s-video cable to vga monitor question

[cloudrat7]

does anyone know a way to make this happen without being able to purchase a vga box of some sort. The vga box that i purchased only has a/v input and the picture quality to the monitor is quite bad. I know this is probably a dumb question, can you do a direct connection using some sort of cable from s/video to vga or do you actually need a vga box.
Any answer would be appreciated
Thanks.

[Niode]

You need something to convert the signals. S-video is only 9-pin but vga is 15 pin. Theres no way to make up the information through a cable. You would need to buy a processor or upscaler. I have a vga box that takes input from s-video and upscales it to 1024 x 768 for display on an lcd monitor. I got mine from Lik-sang before it got shut down by $ony.

[lordofduct]

You need a converter... and it has nothing to do with the pin count.

S-Video is in the YUV colour scale (open up Photoshop and you can see what YUV colour scale is compared to RGB), VGA uses the RGB colour scale. The converter needs to create the RGB colour scale from the S-Video.

S-video is the same as composite RCA (Red, White, Yellow... yellow is what carries the picture). All S-Video does is take the YUV composite scale in the yellow plug and store it as two separate signals, Luminance and Chrominance... that is brightness and colour. They use this colour scale because the Luminance is basically a B&W picture... it allowed for Television signals back when TV turned colour to stay backwards compatible for those who haven't purchased the newer colour TVs.


Oh and there is a bit more work that has to be done to convert to VGA... VGA is an ambiguous title. REAL VGA is only 640X480 resolution... all the other resolutions actually have different names (like: SVGA, XGA, etc.). Each signal type has different resolutions, refresh rates and sync speeds. YUV on the other hand utilizes a very low sync speed and resolution. It has to be upscaled and the sync speed has to be upped. Hence the necessity for a converter box.


[edit]
using S-video will probably up you picture quality a little with that converter box. But it will remain a little shotty. It's this upscaling that is causing it... a lot of picture information is lost during that scaling because they are stretching a very small resolution and sync speed way up to fit onto a VGA monitor. If you REALLY want to spend the money on a VGA box for your older video game consoles, I advise using a RGB converter. Nearly all older consoles have RGB available or can be modded to get the RGB. Converting this will give you the best quality image you can get (just short of a real RGB low sync monitor... If you have an older monitor laying around that supports the low 15hz sync speed of old consoles, use that instead).


I just bought a RGB Scart to HDMI converter for this as well. HDMI is basically DVI with a different pin out, so just use a HDMI to DVI cable and you can hook it up to a digital display. It has to be a real digital DVI input though... because HDMI has NO analog pins on it... So DVI-A is not supported... only DVI-D single link or dual link.

[racketboy]

My Dell LCD has native S-Video and Composite inputs, so I do it no problem
** hugs LCD ***

[cloudrat7]

very very informative, Thanks alot for the info

Maybe i should just get a monitor with s/video input? I feel gipped just having to spend money on a converter box and not getting good quality. oh.. the agony...

[lordofduct]

I want to compliment your artwork cloudrat... reminds me of old lithographs.

[cloudrat7]

Thanks alot for the compliment.