SCART (Peritel) audio-video connectors

Hey all,

Just looking for some feedback about scart. I have two TVs here and both are equipped with scart and both are totally useless. They wiggle, they jiggle, lose connections all the time and I really don't understand the appeal or why any AV company would ever ever ever use this type of junk connection. They are bulky, totally non-versatile and just plain stupid (luckily at least one TV has normal RCA jacks)
We want to upgrade finally to an LCD TV and I was wondering if you can buy one here without the useless scart connector (look in stuff for sale soon for a worthless scart-only equipped TV)

The design and theory of the SCART connector, which stems from the late 70's is excellent, but the implementation over the years is lousy. Designed in France, it is compulsory on their TVs and is pretty much de-facto on all European AV equipment so you are unlikely to find any equipment without it, although many better systems may include Phono (RCA), HDMI or BNC as well. The real problem is that cheaper SCART connecting cables miss out the spring-locks or "detents" that are supposed to lock the connector and pins into place. The weight of the heavy 21-core cable tends to strain the connector and it easily loosens or drops out. The value of SCART is the provision of a single cable/connector which provides multiple signal inputs, bi-directional capabilities and a level of automated device control, without having any confusion how to interconnect devices. If you do have problems simply buy better cables...

I agree scart sucks. Even better scart cables will not make up for the crap scart connection on the TV or other AV devise. Traditional influences should be outlawed in favor of better quality and competitive advantage. Scart offers neither!

Spoken as a true ignoramus

If it were better, then it wouldn't suck like it does. I wonder why USB connections are better than the umpteen pin connections on a computer? Same principle really and yet the USB port is by far better and more reliable. Go figure?

That's cos a USB cable has far less connections than a SCART cable.

And the maximum bit rate down a USB is in the region of 500MBits/Sec, maybe not enough for a fully digitised uncompressed audio video signal, but definitely OK for streaming DIVX and MP3.

Yawn, zzzzz zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz

Because there aren't "umpteen" connections in a USB connector. Only four, and of them one is ground, another a stable 5v, the remaining 2 being (digital, not analogue) data connections. Difficult to mess that up in a connector 14mm wide.

We're talking 30-odd year old technology here. if it really was that crap, someone would have come up with an improved system by now. They haven't. Besides they'll be superfluous when everyone has HD boxes and TV.

Exactly, quality and competitive advantage. Who said that?

Ah, but they have. Old TVs have only scart and that crappy cable connector, the new ones have scart and oh guess what, the better connections such as S-video and the red/yellow/white cable connections. Funny that don't you think?

SCART was not designed for S-VHS which came later, but was subsequently adapted for it. "red/yellow/white"? How passé! That's only there to support legacy component (analogue) connections, and is superceded in the "HD Ready" definition by HDMI which is based loosely on, guess what? (digital) USB.

I have maybe ten or twelve devices with scart connections. Only about 4 of them work without jimmying the damn cable. I bought better cables for a premium price and the same problems exist. Now I just bypass them whenever possible and have no problems. Experience is the best teacher. My experience says that no matter how good the theory of scart connections is, the reality is that they suck. That is a fact jack and no amount of proselytizing is gonna change the reality of the situation as I have experienced it.

The S-Video and three cable connectors are for connecting camcorders to. They aren't suitable for interconnects because they don't daisy-chain. Daisy-chaining being one of the advantages of SCART.

As YL6 has pointed out SCART can do Composite, S-Video and Component video, as well as audio and power pass-through.

As long as it is working, but what if it ain't working? Many of mine don't and so what to do? When the heart doesn't work, it is time for a bypass.

Yes, it can do those but with a loss of quality.

SCART can do Component but not pass-thru HD content, which Component can. If you really want to set up Home Theater don't even start the SCART.