"Gary Tait" wrote in message
...
"Arfa Daily" wrote in
news
ust a box that multiplies the number of scart connectors available to
you. A typical "cheap 'n' nasty" manual one might have two or three
scart connectors on the top of the box, a two or three way switch,

That is if one has SCART. It is rare for equipment in the US market, where
the OP is from, to have SCART.

SCART, for the edificatino of the OP, is a one connector and cable system
for interconnecting A/V devices, typicaly in Europe and other places PAL
is
used. For some odd reason or another, it was never introuced into North
America.

Yes, Gary - you're quite right now I come to think of it. It also gets known
as a Euro connector, which is of course a dead giveaway - although I'm sure
I have seen scart accessories in Walmart over there, but I could be wrong on
that point. Absolutely everything is connected that way here, and it's a
very convenient way of doing it, and works well once you get your head
around it. As well as the video and audio signals both ways being available
at the connector, there are also switching control lines, where devices in
the chain can control the signal paths between each other. So if you pop a
disc in your DVD and just hit play, it will inform the TV that it is looking
for access, and the TV will respond by automatically switching to the input
that the DVD is connected to, and so on. It's beginning to be superseded by
HDMI now, which I think is a bit more world wide.

Arfa