I have a spare PC flat screen monitor with inputs for DVI and VGA.
I have a freeview box which has a scart socket for plugging into a TV.
Is it possible to connect the scart upto either of the inputs on the PC monitor so that I can watch TV please.
I don't have enough money to purchase a small TV or space for anything bigger than a 19" monitor.
Kindest regards,
Jim
Check the reviews - unless by some miracle you can make your Freeview box send VGA compatible signals out of a SCART socket (hint: you can't!), this will not work.
Cheers, David.
It'll work if the Freeview box can output RGB through the scart (instead of the usuial s-video, composite, component etc). Some can and it is selectable on a menu (you'll have fun setting it though, for obviups reasons ;-)
You'll also need to add stereo audio to the scart cable by soldering the following pins...
Audio left on scart pin 6 Right on 2 Ground on 4
and connecting those to some amplified (PC) speakers for sound.
Alternatively you can buy converters, but they will probably cost more than a display.
I dare say there are other options but from the reviews at that link, that cable is a con.
OP might do better to look the other way and get a usb tuner for the pc:
Gareth, have you got that the correct way around? I thought the standard for SCART was RGB.
Er, nope - unless the PC monitor has hidden TV sync ability (make & model please?) it's not going to rock with TV scan rates.
There are TV to VGA scan converters out there. Cost around 50 Quid.
A better idea ...
Bin the freeview box and get one of these. Should sort you out and also allow recordings to USB :) Mini TV Digital DVB-T VGA AV Freeview Receiver Box USB £20.99 post free from Hong Kong
nope
not without a black box to do the conversion, results might be flickery/juddery
They used to be available from Maplin and a handful of others, but all seem to be discontinued, unless you can find a 2nd hand one going cheap probably not worth it.
Won't work.
That's not the problem - few PC monitors display 50Hz signals, and almost none display interlaced signals. SCART is 50Hz interlaced.
(The few that may work are mostly ones that already have a TV built in, but have a VGA connector too)
Less fundamental, but still an issue: the sync pulses are different: separate H and V for VGA; both on one cable, together with the composite video(!), for SCART.
Almost certainly. And the resulting picture isn't always that good either.
Simpler solution: the Freeview box will work with any CRT with a SCART socket - and people are giving CRTs away these days.
Cheers, David.
Fair enough.
But it won't work unless the monitor can sync to interlaced 50Hz 625 line vidoe with composite sync (most monitors can't)
But a passive cable like that is relying on the monitor being able to accept TV standard sync rates (which it is unlikely to do)
SCART can carry one, the other, or both...
It certainly should be possible to make up a lead SCART to VGA. The pinouts of both are on the web...
Most modern monitors are multi sync these days and cover the line/frame rate of TV. Find the spec of the monitor in question and check is can do 15.625kHz/50Hz. However the interlaced rather than progressive scan may screw things up and the aspect ratio might be wrong.
Not sure about this, and not sure how much credence to give the reviews.
ISTR that the other way is possible - in the 80s computing mags had simple passive circuits or leads, I can't remember which, to connect microcomputer monitor outputs to a TV's SCART socket. And the VGA pinout suggests it might be possible as well, though you'd have to generate SYNC signals somehow:
Yes, I think it might be possible.
No, the standard signal for SCART is CV - Composite Video (an inferior standard and NOT the same as Component Video, which is a superior standard of the same quality as RGB). That said, most STBs and TVs available in the UK can handle RGB or Component via SCART, but for STBs these options nearly always have to be selected via a menu. Many TVs sense the signal level on Pin 16 to decide whether the input is CV or RGB, some also have extra inputs wired for Component.
Yes, I've done it that way round, you have to have a VGA card that can output interlace, supports a suitable clock speed and fiddle with the sync pins, but it's do-able.
My cable was along the lines of this one, but using Linux rather than Windows.
true
False I'm afraid, they used to when VGA cards were commonly interlaced (remember the relay clunk old CRT monitors had?) but most *wont* display TV spec RGB today.
Exactly.
That's not the problem - few PC monitors display 50Hz signals, and almost none display interlaced signals. SCART is 50Hz interlaced.
(The few that may work are mostly ones that already have a TV built in, but have a VGA connector too)
Less fundamental, but still an issue: the sync pulses are different: separate H and V for VGA; both on one cable, together with the composite video(!), for SCART.
Almost certainly. And the resulting picture isn't always that good either.
Simpler solution: the Freeview box will work with any CRT with a SCART socket - and people are giving CRTs away these days.
Cheers, David.
I have never seen a CRT with a scart socket
Going back to the OP ...
Here's another alternative:
...
Yes, but those computers sold in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s had 625- line 50Hz interlaced video outputs (or 312-line 50Hz progressive, which is near as damn it the same thing as far as a dumb CRT is concerned). I did what you say with a BBC model B and an Atari ST. Worked beautifully. I'd never seen such a clear picture on my TV.
You can force some PC graphics cards to do 625-line 50Hz interlaced, but not many, and it's usually via third-party drivers or hacks (e.g. Power Strip). Generally, this era of computer graphics is dead and buried, hence modern PC monitors don't support it.
If you believe the French, who invented it, RGB is absolutely standard and required on SCART inputs (e.g. TVs), and used on SCART outputs when required. Our current use of it (sending full RGB pictures from digital devices) isn't what they had in mind - they thought there would be composite video with RGB teletext-like overlays cut-into the video. SCART allows this. With DVD players, STBs etc in RGB mode, they just replace the entire composite video picture with RGB - though they usually still send the composite video too.
Component via SCART is very very non-standard. There are a handful of devices that do it, and most people would call it a "bodge". S-video is somewhat standard, though again, not what the French had in mind originally.
Sorry - got carried away - this is all probably OT, but it's rare there's a discussion here that I know something about!
Cheers, David.
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