Answered Very confused CRT TV owner in 2016 needing help

CRT2016

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So... I'm new to this kind of thing.

Living in the PAL region (Ireland specifically), I've recently started watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This, if you didn't know, is a 4:3 NTSC 480i/PAL 576i TV show edited on video from the mid '90s, so I thought it might be best if I watch it on my old CRT TV, seemed like it'd look better than watching it sloppily upscaled on a modern LCD TV screen. Just wouldn't look good as the DVDs are just a pretty shitty VHS transfer.

So, from TRYING to read up on the subject, I've learned that SCART is a pretty good connection, better than composite at least, and it supports (not sure if that's the right word?) RGB (which is also good apparently?). So I connected my DVD player to my CRT TV through SCART 1 and set the DVD player on RGB mode through the setup menu.

Now, just realizing my mistake after 15 episodes, I've noticed the show looks more colourful and higher contrast, more like it SHOULD (from looking at screencaps online and comparing with my fairly well-calibrated LCD TV) when I set the DVD player to YPbPr mode. I thought SCART only supported RGB? I thought YpBpr mode was exclusive to component cables? I'm so damn confused.

And would setting my DVD player to progressive scan on my CRT TV make it look better or worse? CRT TVs are interlaced, right? So it'd just look worse as it'd have to convert it back to interlaced video, right? I hope I don't sound like an idiot right now, I could be completely wrong. I compared the picture quality when using YPbPr progressive on and YPbPr progressive off, and there wasn't a large difference. I can't turn progressive on when using RGB either. My first instinct would be to say it looked a little better with YPbPr progressive off, but I could be wrong on that.

The TV model is a Mitsubishi CT25M3LTX 50Hz CRT TV, and the DVD player is a Targa DPV-5600X DVD-Player/VHS-Recorder. Both are pretty damn rare, so good luck finding much info on them online.

Can someone please help me? ELI5 and just tell me what to do. My brain is fried trying to figure this thing out over the last few days.
 
A Scart is a connector type (Google it) and it can be used for Composite, RGB and S-Video signals.
I don't believe it can be used for and I've never known it to be used for Component video.
Your DVD player probably has Component out via 5 Phono sockets that's what the YpBpr in the DVD's menu (and Progressive scan) refers to and it has no effect on RGB from it's scart output.
TBH RGB from the scart to RGB in on the TV's as good as you'll get.
BTW what do you mean by "EL15"
 
A Scart is a connector type (Google it) and it can be used for Composite, RGB and S-Video signals.
I don't believe it can be used for and I've never known it to be used for Component video.
Your DVD player probably has Component out via 5 Phono sockets that's what the YpBpr in the DVD's menu (and Progressive scan) refers to and it has no effect on RGB from it's scart output.
TBH RGB from the scart to RGB in on the TV's as good as you'll get.
BTW what do you mean by "EL15"
Thanks, but if YPbPr mode looks better, even with a SCART connection, would it not be smarter to keep it on that setting rather than switching to RGB, which looks like it has low contrast and saturation?

ELI5 means "Explain Like I'm 5".
 
Leave it at whatever looks best to you.
First time I've seen the "ELI5" thing.
 
To be pedantic, RGB is component - IE the colour information for each channel is sent separately. In fact, RGB is better than component, as it does not need to be transcoded or converted when used with a CRT TV - the signal can be applied to the gun drives directly.
 
If RGB is better, why do the colours look so washed out and the saturation and contrast so low?

YPbPr nearly looks like its contrast and saturation is too high then again.

Ugh, I'm starting to wonder if this is just a problem with the TV itself now.
 
Are you sure the scart input on the TV can accept RGB (I believe there's 2 scart inputs) as it may be composite video you're viewing.
 
Not to mention you need a "full" RGB SCART cable as well.
 
Are you sure the scart input on the TV can accept RGB (I believe there's 2 scart inputs) as it may be composite video you're viewing.
Yeah, there's two SCART inputs. But how can I tell if it accepts RGB?
 
I believe I may know what the problem is now, and all along, it was so simple.

I have the TV calibrated improperly. Rather than actually mangling around with it to get the right settings, I just put everything in the middle and left it as is. Well, I shouldn't have.

When I looked up close, RGB did look better than YPbPr, as you guys said it would. I compared the two by reading some very small writing up close, and on RGB mode, it was actually legible. Not a huge difference, but there it is.

Now I just have to try and get the right settings. Any recommendations? It's quite an old TV, so there's no big menu, just a bar down the bottom where I can move a slider up and down and guess which setting it is by looking at the little logo beside it. It appears I've gotten something close to what I had with YPbPr when I put brightness way down and contrast way up, although it'll need more fixing.

Still confused as to why YPbPr mode has such a different look to do with colours and such, everything is more extreme. Anyone?
 
Yeah, there's two SCART inputs. But how can I tell if it accepts RGB?

The user manual, a setting in the menu, look for 3 dots or RGB printed on the back cover adjacent to the sockets.
 
The other way to test its to slowly pull the plug out at an angle. If you're in RGB mode, you'll lose the primary colours one at a time.

Many TVs didn't allow you to mess with the colour saturation control when watching RGB (a function which is of course impossible with a direct video path). I suspect what may be happening here is that you're seeing the video as it should be - which may make it look under saturated.
 
Almost certainly, when you have the player set to YPbPr, this has these two (relevant) effects on the output:

1: Supplies an output to the YPbPr socket array that you are not using and
2: DISables RGB via SCART. That leaves the SCART supplying composite video.

Players for the most part cannot do YPbPr AND RGB at the same time, so they do one or the other.

Composite is likely to be softer, less detailed, and you have seen this effect on the text. The other differences in contrast, saturation and the like, will most probably be down to TV settings for the RGB and composite inputs.
 
May be that in RGB there is gamma correction and YPbPr there is none
 
Agree with LV426. The DVD player can do RGB or Component.. Not both at the same time. So you are watching composite on your TV which might look brighter and better at first glance.

Some TVs actually converted the RGB back into the video chain so you could adjust things like contrast and colour and quality was lost.
 

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