Scart region differences.

[ulera]

So from what I understand... scart exists in both Europe and Japan but with a different pinout. Will both cables work on every system? Is there a Euro to Japanese adapter?

I'm going to have to buy one of the Scart to component converters anyway as scart is next to non-existent over here in the states.

[MasterDisk]

Yeah pinouts are different.

http://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/european-scart-to-japanese-scart-converter.html
This cable converts SCART to JP21 (what you want). If you need the reverse, you can request one.

[ulera]

Okay... what about Super Famicoms? Will any nintendo RGB cable work or do I need to buy one specifically for Japanese scart?

[Frank_fjs]

You will need to grab an NTSC SCART cable, wired to the Euro SCART standard, which will work with US/JP consoles. You won't need any other device or converter, this will work in any TV with a Euro SCART plug.

Just make sure you don't buy a Japanese SCART wired cable, unless that's what you want (perhaps to use with an XRGB etc).

[ulera]

I'm wanting to plug it into one of those scart to component scan converters, so I'm going to need euro scart.

[shybry]

You mean like one of these? If so, you're right, you'll want a cable with a Euro SCART pinout. If you have an SFC, also make sure the cable you get is meant for NTSC consoles (like Frank_fjs said). This combination was never officially released, though you can get them custom made these days. Or you can get an official SHVC-010 cable and a JP21->Euro Scart adaptor (not a SCART->JP21 adaptor as suggested by MasterDisk).

What might be confusing about SFC/SNES RGB cables is that there's two kinds of regional differences to consider: the pinout at the SCART end, and the components inside the cable itself.

Do not use a cable with the wrong kind of pinout (Euro SCART vs. JP21) for what you're trying to plug it into (in your case, the scart to component adaptor) without appropriate adaptors. At best, it won't work. At worst, you could fry something irreparably! 

NTSC SFC/SNES consoles require cables containing different components than PAL SNES consoles. If you use a cable with the wrong components for your console I don't think it'll damage anything, but at best it would look terrible and might not work at all.

[ZueriHB]

The European RGB Cable for Game Cube works perfect with the Super Famicom (No luck with PAL SNES though).

[shybry]

Ah, right, I forgot about that.

[ulera]

So according to my research... it looks like I would get a better picture going from scart to VGA, except scart sync is composite while VGA is separated into horizontal and vertical. Is there any way around this?

[untinip]

I think this is what you're looking for:
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/other/rgb2vga.htm

[shybry]

That should work, though keep in mind that the GBS-8220 boards don't have the greatest quality handling of 240p (which outside of a small handful of games is all the SFC does) - IIRC it incorrectly assumes 240p sources are 480i and deinterlaces when it shouldn't. Also it doesn't input SCART directly, so you'll either need to wire up an adaptor (as per that mmmonkey link) or get something pre-made like a Sync Strike to sit between your SFC and the GBS-8220. The upside of the GBS-8220 is that it's really cheap, and if you don't mind some artifacts on motion and maybe a tiny bit of lag it should be good enough.

Also, as an aside, in case all the pieces aren't quite fitting together yet...

...except scart sync is composite while VGA is separated into horizontal and vertical.

FYI: the other big difference between SCART RGB and VGA (at least in practice) is that most devices that accept VGA don't handle the low frequency/resolutions output over SCART, so even if you were to just split the sync and feed the resulting RGBHV into a VGA port (which is exactly what a Sync Strike will do) it probably won't work on its own without a scaler (like the GBS-8220), especially if you want to feed the result into a modern LCD/Plasma display.

If you want loads of information on the pros and cons of different scalers, check out Fudoh's page.

[ulera]

Just ordered a sync strike and a GBS-8220. I'll have to admit nearly $50 for a scart to VGA adapter is fairly disgusting. 

[shybry]

Heh, $50 is nothing. A really good scaler can set you back several times that! Because crazy people enthusiasts like me are willing to pay for them, I guess.

I hope what you ordered works out for you!

[ulera]

I'm guessing the markup on those things is pretty incredible. They can't be very expensive to make.

[GohanX]

Probably. I don't know about those, but my RGB Scart to component transcoder is made entirely of off the shelf parts you could build yourself for less than $10. I have a component modded Neo Geo where the modder did just that, he built one on a piece of perfboard.