Tv-out Questions


Raz

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2009
Messages
221
1) What is the length of the wie?

2) What would provide "better" quality: S-Video or Composite
 
Raz said:
1) What is the length of the wie?

I'm not entirely sure that this has been mentioned yet... It has been now. :lol:

QUOTE
2) What would provide "better" quality: S-Video or Composite

S-Video, as it does not have the "dot crawl" that composite has. :p

CODE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video
 
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'MWeston' said:
1) 3 meters, male ends to plug directly into audio equipment

2) S-Video
Does anyone know where to get one? Would you have to get a separate one for svideo and composite or would it have both connectors already (since composite is just combine svideo).
If anyone can tell me where I can get one of these, I'd appreciate it.

Chris
 
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Prometheus said:
Raz said:
2) What would provide "better" quality: S-Video or Composite

S-Video, as it does not have the "dot crawl" that composite has. :p

CODE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video



S-Video has the same dot crawl, it is still interlaced and low resolution.

The difference is that it doesn't exhibit the same color bleeding, there is a separate wire for the color information. In an ideal situation you would have a wire for each color, red green and blue, but that isn't a standard input for Televisions, so it wasn't included in the chip when Texas Instruments designed it.
 
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nubie said:
S-Video has the same dot crawl, it is still interlaced and low resolution.

Oh, that's a bit disappointing. I was of the impression that S-Video didn't have dot-crawl as badly as composite does (much as RGB SCART doesn't have it at all)...

I wonder if we might be referring to the same thing, though. Just to be sure, I'm referring to this;

300px-Crawl.jpg


(Image borrowed from answers.com/topic/dot-crawl. :p)
 
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I don't think it will be that bad.

I had an S-Video link to a 100" screen and it was tolerable for watching movies.

I would bet that is caused by some noise, like an improperly shielded wire.

I watch all my TV through a Composite link and I haven't noticed anything like that when I use a properly shielded cable.

EDIT:

Because there aren't two signals sharing the same wire I am sure that they come through cleaner.
 
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'atomicthumbs' said:
Halfway on-topic: is there a plan for an audio in cable/jack, for using good microphones?
I'm not completely sure I understand but I will try to answer this.

The A/V cable has five phono plugs (male):
2 - Line input L and R (unbalanced)
2 - Line output L and R (unbalanced)
1 - Composite output

It also has one S-Video connector (male, 4 pin). The signals are shared on the composite and S-Video outputs so only one at a time can be used and setting the output is done on the Pandora by software (or you will get a black and white picture on composite jack if set to S-Video for example). That gives you a good explanation of the A/V cable. It brings out the audio and video signals, but not the digital I/O's or the power supply.

As for good microphones, do you mean using the line inputs connected to a preamp box with balanced XLR inputs and unbalanced phono plug outputs? The answer would be yes here. Since good microphones are usually balanced, you can't connect it to the Pandora directly. Actually, come to think of it, no microphone works at line levels and always requires a preamp so you need a self powered amp box in the middle regardless of the application. There is no plan to make a custom box like this since lots of audio companies out there make mic preamps and have built up a reputation you can trust for this kind of gear.

If you really want to maintain the high quality of the signal then you will probably want to use a USB based ADC with built in preamps. I've read people discussing that option already. Let's hope we can get some source code for the drivers!
 
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MWeston said:
'atomicthumbs' said:
Halfway on-topic: is there a plan for an audio in cable/jack, for using good microphones?
I'm not completely sure I understand but I will try to answer this.

The A/V cable has five phono plugs (male):
2 - Line input L and R (unbalanced)
2 - Line output L and R (unbalanced)
1 - Composite output

It also has one S-Video connector (male, 4 pin). The signals are shared on the composite and S-Video outputs so only one at a time can be used and setting the output is done on the Pandora by software (or you will get a black and white picture on composite jack if set to S-Video for example). That gives you a good explanation of the A/V cable. It brings out the audio and video signals, but not the digital I/O's or the power supply.

That sounds like one awesome TV-out cable. I'm really looking forward to it.

-God Ginrai
 
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Definitely. I don't remember what the cable costs but it's probably like twenty something dollars. We don't want to skimp out and give you the bare minimum so we found a company that will do 10 feet long cables, gold plated male ends so no adapters needed and all the multimedia signals possible on the port so it's just one nice long run from the Pandora to your stereo. Badda boom, badda bing ;)
 
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Sounds fantastic.

Wait. A black & white signal on the composite plug if s-video is selected in software? I'm sure that could be put to some creative use. Like... dual screen Pong.
 
'MWeston' said:
Definitely. I don't remember what the cable costs but it's probably like twenty something dollars. We don't want to skimp out and give you the bare minimum so we found a company that will do 10 feet long cables, gold plated male ends so no adapters needed and all the multimedia signals possible on the port so it's just one nice long run from the Pandora to your stereo. Badda boom, badda bing ;)
Cable-shaped awesomeness, indeed.

...So, how do these of us who've suddenly (, belatedly) realised they want one - but didn't order one - get one?
:unsure:
 
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Damn, I was hoping for a short adapter only :(
Having a long cable is not too good for my setup at home.. Whatever, gotta get used to it or I will just stick to my beagleboard for all debugging work with a Pandora acting as a gamepad.
 
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'Gruso' said:
Sounds fantastic.

Wait. A black & white signal on the composite plug if s-video is selected in software? I'm sure that could be put to some creative use. Like... dual screen Pong.
you can always just use a splitter


out of curiosity, what would come through the S-video if composite was selected? what if it was set to composite and the S-video out was put through a S-video -> composite converter?
 
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Originally it only had AV out plugs. But they (rather excellently) decided to include audio inputs to save us needing a separate cable for it. So it's technically an AV in/out cable now, but we're still just calling it a TV out cable.
 
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