Having just setup my new top of the range DVD player to my Sony digital amplifier and Widescreen TV, I was wondering what was the best way to get the best quality picture/sound.
Should I use a Super VHS lead or a Scart, or a combination??

Super VHS is a video format. I think you're getting confused between this and S-Video.

The best way to connect up your DVD would be to use an RGB scart from your DVD to your telly - far better than S-Video or composite.

For audio, if your Sony digital amp is dolby digital/dts, then use a digital cable directly from you DVD. If not, some high quality interconnects from the dvd to amp would be better than routing the sound from your telly to the amp.

Yeah, SVideo (aka SVHS) is a quality of picture, a Scart lead can pass composite video, S-Video and RGB through it, you simply select the mode and off you go. A deditated S-Video 4 pin plug is exclsuively for S Video picture (not sound), and doesn't work any better than using a scart lead and DVD set to S-video .

RGB is generally the best, but may not be on some TVs

I am sorry but i must tell you that you are both wrong.
S-Video will give you much better quality tha scart because it carries more lines and is the closest to broadcast quality. Test it our for your self and you will see the difference. As they said S-video does not carry sound but any normal person would of course put the sound through there THX amplifier (If they possess one) or if not through the amp.

keysersossez is right. The best possible connection would be component (not composite!) with its separate connectors, but hardly any TVs - if any - have component input facilities. The next best is s-video.

I'm afraid I have to disagree here, although component is a worth rival to RGB, S-Video is nowhere near as good.

Orbitalzone is right in saying that the difference between S-Vid & RGB varies from tv to tv, but overall an RGB picture is far cleaner.

hotlips69, try it for yourself and see which looks best to you through your tv.

I'm fairly up to date with terminology, but can someone please explain what a component connector is, i.e. is a Super VHS connector classed as component?

I assume that RGB Scart is composite?

All four - composite, component, RGB and S-Video (not s-vhs remember! ) are different types of inputs.

I think the way S-Video sends a signal is by splitting the chrominance and the luminance so that they don't converge, whereas composite sends the entire video signal together causing the picture to look fuzzy as colours are not correctly separated. RGB on the other hand (which is not the same as composite) transports the video signal by separating the Red, Green and Blue signals which (IMHO) makes for the best picture from the widely available connections around at the mo.

Component video, which I do not have much experience with, I believe works on a similar principle to RGB, that is by separating the Red, Green and Blue signals, although it is not widely available on CRT tvs at the moment.

Sorry but they are not both wrong.
An RGB signal will produce a better, more stable picture than S-Video, especially on modern TVs.

The best way of comparing is to view some on-screen text, like a DVD menu and you will see that the RGB picture is much easier to read. The s-video will always be slightly 'shimmery' with a 'black outline' around the text.

Sorry to harp on, but the quality difference also lies in the connector itself and I maintain that s-video is superior to scart.

Firstly: My earlier post was incorrect in describing the SVideo and SVHS. so sorry about that I got myself muddled, and it's easily done.


...However I can't really see how a scart lead can really be worse with a SVHS signal compared to a dedicated 4 pin plug assuming both cable types are good quality.

A scart lead (fully wired) is capable of SVHS signal transfer at I assume, the same resolution compared to 4 pin din, (assuming the TV scart accepts SVHS signals of course). Can a 4 pin plug with relative small pins be any better at carrying SVHS than a scart lead of comparable cable thickness and thicker pins?

A common misconception is that Svideo means Super VHS, well according to my Pansonic SVHS video manual, 'SVideo' is the connector type (4 pin plug) and 'SVHS' is the higher resolution signal transfer method. My manual suggests that the two are not the same thing. One meaning the socket type, the other meaning the signal type.

It does get so very confusing!

Good points Orbitalzone. However many scart connectors are of poor quality (with poor quality cable too), not all of them have all pins connected, and they're susceptible to bad handling - pins get bent etc - whereas the more esoteric s-video connectors tend to be of higher quality in the first place and, I'd suggest, the people who use them treat them carefully.

A slight slant on this thread....

My Sony digital amplifier also has lots of optical connectors on the rear for different devices...

Are these worth investigating?

Is the quality from these in the same class as Scart etc...?

Optical leads are for carrying digital sound, not pictures. Is your Sony amp Dolby Digital or dts? If so, the only way to take advantage of these sound formats is by using a digital lead (either optical or coaxial) or by using the 5.1 input on your amp (assuming your dvd has the required output).

I would advise using a digital lead from your dvd to the amp if it is dd/dts even if your dvd has an onboard decoder as the amp is more likely (though not guaranteed) to have a better decoder.

What amp and dvd do you have?

I'm considering buying a Toshiba SD200E DVD player and have a standard Dolby digital Sony amp (don't know the model number)

I would definitely recommend using an RGB enabled scart lead as it will look excelent on your Tosh. I know there has been some disagreement in this post, but compare an S-Video signal and an RGB one (make sure it is RGB and not composite) for yourself and see the difference.

I believe the Tosh has a built in DD decoder, so you could use the 5.1 audio output on it to get a dd signal to your amp. However, if you use a digital output straight to your amp, you could use the amps decoder which, considering how good Sony's dd/dts amps have been recently, might be your best bet. Additionally, the amp'd decoder may be dts compatible (?) which the Tosh is not, so you would benefit from that too.

It is annoying that some DVD players dont have RGB as an option. Im pretty sure the basic Panasonic model doesn't for example, now if you have a SVHS video and a DVD both using SVHS quality how can you connect it to a TV that only accepts SVHS on one of it's scart sockets? other than using the front mounted SVideo socket, it seems impossible unless you use an optional switcher box. Three scarts should be the minumum on a quality WIdescreen TV whose owner is likely to own such equipment. I guess the same applies for RGB via a Digital box and a DVD player too.

Why do manuafacturers make one Scart do RGB and the other scart do SVHS but not both doing the other?

My 5 year old Philips 21" Nicam TV has 2 scart sockets but they are both RGB enabled.The second scart is also configured for S-video.
With current sets tending to have only 1 RGB enabled scart socket(This includes my 1 year old Panasonic 28" W/S this looks like a retrograde step to me.

I think it's all to do with T.V.'s I use a Sony 32fx65u it has 3 scart connection's but only 1 is RGB,i use this for sky and use S-Video connection for DVD's.I did try DVD on the RGB scart connection but noticed no difference in quality.At the end of the day remember to buy good lead's."Only my view".

Component is really the American version of RGB. This is due to the fact that the Yanks havn't got Scart which has always been a European standard.

Does anyone know how much of an improved picture/sound you would get using the deoyxgenated/gold/expensive scart leads?

I have a LG 29" TV bought in South Asia. It has a SCART socket but no svideo. My DVD player Pioneer 525 has a svideo out.
I used an adapter which takes in svideo on one side and fits onto the SCART of the TV on the other. When I try to play the DVD like this the picture is black and white. I used a cheaper cable and then the picture is colour but the colours sort of run and spill off the edges. I used the same cables with another DVD and a TV with a svideo IN socket and they work fine.

Why do you think the bad picture. TV problem or DVD player problem????

Having looked at a few of these, I'm not really convinced there's much difference. It's like with audio cables - the difference between a £2 and a £20 cable is more than the difference between a £20 and a £200 cable (if you can find one that expensive, I'm sure they'd sell you one if you wanted it ).

On the point of s-video vs. RGB connected SCART, it can depend to a certain amount on your TV (s-video carries chrominance and luminance separately, RGB connected SCART carries (obviously) red green and blue separately - your TV may have to convert the RGB to chrominance and luminance, it may have to convert the chrominance and luminance to RGB, depends how it works internally). But on the vast majority of TVs, with a good quality (i.e. gold connections, oxygen free cable) lead, SCART or S-Video would be nearly indistingusishable.

Someone mentioned component video - this is like S-Video in that chrominance and luminance are separated, but then the chrominance is again separated into two further channels which should give theoretically the best possible quality on TVs that use those signals as the driving signals for the tube (I think all american ones do - as do most video projectors, not sure about UK/PAL TVs, some may use RGB). As there is less converters required between signal source and the display, this would give the best possible quality.

Mark