VCR Compatibility

[JHancke]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I have been using my OSSC with no problems on all of my retro consoles, however I am left with just my VCR that uses SCART that I have no way of connecting to my TV (without a mess of S-Video cables which results in a bad picture). It is a Hitachi FX980E, which from what I can tell should output RGB (Certainly looked like it on my old TV), and the OSSC does seem to pick up an RGBS signal, but the red light goes on and off randomly and the input signal information is all over the place when a tape is playing. I had similar problems with the Jaguar which required a few restarts of the console to hold, but had no luck with the VCR. I occasionally got audio through and it seems to pass through and show a solid signal on the AV inputs on the machine fine (not had anything at hand to test these properly but I get the black screen), but that said I don’t get the OSD menu to show up.

I know this device has been tailored for gaming, but wondered if it was a lost cause and I’m best just waiting for my retrotink order?

Thank you in advance

[ErebusMaligan]

A quick search indicates that VHS does not encode rgb data and few (if any) devices supported that as an output format. So the scart output on your VCR is probably composite (although you mention s-video cables, so maybe it has a dedicated s-video output? the manual pictures didn’t indicate this).

The retrotink should work for you, but you would have to use one of those scart to rca breakout adapters I’m guessing?

[nmalinoski]

My understanding is that the best a VCR can do is S-Video. VHS tapes contain composite video streams, so there’s no point in a VCR coming with RGB output. You might be able to find a combo VCR/DVD player with YPbPr output, or maybe RGB output if you’re in Europe; but I’m going to go out on a limb and say you won’t be able to use it properly with the OSSC.

If you absolutely need to use this particular VCR, I recommend picking up a RetroTINK 2X and connecting the VCR with S-Video. If you absolutely need to use this VCR with the OSSC, additionally get a Portta or Tendak active HDMI to VGA adapter and use it to connect the RT2X to AV3 on the OSSC.

[JHancke]

Thank you, It is a Euro model, and has the blue connector which tends to indicate RGB, but with how the Ossc reacts I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. I will have to try the S-Video route then if this setup is a no go

[nmalinoski]

I’m not sure what would explain the constant dropouts besides bad hardware. If it was outputting S-Video, the OSSC would be using luma as sync, and I think all the chroma information would be on red, so you’d get a mostly black, possibly some red, screen, and audio should work fine.

If it was properly-functioning RGB, you should get a picture fine on AV1-RGBS.

I’m not sure if the Jaguar has any known issues, but you should test the OSSC with a different, more popular console, like a PS1 or a Saturn, or try the VCR with a SCART-capable display, to see if it’s the OSSC at fault.

[yoshiyukiblade]

I experimented with this briefly in the past. What I did was I bought a composite/S-video to component/RGsB (sync on green) converter to get the OSSC to recognize the signal. The OSSC can take RGsB from the component inputs. The problem is, like you experienced, it loses sync frequently. I think something like a time base corrector (TBC) might address that problem and output a cleaner picture, but I’m not curious enough to spend over $300 to experiment with it! Maybe I’ll find a used one for cheap some day, but in any case, losing sync was also one of the major issues I ran into during testing.

[JHancke]

Yeah, the MegaDrive has no issues at all so I know the unit is fine. I’ll figure something out, I am just trying to find a way of not using more than 2 different converters in my setup. I have a Retro Tink on order so I’ll just revert to S-Video on that if need be.

Many thanks

[ikrananka]

Funny, I was literally trying to do this today with my VHS player, a Panasonic NV-VHD1B. It has SCART outputs and the OSSC picks up the signal which when a tape is playing is shown as 623i at 50Hz but this does flicker every few seconds as it loses sync. In fact in my case the red “unstable sync” is lit up. Unfortunately the only other video output from this unit a composite.

Would a RetroTINK work in my case with the composite signal?

[ernep]

I was wondering this as well and I hooked up my Philips DVDR3320V and OSSC gets the signal no problem with both RGB and Component. My VCR has RGB/progressive switch for VHS and DVD.

So it works, just make sure your VCR supports RGB or component.

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