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New member Username: GsukPost Number: 3 Registered: Aug-05 | Hi there, I have a DVD player with SVideo, SCART & RGB outputs. The plasma can support all three. Which will provide the best picture quality? Thanks in advance, Glenn |
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Bronze Member Username: FnegroniBerkshire United Kingdom Post Number: 16 Registered: Aug-05 | Can you please tell me what DVD and plasma screen you have? This will help me formulate a better reply. I need this because I must know if when talking about RGB you are infact talking about YUV, aka YPbPr. A bit of theory (without too much of the technicalities). A DVD disc is encoded in a particular picture format known as YUV. Basically only the black and white part of the image is encoded in full resolution. The blue and red colors are compressed, and the green is missing. When a DVD player outputs its picture, it can do it through a variety of connections. The two best connections are YPbPr and RGB. YPbPr is clearly marked as such, and only requires three wires bundled in one cable. This type of connection carries the same information as it is stored on the DVD, so it is the easiest and highest fidelity output to choose. If your Plasma has YPbPr input (aka YUV component), it will then convert the signal internally into RGB using its own circuitry to do that, and it will then display it on the screen. Some TVs do not have YUV component input, so most DVD players also support RGB output. Basically, the YUV picture information on the DVD is converted to RGB by the DVD player *before* it is sent to the Plasma. This means the Plasma does not have to convert the signal anymore, as it is already in RGB, and it can display the picture directly on screen. Now, what is the difference between the two? The difference is which device performs the translation from YUV to RGB. If you think your DVD player has better performance in that department, then you can use the RGB connection, bypassing the Plasma's circuitry. If instead you think your TV can do a better job at that, you should use the YUV output of your DVD player, and let the Plasma take care of the conversion. Unfortunately it is not all that simple. Another factor is signal and connector quality, and progressive scanning/lip synch. I could go into that much detail but I'd rather you digest what I have told you so far, and then ask for more when you think you need to. |
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Bronze Member Username: FnegroniBerkshire United Kingdom Post Number: 17 Registered: Aug-05 | BTW, Scart can only support Composite, S-Video and RGB, RGB being selected by default if detected. Scart can not do YUV component. That's why I am a bit confused when you say the DVD player has both Scart and RGB. It is true you can have a separate RGB connection, but that usually involves a cable with 4 or 5 wires: R+G+B+S or R+G+B+H+V. |
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New member Username: GsukPost Number: 4 Registered: Aug-05 | Wow Filippo, you certainly know your stuff! The plasma is a Panasonic TH42PV500WAL: http://shop.panasonic.co.uk/invt/th42pv500wal The DVD recorder is a Panasonic DMRES10: http://shop.panasonic.co.uk/invt/dmres10 The plasma is on order so I haven't actually got it yet. I'm burying all the cables in the wall so I want to make sure I have all the right cables before I fill the wall in and paper over it! Cables will be approx 3m and I will be using the best heavy duty ones I can afford. |
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Bronze Member Username: FnegroniBerkshire United Kingdom Post Number: 18 Registered: Aug-05 | Just had a look at the specs. Excellent choice of gear! As I thought, they have both SCART and YPbPr Component. My personal opinion is that the fewer signals you have in the same cable, the better. So I would recommend connecting the YPbPr video out from your DVD player to the YPbPr input on your TV. I also think your TV is going to do a better job at converting YUV to RGB. Unfortunately, if you are used to SCART, you may also know how it enables automatic switches of inputs. I don't think you are going to get that with the YUV component connector. Still, it is IMHO the best connection between DVD and TV. In fact, most Home Theatre receivers only support composite, S-Video and YUV component; hardly any SCART. If you need to connect other components to your AV system, I don't mind and can be of help. SOme devices only support scart, some only support S-Video. Some have optical digital connectors only , some only coaxial. As good as it sounds to pre-wire everything in the wall, you may find it to be the most limiting factor in the future: cables can brake, standards can change, devices can change. My recommendation would be to prepare the wall so that you can insert and extract cables at a later time, using some tubular trunking; you can then guide the cables in from one end and pull them from the other. This way you get minimal visual impact and maximum flexibility. I am not particularly fond of the SCART standard, aka Peritel, invented by the French during the 1980 embargo against foreign products and of a very low standard: the best SCART connector cannot compete with RCA connectors (as found in digital and video component connectore). It also does not carry YUV component, carries 21 wires mixing audio and video, and as for its automatic switching, sometimes I wish they never even bothered. |
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Bronze Member Username: FnegroniBerkshire United Kingdom Post Number: 19 Registered: Aug-05 | To buy cables, this website has plenty of choices: www.tvcables.co.uk In the video cables section (at the bottom of the left menu) select component video cables: http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/scan/fi=products/st=db/co=yes/sf=cate gory/se=Component%20Video/op=eq/sf=prod_group/se=Video%20Cables/op=eq.html |
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New member Username: GsukPost Number: 5 Registered: Aug-05 | Thanks Filippo. I'll definitely take up your advice there. I was also thinking about burying a pipe in the wall - something the size of a waste pipe you find on your bathroom sink. It's only a stud wall so the gap should be big enough behind the plaster board. I have actually got another question if you don't mind? I'm also connected to NTL. Currently my existing recorder is connected into the back of the NTL box and then the NTL box connects to the TV via SCART. Would you recommend running the SCART from the NTL box into the DVD recorder and then feeding it up to the plasma via RGB? Or would you recommend running a separate SCART from the NTL box to the plasma? I'm not fussed about auto AV switching. Thanks again, Glenn |
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Bronze Member Username: FnegroniBerkshire United Kingdom Post Number: 20 Registered: Aug-05 | I would definitely recommend connecting the NTL box to the DVD recorder via SCART and then connect the DVD to the Plasma or Home theatre receiver via YUV component. In fact, that is the way I have my Pioneer freeview box connected to my dvd recorder. The Pioneer box has two SCART outputs, but only one of them is able to output RGB, the other can only do S-video. For the DVD recorder, you want RGB input, as it is the best connection possible. My DVD recorder is then connected to the TV via SCART/RGB (since my TV does not have YUV/component input). If you click on my user profile you will see what gear I have at the moment. Nothing as good as yours, but decent enough. |
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Bronze Member Username: FnegroniBerkshire United Kingdom Post Number: 21 Registered: Aug-05 | I looked at your DVD recorder specs: in order to use RGB input via SCART, your NTL box must be connected to the AV2 input of your DVD recorder. |
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New member Username: GsukPost Number: 6 Registered: Aug-05 | Nice LCD! I was looking at getting LCD but the biggest you can get at the moment is a Tosh 37" and it was bl00dy ugly! Once all the kits in I'll upload a picture. Thanks for all your help and advice Filippo. Glenn. |
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engine giver Unregistered guest | SCART sucks. |
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Unregistered guest | Hi having a spot of bother finding which cables to use i'm trying to connect my pace digi box to my samsung plasma screen (42") via the scart to the component video leads. i bought a convertor that you plug into the scart socket then plug the rgb cables into but it hasn't been of any use although there are 4 outlets on it does that mean i need four cables (red green blue and yellow) please help it's begining to do my head in |