Getting hold of a SCART to HDMI that works properly

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Doug
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Getting hold of a SCART to HDMI that works properly

Post by Doug »

Hi guys,

In my 'getting back into the QL' adventure to date, one of the things I have had trouble with is finding a SCART to HDMI box that actually works properly (while using the QL RGB to SCART cable from eBay of course) - I tried a stack of them from Amazon and every single one has either not amplified the signal enough, cut off the left or right or the screen, or both! I tried to look for devices that were identical to the ones I've seen in pics from other forum users, but no luck. (I also tried on several TVs just in case the issue was there.)

I'm linking below the ones I've tried and my findings, and I am interested to know if anyone has had recent success with any particular device that they have found:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01M6BMNRU/ - Picture quality fine but cuts off first few characters on the left
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ABOB1NU/ - Picture quality fine but cuts off last few characters on the right
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00RMMGOGS/ - Picture quality fine but cuts off first few characters on the left (tried two of these just in case)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01KHT1MWI/ - Picture not amplified (very dark) but actually seems to show the full width of screen
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0181RCJTS/ - Picture not amplified (very dark) and from memory I think cuts off first few characters on the left

Thank goodness for free returns!


martyn_hill
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Re: Getting hold of a SCART to HDMI that works properly

Post by martyn_hill »

Hi Doug

I too have tried a few converter/scalers with mixed results.

The one that actually works for me is the (1st and 3rd from your shopping list) 'HD Converter'. However, on one of my small LCD TVs, even this device failed to render the left/right characters.

Until, that is, I found a mode option on the TV itself called 'PC mode'. Before enabling this obscure mode, the TV appears to expect that no useful information will be at the extreme edges of the scan-lines - as would be the case with a standard broadcast video signal. By enabling the PC mode, the full scan-line was then rendered without any adjustment on the converter.

On another, slightly larger LCD TV, it worked this out for itself and always rendered the full scan-line.

Moral? Its as much a function of the TV firmware as of the converter device... Explore the menu options of your TVs/display device and good luck!


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Doug
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Re: Getting hold of a SCART to HDMI that works properly

Post by Doug »

Hi Martyn, yes, that one looked identical to the device in Dilwyn's guide so I was hopeful it would do the job. I've tried on fairly modern Samsung and Panasonic LCD TVs and also an old VGA monitor (via a little device meant for a Raspberry Pi that converted the HDMI to VGA) all with the same result.

Thanks for the tip on the PC mode, I'll have another play around and see if I can find an option that will do the job!


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tofro
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Re: Getting hold of a SCART to HDMI that works properly

Post by tofro »

I do have several boxes that look like the one in your first link.

They work perfectly fine on an el-cheapo Chinese LCD TV with no specific settings whatsoever. They also all work on an older Sony Bravia, but not on another, more recent one (loses some characters on the right, which I have only tested after someone mentioning these boxes do not work everywhere). I haven't checked, however, whether that guy has any specific tweaking knobs that would make it work.

So, in general, these boxes are fine, but some TVs seem to work well in this combination, some others don't.

Tobias


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martyn_hill
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Re: Getting hold of a SCART to HDMI that works properly

Post by martyn_hill »

Just to add that, of all the commonly available scalers/converters, only that 'HD converter' specifically takes the (cleaner) RGB signals from SCART.

The others all seem to use the Comp Video signal from the SCART plug instead, which is likely to have additional noise.


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