HOWTO: YPrPb component output on any Radeon for under $5

[SNAAKE]

All you need is a bit of 75 ohm coax wire, a soldering iron, and 3 RCA male plugs. This mod is Win9X only, since we don't know the XP registry keys yet. And if you are reading this, I assume you know what you are doing. If not, don't do it, because you could ruin some very expensive equipment.


First, using the 75 ohm wire, solder:
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VGA pin 1 -> Female RCA Pr lead
VGA pin 2 -> Female RCA Y lead
VGA pin 3 -> Female RCA Pb lead

VGA pin 6 -> Female RCA Pr ground
VGA pin 7 -> Female RCA Y ground
VGA pin 8 -> Female RCA Pb ground
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Second, add this key to the registry (win9x only):
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under the thread
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\Driver\0000\DAL]

add
"HDTVRULE_HDTVCONNECTED" =hex:01,00,00,00

and also
"HDTVRULE_HDTVGDOENABLE"=hex:01,00,00,00
"HDTVRULE_HDTVSIGNALFORMAT"=hex:01,00,00,00
if they don't exist, which they won't, if you use a radeon 7xxx or 9000.
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Third, connect your TV with the S-video cable. Disconnect your monitor. Reboot, making sure NO DISPLAYS are connected EXCEPT the S-video. After showing the scrolling black-and-white bootup screen on the TV, all S-video output should stop. You are now outputting in YPrPb. To verify, connect your standard VGA monitor, and if everything is green, the modification has been successful. Now all you need to do is plug it into the component in's on your TV.
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Last, download PowerStrip (http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm), load it up, go to Color profiles -> Configure, then uncheck "Write directly to palette DAC" and "Enable color correction" (edit-> you only need to uncheck these two settings if you are using an older version of PowerStrip -- 3.18 and below, i think. Newer versions do not need to be adjusted). Use the information in these forums to configure the output resolution/timings to your liking.

Note: PowerStrip is actually necessary. After adding the registry key, the Display->Advanced control panel will disappear, which is where you find the YPrPb configuration dialog. It's a bug in Catalyst.
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Quick explanation of what's happening here.

To support the ATI HDTV dongle, the YPrPb signal is sent directly through the DVI port on the Radeon 9000/9500/9700 after the dongle is detected by Catalyst. Catalyst then requires you to reboot, enabling YPrPb output to BOTH the DVI port and the VGA port. This is actually because Catalyst needed to support the 8500 VGA dongle as well as the new DVI ones... so by default both ports are always enabled for HDTV on all cards. This is in our favor. Because of the laziness of the Cat developers, ALL Radeon cards (not just the one supported by the dongle) can output YPrPb.

The HDTVRULE_HDTVCONNECTED regkey is then added by us, forcing Catalyst to bypass the dongle DDC detection, and output YPrPb anyway. So then all we do is take the YPrPb signal being sent through the first 3 pins of the VGA port and jack directly into it. Add some RCA's for flavor, ground them, and -- POOF -- your Radeon just got component-out for the cost of a happy meal at mcdonalds.

Why do this instead of just buying the dongle from ATI? Well, first of all, I own a Radeon 9000 PRO 64MB, which ATI currently sells no dongle for and never will. Second, the dongles that ATI offers are made for use on only one card, so if you had two different cards in two different pc's, you'd need two different dongles (90$ with their cheapest shipping). And Third, if you went all out and spent as much money as you could on the best parts possible for this mod, you'd still spend a whole lot less than you'd pay for one dongle, and might even result in better quality. Enjoy!

-dethnite

(thanks to all the people who posted bits and pieces of info about this in the rage3D forums, you were a big help)
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edit - less permanent, slightly more expensive (+$3) solution:

Buy an HD15 male (VGA) connector (just the connector, no wires, open pins) from your nearest electronics shop. Solder as in the configuration above, connect the HD15 plug to the VGA port on your Radeon, and the RCA's to the corresponding component inputs on the TV. This avoids soldering directly to the board

Also, according to reports in this thread, third party VGA->Component adapters (not transcoders, big difference) will also work if you don't want to build one.

something like this: http://www.optomausa.com/public/Pro...2-81908-001.asp

DVI-A to Component connectors will work also if your card has DVI support, since the signal is sent to both ports on the vidcard.
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Test system:

Athlon XP 1800+
256MB DDR 2100
Powercolor Evil Commando Radeon 9000Pro 64MB
-using Catalyst 2.3 6166 reference drivers
Win98SE

Source !