Surround sound no SCART on TV how?

[ericmark]

I have a Toshiba TV can't read model number without removing from the stand, it has a built in manual, but it says very little, loads of HDMI sockets, TV aerial, Satellite LNB input, USB, but no SCART, it seems to have the three phono sockets, but guessing input only, seems to be no output, there is some thing called YPbPr and I think a 3.5 mm jack for head phones.

So I have a Panasonic surround sound which has SCART and phono for sound and vision, and aerial socket SC-PT150 DVD and a USB at the front.

I expected to get at least sound from the phono sockets on TV but nothing, some where I have an adaptor SCART to phono so was going to use that, but it may allow me to use DVD player, but not use the surround sound options.

Seems likely I can get sound from the 3.5 mm jack socket, but can't find leads.

Maybe I can buy an adaptor SCART to HDMI? But before getting one, question is if it is worth it, or is the Panasonic DVD ready for the bin? Pitty as just extended all the cables etc. But we seem to have collected a whole load of audio units, and it is time to dump those we can no longer use.

 

[hllns]

There's still various people hooking up gaming consoles and the like to modern screens so there's a small niche market for converting SCART outputs to HDMI, the cheap units only do composite rather than RGB (https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/SCART-TO-HDMI-CONVERTERS-TO-AVOID) which won't give the best result.

 

[Lucid]

Don't mess around with HDMI unless you want to spend a shed load more money than you really need to. The headphone socket is a pain too because it's often separate from the main speakers, so the volume for it is controlled by a sub-menu.


_____________________________________________________

Getting surround sound

Most TVs have an optical output.

Your Panasonic has a standard RCA stereo input and a SCART which can input and output connections within its 21-pin construction. Both are analogue whereas Optical is a digital signal standard. You will need a digital to analogue convertor, like this.

On one side there's an Optical input. On the other side there's the stereo analogue connection via RCA sockets. This will convert digital stereo from Optical into analogue stereo for connection to your Panasonic surround system.

The simplest connection from the convertor is to the Panasonic's AUX stereo line input. This will get sound from the TV, converted from digital to analogue, into the Panasonic so you can hear it in surround.

_________________________________________________

Playing DVDs

If you absolutely must have DVD playback from the Panasonic onto the TV then all you need is picture from it to the TV. The Panasonic will take care of sound whilst sending picture out via the SCART socket.

Your Toshiba TV has YPbPr. This is component video. It's a high quality colour-separated video signal format. Unfortunately, unless you have a DVD or home surround kit with component out then that signal format is useless to you. However....

The same YPbPr also doubles-up as a composite input by using the green RCA socket for the single video connection. Be aware; composite is the lowest form of video signal. It's really not that good. It looks okay on smaller LCD/LED TV screens, say 26", but on larger TVs you will see the problems inherent in the signal standard because it carries both monochrome and colour information mixed in a single conductor.

Composite is what we see via the yellow RCA out from VCRs, DVD players, some games consoles, and via adapters that connect to a SCART socket. If you have a SCART to 6 phono/RCA cable (2x video, 4x audio) then use that. If not, then since SCART is bi-directional, you run the risk that a SCART to 3x phono/RCA will be in the wrong direction. i.e. RCA-to-SCART and not SCART-to-RCA which is what you need.

Buy one of these switchable SCART adapters instead. It's impossible to get this connection wrong when the switch gives you both in and out options.

Take a cable from the yellow connection to the green of YPbPr.

Put a DVD into the Panasonic and allow it time to load the opening menus

Go to the TV menus, then choose the necessary options to select or enable the AV/Video input

If there is no signal from the Panasonic surround kit's DVD player, first try the other position of the adapter switch. If still no joy then it's because the Panasonic is outputting RGB video which uses different pin connections to composite.

The only remaining option is to find a TV with a SCART socket to make a temporary connection in order to see and change te settings menu. The adjustment required is to change the video output from RGB to composite

Personally, I wouldn't bother with DVD playback via the surround system unless the Toshiba TV is very small. If I had to have DVD playback then I'd hook up a Blu-ray player (also plays DVDs) and allow it to output a digital component signal via HDMI (much cleaner than composite) and I'd let it handle upscaling the DVDs too.


_____________________________________________________


Audio Settings - TV

The Optical output on the TV will need to be set to PCM Stereo rather than Dolby / Dolby Digital