What exactly is RGB, and how do you know if your telly supports it?

[egparadigm]

My grandmothers television has just blown up, so I'm giving her a spare one of mine. I would like to retain the better of my two 20" CRTs, but don't know which one it is. When I first saw the picture on my newer Toshiba I thought it was not RGB compat, but I've looked at them together and can't tell a great deal of difference.

Is RGB just a method of synchronisation which allows the television to take automatic colour/picture settings, or does it do something 'more' than the improvement noticable going from composite -> scart? If it's the latter, how can I find out which supports it? I've tried google to no avail.

Thanks,

mono.

FYI, the other TV is a Samsung. They were both made this side of the millenium (don't know exact dates.)

[weresheep]

Hi mate,

I'm sure someone else could provide a more detailed answer but I'll do my best...

First off Scart is a cable/connector type, not an image format. You can get composite Scart as well as RGB Scart. TVs with multiple Scart sockets normally offer one RGB and leave the others as composite. Gits!

You can also get composite via the yellow (video), white/red (audio) connectors. RGB is only available via Scart (or VGA).

The reason RGB is the better format is that is sends the colour information of the image in three separate channels (Red, Green and Blue). TVs natively work in RGB so this means there is no (very little) loss of image quality as there is no conversion or compression.

Composite sends the image information down one channel and the TV has to reconstitue the RGB image back from the composite. Data is lost and the image is degraded.

RGB does look better, clearer, sharper than composite but it is not a massive difference. If you've had a look at both tellys and can't see any difference (maybe both TVs only support composite) then I wouldn't worry about. Composite is still a pretty decent signal. I spent most of my gaming youth using R/F *shudder*

The only way I can think of to find out what your tellys support is to try the manufactures websites for product specifications.

-weresheep

[chaoticjelly]

Thats a pretty concise explanation, RGB simply splits the signal up more, when you use RF (the worst way of connecting a game console to your TV) everything, red, green, blue, video, sound are all bunged down one piece of copper wire, so they intermix, cause interference and therefore the image isnt as good on the TV.

When you use RGB, each signal is seperate from the others, its split up much more so the signals are purer when they arrive at the telly, and yes a colour telly contains three electron guns which accelerate electrons to very high speeds, there are three guns because there is one for Red, one for Green, one for Blue.. R.G.B.

If you want to figure out whether a scart socket is RGB or not, sometimes they have a picture moulded onto the case.. e.g. RGB would be a picture of a telly, with three lines like a rainbow, e.g. R, G and B. You might be able to manually switch to AV channel on the remote, and perhaps RGB mode, in which case its almost certain the TV has at least one RGB scart socket.. of course you could try an RGB-only scart cable/piece of equipment - if it comes up very dark picture can hardly even see it - that means the socket is composite only.

[Concept]

Tbh, on the televisions I have here the difference between Composite and RGB are huge.

[chaoticjelly]

Yeah, I forgot to add, there is a huge difference, it's the same on my TV, look at the picture in the SNES mods recommendation thread, thats a SNES in RGB on my telly, I tried it in composite and its nowhere near as crisp, bright and defined.

[egparadigm]

When I tried a PS2 on the two tellies, the picture looked better from the scart (which should output RGB if it's available on the target). There was less sharp image reproduction, but I couldn't really see colour in the wrong places on either. The image was darker through composite (at least on the Sammy).

Both tellies only have one scart socket.

So: any ideas?

[Baseley09]

Are you using the lead supplied with the PS2?

[egparadigm]

Are you using the lead supplied with the PS2?

Hell no! I'm using a Blaze RGB scart cable.

I just found this on the Tosh website... Maybe it does support RGB after all...

[JazzFunk]

If you've got a PAL game with a 60hz mode, try it out. If your TV is non-RGB compatible, the image should be in black and white.

EDIT: Soz - for 'RGB' above, I should have put 'NTSC'. One thing you could try is, on a non-RGB composite signal, you should be able to flick to your normal telly signal by pressing the 'AV' button on the remote or whatever, and then flick back if you so wish - the RGB signal on mine won't let me do this, but the standard composite will. To watch TV with my RGB on, I have to either switch my SCART block to another unused cable (or to composite, which the legendary Argos SCART block lets you do with ease), turn the PS2 off or pull the PS2 RGB lead from the SCART block.

[egparadigm]

What you're describing sounds like scart control. I've never been completely unable to switch away from an AV channel because of that before. Also, a non-RGB scart socket on another telly has scart control, so that's not it. Unless I misunderstood you.

[JazzFunk]

It was probably my stupidly longwinded and confusing explanation - I've tried here to explain what I mean a bit better, but as I'm reading it, it's still a bit confusing (!):

PS2 game in RGB SCART - press button for BBC1 and I get the sound but the game image is still on the screen, albeit 'rolling across diagonally' (ie. no BBC1 image at all, just the sound.) Press 'AV' and the game comes back on screen. RGB overrides the BBC1 picture completely.

PS2 game in Composite SCART - press button for BBC1, BBC1 comes straight on as normal. Press 'AV' and game comes back on screen.

PS: I'm not sure what you mean by 'scart control' - if the above describes what you meant, please completely ignore everything I'm rambling on about.

[Abhisara]

This is a little test for whether you are getting RGB out of a PS2 or not:
Connect your PS2 with the Blaze cable (making sure the switch is set to GAME and not DVD). Turn the PS2 on without a game and select System Configuration -> Component Video Out. Try changing this setting to Y Cb/Pb Cr/Pr. If the screen turns green, then the TV is displaying RGB. If there is no change, then it's displaying composite.

[Freddo]

also those blaze cables have a switch to flick between composite and RGB so you dont get the greenscreen on dvd playback, you should see a considerable reduction in colour bleeding (especially on bright red), less dot crawl and a generally sharper more stable image in RGB mode.

[egparadigm]

This is a little test for whether you are getting RGB out of a PS2 or not:
Connect your PS2 with the Blaze cable (making sure the switch is set to GAME and not DVD). Turn the PS2 on without a game and select System Configuration -> Component Video Out. Try changing this setting to Y Cb/Pb Cr/Pr. If the screen turns green, then the TV is displaying RGB. If there is no change, then it's displaying composite.

Ahhh... OK, I think I've got RGB in that case. w00t!