Advice needed on SVideo cable for 65xe and 800xl

[NML32]

I want to buy a Svideo cable and use it on my 65xe and soon to arrive 800xl. I found someone called Atari 8 bit on ebay selling different types and I got confused on what one to buy.

 

Diffrent setups offered

"2 in 1 CABLE! S-Video, and COMPOSITE outs!" looks like only one audio out

****NEW ITEM: 12ft. NEW Super High Quality "S-Video A/V Video Cable"...

 

Listed in their ad:

***HD CABLE: We now add a component inside the plugs on our Atari cables...makes the picture SUPER CLEAR! High Def. Excellent for LCD/Plasma, HD televisions... We are the only ones in the WORLD with this cable!

 

 

Help I need some good advice.

 

I'm hooking to a 40 inch LCD so I'm thinking Svideo would look much better.

 

 

Thanks,

Mark

[mimo]

s-video is definitely the way to go, but some people have reported some problems with vertical lines, check out the recent posts by Flashcatjazz

[flashjazzcat]

I would refer you to the following threads with regard to vertical lines with s-video:

 

8-Bit on VGA with s-video

 

s-video cable fix

 

Presumably the second topic was started by the bloke who actually makes the ebay cables. Despite the rather frantic tone of his posts, I can say that the cable I originally bought from him containing the diode worked superbly. Sadly, however, despite the "lifetime guarantee", the cable broke after I'd used it about half a dozen times. The manufacturer has assured me a (complementary) replacement is on its way, but that was three weeks ago. In any case, I made my own s-video cable without the diode and the vertical banding was quite bad. I'm just finishing fitting the diode back into my home-made cable and I'll be testing it later. If the original cable hadn't broken, I could have avoided an exchange on an LCD TV and a lot of frustration. What I can confirm is that s-video will give you the best possible picture providing the TV can sync to the signal properly. That's by no means a given. I had a TV which displayed a razor sharp mono picture with a broken chroma line in the cable, but couldn't live with the colour signal. In my estimation, if you have vertical banding and you're handy with a soldering iron, there'll likely be some way to fix it by adding components to the circuit. If you have horizontal interlace problems, I'd say get a different monitor. One thing to watch with the ebay cables, if you decide to buy one, is that they're hot glue sealed inside. If you want/need to start tinkering around inside the DIN plug, better make your own s-video cable from scratch.

 

Hopefully you'll be lucky and the ebay cable will give a perfect picture. Mine did.

[+bf2k+]

I want to buy a Svideo cable and use it on my 65xe and soon to arrive 800xl. ...

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe you'll have to modify the 800xl to use the svideo.

[mimo]

I want to buy a Svideo cable and use it on my 65xe and soon to arrive 800xl. ...

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe you'll have to modify the 800xl to use the svideo.

In most XLs yes you do, just need to add the missing croma line, but may as well do the quick and easy video mod whilst the case is open, of course you can still use composite with no mods.

The exception iirc is that some 800XLs that had the FREDDY chip had the s-video working out of the box. I know my FREDDY XL did in any case

[NML32]

I want to buy a Svideo cable and use it on my 65xe and soon to arrive 800xl. ...

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe you'll have to modify the 800xl to use the svideo.

 

I did read that the svideo may not work on all Atari XL machines. That is why I thought maybe I should get the Atari S-Video +Composite A/V cable but it only has one audio (Red). Does either the XE or XL output to both left and right audio channel (Red & white)?

 

Also with Atari S-Video +Composite A/V cable not sure if the diode is inplace.

 

I may just shoot the guy that makes the cables a quick question.

 

Thanks,

Mark

[mimo]

I want to buy a Svideo cable and use it on my 65xe and soon to arrive 800xl. ...

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe you'll have to modify the 800xl to use the svideo.

 

I did read that the svideo may not work on all Atari XL machines. That is why I thought maybe I should get the Atari S-Video +Composite A/V cable but it only has one audio (Red). Does either the XE or XL output to both left and right audio channel (Red & white)?

 

Also with Atari S-Video +Composite A/V cable not sure if the diode is inplace.

 

I may just shoot the guy that makes the cables a quick question.

 

Thanks,

Mark

The RED is for audio, and as a standard Atari is mono anyway, only one audio connector is needed

[NML32]

I want to buy a Svideo cable and use it on my 65xe and soon to arrive 800xl. ...

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong but I believe you'll have to modify the 800xl to use the svideo.

 

I did read that the svideo may not work on all Atari XL machines. That is why I thought maybe I should get the Atari S-Video +Composite A/V cable but it only has one audio (Red). Does either the XE or XL output to both left and right audio channel (Red & white)?

 

Also with Atari S-Video +Composite A/V cable not sure if the diode is inplace.

 

I may just shoot the guy that makes the cables a quick question.

 

Thanks,

Mark

The RED is for audio, and as a standard Atari is mono anyway, only one audio connector is needed

 

 

Thanks everyone for the quick responses.