AV Connection Guide

Scart - Also originally known as Euro Scart. Scart was a standard popularised first in France and eventually became common all over Europe. The plug has 21 pins each of which carries a signal. Some pins are inputs and some are outputs so Scart leads usually work both ways around. Some pins are not connected to anything and serve as earths. While most Scarts are fully wired there are a few that only have those pins connected that carry pictures. These are usually used with RGB connections where the sound is treated separately.

Please see: Ultimate Leads and Superior Leads pages.

Phono - Phono connections are plugs that fit into round sockets. Very simply there are three main kinds of phono lead composite, component and digital coaxial. Composite leads carry the video signal as a whole down one line and the stereo sound down two others (audio left and right). These are three phono to three phono leads. You also get phono leads that just carry sound. Some of these carry stereo while others (single phono also known as digital coaxial) carry Dolby 5.1 sound to an amplifier. For component leads please see below.

Please see: Superior Leads page.

Component Leads - Component leads look just like composite leads (above). the difference is that where a composite leads carries the whole video signal on one lead, component leads split the signal into three colour components which are Red, Green and Blue. This gives a superior picture over both composite and S-Video (although S-Video is still very good). The composite signal itself is referred to in different ways, as Y, Cr, Cb or Y, Pb, Pr or even as RGB (Red Green and Blue). Each plug will be colour coded (Red, Green and Blue). Apart from 3 Phono to 3 Phono component leads you also have leads with BNC connections.

Please see Specialist RGB Leads page.

S-Video Leads - S-Video is also known as S-VHS. Apart from TVs, DVDs etc. it is also often found on camcorders and on some computer video cards. S-Video cables differ from composite cables because they split the video signal into two distinct components which are luminance and chrominance. Rather confusingly you can also carry a S-Video signal over a fully wired Scart lead. The S-Video plug has four round metal pins and one rectangular plastic one.

Please see: Ultimate Leads and Superior Leads pages.

VGA Leads - This is standard computer monitor cable. It is usually male to male with three rows of 15 pins. Apart from linking a computer to a monitor the VGA cable can be used to connect a computer to a projector. It has limited home theatre uses most often for connecting a HDTV decoder to a screen. VGA leads carry a RGB signal.

Please see: Superior Leads pages.