S-Video Image Quality Issues.

[Hobie-wan]

Please note that there are many, MANY horrible SNES-type s-video cables out there. *snip*

Whaaaaaat? Then these aren't actually s-video cables, just crapola with s-video plugs on them. Boooo.

I have a monster cable as well as a cheapo one. The monster has all the pins in the plug but the cheap one doesn't. To help check if your cable doesn't have all of the pins but does have the s-video ones, look at this page. You should see 5, 6, 7, and 8 which are the 4 in the middle even with the rib and 11 and 12 on the right hand side.

[emwearz]

It does not have all the pins, but it looks like it has all the pins needed for SVideo.

[Hobie-wan]

It does not have all the pins, but it looks like it has all the pins needed for SVideo.

Yep, that's correct. So it isn't a case of a fake s-vid cable.

[CRTGAMER]

@ emwearz - Did you try the SVideo cable with a CRT?

You should try to get new cables, but I think you're gonna find that old consoles look like shit nobody how you connect them on HDTVs. Thats the dirty little secret about HDTVs, SD stuff looks like shit.

Ammendment Clarification
Older non HD consoles do not work well on most LCD, LED and some Plasma TVs.

Older non HD and newer HD consoles display fine on a HD CRT.

CRT doesn't have a native resolution so you don't get the same issue you get with LCDs. CRTs just display the content in the resolution it was intended to be viewed in. No up scaling required.

[emwearz]

Okay so some updates!

a) Tried it on another TV (CRT) the issue is there, it just looks blurred because the tv does not show a crisp image.

b) After looking around it seems even cables with all the pins can still be 'fake' as they wire composite twice or something (Why you would both I don't know).

So my question is, does anyone know if I can fix the cable. I plan to buy some first party (if I can find them) cables at any rate, but I hate the idea of the cable and connector being a total waste.

[Hobie-wan]

I guess it depends on where they cheaped out. If things are soldered together inside the connector on the console end, most of those have plastic poured in around the connections to fill it in, make the grip, and stress relief. Or maybe it is done on the svideo end. If you can figure out what they did, maybe you can either have a useful svideo end, or a useful console plug you can solder a real svideo cable on.

[emwearz]

I guess it depends on where they cheaped out. If things are soldered together inside the connector on the console end, most of those have plastic poured in around the connections to fill it in, make the grip, and stress relief. Or maybe it is done on the svideo end. If you can figure out what they did, maybe you can either have a useful svideo end, or a useful console plug you can solder a real svideo cable on.

True, pain in the ass! It seems a very common problem after looking around.

[fvgazi]

I'm a little confused. Does the SNES or Gamecube pinout for the av adapter actually have luma and chroma pins? If not, then how would you get s-video from a "good cable"? You'd need to connect directly to the output (video chip/encoder).. am I right in thinking this?

**edit**
Can you take apart the wire and make sure the proper pins are being used? It seems like you could just make sure the luma, chroma, and grounds are connected. This picture seems to confirm what Redifer commented about the alternate versions.

[Zing]

The problem is usually in the wiring of the cable. They have the composite and s-video connections in a circuit. The proper pins will probably be there on both ends, but the wiring isn't proper.