there will be a conflict. In more ways than one. ;-)
This may help
The scart box not automatic, and is useless unless you only have one device at a time switched on. Throw it away.
Although the VCR scart on the Sky box only provides a composite (PAL) *output* signal, what a lot of don't realise is that it supports composite and RGB pass through to the TV scart when used as an *input* So try connecting the DVDR to the VCR socket on the Sky box and that will free up a scart on the TV for the Wii
A lot of DVDRs don't support RGB recording anyway so you won't necessarily be at a disadvantage.
and this (to help understanding of switching)
Do either the DVD recorder or the sky box have more than one SCART (in which case you can daisy chain one of the devices to free a socket)?
Does the TV have an additional set of phone sockets for camera inputs or similar (front AV possibly). In which case you can use that to connect the Wii.
Not a switching adaptor at all by the sounds of it.
just a SCART splitter.
Many thanks for that. I have that info in my hobby room somewhere. It would take me up to 4 weeks to find it.
Printed twice and stored in separate places. :-) I hope
Dave
I'm a bit tired at the moment, so I have printed this out to re read tomorrow. Many thanks for the info.
Dave
Wife has found 3 sockets on the 'wrong' side of the TV that should provide RGB inputs. Wii has 3 coloured plugs into a scart plug that can conect to the back of the TV. RGB sockets are at the left side of the TV case, so it looks like she can have a permanant conection for all 3 connections. In the menu there must be at least 5 or 6 input selections. None of which matched the sockets at the back of the TV.
Sky, TV, DVD re recorder are not something I ever use, so my knowledge of them is nowt. If the screen is not connected to a computer, then I have no interest.
Since opening it, I am convinced you you are right and I am completely embarrassed, as my main hobby is electronics :-(( But not scart, as you can see.
Dave
That was my big worry. When I bought the unit a few years ago, I thought at the time it was nothing but a splitter, but it was only this morning, when the wife bought the Wii that I started to to think about it a bit deeper. Thankfully, one poster has sent me the pin outs for scart, so I'll take a look later in the week.
Many thanks for everyone's help in this. I could have had a skewer through my neck by now for blowing something up :-( Though I know that interfaces are human proof these days (I hope).
Dave
They are probably composite rather than RGB, but that should not be a problem. The Wii comes with a composite lead terminating in phono plugs (and also an adaptor to allow them to be plugged into a SCART socket)
That is not uncommon. The TV will often treat the composite and RGB inputs on one scart as two logically different inputs even though they share a socket.
I doubt it - the 'odd' ones are usually games or camcorder inputs. Often three phonos coloured red, white and yellow. Those are audio right and left and composite video. Sometimes also an S-Video socket. The only others normally found (apart from digital) are component inputs. Those have three phonos for video - red blue and green as well as red and white for audio - but component ain't compatible with RGB. However, plenty of sources can output either RGB or components.
Are you sure that Wii connector isn't composite video and stereo sound? The colours usually give clue.
Well if you can tolerate PAL artifacts... The colour of the phono plugs will tell you what they are. Yellow, White and Red is composite video, left and right audio. Red, Green and Blue are component video but be aware that blue can also be Left Surround. B-)
It will certainly be composite video plus left & right audio. The OP may just as well plug them into the phono sockets on his TV, nothing will be gained by using the SCART/phono adapter.
To be fair the composite out on the Wii is very clean with the supplied lead. A full RGB or component out lead will cost you about £6 on eBay.
Yup, the standard lead is your typical Red/White/Yellow composite lead, and they also bundle a composite to SCART adaptor.
You can use your 2 way adaptor with no problem, its what they're for. The only downside to these things is that if both inputs are supplying video at the same time, you get either a mess on the tv screen or a blanked screen. Once you know that, you can turn whatever you're not using off. I've not found any quality problem with this approach.
NT
That's also my experience. I must admit that I fell about laughing when I read some of the replies on here from "the prophets of doom".
Turns out that the TV has 2 extra AVG inputs.
AVG 3 looks like being the one to the left of the screen that I thought might be RGB. I plugged the wii into the back of the TV to find that that socket was AVG 4, so the sockets at the left, must have been AVG 3.
Many thanks to all who helped me
Dave
Thanks for that reassuring reply. It is more than likely I will use this in my hobby room now. I am usually quite intelligent. It's just that I have been through a bit of a health problem these last few weeks.
Dave
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