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Since such active adapters usually cost at least around 30 Euros, you should consider whether the investment really makes sense. Instead, a real converter is needed, which first converts the analog signal of the player into digital data. Due to the incompatibility between analog and digital transmission, it takes more than a mere mechanical-electrical adapter to transfer videos from SCART to HDMI. Converter solution for SCART to HDMIĪlthough HDMI has become the prevailing standard, it can happen that an old device is to be connected to a more modern television set – because a DVD player, for example, has an ideal value for its owner or because you want to play old VHS cassettes with a video recorder or because as a gaming nostalgia you want to connect your first-generation PlayStation to a flat screen.
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In the blog post about the TOSLINK cable, we have already explained how HDMI even competes with the widespread optical transmission standard for audio data. You won’t usually find an integrated analog interface there again. This applies to players such as DVD and Blu-ray players as well as modern LED televisions with integrated tuners. In the meantime, HDMI has largely replaced SCART. Even the maximum image resolution that SCART can transmit seems outdated in times of UHD (Ultra HD): the PAL standard of 720 x 576 pixels. However, SCART cannot process digital transmission methods. The advantage of the SCART interface was that it supports different analog transmission paths such as Composite Video, S-Video or RGB equally. The standard was developed as early as the 1970s and has since established itself in the home entertainment sector throughout Europe as a manufacturer-independent standard. Like HDMI (abbreviation for High Definition Multimedia Interface), SCART (Syndicat des Constructeurs d´Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) transmits both audio and video information – only as analog signals. To establish a connection between SCART and HDMI, one hurdle has to be overcome: the incompatibility between analog signals and digital data.
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HDMI replaced SCART as the connection standard
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