Composite -> S-Vid adapters worth it?

[pmc]

I bought a couple of them on Ebay. For $2.95 you can get a cable with composite video on one end, and s-vid on the other. Instead, I spent the extra money for $9 "adapters" that are supposed to have a tiny circuit in them that does the conversion in either direction.

I realize that I'm not going to improve composite video quality, and that's not my goal. It's a compatibility thing I'm going for -- I just needed the physical media conversion from composite to s-video. I don't need to (and wouldn't want to) go the other way.

Picture looks OK although sometimes my Playstation causes the picture to flake (disapear for a fraction of a second). Did I waste the extra dough? Are these things worthi it? Did I get taken? What's in the circuit?