Pinouts >  Audio / Video hardware connectors
21 pin SCART female connector layout
21 pin SCART female connector
This connector can be found at many video's, TV's and so on. The connector is also known as Pertitel connector or Euroconnector.

SCART (from Syndicat des Constructeurs dAppareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs) is a French-originated standard and associated 21-pin connector for connecting audio-visual equipment together. It is also known as Péritel (especially in France) and Euroconnector. SCART makes it easy to connect AV equipment (including TVs, VCRs, DVD players and games consoles). In essence, it gathers together various common analog signal-types into a single connector. Nowdays is obsolete and superseded by HDMI. The signals carried by SCART include both composite and RGB video, and stereo audio input/output, as well as support functions. May be converted to VGA, S-video.The voltage levels are rather high, around 1V, so the signals have good noise immunity. 

SCART details

SCART is bi-directional regarding standard composite video and analog audio. A television set will typically send the antenna audio and video signals to the SCART sockets all the time and watch for returned signals, to display and reproduce them instead. This allows to have transparent set-top boxes, without any tuner, which just hook and pre-process the television signals. A VCR may have 2 SCART sockets, one connecting to the television set, and another one for the set-top box. When idle or powered off, the VCR will forward the signals from the television set to the set-top decoder and send the processed result back to the television set. When a scrambled show is recorded, the VCR will drive the set-top box from its own tuner and send the unscrambled signals to the television set for viewing or simple recording control purposes. In addition, SCART allows a connected device to power on and power off a television set, more precisely: to bring it in and out of standby mode, in the same way as a remote control would do.

SCART pinouts

Different pin-configurations exist. Which confirations are available depends on the video device used. Sometimes one can choose the configuration (like composite or S-video) by changing a software setting.

Two status signals define (partly) which video signals are active. A video device can use these status signals to automatically switch between internal or external audio/video signals.

Pin Name Description Signal Level Impedance
1 AOR Audio Out Right 0.5 V rms <1k ohm
2 AIR Audio In Right 0.5 V rms >10k ohm
3 AOL Audio Out Left + Mono 0.5 V rms <1k ohm
4 AGND Audio Ground    
5 B GND RGB Blue Ground    
6 AIL Audio In Left + Mono 0.5 V rms >10k ohm
7 B RGB Blue In 0.7 V 75 ohm
8 SWTCH Audio/RGB switch / 16:9, slow switch (10-12v), to force tv to switch on a mode (depends of the tv(old), sometimes set tv to AUX)    
9 G GND RGB Green Ground    
10 CLKOUT Data 2: Clockpulse Out, used in the 80s by old videotapes    
11 G RGB Green In 0.7 V 75 ohm
12 DATA Data 1: Data Out (Unavailable ??)    
13 R GND RGB Red Ground    
14 DATAGND Data Ground, remote control, wired and used by old videotape recorders    
15 R RGB Red In / Chrominance 0.7 V (Chrom.: 0.3 V burst) 75 ohm
16 BLNK Blanking Signal, fast switch (1-3v), to force tv to switch on a mode (depends of the tv(recent), sometimes set tv to AUX) 1-3 V=RGB, 0-0.4 V=Composite 75 ohm
17 VGND Composite Video Ground or S-video luminance Ground    
18 BLNKGND Blanking Signal Ground - ground for slow or fast switch (ground for pin 8 or 16)    
19 VOUT Composite Video Out 1 V 75 ohm
20 VIN Composite Video In / Luminance / RGB Sync 1 V 75 ohm
21 SHIELD Ground/Shield (Chassis)    

Two pins provide switching signals.
Pin 8, the function switching pin, carries a low frequency (less than 50Hz) signal from the source that indicates the type of video present.

0V-2V means no signal, or internal bypass
4.5V-7V (nominal 6V) means a widescreen (16:9) signal
9.5V-12V (nominal 12V) means a normal (4:3) signal
 

Pin 16, the fast switching pin, carries a signal from the source that indicates that the signal is either RGB or composite.

0V-0.4V means composite.
1V-3V (nominal 1V) means RGB only.
 

The original specification defined pin 16 as fast blanking, a high frequency (up to 3MHz) signal that blanked the composite video. The RGB inputs were always active and the fast blanking signal punches holes in the composite video. The SCART connector uses this to overlay subtitles from an external Teletext decoder. 0V-0.4V means composite with a transparent RGB overlay. 1V-3V (nominal 1V) RGB only.

There is no switching signal to indicate S-Video. Some TVs can autodetect the presence of the S-Video signal but more commonly the S-Video input needs to be manually selected.

SCART availability

Many older TV sets have 2 SCART sockets. One is usually uses previous pinout table and the other uses following pinout table. The first can switch from a composite input to RGB input. The second can switch from a composite input to an S-Video input, pin 20 being either composite in or luminance in. Usually the second socket outputs a selectable composite signal on pin 19

Pin Signal Level Impedance
1 Audio Out Right 0.5 V rms <1k ohm
2 Audio In Right 0.5 V rms >10k ohm
3 Audio Out Left + Mono 0.5 V rms <1k ohm
4 Ground Audio    
5 RGB Ground Blue    
6 Audio In Left + Mono 0.5 V rms >10k ohm
7 - - -
8 Fuction Select High (9.5-12V) AVmode
Low (0-2V) TVmode
>10kohm
9 RGB Ground Green    
10 Comms Data 2    
11 - - -
12 Comms Data 1    
13 Ground (chrominance)    
14 Ground Data    
15 Chrominance input 0.3V 75 ohm
16 - - -
17 Ground (luminance)    
18 - - -
19 Video output (composite) 1V including sync 75 ohm
20 Luminance input 1V including sync 75 ohm
21 Ground/Shield (Chassis)    

SCART Signal Levels

Signal AC level DC level Impedance
Red, green, blue Peak to blanking: 0...0.7 V ?3 dB 0...2 V 75 Ohm
Sync Peak to peak: 0...0.3 V -3 dB...+10 dB 0...2 V 75 Ohm
Composite video White to sync: 0...1.0 V ?3 dB 0...2 V 75 Ohm
Chrominance 0...0.3 V -3 dB...+10 dB 0...2 V 75 Ohm
Luminance 0...1.0 V 3 dB 0...2 V 75 Ohm
MAC Black to white: 0...1.0 V 3 dB 0...2 V 75 Ohm
Audio in 0.2...2.0 V (nominal: 0.5 V)   >=10 kOhm
Audio out Nominal: 0.5 V (maximum: 2.0 V)   <=1 kOhm
Video status Low data rate communication: 0.0...2.0 V
(e.g. remote control; Easylink)
Internal: 0.0...2.0 V
External (16:9): 4.5...7.0 V
External (4:3): 9.5...12.0 V
In: ZR>=10 kOhm
ZC<=2 nF
Out: ZR<=1 kOhm
RGB status   Internal: 0.0...0.4 V
External: 1.0...3.0 V
75 Ohm

A formal interface description is given in the CENELEC EN 50 049-1:1989 standard or in the IEC 933-1 standard.

Some tables:

SCART to S-Video cable

Output connector Input connector
1 Audio right out 2 Audio right in
3 Audio left (or mono) out 6 Audio left (or mono) in
4 Audio return 4 Audio return
15 Chrominance out 15 Chrominance in
13 Chrominance return 13 Chrominance return
8 Video status out 8 Video status in
19 Luminance out 20 Luminance in
17 Luminance return

17

Luminance return
21 Shield 21 Shield


SCART to Composite Video cable

Output connector Input connector
1 Audio right out 2 Audio right in
3 Audio left (or mono) out 6 Audio left (or mono) in
4 Audio return 4 Audio return
8 Video status out 8 Video status in
19 Composite video out 20 Composite video in

17

Composite video return 17 Composite video return
21 Shield 21 Shield


Composite Decoder Connection

Receiver connector Decoder connector
1 Audio right out 2 Audio right in
2 Audio right in 1 Audio right out
3 Audio left out 6 Audio left in
6 Audio left in 3 Audio left out
4 Audio return 4 Audio return
8 Video status in 8 Video status out
19 Baseband out (scrambled) 20 Baseband in
17 Baseband out return 18 Baseband in return
20 Composite video in (unscrambled) 19 Composite video out

17

Composite video in return 17 Composite video out return
21 Shield 21 Shield


EasyLink Connection (additional)

Television connector Video recorder connector
10 I/O Control Bus 10 I/O Control Bus

EasyLink enables bi-directional communication between a television set and a video recorder. This way a video recorder can, for example, copy the channel settings of the television set. Who knows the details?

21 pin SCART male connector layout
21 pin SCART male connector
According to 14 reports in our database (13 positive and 1 negative) the SCART pinout should be correct.

Is this pinout
SCART visual pinout:click to enlarge
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