First post, by digger
- Rank
- Oldbie
Hi everyone,
I've been looking for a proper adapter or converter that takes an HDMI signal, downscales it and outputs it as a standard definition RGB signal, switchable between PAL and NTSC, which I can then hook up to a European TV with an RGB SCART input.
I'd like to find such an adapter, so I can connect modern retro mini game consoles such as the NES Mini and Super NES Mini, but possibly also other modern game systems, to a CRT TV that accept RGB video through SCART, for that impossible-to-imitate retro video experience.
However, apparently all HDMI to SCART converters on the market are actually HDMI to Composite video (CVBS) adapters with a SCART output connector. This results in a much lower quality output than the TV is capable of.
I know that SCART was designed as a "plug & play" solution, allowing all the different TV video formats to be fed through the same connector, making it easier for consumers to work with it. The downside of this is that you never know what you're actually getting from the SCART output port of a video output device until you've actually bought it, plugged it in and checked the video quality. 🙁
I guess Chinese manufacturers just take the most common and cheap conversion chipsets they can get, which are usually HDMI to CVBS converters, since that's pretty much the "lowest common demoninator" that works worldwide, and then route it to a SCART output connector and call it a day. And that's a shame, because this way you don't use a European CRT television to its fullest potential. And it's especially frustrating, since an HDMI to RGB PAL/NTSC converter would theoretically actually be cheaper to make, since the chip wouldn't have to multiplex the different video components into a single composite signal.
I can find HDMI to S-Video converters on-line, as well as HDMI to YPbPr Component video converters, but I have yet to find an HDMI to SCART converter tha actually directly outputs an RGB SCART signal.
I suppose that HDMI to S-Video, which my TV also supports through its other SCART input port, would be the next best thing, but the fact that I still wouldn't be using the TV to its fullest potential still bugs me.
Why is there apparently no true HDMI to RGB SCART adapter available?
Note: I've done extensive Googling and searching on sites such as eBay, Amazon and Ali Express, but to no avail. Some of them allude to RGB SCART output, but once I do some research on the specific device, I find in the more detailed info (usually hidden in the specs or in the manual once I find it online) that it only outputs an CVBS on the SCART output port, not RGB. Sometimes, neither composite nor RGB are mentioned anywhere in the specs or manuals, but let's face it, that means it just supports composite output and the seller doesn't wnat to discourage potential buyers, so it leaves the information out altogether.
I guess I could go for a retro-gaming setup based on a Raspberry Pi 3 with a PI2SCART adapter to get the most high quality image out of that TV that way, but then I would have to extract the ROMs from my NES and SNES minis, which would be a legal grey area (but okay, as long as I don't redistribute those ROMs or keep using them after selling the mini console). But still, how can there not be a true HDMI to RGB SCART adapter out there?
Have I been looking in the wrong places? Perhaps such a device does actually exist somewhere after all?
Finally, there might be the option of feeding an YPbPr Component video signal in the RGB SCART input of the TV, which may or may not work, since apparently some European TVs support both RGB input and YPbPr Component input over the same 3 pins on the SCART connector. But even if my CRT TV would happen to support that, there's the risk of the HDMI to YPbPr Component converter not downscaling the input signal to regular PAL or NTSC resultion, assuming that the Component signal is intended for a pre-HDMI HDTV that supports 720p and 1080i, which still wouldn't work on a regular PAL CRT.
Any ideas? Thanks.
