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It is a bit unclear whether this is the "user manual" or the "service manual", the latter which may have only been used service people, but nevertheless, why would it go through the specifics of the SCART connector, naming the purpose of each pin?

Yes, it goes through all the internal of the TV in insane detail, but the SCART connector is not something invented for this TV or by this company (JVC). It's just a standard, external interface.

For me, all these years later, it was interesting to read about, but what purpose could it have for anyone using or repairing the TV? SCART is SCART. It's just a connector, which doesn't change between TVs... right? Or have I misunderstood something? Were there many different "versions" of SCART or something? That seems like it would defeat the purpose of having a standard like that.

SCART pin assignment

Greenonline
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M Clouden
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    "SCART" and "standard" in the same paragraph... – pipe May 28 '22 at 07:09
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    AnecodtaI: I remember having to look up which pin to artificially set high to get one of my devices to show up on screen (20 years ago). I vaguely recall pin 9, but looking at your picture it must have been pin 8. Could've been 9V on pin 8. We didn't have the SCART standard at home (or reliable internet to look it up), but we did have a TV manual. That's why. – Mast May 28 '22 at 14:25
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    @pipe OP said "a standard", not "the standard". – Rosie F May 29 '22 at 08:01
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    Our 80's home stereo system came with a full set of detailed schematics. Anyone could have built a perfect clone just based on the owner's guide (the only thing missing were PCB layouts). Those were the days of the "right to repair" that we're now slowly reinventing. – TooTea May 29 '22 at 18:57
  • The problem with the implementation of a standard is limited by the designers understanding of the standard and the percentage they implement. – StainlessSteelRat May 30 '22 at 03:31

2 Answers2

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There was no Internet then. The only source of most of that information was through the manuals and if it wasn't published you could be stuck. Many of us made up adaptors and cables and this information would have been quite useful.

As far as I know, not all devices had all pins connected. The manual gives the minimum information required to establish which SCART features have been implemented.

Transistor
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    Confirmed, there were different "versions" of the SCART connector; I *guess* there no device ever to support the full feature set offered by the SCART standard. The TV shown in the OP is already quite unusual, as it offers an anlog RGB input. – Klaws May 28 '22 at 09:54
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    My Sony TV could do full RGB scart giving my Wii a pristine picture. Not all devices could do that. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen May 28 '22 at 20:03
  • There were a LOT of home computer enthusiasts and a fair percentage of DIY builders and a LOT of incompatible systems and using the house TV instead of a monitor was a thing. – user_1818839 May 30 '22 at 16:54
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    @Klaws "The TV shown in the OP is already quite unusual, as it offers an anlog RGB input." Analogue RGB input on a TV should be common as it was required for external subtitle boxes, an early use for SCART. Also RGB inputs are straightforward to provide on a colour TV as it already has RGB circuits internally. SCART peripherals may not have had RGB if it wasn't relevant e.g a VHS VCR would only have had composite video (pins 19 + 20) as the picture quality didn't require RGB. A DVD player would provide RGB on its SCART output. – Graham Nye May 30 '22 at 22:38
  • @Graham Nye Thank you for the "reprimand". Seems I had all the "special" TVs back in the days. Yes, I had actually wondered why none of the TVs I had to deal with had analog RGB inputs (as you mentioned, that would have been very little effort to support). Well -- in Germany, subtitles came (and still come) via Teletext (Videotext in German), so no need for subtitle boxes, so maybe the RGB option was omitted in some cases to save a Deutschmark. I did, however, own a video monitor with RGB input. And how I loved the dexterity game, plugging the connector without bending the flimsy fins! – Klaws May 31 '22 at 14:16
  • @Klaws I note the quote marks but there's no hint of a reprimand; I'm just providing more information. I got my first SCART TV in the mid-80s by which time it also had built-in Teletext and hence subtitles. However SCART first appeared in the late 70s. I understand content descramblers and subtitling were early applications for external SCART-connected set top boxes. Subtitling used the fast blanking signal on pin 16 to swap mid-scan line from off-air video to the locally generated RGB subtitle then back again. – Graham Nye Jun 01 '22 at 07:47
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Also consider that manuals back then were the only source of information outside going back to the shop or to a dedicated repair shop.

So the manuals were made more durable than the one-page paper sheet with a URL on it. My parents stored all the manuals on a bookshelf, along with the Big Dictionary and other common reference books. An extreme example is computer manuals from the days of DOS - solid ringbinders and slip cases.

If a booklet is just stapled paper then it has four A5 sides for each A4 leaf used. So if the information to be published is a multiple of 4x A5 pages you've filled it. But if you go over that by 1 then there are three blank pages that must be in the booklet.

It gets worse if you have a glued-spine, which was quite common for the range of 40-200 pages. A "folio" or fold would be four leaves of A4, giving 16 sides of A5. The paper's there, may as well put something on it because it has to go through the printer and folding/binding.

( I use A4 and A5 as examples. It was just as likely to have A3 paper and A4 sized pages, or similar other standard sizes. )

SCART dates from 1977 and was mandated in France from 1980 to 2015.

The standard was subject to several amendments and at least 2 major revisions, approved by CENELEC on 13 November 1988 (EN 50049-1:1989) and 1 July 1997 (EN 50049-1:1997).

So the manual is also documenting the current standard implemented in this device at the time.

Criggie
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