|
It happens more than you think. You have the latest
video card or device and it came with a super video
cable. You plug in the "S-video" to the new
device, and your only choice is RCA video (composite)
input on your TV/display. DOH@!
No problem, your on the right
page. In this mod we will take a standard S-video cable
and put an RCA connector on one end. This works, but
the picture quality will be the same as RCA. However,
you can at least use your new sweet piece of hardware's
video.
Sure you can "buy"
converters, but that's not how "we"
do it.
If you do not have an S-video
cable and need one, you can make your own by using PS2
cable from a dead mouse or keyboard. Yes, it works as
super video. What does this mean? Well, if you have
a dead mouse/keyboard - you can cut off the PS2 cable,
grab an RCA cable and utilize that S-video jack. This
also means you can take that old piece of hardware (NES,
VCR) and convert it to super video. Keep in mind however,
the quality will drop to the lowest denominator, meaning
it will still only be of "composite" video
quality.
All parts we will need:
-Super Video cable (or
PS/2 cable)
-RCA cable (composite video or sound)
-Wire strippers
-Solder iron
-Electrical tape
-470 pF ceramic capacitor (10V and up)
Now to dive in, here are
the parts lined up.
If we take a look at an S-video
cable we can see what is going on. In this photo, you
will see the four connectors used for the signal.
All that we need to do is
connect the colors. The yellow (1 and 2) will be our
ground, the blue (3 and 4) will be the luminance+sync
and chrominance (video). However we need to capacitate
#4, and we will. The RCA cable only has two connections.
Ground and feed - Lucky us.
If you have a video card
that has a 7-pin super video, that is not standard.
However, the three additional pins on the card will
not effect the video we are talking about today. Forget
the three extra pins in the center, just use the standardized
four pins on the outside.
Don't worry about the color
of your RCA cable as well. Yellow, black or red - its
all the same. Although the difference could lie in shielding
(the thicker the cable - the better the signal). We
won't get into that.
First of all, grab your super video cable and cut one
of the ends off.
Strip off the shielding
Do the same for the RCA wire,
but leave yourself more wire on the RCA end than I did
(oops). When you take off the shielding from the RCA
cable, you will have a fine hair-like copper wire. This
is your ground, so twist it up and make it the other
wire:
Just strip off the plastic
on all the separate wires and get them ready. Now, we
can start putting them together. On my s-video cable
the top two wires are black and blue, the bottom two
are red and white. So we need to make the red/white
as one wire (this is our ground).
Use
your heat shrink wrap now if your going use it.
Now take the 470 pF capacitor
( I cut the length of the legs on the capacitor) and
attach one end to the blue wire by soldering. Wrap this
connection with electrical tape.
Twist and solder the other
end of the capacitor to the black wire. So now the capacitor
just sits in the middle of the blue wire (it will just
capacitate the blue wire).
(i realize
my soldering skills - do not exist)
Once the capacitor is soldered
on, solder the "blue/black" wire to the RCA
open wire. Use electrical tape to make sure the wires
wont touch each other.
Now solder the "red/white"
wire to the RCA ground (the twisted made wire).Then
bend the capacitor to fit along side the cable (probably
s-vid due to it's larger size, the capacitor will lay
on it better - I didn't have to do this due to the size
of my capacitor) and use electrical tape to clean it
all up.
That takes care of the conversion.
Now you can use this cable for old or new items, to
super video or to composite. This is a very universal
cable to have around your home theater and your PC's.
I sell the 470 pF capacitor for $1.00 (no shipping).
Just e-mail if
needed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Remember I said you could
use PS2 cable for S-video? Take a look at this photo.
On the left we have the
PS2 and on the right we have
s-video.
To make your PS2 into a super
video cable, just break off that little plastic piece
in the middle. There, now you have super video at super
low costs. This also means if you have two dead devices
such as mice or keyboards that use PS2, just cut the
PS2 cables off and attach them together for an S-vid
cable.
- A 20ft PS2 extension cable from Radio Shack is MUCH
cheaper than a 6ft S-video cable. Just keep in mind,
the shielding might not be as good, but it's nice to
be able to run a video cable from your PC to your living
room on a budget.
Have fun
Related
Links
USB
modifications
Peripheral
modifications
Burke~
|
