The Scart or alternatively known as the Perital or Euro Connector was an AV Connector purely designed for the European Market and that is where it has remained whilst the rest of the world still predominately use RCA's/Phono's.
Because the Scart has 21 independent pin type connectors - this giving versatility to the Scart for carrying different types of signals either to or from or dual directional simply decided by the amount of pins wired. Pin numbers 8 and 16 are know as the intelligent pins as they will carry out AV Auto Switching, Wide Screen Switching and RGB Status Switching.
The term fully wired means that all of the Scarts 21 pins are connected enabling it to carry most of the AV signals with stereo audio; Composite (the standard), SVHS (otherwise known as YC), and RGB (Composite Sync) signals.
The Scart to Scart cable is the most popular connecting device, but because of the vast different makes of equipment offering other types of or limited inputs/outputs - again here the Scart shows off its versatility. As a Scart can accept singular cable(s) - it is possible to have a Scart at one end and different type of connectors on the other. There are many combinations:-
Scart - Scart
(Fully Wired, Wired one-way, Wired for SVHS one way)
Scart - 1 Phono
(Picture Only) Single Direction or Dual Direction
Scart - 2 Phono
(Audio Only) Single Direction or Dual Direction
Scart - 2 Phono
(Video and Mono Audio)
Scart - 3 Phono
(Video and Stereo Audio)
Scart - 4 Phono
(Red, Green, Blue & Sync)
Scart - 6 phono
(Video In/Out, Audio Left & Right In/Out)
All the above leads can be terminated with Phono's (RCA), BNC's or a mix of both.
Scart - 1 4pin din plug
(SVHS Picture Only)
Scart - 1 4pin din plug and 2 phono's
(SVHS Picture and Left/Right Audio)
Scart - 2 4pin din Plugs and 4 phono's
(SVHS Picture in/Out and Left/Right Audio In/Out)
As you can see the variations are tremendous - for a full range of scart cables see www.lektropacks.com.
The Scart soon became Europe's champion, and was given the full fashion treatment, from chunky Scart housings, different coloured cables, Oxygen Free Cable (ofc), different insulations and a choice of outer casing made in, plastic, nickel, silver plated, 24k gold and even platinum or rhodium. The prices also reflected these changes, from an average price of £5.00 for a plastic 1 metre Scart - Scart cable to £50+ for a 24k Gold Scart - Scart cable and then would you believe prices up to £300.00 ++ for Platinum Plated and Rhodium Coated.
