Question
I am re-plastering the lounge and looking to set a conduit in the wall to hide the cabling between tv and the rest of the kit. SCART plugs are too big to fit down a small conduit. Any advice?
Submitted online by Steve
Our Answer
We agree. SCART leads can be bulky. Here are a few thoughts:
Do you need SCART?
SCART is a handy connector for set-top boxes, DVD Players and video recorders, but the HDMI connector is slowly replacing SCART. If your equipment uses HDMI connectors, then these are a better bet, and they’re slimmer. If you have a Sky+ HD box or a Blu Ray player, you should be using HDMI, and not SCART to connect to your TV
DVD Player
You could consider getting a Blu Ray player. These use HDMI, and not SCART, and all Blu Play players can also play back standard DVDs, so this will replace your old DVD player
Video recorder
You could consider connecting to your TV from your old video recorder using co-ax aerial cable instead of SCART. The quality will be lower, and there will be no stereo, but the cables are thinner than SCART, and the quality of your old tapes may be low anyway. Just an option!
SCART cable
A SCART cable has 21 PINs, but not all of these are used. If you’re good with a soldering iron, you could use a smaller cable, and only solder the PINs you need. Not really advisable, and also quite fiddly, but it’s an option nonetheless.
Wireless SCART
You could do away with the SCART lead altogether and use a Wireless AV Sender.These come in pairs, a transmitter and a receiver, and transmit from one SCART socket to another without needing a SCART cable.
You can get a Wireless AV sender from Maplin: Wireless Video Senders at Maplin