New Builder - Video questions

[Maldoror]

As I am poor, I decided to go with a 27" Sony Wega Trinitron for my monitor (50$ on Craigslist:)).

My question is, is S-Video sufficient for MAME, or is it possible to use the component option with a PC? Anyways, I guess the choices are Component/Composite/S-Video. So which one would *you* use?

Thanks for any input.

[jimmy2x2x]

component

[Maldoror]

Nevermind, found it:) http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=2028&sku=40331

Thanks

[Osirus23]

Your video card may already have component out, wouldn't need that expensive cable.

[MonMotha]

Ok, a couple things:

First of all, that cable won't work.  It's designed to hook component video up to projectors that accept it on their VGA inputs.  Apparently (very) few laptops also support component out via this sort of passive cable, but I've never found one.  AFAIK, not a single desktop PC output has ever supported this (though for reasons unknown to me, it's not terribly hard to do).

Secondly, that price is outrageous.  Monoprice probably has the same cable for like $10.

If you want YPbPr component from a PC, get a card that supports it and includes everything you need in the box.  That's the easiest way.  It's too bad the S-Video outputs on PC cards suck so badly.  S-Video can look almost as good as YPbPr component if done properly.

[Osirus23]

Does your card have an S-video looking connector on it, perhaps labled TV-OUT?

If so, it will output component video using a cable like this:

http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=601-EV-1024-S1&family=Accessories - Hardware&sw=4

[dataman19]

So - doesn't the sVid have sync imposed upon the red signal?
Won't this be a problem..
..
Not speaking from experience - I don't S-Vid anything in the Arcade real..
..
So I'm more or less just curious...
Wouldn't this be an issue?
..
Dave

[MonMotha]

S-Video is just composite video without the luma and chroma stuffed onto the same wire and overlapping each other in frequency.  The two signals are instead placed on separate wires.  Sync is on the luma signal, as usual.  Chroma is modulated per whatever standard you're using (NTSC or PAL) at the normal carrier frequency (3.579545MHz for NTSC-M).

The reason S-Video is better than composite is that it eliminates the necessity of separating the luma and chroma components.  Since these components normally "overlap" each other in the frequency domain, recovery of the two separate signals is imperfect.  Since this is unnecessary on S-Video, the only degradation is due to 1) band limiting the signals (mostly applicable to chroma), and modulation/demodulation error on chroma, which are both minor compared to cross luma/chroma artifacts.

[dataman19]

I understand the benefits of S-Video vs Composite...
But..
The S-Video to RGB Adapters only have "Red", "Green" and "Blue" Connectors...
So where is the sync signal.  I don't see a separate wire...
...
Dave

[dataman19]

Oops - My Bad....
Opened mouth before further research...
..
The adapter "is not" an S-Video to RGB adapter..
..
Info here:
...
http://www.jaycar.com.au/images_uploaded/videosig.pdf
...
Apparently the S-Video Standard Uses R-Y and B-Y instead of Red, Green, Blue Signals.
The Green Lead "is" the Sync and lumenance signals...
..
Now I understand...
...
You would think that I would already understand this since I have repaired hundreds of video display distribution amps with S-Video.  Problem is magnified by the fact that the Red, Green and Blue ports on a switcher/dist amp all use the same amps (sync/lumenance signals are treated with the same bandwidth requirements as R-Y, B-Y signals.
..
Therefore I never really thought about it (especially since I never used S-Video in the Arcades and never had conversion issues).  R-G-B Monitors are (were) the Arcade Norm and Composite video has always been mainly in the consumer domain.
...
Thanks MonMotha
very good..
..
Dave

[kardenm]

Hw does HDMI compare to s-video and composite video?

Nevermind.  I looked it up on wiki.