Just got an XRGB Mini...

[Ziggy]

I used S-Video with my SNESes when I first got the XRGB.

Do you know for a fact that your SFC is in full working order? Carts are clean, etc.

Your S-Video cable is a dual S-Video / composite video cable? Can you try using the yellow plug (without S-Video plugged in) and set the Framemeister to the composite AV input and see if that works?

If that doesn't work, the only thing to do would be testing the SFC and cable out on another TV. Perhaps a friend has a TV that you could try it out on? Or else, get a different cable. I'd imagine that you'd eventually want an RGB cable for the XRGB anyway.

[AppleQueso]

Yeah I used s-video fine when I used to have one. My first thought is that you might have a bad cable.

[arcadifvid]

yeah im thinking i probably indeed have a bad cable. my svideo is indeed dual svideo /yellowredwhite. it works though if i just use the regular composite. im confident in the snes that its in full working order (cant say the same for my N64 though )

ill see if could find an older tv around.. perhaps my old folks have, thing is s-video is not a usual thing around

[ninjainspandex]

Let me get this straight you guys are spending $300-$400 on a top of the line RGB upscaler and your using S-video on it?

[AppleQueso]

Let me get this straight you guys are spending $300-$400 on a top of the line RGB upscaler and your using S-video on it?

When I had it I was using RGB for almost everything, but I simply hadn't gotten around to getting an RGB capable N64 to mod.

[Anapan]

Even Composite looks like it would on a Sony Wega CRT on a large plasma or LCD when you have an XRGB. The earlier models had some issues with color, but the Framemeister clocked it in perfectly. An S-video input would be fine - put a preset with a lowpass filter on and it'd be almost indistinguishable from the RGB.
I have yet to see any Plasma or LCD that can show an an acceptable 240P image, but the Framemeister is built for that one function. The money is well spent no matter how you use it.

[Ziggy]

yeah im thinking i probably indeed have a bad cable. my svideo is indeed dual svideo /yellowredwhite. it works though if i just use the regular composite. im confident in the snes that its in full working order (cant say the same for my N64 though )

ill see if could find an older tv around.. perhaps my old folks have, thing is s-video is not a usual thing around

If it works with the yellow/white/red cables (composite AV) but it's just the S-Video that's not working, then it's almost definitely a bad cable. If it's convenient, you could test it on another TV with S-Video inputs, but I wouldn't even bother. Just get a new cable.

I would definitely suggest just getting an RGB cable instead of another S-Video cable, but you mentioned that you also have an N64. So you wouldn't be able to use the RGB cable with the N64 unless you mod it for RGB output. I could see why you would want to stick with an S-Video cable.

The thing that sucks is that there's slim pickings right now for SNES/N64/GCN S-Video cables. Most of the ones available for purchase right now completely suck. You can still find the Monster cables, but they're ridiculously expensive ($60+).

[Ziggy]

Has anyone built this ?

http://dcemulation.org/?title=Dreamcast ... ster_Cable

I'm thinking about building one for my Dreamcast and just wanted some feedback on it.

[KalessinDB]

If you build one and it's good, I would definitely buy one from you. Just saying.

[Ziggy]

You can buy one here: http://www.beharbros.com/#!toro/cfom

Ugh. I spent most of yesterday putting it together. What a pain in the ass. I don't know what the above box costs, but as long as it isn't a ridiculous price it would be easier just to buy one.

First, I had to decide what kind of cables to use. This isn't simple. You need 11 wires coming out of the DC's multi AV (+5v, ground, R, G, B, H sync, V sync, mode select pin 6, mode select pin 7, audio L and audio R). So you need a cable with 11 wires inside. I had some spare VGA cables on hand, so I went with that for a few reasons. One, I had one with enough wires inside. And two, the R, G and B signals are individually shielded from the rest of the wires in the cable and the entire cable has a braided shield.

The Dreamcast uses a proprietary AV, you can just go out and buy one that's ready for you to solder to. So a while back I grabbed a DC composite cable that had all the pins in the connector (the composite cable I had for years only has pins for composite and audio, it's missing the rest of the pins). They're not made to be opened, so you have to crack it open without breaking it.

Soldering 11 wires to that little connector wasn't easy, but I got it done. Luckily, I was able to fit a VGA cable in there without much trouble.

Building the actual circuit on perf board is no big deal. I got a little project box, drilled a couple holes for the input and output cables, and added a switch to select 240p/480i and 480p modes.

Now, I got a male 8-pin mini-DIN plug so I could plug this directly into the Framemeister (and not have to use the stupid SCART dongle). The problem with mini-DIN plugs is you can only fit a cable into it that's so big. My VGA cable was way too thick to fit inside. So, I outputted a VGA cable from the box, then stepped it down to a smaller cable for a few inches so I can get it into the mini-DIN plug.

So I did all this only to find out that the mini-DIN plug is too thick to fit in the Framemeister's RGB input. It was the correct type of plug, but the RGB input is kinda recessed and the jacket of the plug is bulky.

So I realized I had a male SCART connector on hand that I could use. So I cut the DIN plug off my cable and soldered the SCART plug on. I finally plugged it into the Framemeister only to find out that it doesn't work!

After spending most of the day doing this, I really didn't feel like looking it over to find out what was wrong. I get an image on the screen, and it's stable, so I know the sync is working. But the screen is dark and the colors are off, so it's likely there's a problem with R, G and/or B. I either goofed and mixed up the connections some where or there might be a short some where on one of the lines.

If I goofed on one of the RGB connections, that's not too big of a deal to fix. If there's a short some where, that'll be easy to tell but a pain in the ass to find where it is. I just hope the problem isn't inside the DC AV connector since I glued that thing shut. It might just be a broken connection of one of the RGB lines since I really had to smash the perf board inside the project box to get it to fit.

But yeah, hopefully I can get mine working. And I don't plan on building another one anytime soon.