Mass Media & Technology

Using SCART to HDMI for VHS

(February 2019)

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BE
Bennyboy1984
My tv recently got put on the wall making the SCART socket inaccessible but the HDMI sockets are on the side. I bought a SCART to HDMI adapter which works fine on 720P mode with my PlayStation 2. But when I plug the VHS player into it I get the picture jumping to the right and different cables or the 720P/1080P switch make no difference. The player itself works fine directly into a SCART socket. Any ideas?
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
IIRC you're going from an analogue signal to a digital signal and you can't do it with a cable converter, you need a special box to convert the signal. Those cheap £5 cables you see on Amazon and eBay... they get 1 star reviews for a reason.

Over SCART is analogue to analogue signal which is why it works. You can get longer SCART leads if you're able to take the TV off the wall temporarily, connect it up and then put it back (I presume you're using the VESA mount?)
DO
dosxuk
Lots of digital converters have issues with VHS players and their non standard and fluctuating frame rates and sync signals. A more expensive converter may work, but you might be better off just running the scart cable again. You could also use any other analogue input (e.g. the yellow red and white phono sockets) if the scart socket is blocked.
MA
Markymark
Lots of digital converters have issues with VHS players and their non standard and fluctuating frame rates and sync signals. A more expensive converter may work, but you might be better off just running the scart cable again. You could also use any other analogue input (e.g. the yellow red and white phono sockets) if the scart socket is blocked.


Or just 'ingest' your VHS archive to digital media (assuming it's not hundreds of tapes ?), my 2017 Sammy TV has no analogue inputs at all, so many will soon reach a point where VHS machines, and DVD players cannot be connected
DA
davidhorman
If you've got the room behind the telly:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/2m-Flat-Scart-Cable-Degree-Black/dp/B00FXPEWGK/
MA
Markymark


Another solution might be to use the RF out of the VHS machine.Your TV will still have an analogue tuner, so you could loop the aerial feed through the VHS (just like the good old days) and tune in to it in the analogue tune menu. Two snags, make sure the RF out channel doesn’t clash with any of your local Freeview muxes ( which transmitter do you use ?) And keep away from using anything above UHF Ch 49, because very soon there will be mobile phone networks popping up there ( they are already present between 60 and 68. )Also of course audio will only be mono, and quality won’t be as good as a Scart connection
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
IIRC most video players default to UHF 37 because it was unused for, well anything really before 1997 (and this was why Channel 5 in its pre-launch days went round retuning everybody's videos as in order to squeeze them in on UHF they were allocated Channel 37 and it was a condition of their licence to go round with a screwdriver and alter the UHF out frequency of people's VHS players).

I dare say now there is no analogue TV around and if the player is still on channel 37 it should be okay as is?
NG
noggin Founding member
Lots of digital converters have issues with VHS players and their non standard and fluctuating frame rates and sync signals. A more expensive converter may work, but you might be better off just running the scart cable again. You could also use any other analogue input (e.g. the yellow red and white phono sockets) if the scart socket is blocked.


Yes. VHS is a very poor quality PAL composite video source usually, with the signal having a lot of 'wobble' on it (for want of a more technical term). Analogue TV Inputs (and analogue TVs) were designed to cope with this wobble. (Some high end domestic S-VHS VCRs had timebase correctors in them to remove this - and they can often be picked up on eBay - though command a premium)

Modern SCART to HDMI Converters are really more aimed at retro console conversion, and although retro consoles have their own foibles, they are almost always a solid PAL, NTSC or RGB source, so you don't have the 'wobble' issues. To do a decent VHS PAL -> HDMI conversion you will need a converter that does a bit more processing (effectively time base correcting the VHS output).

As others have suggested - if all you want to do is watch a VHS machine output - running it via the RF input (though that will leave it mono and reduce the picture quality a bit) is one solution if you don't want to run a separate cable.

(Incidentally broadcasters have always had to do this with VHS machine outputs - as most broadcast PAL composite kit wants near-perfect PAL sources and has all sorts of problems with the native output of a PAL VCR. Most broadcast operations had a TBC or Synchroniser specifically designed for poor-quality PAL sources like VHS (Often a 'Rogers' box was used ISTR))
MA
Markymark
IIRC most video players default to UHF 37 because it was unused for, well anything really before 1997 (and this was why Channel 5 in its pre-launch days went round retuning everybody's videos as in order to squeeze them in on UHF they were allocated Channel 37 and it was a condition of their licence to go round with a screwdriver and alter the UHF out frequency of people's VHS players).

I dare say now there is no analogue TV around and if the player is still on channel 37 it should be okay as is?


No, far from it ! Ch 37 is still in use for COM 7/8 in some areas, and as part of 700 MHz clearance there is/will be extensive use of all 3X allocations (except for Ch 38 )

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