So Proper Video Out Is Hard To Implement On Pandora, Huh?

[marshal]

A scart connector can transport multiple type of signal.
You can pass RGB, s-video or composite signal though it (as well as audio in and out).

And not all tv support all those signal though scart. You have to check that your tv does accept s-video though scart.
For TV with more than one scart input, it is likely that only one of them will accept s-video.

 

[Chip]

Not to nit-pick too much but that's a gross exaggeration. S-Video didn't even exist until 22 years ago and it definitely didn't catch on as a TV standard that quickly. I don't think it really started appearing on decent TVs across the board until the mid-late 90s.
Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not a gross one. When I worked at the shop (97-99), more than half of the TVs coming in had S-video, and they were all at least a couple years old already. I still have a rather nice 27" RCA set from 1991 with two S-video inputs on it. The fact remains that S-video is not some bizarre, unheard-of format. It's very common and has been for a while.

 

[_VWV_]

you need to be pretty careful about line length and interference.

That's a good point. The PSP LCD (well 480x272) is clocked at 9MHz. The Pandora LCD needs 33MHz (currently 36MHz while we figure out some tweaked PLL settings). 800x480 is getting into the range where long cable lengths like the Beagle MID should be changed from the parallel interface to LVDS (that's if it had a WVGA panel which it doesn't).

Aha, That's the reason why this beagle mid got that lo-res display!
Thanks.

 

[Poem58]

@Poem58: With all due respect, your family owns crappy AV equipment. Every mid-to-high end TV made in the last 25 years (sold in the US) has an S-video jack

While I understand what you are saying and have no reason to doubt you...for whatever reason it's not just my family (and friends) are cheap cause even when I worked at places like Radio Shack, NO ONE was using S-video I have never even seen so much as a VCR with S-video out (not one of my DVD players EVER had one even my $300 one but I have to agree the new flat panels have them which my parents do have and is the ONE TV I know of that has an S-video right now)....which is why I was asking, cause it's not just my family is cheap...I never even sold an s-video setup...no one I have ever known used or uses s-video or if they have one component with the capability had 2 devices able to connect. Which is why I wondered if it was mainly a high end connector...granted no one I know has ever invested in top-o-the-line equipment but if this was so standard then I should have at least seem someone using it...installed it, sold it etc...Why would my TV have Composite and component but not S-video...like I said until I joined this board and bought a Pandora I never experienced anyone talking about it at all...
I see another person posted they had never seen it either...I think it may be common only if you are talking about top of the line not just a standard set...which my guess is why the rest of us only really know about composite,component and now HDMI...( the rest of us being everyone I have ever met up until this board)

I actually read an article after my post where it was suggested that S-video was for high end and for standard consumer electronics they used composite..and they said here in the US most people didn't use them that's why Sony and other manufacturers were dropping the Port as of 2007....but you know it's the internet so you have to take everything with a grain of salt...

I'm glad to hear it will be able connect to composite though...that solves the problem ( the problem that although I have composite and component I'm too cheap for S-video which I didn't see on any TV I could buy at the time that I can remember but then again I bought mine in 2007)...but I was just curious...didn't expect to be answered that it was because my family was cheap though (and all my friends and an old job etc...and every acquaintance who had me set up their stuff)

The only reason this was ever an issue for me was I posted a topic about this when I ordered the Pandora and everyone said it was S-video ONLY and I would have to convert the signal..and others said it was so common...So I'm sorry I asked about S-video as I had never used it and apparently it's caused a problem.

 

[Prometheus]

I'm glad to hear it will be able connect to composite though...that solves the problem

Here's what you'll need for that.

CODE
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2405953

 

[hch]

i don't want to beat a dead horse, but these guys seem to have implemented it

http://beaversource.oregonstate.edu/projec.../CSPFL_Hardware

edit: you can see that it cost them substantial board space (chip #5)

 

[pcklee123]

Svideo was the "proper video out" for GP2X and the initial release date of the Pandora/wiz. Given the current release date of the Pandora, HDMI could be the more proper video out for a state of the art device. If it were delayed another year, who knows what would be proper by that time?
In addition, a resolution of 1024x768 seems more suitable for a 17" LCD TV which is also rather dated.

 

[Poem58]

I''m glad to hear it will be able connect to composite though...that solves the problem


Here's what you'll need for that.

CODE
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2405953

Thanks for that link...it means I should be able to go down to the local store and maybe find one in stock..but Chips post says I won't need it as he said the TV cable has both S-video and composite connections.

 

[Prometheus]

Thanks for that link...it means I should be able to go down to the local store and maybe find one in stock..but Chips post says I won't need it as he said the TV cable has both S-video and composite connections.

No problem. (Also, whoops - I missed what Chip said, apparently. But still, you know where to go on the off-chance the cable only has an S-Video connection. :lol: )

 

[Poem58]

Thanks for that link...it means I should be able to go down to the local store and maybe find one in stock..but Chips post says I won't need it as he said the TV cable has both S-video and composite connections.

No problem. (Also, whoops - I missed what Chip said, apparently. But still, you know where to go on the off-chance the cable only has an S-Video connection. :lol: )

And that is much appreciated, thank you!

 

[White Flame]

but Chips post says I won't need it as he said the TV cable has both S-video and composite connections.

You also keep saying that nobody you know *uses* S-Video (for whatever reason), but that doesn't mean the connector isn't there.

S-Video signals were in use way before the 4-pin S-Video cable came to be. Home computers that used the TV like the Commodore 64 and Atari 800 used split luma/chroma video in addition to falling back to composite video, advising people to use split version. Anybody who had ever been into those classes of computers, game consoles, VCRs, DVD players, etc, should at least be familiar with the presence of S-Video and that it gives better quality for the same TV-signal picture than composite.

 

[Poem58]

but Chips post says I won't need it as he said the TV cable has both S-video and composite connections.

You also keep saying that nobody you know *uses* S-Video (for whatever reason), but that doesn't mean the connector isn't there.

No I made it quite clear. For whatever reason, I am 36, and have never owned nor have my relatives owned nor have my friends had any TV's with an S-video jack also no vcrs and especially never seen on on a DVD player and I'm about to throw away a couple more of them nope no jacks. I have hooked up many a video game system to each and every one of their sets over the years and none of them had them until my parents bought their 720p last year.
From what I have gathered in my reading today it was a better standard than composite but not nearly as used by the masses, more for the videophiles. The high end equipment had them for sure midrange may or may not and low range not for cost...add my personal opinion that certain Store chains may not push a format in a certain region based on how much people spend there and it seems I just was in a rather dead spot for S-Video...yes things had them...if someone had one years ago I may have missed it as no one I knew ever used it to connect to anything EVER. No matter how sophisticated their setup was. Most people in my area are going from composite now to component not HDMI cause they can use any RCA cables to hook that up while the local stores sell HDMI cables at ridiculous prices and for cable and satellite you have to upgrade to the HD boxes for HDMI to be an option...

Anyway I/m glad some of you have had S-video convenience while I have never seen it in use not even when I sold and setup TV/Home theater systems...it was as if no one even knew what it was.
And I'm done with this topic now...it has gone on too long. No amount of posts can change the fact the ports were just not there...

 

[_VWV_]

i don't want to beat a dead horse, but these guys seem to have implemented it

http://beaversource.oregonstate.edu/projec.../CSPFL_Hardware

edit: you can see that it cost them substantial board space (chip #5)

Wow! It's sweet! Can we mate OSWALD with Pandora? With proper selection criteria we'll find a dream machine in the progeny!
CODE

 

[lulzfish]

Confirmed: Pandora will be fertile, capable of breeding with other ultraportables through USB and Bluetooth.

[Do we not have an off-topic board for just Pandora-related off-topic threads? I'm getting bored of being serious..]

 

[friarzen]

Svideo was the "proper video out" for GP2X and the initial release date of the Pandora/wiz. Given the current release date of the Pandora, HDMI could be the more proper video out for a state of the art device. If it were delayed another year, who knows what would be proper by that time?
In addition, a resolution of 1024x768 seems more suitable for a 17" LCD TV which is also rather dated.

I have to disagree. Right now, the purpose of the Pandora is to be Portable.
That, to me, implies working with other current and near-future portable accessories/displays.

For example (not yet on the market):
CODE

http://www.vuzix.com/iwear/products_wrap920av.html



RCA/S-Video is pretty much the current "standard" input/output for portable electronics.
HDMI has yet to penetrate the portable accessory market in any meaningful way.

 

[Mithrildor]

Confirmed: Pandora will be fertile, capable of breeding with other ultraportables through USB and Bluetooth.

[Do we not have an off-topic board for just Pandora-related off-topic threads? I'm getting bored of being serious..]

And the mulePandora is born

 

[Raz]

Will the quality of movies be high on a 45 inch tv, assuming the movie quality is good (with SVideo)?

 

[Monk]

Sure, if you stand back far enough.

Seriously, S-video should be better than VHS, but probably not quite up to "DVD" resolution. You'll probably find it is at about 480i.

CODE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/480i

 

[VinylPusher]

S-Video (and composite) are, as Monk says, equivalent to 480i. If you're planning on using a Pandora as a video player for a 45" display, you're a little bit mad. Quality will be about as good as old-fashioned broadcast TV.

Quality of S-Video on your big LCD TV will depend largely on the TV's display processor. Most low or mid-end units will use cheap scaling/upscaling hardware and may not make a very good effort at processing your interlaced analogue luma+chroma signal into their (probably) 1366x768 60Hz native resolution. High-end Dell monitors are about the only displays I know of which would make the best of such an input. Consumer-level TV's.... you're probably looking at the premier offerings from Toshiba, Sony and Pioneer as being capable of producing the best presentation of 480i.

There's been quite a discussion in this thread about S-Video, SCART and composite. I might suggest those interested read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video for some guidance. Points of note are S-Video over SCART not being part of the spec and is mutually exclusive to RGB over SCART. Most TV's with multiple SCART inputs usually have only one input capable of RGB. The other sockets may only support composite + audio, not S-Video. A composite signal needs just a particular capacitor to convert from S-Video's luma+chroma separate signals.

I get the impression that many people would like to use their Pandora as a netbook (otherwise this thread is a little bit redundant!), and thus HDMI would be an important feature for them. My only suggestion to those people is to buy a real, Atom-based netbook. They are great machines and you will enjoy years of satisfaction with even a cheap, low-spec unit. If you want a small (HD) video player, there are netbooks incorporating an Nvidia GPU. These may be more costly, but again you will be very happy with it.

The Pandora is a gaming device, with geneal computing capabilities as a bonus feature. I expect good-to-excellent gaming features, such as a bright, responsive in-built display and hardware capable of driving complex graphics and audio. I expect good, ergonomic gaming controls which don't cause fatigue. I don't necessarily expect to be able to manipulate large spreadsheets, compile complex C++ code or use it as a PDA (though I do expect such software to become available).

It's great that the Pandora will be capable of some serious uses, alongside the gaming (including emulation) but the gaming aspect is what it is for, what it's selling-point is and what I will pay for.

 

[truekaiser]

Just say no to hdmi and it's stupid drm junk, thank you very much.