Japanese Sega Saturn arriving soon, some questions about SCART cables

J0hnick

Hi,

Ive just bought a Japanese Saturn and just ordered a step down transformer off Amazon. I know Ill need to use a SCART cable with it but from what I have read, a European SCART cable might not work on a Japanese Saturn. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced SCART cable for a Japanese Saturn ?, Retrogamingcables does one that works with both NTSC and PAL, but the import charges and the shipping make it a bit pricey.

Thanks in advance

Colonel Panic

A PAL Saturn cable would probably use composite video for sync, so it'll work on an NTSC-J Saturn. The difference is pin 1 on the AV Out in Europe was 9V to trigger TV input switching and csync on NTSC models.

I've certainly used a cable like this interchangeably on Japanese and EU Saturns.

Plugging cable wired for csync from an NTSC model into a PAL Saturn would be much worse.

I've got one of the RetroGamingCables cables. They use luma for sync and are worth it but yeah, import charges suck.

EDIT: I guess you could have issues with a PAL cable seeing small voltages on the csync line going into the SCART pin that says "switch to me". You could just snip that connection in the SCART head and all would be good.

What are you gonna connect the Saturn to? a CRT TV?

J0hnick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118526948#Comment_118526948

Thanks for the info, the guys on the SegaSaturnUK messages boards mention this seller a lot, price is reasonable and the seller has good feedback

www.ebay.ie/itm/113728139230?hash=item1a7ab9afde:g:NJ4AAOSwARZXjnn5

Colonel Panic

Yeah, give it a shot for that price!

J0hnick

I think I will yea. I don't have an upscaler yet so for now it will be a CRT, but I plan o getting a Retro Tink 2X SCART at some point

Colonel Panic

It's gonna look awesome on a CRT!

BTW, that seller's name rang a bell for me so I searched though my emails and see I bought a PAL N64 S-Video cable off him and it's pretty decent.

horgan_p

Grab a ReSaturn PSU. Way less hassle than the step down.

Any step down that I've owned (most from Maplins - RIP) get very warm.

o1s1n

consolegoods.co.uk were the go to for scart cables for years and years until retro gaming went all hipster and cool (!) and the likes of Retrogamingcables came along.

I still have quite a few consolegood's cables that I use for consoles that I haven't updated to retrogaming cables as of yet, they work great.

J0hnick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118529603#Comment_118529603

By any chance, is an NTSC Saturn one of those system ?. Just read this article and I'm having second thoughts

https://yesterware.blogspot.com/2021/05/which-rgb-scart-cables-you-should-buy.html

J0hnick

Never mind, after a few beers I just bit the bullet and ordered one from Retrogamingcables.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118538531#Comment_118538531

Hah! Yeah honestly if it's just the one cable you're looking for then Retrogamingcables are great. I've slowly been updating all of my consolegoods ones, fundage permitting!

J0hnick

My Japanese Saturn arrived and so did my step down transformer, but I'm still waiting on my SCART cable from Retrogamingcables to arrive. I only have a composite cable from my PAL Saturn, and I know from importing NTSC PS1 games back in the day that if you don't use an RGB SCART cable, you will get a black and white (sometimes rolling) picture, but I wanted to see if the Japanese Saturn at least worked. I plugged it into the step down transformer and then plugged the composite cable into my CRT and powered it on, but all I get is a black screen, Black as in its detecting something is plugged in and turned on, but nothing else.

Is this normal or should I be at least getting a black and white picture ?, Ive tried it on another CRT and the same thing happens