Anyone play the 3DO with S-video output?

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:06 am

I bought an s-video cable for the hell of it just to try it out on the 3DO. I've only played Road Rash so far. I can't really tell much of a difference but the screen is sharper and much clearer however the FMV's are more pixelated. Anyone else play using s-video?

Post by **3DOKid** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:57 am

Me! I do! However, I must have the shortest s-video cable in the world. Although it does appear to be gold plated. It is slightly better I found for image grabbing but I was kind of hoping for a noticeable difference. Like from RF to Scart... but it was more like Nescafe to Maxwell house.

And obviously you still need the audio connectors plugged in.

3DO Kid.

bitrate · Post by **bitrate** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:01 am

There does exist an RGB modification for those willing to solder.

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:25 am

Shortest s-video cable? Please! In a rush I bought 2 on ebay for very cheap and when they came in the mail today then I finally realized that they were 3 feet in length. My TV has only 3 input things so I bought this device where I can plug in 2 s-video and 4 component inputs in. Boy did I have a splendid re-arranging all my consoles trying to get one s-video cable into the TV and then into the device, and then another cable from the device into the 3DO.

Some dude from Hong Kong is selling selling an s-video to RGB converter on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/S-Video-7-Pin-Video ... dZViewItem

He's selling a whole bunch of 'em. My TV has RGB inputs as well and the folks who used to rent out my basement left an RGB cable. If I scrap up some extra cash I might get one although I don't see the point...

EDIT - BTW, I actually prefer Nescafe...

Post by **3DOKid** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:38 am

It's true.

GOLD!!! (coloured possibly)

UnholyTancred · Post by **UnholyTancred** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:39 am

Hahaha. Mine is the same length as yours.

Post by **3DOKid** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 2:46 am

UnholyTancred wrote:Hahaha. Mine is the same length as yours.

3 Feet? There is a joke either about fishing, dwarfs or manhood - none of which I intend to follow through with!

Lemmi · Post by **Lemmi** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 3:21 am

i have never used my S-video slot on my TV

its to much of a hassle to click the TV button a 2nd time to get it to Svideo mode

anyone use an AV switch box? or used to use one?

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f105/ ... itcher.jpg

i have AV plugs on the front and the back of my TV and my 3DO and CD-i hook up in the front when i need to play them i plug those in manually

bitrate · Post by **bitrate** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 4:12 am

UnholyTancred wrote:
Some dude from Hong Kong is selling selling an s-video to RGB converter on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/S-Video-7-Pin-Video ... dZViewItem

He's selling a whole bunch of 'em. My TV has RGB inputs as well and the folks who used to rent out my basement left an RGB cable. If I scrap up some extra cash I might get one although I don't see the point...

I thought I would give you a little warning about that "converter". There are a lot of things wrong with that auction with respect to what we are discussing.
Firstly, that device does nothing with RGB even though he has it stated in the title. It deals with component video, hence the Pr, Pb, and Y designations.
Secondly, and more importantly, it is not converting from s-video to component as that would require an active device capable of separating the chroma. Actually, to be honest, that cable is not performing any video conversion at all. It is simply giving you the standard consumer interconnect for component video, ie. RCA connectors.
Also, although s-video can be carried over the 7-pin mini-din connectors, it is generally passed from device to device via the 4-pin mini-din connectors.
So, if you bought this device for your 3DO, you would not be able to physically plug it in, you would not get RGB, and you wouldn't even get component video.
That "adapter"

is made almost exclusively for computer video cards where the lack of real estate on the card dictates that they build in the ability to pass as many signals on each output connector as possible. There are some other consumer devices, such as projectors, that use the 7-pin min-din in the same fashion to enable the user to select between s-video and component video outputs.
So, getting back to the issue, there are active devices that will give you componet from s-video, but they cost a hell of a lot more than the $1.99 advertised in that auction, and you don't want to go that way anyway. The more conversions between video formats that take place, the worse the picture quality gets.
Instead, you want to grab the RGB video inside the 3DO after the D/A conversion.

Mobius · Post by **Mobius** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 7:18 am

Do I play my 3DO with S-video? Of course! I even play SNES with S-video!

T2KFreeker · Post by **T2KFreeker** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:32 pm

S-Video is sweet, like candy. I see the difference for sure, especially with games like Slayer, Gex and Star Blade. Thoase three games in particular look beautiful. Gex is extremely clean, and damn, I love it in S-Video. I need to get a copy of The Horde and try it there as I have the Saturn version only.