TV-Out Cable - Prototype finished (2013-05-03)

[elwing]

I don't want to bother you, but I certainly won't be ordering a cable before I'll get my pandora...

 

[sswam]

I observed that a good 70% of data cables are not durable, so here is my plea that these cables should be durable.  OK THX!  

 

[cuetzpalin]

ED, are you gonna make a video review of the prototype cable?

 

[EvilDragon]

ED, are you gonna make a video review of the prototype cable?

Not yet, maybe when I find some time.

Quick review:

The cable itself is great and seems to make a better picture than most self-soldered ones I've seen (no interferences, etc.)

The only issue is the plug: The company wanted to provide the plug themselves, and it's a pretty cheap one. It easily falls out of the Pandora and doesn't have good contacts, so that's not usable for us.

Shouldn't be a big deal though - I opened the cable and physically, the connectors are the EXACT SAME physical size as the good ones we have, so we'll provide them our good connectors, and that's it.

We only need to tell that to a chinese company, but that will be manageable as well.

 

[kasp]

I am from Craigs Queue and I honestly don't mind buying the cable outright. I considered all of my Pandora money blown a long time ago.  It's a huge bonus that I even have the console and that is thanks to your hard work ED.

That might annoy some people but I don't see how you should wear that cost. I think a small voucher would be more than enough to satisfy most people.

 

[Askarus]

Let's make an other "Craig's customer action required" thread.

How much would you buy for a TV-out cable:

Nothing

2$

5$

Would pay but want a voucher

Pay and don't need a voucher

Isn't ghat a great idea :lol: .

 

[_wb_]

Would it be possible to make variants of the cable with some of the connectors left out? E.g. I would be fine with just S-VIDEO + audio out; others might be interested in, say, only the yellow composite connector (since they're using headphones anyway); maybe some audiophiles don't need either of the video cables but want both audio in and out, etc.

I don't want to complicate things, so I would be fine with just the one cable with 6 connectors (after all, you can always just cut away the connectors you're never going to use), but if there's a reasonably easy way to make subset variants, that would be nice. I suspect that very few people will use audio in, and also few people will need both composite and S-VIDEO at the same time.

 

[Binky]

Are enough people going to buy these to justify the MOCs of so many variants?

 

[mcobit]

Easy solution: cut the connectors you don't need

 

[urjaman]

^ It would actually be great if that "splitter box" were possible to open without seriously damaging it (i dont know just by looking at that picture), then you could just open it and cut out the unneeded cables there (no stub) and put it back together.

Going from there, it would also be awesome if all the 14 contacts of the ext connector were wired along the beginning of the cable to the box, but I guess that is just waste of copper (=money) for most of people...

 

[Binky]

^ shielding problems?

 

[Morn]

ould it be possible to make variants of the cable with some of the connectors left out? E.g. I would be fine with just S-VIDEO + audio out; others might be interested in, say, only the yellow composite connector (since they're using headphones anyway); maybe some audiophiles don't need either of the video cables but want both audio in and out, etc.

Personally I'd probably choose a single s-video only (don't need audio-in and s-video -> Composite cables are widely available), but every single variant seems like +2 months to ETA. So let's stay with the prototype layout.

 

[Morn]

It's a bit overly long and heavy looking to me.  For such a very flat port, something of this weight looks like it would stress it, at least.  As just a breakout adapter I can't think of why it needs any length. (Then again I realize we can still make our own)

Pandora's ext connector is flat, but pretty wide and deep. I've got some bare connectors from Wizard Stan and they hold the socket like hell.

Would this be a suitable place to ask advise on the 'best' way to use this break out box and ultimately display output on a HDMI device (or should I start another thread)? I know there are various converters around (going from cheap to expensive) but it isn't an area I know anything about. It would be nice to have a recommendation to get the best picture/audio quality (without spending huge amounts of money) in terms of which converter to buy or whatever.

Virtually every TV set sold these days has a composite RCA socket for compatibility reasons so there's no need for expensive converters. However, you can get slightly better video quality using S-Video signal. Unfortunately manufacturers rarely put S-Video sockets (like this) on back panels of their TVs, but if your set has SCART you can use simple (hence cheap) cable (like this) or adapter (like this).

 

[Letalis Sonus]

but if your set has SCART you can use simple (hence cheap) cable (like this) or adapter (like this).

S-Video is not part of the SCART standard and therefore not guaranteed to be available on all devices.

 

[Morn]

S-Video is not part of the SCART standard and therefore not guaranteed to be available on all devices.

That's what I used to think, but apparently SCART specification has been updated couple of times since 1970s and S-Video has been added at some point of time.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

That's what I used to think, but apparently SCART specification has been updated couple of times since 1970s and S-Video has been added at some point of time.

It's just some kind of a convention, and not even a well defined one: There are 2 different pins that are commonly being used for luminance that are otherwise used for composite (input & output), and the chrominance pin is stolen from RGB, making this signal type unavailable.

The standard itself was never officially extended, there's really no guarantee that a device provides this possibility. Additionally, even when S-Video over SCART is supported, not every SCART jack might provide it.

 

[bukkit]

I am from Craigs Queue and I honestly don't mind buying the cable outright. I considered all of my Pandora money blown a long time ago.  It's a huge bonus that I even have the console and that is thanks to your hard work ED.

That might annoy some people but I don't see how you should wear that cost. I think a small voucher would be more than enough to satisfy most people.

Doesnt annoy me at all. I'm thinking quite the same. I'd pay ED for the cable, and I'd strike that order from Craigs queue without refund. I think I can handle the ED part myself by just ordering. I just don't know if Craig can handle the order striking part; it might be easier if ED did that together with his other reports.

In short: If enough people are ready to do that, it might be good to have an option where people can buy that cable and strike their order with Craig at the same time.

 

[Rockthesmurf]

Thanks for the information regarding svideo to scart, my TV has scart (and not svideo) so one of these cheap cables sounds good if it offers good quality (would sending audio over it work well, with a TV hooked up to a reasonable hifi?). Also, as it isn't 100% guaranteed to work (with standards changing, manufacturers maybe not even following standards) is the worse case that I simply won't get a picture? (I am really confirming there is no way the Pandora of TV will die?)

 

[Titcher]

Thanks for the information regarding svideo to scart, my TV has scart (and not svideo) so one of these cheap cables sounds good if it offers good quality (would sending audio over it work well, with a TV hooked up to a reasonable hifi?). Also, as it isn't 100% guaranteed to work (with standards changing, manufacturers maybe not even following standards) is the worse case that I simply won't get a picture? (I am really confirming there is no way the Pandora of TV will die?)

I can confirm that in a worst case scenario, no harm will occur, instead you'll just get a black and white picture. In this case you can just use an s-video to composite adapter.

 

[Ian J]

Thanks for the information regarding svideo to scart, my TV has scart (and not svideo) so one of these cheap cables sounds good if it offers good quality (would sending audio over it work well, with a TV hooked up to a reasonable hifi?). Also, as it isn't 100% guaranteed to work (with standards changing, manufacturers maybe not even following standards) is the worse case that I simply won't get a picture? (I am really confirming there is no way the Pandora of TV will die?)

Check your TV manual, ours has 3x SCART sockets and 2 of them support S-Video, I'm hoping one of those mini SCART to S-Video/RCA plugs will work.