Little Heads-up For Brits Still Grabbing Pandora Accessories

[Prometheus]

I hope no-one minds me posting this, but I'm guessing that I'm not the only one still picking up those last few essentials in order to be ready for when the Pandora is released.

I nipped into Aldi today for some of their rather good noodles, and something that was labelled on a price-board as "SCART Cable" (which I'm guessing they're currently carrying in all or most of their British stores) caught my eye. It wasn't actually a SCART cable at all (the packaging didn't claim that, either - it said "SCART Lead Set") - it was a set containing a bunch of cables and adapters, for £3.49. Most importantly, it has these;

So, if you're still needing S-Video-to-whatever adapters, there you go (I was certainly needing them - I've never seen a television with an S-Video input). You also get a ten metre RCA-to-RCA cable, a ten metre S-Video cable, and a doohickey for connecting RCA to a 3.5mm stereo jack into the bargain.

They've also got some USB 2.0 hubs of the variety with movable ports, so devices which would normally block other ports can't do so, at the moment too. Those were £5.99, though.

 

[Pleng]

Both sound a bargain, especially the SCART Lead set; £3.49 for all that cable/adapter good ness is silly pricing. I paid £6 elswhere for the converter alone, never mind the leads!

(edit - removed un-needed quoting)

 

[iprice]

I was asking about something like this only the other day for my GP2X.

Cheers

BTW Doesn't the Pandora come with a tv cable? I thought I read that it did.

 

[Red Ring Rico]

Thanks for the heads up. My cable was a mere £900. Only because it came with my graphics cards three years ago =P.

 

[javaJake]

Now, I hope you guys realized that there will be composite (RCA) cords included with the Pandora.

 

[Pleng]

Now, I hope you guys realized that there will be composite (RCA) cords included with the Pandora.

That may be the case. But there's a great deal of tellies here in the UK which only have SCART inputs

 

[ledow]

So, if you're still needing S-Video-to-whatever adapters, there you go (I was certainly needing them - I've never seen a television with an S-Video input).

there's a great deal of tellies here in the UK which only have SCART inputs

Erm. You REALLY need to buy a new telly and/or buy cables more often.

Those S-Video to SCART "adaptors" are bog-standard, I have about five or six that have come with various DVD players, videos, graphics cards, pound-shop cable sets etc. Hence you being able to pick them up in Aldi - pop into any pound shop (Poundstretcher's, Poundland, 99p Stores etc.) and you'll find them. Argos do them, QD's, Dixons, Currys, PC World. If anything, they are slightly harder to find today because virtually every flatscreen TV has S-Video and SCART seperate and they aren't needed.

I'm not a technophile - I'm still clunking along with a 36" 4:3 CRT TV that my wife brought with her when she left home about ten years ago (it's got TELETEXT and STEREO!). But we have buckets of those adaptors and I have at least two plugged in right now (and one in my laptop bag because some people, as you point out, don't have S-Video).

Any recent TV will have S-Video - I bought a 36" flatscreen one for work recently and for £350 you get 2xSCART, Composite, S-Video, Aerial, HDMI and VGA connectors all built-in to the TV (as well as integrated Freeview etc.). Any old TV will, as you point out, need an adaptor but these types of adaptor are REALLY common, even in the UK. I'd say £3 was dear... you can normally get them for 99p or £1.

You can also do a "homebrew" thing that lets you convert S-video to Composite (basically join two of the S-Video wires, I think Chrominance and Luminance, together and, if the quality isn't good enough (heavy reds), you stick a capacitor in there). There are diagrams for that all over the net too, if you're really cheap.

 

[Prometheus]

I've got loads of the SCART adapters for composite/RCA (they're handy since my TV, which isn't all that old - only four years or so - only has one composite + white RCA input, non-stereo, in addition to the SCART socket), but I've really honestly never come across (or, for that matter, needed) one featuring S-Video input before. I guess that goes to show how well my TV is lasting me. :lol: Or something.

Now, I hope you guys realized that there will be composite (RCA) cords included with the Pandora.

I will admit to still being a bit unsure on this. I was of the impression that the output was S-Video, hence the post about the adapters. If I'm wrong, though, I'm wrong. And I guess I must have missed something somewhere along the line.

 

[WizardStan]

I've got loads of the SCART adapters for composite/RCA (they're handy since my TV, which isn't all that old - only four years or so - only has one composite + white RCA input, non-stereo, in addition to the SCART socket), but I've really honestly never come across (or, for that matter, needed) one featuring S-Video input before. I guess that goes to show how well my TV is lasting me. :lol: Or something.

Now, I hope you guys realized that there will be composite (RCA) cords included with the Pandora.

I will admit to still being a bit unsure on this. I was of the impression that the output was S-Video, hence the post about the adapters. If I'm wrong, though, I'm wrong. And I guess I must have missed something somewhere along the line.

The output from the OMAP is svideo. Given the ease of converting that to composite, there was some suggestion (by MWeston, I think, though I could be wrong) about adding the needed component right on the board, or simply including the adapter with the box. I don't think I recall either being confirmed or denied though.
Either way, adapters are dirt cheap now.

 

[benjymous]

Be careful though, I think the TV needs to internally be able to "understand" S-Video for a scart adaptor to work.

I had S-video lead for my dreamcast which gave fantastic pictures when plugged into a TV card on a PC, but when I tried plugging it into my Sony TV with an adaptor, I just got a nasty rolling grey checked image - similar to when you try and display an NTSC signal on a TV that doesn't support it

 

[Pleng]

So, if you're still needing S-Video-to-whatever adapters, there you go (I was certainly needing them - I've never seen a television with an S-Video input).

there's a great deal of tellies here in the UK which only have SCART inputs

Erm. You REALLY need to buy a new telly and/or buy cables more often.

Those S-Video to SCART "adaptors" are bog-standard, I have about five or six that have come with various DVD players, videos, graphics cards, pound-shop cable sets etc. Hence you being able to pick them up in Aldi - pop into any pound shop (Poundstretcher's, Poundland, 99p Stores etc.) and you'll find them. Argos do them, QD's, Dixons, Currys, PC World. If anything, they are slightly harder to find today because virtually every flatscreen TV has S-Video and SCART seperate and they aren't needed.



Excuse me? I have bought plenty of cables in my time, ta very much. I have lots of those adapters around my house and I stand by my original statement; that the price in Aldi is a good one, for a converter and and 2 cables, compared to what you might pay elsewhere.

I will admit that you're correct; I have not bought too many tellies in the past few years. I dare say that if I had money to burn I would be buying new tellies more often (sounds like it's a weekend past time of yours?)

Yes, most LCD TVs have a multitude of inputs, but many of us are still plodding along with our old CRTs from years gone by, a lot of which only have SCART inputs (and I don't know about any opthers, but the last two I purchased certainly did not come with any adapters).