Question about my tv i just bought.

[the3eyedblindman]

Please do not move this to the monitor forum! I always thought by S video they just ment the video jack in front of the tv like u hook game systems into. Now I dont know if the 27 inch tv i just bought has S video, how do u know?

[pitfaller]

http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/ISEO-rgbtcspd/learningcenter/home/connections_glossary.html?term=s-video_jack

[pitfaller]

Oops  - the link didn't form correctly, copy and paste the entire link above rather than click on it.

[Generic Eric]

Please do not move this to the monitor forum! I always thought by S video they just ment the video jack in front of the tv like u hook game systems into. Now I dont know if the 27 inch tv i just bought has S video, how do u know?

This should be in the monitor/video forum.

What type of connections on your TV do you have for video?
Did the box your tv came have svideo printed on it anywhere?
What make/model is your tv?  Check to see if the manufacturer has a website and search by the model number.

Svideo is a multi conductor cable.  I don't have an svideo cable in front of my, so i don't know how many pins. Svideo cables usually have a yellow jacket on the end informing that it is a video cable.

composite cables: you can get the "joined" cable with 2 ends on each.  again the video connector will be yellow, audio will be white if its a mono cable.  

component: Red Green Blue.  your video cables will have red, green and blue cables.

Additionally, each different cable type allows for better video display.  component being best, svideo second, and thirdly, composite been the lesser of the 3.
Along with the cable connectors each type of video signal allows for different resolutions and such.

[darktemp]

A quick google search can be your friend.  http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon-tv-out/

[Kremmit]

Why make him work so hard?

An S-video connector looks like a ps/2 port.  If your tv has something that looks like a ps/2 port, then you've got s-video.  If not, you don't.

[Snarbald]

Svideo is a multi conductor cable.  I don't have an svideo cable in front of my, so i don't know how many pins. Svideo cables usually have a yellow jacket on the end informing that it is a video cable.

Are you sure man? Not a single one of my S-video cables has a yellow jacket on the end. Every one of them is just black (and we're talking several dozen cables here)

[PaulG]

I've never seen a yellow jacket either.  I've never seen a composite cable that didn't have a yellow jacket, but never an s-video.

[Hoagie_one]

[independentthread]

The last TV I saw that had a front S-video jack seemed like it had an extra 100 bucks tacked onto the price just for that.  The front RCA jacks are known simply as a that: front RCA jacks.

[Generic Eric]

Svideo is a multi conductor cable.  I don't have an svideo cable in front of my, so i don't know how many pins. Svideo cables usually have a yellow jacket on the end informing that it is a video cable.

Are you sure man? Not a single one of my S-video cables has a yellow jacket on the end. Every one of them is just black (and we're talking several dozen cables here)

I've never seen a yellow jacket either.  I've never seen a composite cable that didn't have a yellow jacket, but never an s-video.

Crap.  I don't know if I am sure.  Maybe its just console svideo cables that have the yellow jacket at the end.  By that I mean on the connector, not the cable.  I thought that the yellow was the standard (with the exception of RGB cables) for video.  Aren't the jacks on the new TVs even yellow?

[pointdablame]

almost all svideo cables I have seen have had a black jacket.  The yellow jacket is usually reserved (at least in my experience) for the regular RCA video connection grouped with the red and white stereo cables.

To 3eyed... you're gonna have to see if you have a jack like hoagie_one posted.  If not... you're kinda screwed.  I believe it's possible (?) to hook up an RCA TV to a computer through an adapter but the picture quality would be terrible because RCA is natively a lesser picture quality.  You could in theory hook up your TV with component inputs as well, but if you aren't sure that your TV has SVideo, I can pretty much guarantee you that you don't have component.

Do some reading on the different video connections (RCA, SVideo, Component, DVI, etc etc) and then see if you can return your TV if it isn't what you need.  My advice: Do a bit more research before you buy any more parts.

[MonitorGuru]

Picture quality levels/connector type/signal composition (worst to best)

Very low quality (analog cable, VCR Channel 3/4 output):
- RF (radio frequency) / Coax / Composite Video + Mono or Stereo Audio in 6 MHz Bandwidths stacked to limit of cable

Better quality (VCR direct to TV output, camcorder, Digital cable/satellite to TV output):
- Color Composite / RCA / Composite Video (Luminance [B+W signal aka brightness] + Chrominance [color signal] combined)

Best quality for $: (SVHS/8mm VCR/camcorder, better Digital cable/satellite to TV output/DVD):
- S-Video / Mini DIN 4 connector / Color Separate (Luminance (Y),  Chrominance (C) on separate wires)

Slightly better quality (depends on signal source/TV quality):
- Component aka ColorStream[Toshiba] / 3 RCA / Color Differential (Luminance (Y), Blue Differential (Y-B), Red Differential (Y-R) on 3 separate wires. Green determined mathematically from 3 signals)

Best quality (computer or arcade monitors, direct SCART connections)
- Pure RGB / Various cables / Separate Red/Green/Blue wires, full bandwidth applied to each wire. Separate sync wires for horizontal/vertical or can be combined on Green wire.

[Craig]

Thanks for that Monitor Guru

[the3eyedblindman]

Is there any sort of  "S video" jack you can buy separate and hook up to your tv that i could do, and is there any other way i can use this as my monitor, I dont want to have toi take this back.

[Darkstalker]

"The yellow jacket is usually reserved (at least in my experience) for the regular RCA video connection grouped with the red and white stereo cables."

Or S/PDIF, but that looks more like a short RCA connection with a really thin wire shield.

The only "yellow" S-Video cable I have seen is the Monster Cable version which has a little yellow stripe around it...



...otherwise they are all black.

Check your user manual to see if your TV has an S-Video input, or if you can't find that, check out your TV to see if it has a port like Hoagie_one posted.  If not, looks like you are SOL...

[the3eyedblindman]

Ok i dont care what color the cables are, my main concern is getting this up and running, if i dont have S video, is there anyway i could buy the input separate and hook it up to my tv, or is there anything else i could do to get this tv to work with my pc.?

[pointdablame]

Ok, since you just want to cut to the chase.... if you don't have Svideo, you are screwed.  End of story.  Bring the TV back.

As I said, if there is an adapter to convert RCA to Svideo (don't know off hand) you would be degrading an already fuzzy and fairly low quality picture.  Your cabinet would look like utter crap, no offense.  It is not worth even trying at all IMHO.

So... look for an Svideo connection on the back of the TV. We have posted pictures for you.  It'll look similar to a computer PS/2 port.  If you don't have one, bring it back to the store.  Otherwise, you will more than likely not be able to get it working AT ALL, and if you do, the picture quality would be atrocious.

Darkstalker - I have seen the same cable, although I didn't think it necessary to bring up SP/DIF in here, seeing as the OP didn't even know what a Svideo cable was  But you are correct, they can use yellow as well.

[Craig]

I use composite and it works fine. The only thing that doesn't look good is the Windows desktop; games are good. How much quality difference would the desktop be if it was svideo? I use a svideo to RCA adaptor.

[Generic Eric]

Ok i dont care what color the cables are, my main concern is getting this up and running, if i dont have S video, is there anyway i could buy the input separate and hook it up to my tv, or is there anything else i could do to get this tv to work with my pc.?

ok, so the color isn't important to you.  Keep in mind, that we have tried to help

Please do not move this to the monitor forum! I always thought by S video they just ment the video jack in front of the tv like u hook game systems into. Now I dont know if the 27 inch tv i just bought has S video, how do u know?

This should be in the monitor/video forum.

What type of connections on your TV do you have for video?
Did the box your tv came have svideo printed on it anywhere?
What make/model is your tv?  Check to see if the manufacturer has a website and search by the model number.

So... look for an Svideo connection on the back of the TV. We have posted pictures for you.  It'll look similar to a computer PS/2 port.  If you don't have one, bring it back to the store.  Otherwise, you will more than likely not be able to get it working AT ALL, and if you do, the picture quality would be atrocious.

We even went as far as to explain the differences in the cable types.  The rest is up to you...
Do you want Svideo?
To you have an svideo connector?
Can you still take the tv back if SVideo is your priority?

If you don't have svideo and you can take the tv back and you want svideo, then take the TV back and get one with svideo.

If you can't, you can by composite to Svideo adapter cables.  Or you can buy a video switch box that will support composite and SVideo as another issue.

You do have options.

[Darkstalker]

"Darkstalker - I have seen the same cable, although I didn't think it necessary to bring up SP/DIF in here, seeing as the OP didn't even know what a Svideo cable was"

Yea, the only reason I brought it up is it is usually a yellow-ended cable...

Back on topic...

The only real reason to use S-Video is for the OS clarity or other non-MAME apps because it won't make a lick of difference in MAME since it is such a lower resolution.  If you are using DOS or Linux in CLI, even the OS doesn't matter.

If you REALLY want better video quality, you are better off using a computer monitor since the dot pitch on a PC is much better than TV's you'd stick in a MAME cabinet anyways.

generic_eric hit the nail on the head.  If you want S-Video, your TV has to have S-Video on it.  The only reason to want/need S-Video is a GUI-based OS (Windows looks REALLY fuzzy using analog video), or you plan on running apps like a DVD player.

If you don't want/need S-Video, you can get a converter from S-Video to Composite (Analog) if that is your only video-out option, or use your PC's composite video output jack.  Just remember you are losing the quality of S-Video when you convert it, and it's always better to run with the correct signal type from the start instead of changing it.

"How much quality difference would the desktop be if it was svideo?"

HUGE difference.  Still not as good as a PC monitor, but you can make out smaller text (Like desktop icon labels) without going cross-eyed with eye strain.  For MAME you won't see much, if any, improvement.

[the3eyedblindman]

None of you have mentioned a scan converter, which i am going to buy, my friend uses a scan converter and a tv and the picture is fine.

[NoOne=NBA=]

My GF4 shipped with an S-video to Composite cable.

You could at least try that, if you really want to keep the TV.
The results are less than stellar with ANY TV-style connection though.

[the3eyedblindman]

What am i whinging about, i knew my answer all along, im doing a mame jamma setup, so itll be pc to jpac to harness to pcb of whatever game to jroc to tv, problem solved.