Brian R. Posted May 18, 2003 Share Posted May 18, 2003 Got my first DVD player yesterday. So, on my nearly 10 year old TV, that meant something had to go to hook it up. The Jag was on my TV S-video. Now the DVD player is. Never thought I'd see the day. I only have the one S-video and one composite in the back, and the cable TV is running to the composite through the VCR. Of course, I've got two lines on the VCR - my Dreamcast is using one. The second are the front jacks, so I could run the Jag through the second VCR composite line. So, no reason to pack it away! Set up now is: TV Line 1 (S-video) - DVD TV Line 2 (composite) - Cable via VCR VCR Line 1 composite - Dreamcast VCR Line 2 composite - Open (front jacks) Coax - 2600/5200/7800 This can get confusing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted May 18, 2003 Share Posted May 18, 2003 Got my first DVD player yesterday. So, on my nearly 10 year old TV, that meant something had to go to hook it up. The Jag was on my TV S-video. Now the DVD player is. Never thought I'd see the day. I only have the one S-video and one composite in the back, and the cable TV is running to the composite through the VCR. Of course, I've got two lines on the VCR - my Dreamcast is using one. The second are the front jacks, so I could run the Jag through the second VCR composite line. So, no reason to pack it away! Set up now is: TV Line 1 (S-video) - DVD TV Line 2 (composite) - Cable via VCR VCR Line 1 composite - Dreamcast VCR Line 2 composite - Open (front jacks) Coax - 2600/5200/7800 This can get confusing! Radio Shack sells a nifty S-Video switchbox. It even has a remote control! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian R. Posted May 18, 2003 Author Share Posted May 18, 2003 Does that give you multiple S-video jacks through the one? I wonder if you sacrifice image and/or audio quality going through it. Any idea? Probably within the next year I'll be getting a new TV... either flat screen at least, or go all the way to HDTV. Can any of the game consoles, especially the older ones, be run on an HDTV? I'm thinking of my Ataris and my Dreamcast. I guess the DC and Jag probably can, but I'm not so sure about the 2600/5200/7800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBizDude Posted May 18, 2003 Share Posted May 18, 2003 Pelican makes a nifty 5-selector box. All have composite (rca), s-video and audio ports. And as an added bonus an RF port for your retro games. Much better quality than radio-hack stuff. I paid $20 for mine from Best Buy about 6mos ago. And no degradation of quality through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted May 18, 2003 Share Posted May 18, 2003 Pelican makes a nifty 5-selector box. All have composite (rca), s-video and audio ports. And as an added bonus an RF port for your retro games. Much better quality than radio-hack stuff. I paid $20 for mine from Best Buy about 6mos ago. And no degradation of quality through it. Sounds like the exact same thing. Probably all made in the same place too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysmith2000 Posted May 18, 2003 Share Posted May 18, 2003 Does that give you multiple S-video jacks through the one? I wonder if you sacrifice image and/or audio quality going through it. Any idea? Probably within the next year I'll be getting a new TV... either flat screen at least, or go all the way to HDTV. Can any of the game consoles, especially the older ones, be run on an HDTV? I'm thinking of my Ataris and my Dreamcast. I guess the DC and Jag probably can, but I'm not so sure about the 2600/5200/7800. I have about 6 of these in my house. They work great and there is no loss of quality. They have them at Wal-Mart too for $19.95. Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Posted May 18, 2003 Share Posted May 18, 2003 You should all just get SCART-enabled TVs...switchboxes for those are £8, and you usually get 2 sockets per TV anyway (plus you can use adaptors to get S-Video/composite into/out of a SCART socket, and they support RGB natively) Something the French did right Stone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted May 18, 2003 Share Posted May 18, 2003 You should all just get SCART-enabled TVs...switchboxes for those are £8, and you usually get 2 sockets per TV anyway (plus you can use adaptors to get S-Video/composite into/out of a SCART socket, and they support RGB natively) Something the French did right Stone Yeah, but those SCART connectors are so cumbersome and bulky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBizDude Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 Pelican makes a nifty 5-selector box. All have composite (rca), s-video and audio ports. And as an added bonus an RF port for your retro games. Much better quality than radio-hack stuff. I paid $20 for mine from Best Buy about 6mos ago. And no degradation of quality through it. Sounds like the exact same thing. Probably all made in the same place too! The 'tandy' one only has 4-ins, I thought. It's much bulkier, too. The Pelican one looks kinda like a PS2. it even includes name plates (for most major VG systems) to label above each button. How cool is that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 Yeah, but those SCART connectors are so cumbersome and bulky. That would have something to do with allowing RGB (with individual grounds), S-Video, Composite, stereo audio channels and serial data comms on the same connector. Plus the large terminals makes it harder to snap them off, lower insertion resistance etc etc. Size isn't everything Stone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GOVmole Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 Ok, dont but that converter at radioshack or wallmart!! but it on eBay, i did and even with shipping it cost me about half the price! in the mean time just scitch ur jag and dvd player s-vid cable everytime you want to use a different one, thats what i do because i want to see the best visual quality when i play jag or watch dvds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 Yeah, but those SCART connectors are so cumbersome and bulky. That would have something to do with allowing RGB (with individual grounds), S-Video, Composite, stereo audio channels and serial data comms on the same connector. Plus the large terminals makes it harder to snap them off, lower insertion resistance etc etc. Size isn't everything Stone They seem bulky, and rather cheaply made. Plus, having every signal ever invented all in one cable means the cables are thick and hard to route and look sloppy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsoper Posted May 19, 2003 Share Posted May 19, 2003 I'm also using those pelican switchboxes and liking them. They even look good cascaded, several boxes plugged into a main one. Before I had 15 systems hooked up, s-video and composite. This week I'm changing it so all the composites go into one switchbox and the output goes through a Radio Shack $20 composite to s-video converter. It won't look any better, but to my eyes it doesn't look any worse, and now I won't have any cables in the front of my 1702 and also won't have to keep flipping the switch in back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Smeghead Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysmith2000 Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) I have the same problem. You need 2 boxes. One for your S-video systems and one for your composite! Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwhyrock Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I don't mean to sound ignorant, but is composite the same thing as the yellow video cord? If so I always just called it video. If it is the same thing then you should be able to have both composite and s-video hooked up to the same switch box. Works fine for me. The Pelican thing sounds great, especially if it is only 20 bucks. I paid at least 30 or more for my radio shack one, and mine is the basic version minus the remote control and the RF hookups. I didn't care about the RF though because the least I'll use is standard video for any of my systems with the exception of my atari/colecovision which I just hook directly to the back of my tv. Oh actually I just realized I have cable now so that won't work... Oh well I don't play them often enough to really care. You shouldn't lose much of a signal as long as you have an s-video monster cable plugging directly into your tv, and have s-video plugging into your switch box. That's what I do anyway. I'm probably going to find some convertor or cord so I can have standard video for my old systems. I can't stand all the crazy flickering going on with my old systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) I have the same problem. You need 2 boxes. One for your S-video systems and one for your composite! Why would you use Composite in the first place??? Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysmith2000 Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) I have the same problem. You need 2 boxes. One for your S-video systems and one for your composite! Why would you use Composite in the first place??? Jason You did what I did in the past.....included your quote in mine... I use composite on one of my commodore video monitors for 3 of my jags (one normal, one BJL and one Alpine). I have the SC1435 on my Kiosk and then S-video on the TV. Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) I have the same problem. You need 2 boxes. One for your S-video systems and one for your composite! Why would you use Composite in the first place??? Jason You did what I did in the past.....included your quote in mine... I use composite on one of my commodore video monitors for 3 of my jags (one normal, one BJL and one Alpine). I have the SC1435 on my Kiosk and then S-video on the TV. Jason You need more RGB monitors. I'm surprised you didn't collect them all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysmith2000 Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) I have the same problem. You need 2 boxes. One for your S-video systems and one for your composite! Why would you use Composite in the first place??? Jason You did what I did in the past.....included your quote in mine... I use composite on one of my commodore video monitors for 3 of my jags (one normal, one BJL and one Alpine). I have the SC1435 on my Kiosk and then S-video on the TV. Jason You need more RGB monitors. I'm surprised you didn't collect them all! No doubt. Hey, sell me some CHEAP! I need to network some more Battlespheres....of course you'll have to sell me more copies first though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gunstar Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) I have two of these switch boxes, one is a Radio Shack one and the other is like Performance or something (picked it up at EB). Anyhow, they both have S-video and Composite connections on them, and I use combinations of S-video and Composite signals through them both with no problems and no degradation on the video from either, even with one plugged into the second, and then that routed to the TV. I have the S-video and Composite cables both running into my TV, one to Video 1 on the TV and the other to Video 2 (front and back of TV; The back composite and S-video are on the Video 1 line, so maybe that's your problem? Do you have a front video jack too?). All I do is select one of three buttons on the second box to choose one of three consoles/DVD or I select the 4th, marked "other" which enables the first switchbox with another 4 lines. So this way I have 7 devices hooked up, in any combination of composite or S-video, and just select either Video 1 or 2 on the TV remote. I even have the composite and audio RCA cables going through the VCR, then Amplifier and THEN in to the TV with no picture or sound degradation. 8 devices hooked up to one TV through video/s-video, ready at the touch of a button. PLUS, I then have the coaxil hooked up for my older systems (another several with a switchbox there)... this coaxil goes into the VCR, and no coaxil to the TV, the VCR sends the coaxil signal through the composite video output to the Amp and then TV, so I have no Coaxil hooked up to the TV at all (although I do have to switch to channel 3 on the VCR) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBizDude Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 You need more RGB monitors. I'm surprised you didn't collect them all! Tha Jag Hardware God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysmith2000 Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 I brought this up in an earlier post, but it's much more relevant here. I had a switchbox that had both S-video and Composite connections for each of the four inputs, but I found that I couldn't mix and match S-Video and composite. (Y'know, the Jag and PS2 S-video, the 8-bit Atari and the DVD player composite.) So I had to buy a composite cable for my Jaguar. Is this a normal situation, or is my TV too old, or was the switchbox a piece of crap? I don't think it was Radio Shack, but that's what I have now. (I saw no point in keeping the box with S-video if I couldn't use it.) I have two of these switch boxes, one is a Radio Shack one and the other is like Performance or something (picked it up at EB). Anyhow, they both have S-video and Composite connections on them, and I use combinations of S-video and Composite signals through them both with no problems and no degradation on the video from either, even with one plugged into the second, and then that routed to the TV. I have the S-video and Composite cables both running into my TV, one to Video 1 on the TV and the other to Video 2 (front and back of TV; The back composite and S-video are on the Video 1 line, so maybe that's your problem? Do you have a front video jack too?). All I do is select one of three buttons on the second box to choose one of three consoles/DVD or I select the 4th, marked "other" which enables the first switchbox with another 4 lines. So this way I have 7 devices hooked up, in any combination of composite or S-video, and just select either Video 1 or 2 on the TV remote. I even have the composite and audio RCA cables going through the VCR, then Amplifier and THEN in to the TV with no picture or sound degradation. 8 devices hooked up to one TV through video/s-video, ready at the touch of a button. PLUS, I then have the coaxil hooked up for my older systems (another several with a switchbox there)... this coaxil goes into the VCR, and no coaxil to the TV, the VCR sends the coaxil signal through the composite video output to the Amp and then TV, so I have no Coaxil hooked up to the TV at all (although I do have to switch to channel 3 on the VCR) I have the RCA boxes and when I tried to have both S-video and Composite connected it wouldn't work. Maybe I need to try it again.... Interesting... Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaysmith2000 Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 Tha Jag Hardware God I like that .gif BizDude..... Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinkoVitch Posted May 20, 2003 Share Posted May 20, 2003 They seem bulky, and rather cheaply made. Plus, having every signal ever invented all in one cable means the cables are thick and hard to route and look sloppy. You'd think that, but no. Some cables typically the generic hook anything to anything cables are as you say quite thick in some cases. You can still get nice thin ones of these. Most applications (like RGB leads from consoles) that use SCART tend to be quite thin. My GameCube RGB -> SCART lead is thinner than Cat-5 and the picture quality is superbe. The larger plugs also allow for some passive componets to be included inside the plug too. They do work very well.. The size of plug isn't really an issue, after all the amount of empty space at the back of a TV is normaly quite a bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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