21 pin SCART male connector
15 pin highdensity D-SUB male connector
SCART (Syndicat des Constructeurs d’Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) is a 21-pin European AV connector standardised electrically under CENELEC EN 50049-1 and mechanically under IEC 60807-9:1993, widely fitted to televisions and video equipment from the 1980s through the early 2000s. It carries RGB video at 0.7 V peak-to-peak into 75 Ω — the same level as VGA analogue RGB — along with composite sync on a dedicated pin. VGA (HD-15) carries the same RGB levels but outputs separate horizontal and vertical TTL sync signals, so a SCART-to-VGA converter cable must include active sync-conversion circuitry (such as an XOR-gate sync combiner) to merge the two VGA sync lines into the composite sync expected by SCART RGB input. Pin 16 (fast-blanking) on the SCART connector must be driven to 1–3 V to command the receiving device to switch into RGB mode; without this, the TV will display composite video rather than the RGB signal.
Notes
- RGB video signal level is 0.7 V peak-to-peak into 75 Ω on both SCART and VGA analogue RGB; no voltage conversion is required for the colour channels.
- SCART carries composite sync (H and V combined); VGA outputs separate TTL H-sync and V-sync. Active circuitry is required to combine VGA sync signals into composite sync for the SCART RGB input — a purely passive wiring scheme cannot perform this conversion.
- SCART pin 16 (blanking/fast-blanking): drive to 1–3 V to select RGB mode on the receiving TV; 0–0.4 V selects composite video mode.
- SCART audio inputs (pins 2 and 6, right and left) accept signals at −10 dBV (300 mV nominal); these may be wired directly from an audio source if VGA audio is carried on the same cable harness.
References
- IEC 60933-1:1988 — Audio, video and audiovisual systems — Interconnections and matching values — Part 1: 21-pin connector for video systems
- IEC 60807-9:1993 — Rectangular connectors for frequencies below 3 MHz — Part 9: Detail specification for a range of peritelevision connectors
- EN 50049-1:1997 — Domestic and Similar Electronic Equipment Interconnection Requirements: Peritelevision Connector. CENELEC, 1997 (BS adoption: BS EN 50049-1:1998, BSI).