Solving TV Scart Cable Interference

Television interference caused by crosstalk in a cheap Scart cable often appears as the faint moving image of another TV station when viewing Sky TV, Freeview or a video recorder through your television Scart socket (Euro Connector). The problem can also lead to poor picture quality from Scart-connected video recorders when playing video tapes. We help you solve Scartlead interference to dramatically improve the TV picture via your Scart Euro Connector with some useful practical tips and advice below.

Causes of Scart Lead Interference

The cause of poor picture quality on Scart inputs (AV1 or AV2) is often cheap unscreened, poor quality Scart cables. The problem is often more noticeable during dark (night-time) scenes, appearing as a faint shadow-like image of another TV station underneath the TV channel being viewed. The faint interfering image often flutters and moves from side to side. In many cases, the interference introduced by the scart lead may be bad enough to make out some detail or text on the faint interfering picture as it moves across the screen. Often the interference is caused by another analogue TV channel.

The solution to totally eliminate Scart input crosstalk interference and to obtain the best RGB picture is to buy a quality, individually screened scart lead. High quality Scart cables are available on eBay.co.uk.

This Scart lead interference can affect digital TV (either from a Sky Digibox or Freeview receiver) or be present when playing video tapes, depending on how the Scart cables to your peripherals are configured.Unfortunately, poorly screened Scart cables are supplied with nearly every Freeview set top box, so this issue is very common and the manufacturers of cheap set top boxes are largely to blame!

Poor quality Scart cables can suffer video and audio signal crosstalk since the wires in the cable are not individually screened. For an example of a totally unscreened Scart cable click here.

To eliminate Scart lead crosstalk interference every wire in the cable must have its own foil screen to prevent it picking up unwanted signals (crosstalk) from the wire next to it. Therefore it is important that you only buy "individually screened Scart cables" not"overall screened"

Solving Scart crosstalk interference very cheaply involves unscrewing the plug as shown here and cutting the wire to pin 19 of the Scart plug at the TV end of the cable as shown here and labelling the plug "TV end". After carrying out this modification, the Scart cable must always be installed with the modified end connected to the TV. For a close up view of pin 19 click here.

Disclaimer

The information contained on this page is provided in good faith and is accurate to the best of our ability. No guarantees regarding accuracy of information or TV interference resolution are provided.

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