TV Out.

[Chip]

There are no pictures of the Pandora's sides but we can find out what port is used just by looking at the Pandora factsheets. The port that is on the Pandora-side of the cable is the S-video port.

No. The Pandora has a 14-pin multifunction ext port. There is nowhere near enough room for an actual S-video connector on the Pandora itself. You need to buy the TV-out cable (or make your own) to get an S-video socket.

 

[jakshep2]

seriously, I think I can play Castlevania: Symphony of The Night on a big screen in the dark for like 6 hours. I'm not too sure if that's good for me, though...

 

[Kyosys]

seriously, I think I can play Castlevania: Symphony of The Night on a big screen in the dark for like 6 hours. I'm not too sure if that's good for me, though...

That's good for anyone.

 

[javaJake]

So ... as far as a S-Video to RCA adapter goes, will this work just fine?

edit: I reckon this would be better unless you really want to make an extended run with the previous RCA female adapter.

These would work?

Yeah, that would work. It basically combines back the Y and C separated signals into the composite agglomeration that your TV will have to separate internally once again, anyway...

Picture will be a little blurrier and carry artifacts, though.

I haven't upgraded any of my TV's for quite a few years, so none of them have S-Video support. They all have extremely convenient composite ports on the front, though.

What adapter would you recommend, that would provide the best S-Video -> composite conversion?

Edit: To put it another way: are the "artifacts" and "blurrier" image only due to the composite format, or are they avoidable? I ask this because the Wii uses RCA, and it looks perfect in my opinion. It could be that I'm oblivious to better quality.

 

[cosam]

What adapter would you recommend, that would provide the best S-Video -> composite conversion?

As I think was mentioned, the adapter is literally just a couple of wires and a capacitor. The quality of the connectors may be a small factor, but I doubt there will be any noticeable difference between the various adapters you can find, as far as picture quality goes.

Edit: To put it another way: are the "artifacts" and "blurrier" image only due to the composite format, or are they avoidable? I ask this because the Wii uses RCA, and it looks perfect in my opinion. It could be that I'm oblivious to better quality.

By the sound of it, I think you'd be perfectly happy with composite ;-)

 

[javaJake]

By the sound of it, I think you'd be perfectly happy with composite ;-)

Alright, thanks! I'm a-buying an adapter similar to those posted, then.

 

[javaJake]

Well, I bought it. When I received it, I realized that it was only going to convert the video part. Great. Is the audio going to need some kind of lovely adapter as well?

 

[mindlord]

Well, I bought it. When I received it, I realized that it was only going to convert the video part. Great. Is the audio going to need some kind of lovely adapter as well?

Nope, no audio adaptation required. It's the same for both configurations.

 

[javaJake]

Nope, no audio adaptation required. It's the same for both configurations.

OK, so then the audio uses RCA whether or not video is S-Video. Whew!

 

[sukhi-2006]

I doubt will ever work on hd ready tv's, pandora doesn't have hdmi socket, it has support for s-video and composite connections it's a great shame that it doesn't have hdmi, the ps3 and xbox 360 both have it, the pandora is more like dreamcast or nintendo wii.

 

[TaG]

I doubt will ever work on hd ready tv's, pandora doesn't have hdmi socket, it has support for s-video and composite connections it's a great shame that it doesn't have hdmi, the ps3 and xbox 360 both have it, the pandora is more like dreamcast or nintendo wii.

You're missing the point: Pandora's main video output is the touchscreen, instead of hdmi. All the others are full consoles where the output is to your choice of bigger screen. They could have looked at putting all sorts of other stuff in but it would have made the device bigger and more expensive - it is what it is. We have to live with it, or live without it.

 

[fischju]

I doubt will ever work on hd ready tv's, pandora doesn't have hdmi socket, it has support for s-video and composite connections it's a great shame that it doesn't have hdmi, the ps3 and xbox 360 both have it, the pandora is more like dreamcast or nintendo wii.

You're missing the point: Pandora's main video output is the touchscreen, instead of hdmi. All the others are full consoles where the output is to your choice of bigger screen. They could have looked at putting all sorts of other stuff in but it would have made the device bigger and more expensive - it is what it is. We have to live with it, or live without it.

Or mod it

 

[sold]

Am I the only person left on the planet that thinks that having everything in digital HD plasma blu-ray 7.1 surround (now with kung-fu action grip) is overkill? :lol:

 

[htl2001]

Am I the only person left on the planet that thinks that having everything in digital HD plasma blu-ray 7.1 surround (now with kung-fu action grip) is overkill? :lol:

Not the only one. Also its absolutely pointless when you have no real HD signal, stereo sound, etc...

 

[joseluisjazz]

Hi, I wanted to share my findings. After deeply searching for a good and not too expensive s-video to vga converter, and discarding some like http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15224 I finally found this one ^_^ :

http://www.amazon.com/Atlona-AT-AVS-COM ... 566&sr=1-1
http://www.clubmac.com/clubmac/shop/det ... 535106.asp
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 4&csid=_25

I bought it several days ago for 160$ and today I received it at home. As soon as it arrived I tested it with a canon camera that outputs S-video, and the result is superb. Photos and video. The definition is incredible, very responsive and configurable. Feels very sharp and warm. I like it very much. I can't wait to plug it to the pandora. and play some spectrum oldies at high resolutions :wink:

BTW, its powered with 5V, 2A, so in theory you could use same power source for both, although I'm not sure about polarity until she p&|a arrives

BTW2, it outputs VGA till 1280x1024 and HDTV till 1080i/p

 

[doragasu]

It's a pity we don't have DVI-D output, like for example in the OMAP3-based Beagleboard. But I'll be able to live with it, as I will connect my pandora to TV only in rare ocassions...

 

[RavenX]

For any development work where I would want a bigger screen I intend to use something like VNC (which is sure to be quickly ported) to bring the desktop up on my laptop's screen. This is how I did most of my development work on my old Zaurus. This probably wouldn't work for actual gaming, but for that I would probably just plug it into my S-Video capture device if I really wanted to see the screen on my laptop, or I suppose I could plug the S-Video into my 56" TV. Otherwise, I will pretty much just use it the way it was meant to be used.

 

[JayFoxRox]

Hi, I wanted to share my findings. After deeply searching for a good and not too expensive s-video to vga converter, and discarding some like http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15224 I finally found this one ^_^ :

http://www.amazon.com/Atlona-AT-AVS-COM ... 566&sr=1-1
http://www.clubmac.com/clubmac/shop/det ... 535106.asp
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... 4&csid=_25

I bought it several days ago for 160$ and today I received it at home. As soon as it arrived I tested it with a canon camera that outputs S-video, and the result is superb. Photos and video. The definition is incredible, very responsive and configurable. Feels very sharp and warm. I like it very much. I can't wait to plug it to the pandora. and play some spectrum oldies at high resolutions :wink:

BTW, its powered with 5V, 2A, so in theory you could use same power source for both, although I'm not sure about polarity until she p&|a arrives

BTW2, it outputs VGA till 1280x1024 and HDTV till 1080i/p

I'm also interested in a new way of getting VGA output out of the pandora at 1280x1024. However, 160$ is by far too expensive, does anyone know a cheaper solution which gets me good quality?
Please, no capture card, I only want to power the pandora, not a full pc.

 

[Chip]

Those converter boxes will convert the signal to VGA and upconvert to a higher resolution, but you're still dealing with the same amount of information that is being sent over S-video. S-video will only give you at best about 700×486 interlaced resolution. No magic box is going to give you more than that, and in practice, you'll generally have less. If you have a TV or monitor with both S-video and VGA inputs, the display will look exactly the same on both.

 

[Zarneth]

Edit: To put it another way: are the "artifacts" and "blurrier" image only due to the composite format, or are they avoidable? I ask this because the Wii uses RCA, and it looks perfect in my opinion. It could be that I'm oblivious to better quality.

Composite has "Dot crawl" which looks awful on an LCD, not noticeable on a crt tv if you aren't obsessed with quality and detail like I am.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_crawl

S-video will only give you at best about 700×486 interlaced resolution.

Don't forget that's interlaced too. So for fast action games on a high quality external screen it may aswell be 700x243.