Nintendo OEM S-video vs Generic Cable
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I picked up a generic S-video cable to try out on my N64 and gamecube and found it very underwhelming. My girlfriend and I could not tell any difference between that and composite. It is one of the ones with s-video and 3 rca plugs. Has anyone found the generics with only s-video and two sound plugs, or the Japanese Official Nintendo cables to offer a better experience. I have heard that the multi-output cables are garbage, but am hoping to hear of better results before buying yet another cable.
Any experiences with Nintendo 64 and Gamecube S-video cables would be appreciated.
Any experiences with Nintendo 64 and Gamecube S-video cables would be appreciated.
Comments
Years ago, my official S-video cable developed a short and I tried to replace it with some garbage cables from Retrobit. There was a strange interference pattern and the picture quality was nowhere near what it should have been. I tried a few of them and got fed up. I made my own proper S-video cables using real Nintendo composite AV cables by extracting and relocating the pins in the connector. Those worked great. I can't remember how I extracted the pins, but it was tricky. I have pictures somewhere.
Absolutely. It's a safe bet that an unlicensed "s-video" cable with an additional composite output connector will simply send composite signal over both S-video chroma+luma pins. Those look like crap.
Years ago, my official S-video cable developed a short and I tried to replace it with some garbage cables from Retrobit. There was a strange interference pattern and the picture quality was nowhere near what it should have been. I tried a few of them and got fed up. I made my own proper S-video cables using real Nintendo composite AV cables by extracting and relocating the pins in the connector. Those worked great. I can't remember how I extracted the pins, but it was tricky. I have pictures somewhere.
Thanks for the help. I will have to just spend the $30 and get the official ones. These other ones are junk.
Hardly surprised your girlfriend wasn't impressed. She is a hard person to please.
Tell me about it. I am beginning to think she trashed my graphics card because it didn't say ti at the end of it.
Hardly surprised your girlfriend wasn't impressed. She is a hard person to please.
Tell me about it. I am beginning to think she trashed my graphics card because it didn't say ti at the end of it.
Just get the ultra hdmi mod. You know you will end up with it anyways.
Hardly surprised your girlfriend wasn't impressed. She is a hard person to please.
Tell me about it. I am beginning to think she trashed my graphics card because it didn't say ti at the end of it.
Just get the ultra hdmi mod. You know you will end up with it anyways.
You just want me to bring it over your house for Mario Kart.
Hardly surprised your girlfriend wasn't impressed. She is a hard person to please.
Tell me about it. I am beginning to think she trashed my graphics card because it didn't say ti at the end of it.
Just get the ultra hdmi mod. You know you will end up with it anyways.
You just want me to bring it over your house for Mario Kart.
In fact, I started a thread about it:
http://vintage.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=31&threadid=165734
There's some info about generic cables in that thread too
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000C88IB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-best-S-video-cable-for-Nintendo-SNES-N64-Game-Cube-Svideo-SVHS-1-8m-6ft/131859379599?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=45042&meid=39057e74e43a4800b36930b3d31bd02e&pid=100011&rk=1&rkt=12&mehot=pp&sd=131782319627
Also, what about Saturn and Dreamcast S-Video cables? Any good ones that aren't super expensive?
I'm pretty sure those who make these types of cables intend for it to be convenient in the event that you travel somewhere and come across a TV with composite or S-video only with no inputs for the other, which isn't a bad idea, but if you're gonna do that you may as well only bring a standalone composite cable. Very few, if any, flat screen TVs made in the past 5 years or so have S-Video.
Any S-Video only cable should be fine. I bought three of the cheapest ones I could find on eBay to hold me over until I can find the official ones for a good price(they totaled to about $6 and shipped from Mayalsia which took about a month), and although it took quite a while for them to arrive, they look great.
I also picked up a while back some "legacy" cables from Gamestop, which has connections for original xbox, ps2, GameCube, and Xbox 360. Those are also good.
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I'm pretty sure those who make these types of cables intend for it to be convenient in the event that you travel somewhere and come across a TV with composite or S-video only with no inputs for the other, which isn't a bad idea, but if you're gonna do that you may as well only bring a standalone composite cable. Very few, if any, flat screen TVs made in the past 5 years or so have S-Video.
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I've started to think the SNS-101 / Jr is the reason these junk cables exist. The SNS-101 multi-out connector is missing one or both of the S-video chroma and luma signals. A proper S-video cable might be returned as "defective" because someone tried to use it with the SNS-101 and it didn't work. The junk S-video cables would probably still work for the mini if they're sending composite (chroma+luma) through both the chroma pin and luma pins, but it looks very bad and defeats the whole point of using S-video.