Tv-out Cable Faulty On Not?

[retroDude]

Hi everyone,

I am new here(although i have been following the gp2x scene since just before the console was released).
I had my gp2x for about a week and I have to say I am really impressed with it, some emulators have really exceeded my expectations!

I have also bought a tv-out cable (not the old tv-out adapter, but the new 3m long one), and i am not sure if the cable is faulty or maybe my gp2x is...

I understand that (from reading some posts on this forum) it is normal to get those scaling artefacts due to the difference in resolution between the gp2x and the tv, and that it is a normal issue that the EXT doesn't fit very tight into the gp2x (i have read that some people use paper to overcome this issue).

But...
I am not sure if it's normal that the red and blue channels of the video output are misaligned.
I don't know what is the correct term for this kind of artefact, but for example, when i run capex, the red or blue text of the games list appears very fuzzy, and it is almost impossible to read.
This artefact is really bad particularly with 100% red or blue text on black background. This also happens in the original gp2x frontend (and all the other emus i have) where i get one "bleeding" row of pixels on the left of the icons, so it's not just an issue with capex.
I have also run the test application for the gp2x (the one in the original frontend where you test the buttons and ckeck the screen colours) and on the red screen the black text shakes left and right, while on the blue screen it moves up and down.

It's not a problem with my tv, i have tried connecting it to my tft monitor and i have exactly the same results.
Has anyone else experienced a similar problem? Should i try to get a replacement of the tv-out cable, or maybe the gp2x? Or is this just how tv-out is supposed to look?

Thanks in advance for your help guys

 

[Zeladin]

No I don't think TV out is normally like that (don't use it much though). It could just be that 3m cable is poorly shielded... Or your s-video adapter? What input on the Tv are you pluging it into?

 

[EvilDragon]

Are you connecting directly Y/C to the TV / TFT or are you using an adapter to convert it to composite?

If you do use an adaptor... well, composite is the worst video quality available, the colors are encoded into the luminance signal and therefore VERY bad.
Especially red is a color nigh impossible to read (that's why you won't ever see a small red text if you watch normal TV programme...)

That's not a gp2x problem, but a normal problem using composite video.

 

[retroDude]

Thanks for the replies guys...
I am connecting the cable directly to the tv/tft, so no adapters at all. I have also tried with my friend's gp2x (i made him buy one too) and it looks exactly the same.
So is it possible that this is a problem with the cable then? Do you guys not get any colour bleeding if ,for instance you run rage 2x or capex and the text doesn't read well?

 

[shinra]

Every kind of signal tends to dim after a certain length, the quality of the soldering inside the conector is significant also, and more lengt the cable has, more it afects the signal, but those effects are not much of an issue unless your cable has low quality, you should try to check the conectors of your cable, also if you have the chance, try the normal(small length) tv-out cable.

EDIT: I'm using the small tv-out cable and no problems, but there will be always some text fonts that will be not possible to read because of its size.

 

[retroDude]

thanks shinra,

i am going to send an email to gp2x.co.uk and see if they can replace my cable, I also asked if they could send me the short one instead.
So, apart from the size of the text, you r not getting any colour bleeding with red or blue text? (if you run almost any cps2 game you can see that when you first run the game - the text at the beginning)

 

[rokdcasbah]

i've never gotten color bleeding like you describe. but *you* are, so...i guess once you get a new cable, you'll know what the issue is. if it is your 2x, i think you'd be the first person with that problem (anyway it still seems way more likely that it's the cable) and you could probably get a replacement unit.

 

[Jaylink]

Hi ^^

S-video cable gives always good and clear screen me.

Female

Male

Composite (mostly yellow RCA plug) is as Ed says freaking bad, it just looks Low Quality.

Female

Male

Good Luck ^^

 

[retroDude]

So, i have sent back the tv-out cable, got a replacement yesterday, and....
still the same issues ... although there was an improvement, the ext connector does not fall off anymore from the gp2x and it nicely locks in.
Does anyone else use the 3m tv-out cable? I am starting to think that maybe its just me that its too picky and that the quality of the video out its just like that (pretty rubbish to me). The problems don't really show when i have video playing, they are noticeable just in games when u have text... it just looks a bit blurry to me.
I don't know what should i do now... but if somebody with the same type of cable has similar issues at least i will know that its not a fault of the cable

Cheers

 

[Miika]

So, i have sent back the tv-out cable, got a replacement yesterday, and....
still the same issues ... although there was an improvement, the ext connector does not fall off anymore from the gp2x and it nicely locks in.
Does anyone else use the 3m tv-out cable? I am starting to think that maybe its just me that its too picky and that the quality of the video out its just like that (pretty rubbish to me). The problems don't really show when i have video playing, they are noticeable just in games when u have text... it just looks a bit blurry to me.
I don't know what should i do now... but if somebody with the same type of cable has similar issues at least i will know that its not a fault of the cable

Cheers

Maybe it's your TV. Do you plug in the S-video straight or do you use composite? I just tried yesterday, first I tried s-video, then plugged in the composite adaptor and it looked much worse!

 

[retroDude]

I am plugging the cable directly to the s-video. I plugged it to my tv and my tft monitor and the results were the same.