PlayStation 1 S-Video Cable

[KeeperofLindblum]

So I'm currently debating on S-Video cable choice for the PlayStation 1.

 

Seems like I have four options here...

 

• Cheap generic PS1 S-Video cable - One of those cheap Tomee/Hyperkin. Seems like it works but can do better - Cost around $6
• Generic PS1 S-Video only cable - Kind of like the previous one, but supposedly having ONLY S-Video (and no composite) on the cable makes it a bit better? - Cost around $10
• Generic All-in-One cable - You know this style! That one that has a connector for all the consoles and outputs (usually) composite and S-video. Unsure of quality comparative to the rest. - Cost around $15
• Official Sony S-Video cable - I'm considering this as it's the highest quality... but also the most expensive. - Cost around $30 (with shipping)

 

Just hoping to avoid buying several cables and/or a pointless cable if I can. I know I should probably just get a set of HDRetrovision ones, but that requires the Sega Genesis cable plus adapter. The Sega Genesis cables are sold out.

 

Anybody here have experience with these and offer their opinion? 

Edited October 15, 2022 by KeeperofLindblum

[RARusk]

I have a Monster Cable PlayStation S-Video cable. It has the best build quality of any cable that I have used for my PlayStation units and that translated to outstanding video quality. But that one is going to be hard to find and expensive to boot. Still, if you happen to stumble onto one and the price looks good, snag it, you won't regret it.

[KeeperofLindblum]

5 hours ago, RARusk said:

I have a Monster Cable PlayStation S-Video cable. It has the best build quality of any cable that I have used for my PlayStation units and that translated to outstanding video quality. But that one is going to be hard to find and expensive to boot. Still, if you happen to stumble onto one and the price looks good, snag it, you won't regret it.

I did manage to find this on eBay, but it's going for $40 with free shipping.
 

The stupid part is I looked around my cables and realized... I already had a cheap S-Video cable for my PS1. (I'm an idiot.) I will still probably consider upgrading at some point and passing my cheaper cable along for free though.

 

If anybody else has experience or input, I would definitely be interested in hearing it! 

[Steven Pendleton]

My friend gave me the official Sony one for free and I tried it on my PS2 once since the PS1 and PS2 have the same analog video connector thingy. It's pretty awesome, but I don't really use it since I have the HD Retrovision cables. S-Video is nice, but if you have a YPbPr or YCbCr input, I wouldn't bother with S-video. I'd consider getting the HD Retrovision PS2 cable and using a PS2 instead unless you want to play one of the handful of PS1 games that don't work properly on the PS2, although it does greatly depend on what PS2 you use.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[youxia]

A reasonably well made generic cable should offer exactly the same quality as the Sony or Monster branded one. I'd avoid some absolutely basic ones and go for a generic-branded, since they're usually only marginally more expensive.

 

I'm not sure about HD Retrovision ones, whether they actually bring anything to the table in this case. It might depend on whether you connect to a CRT or a modern panel too.

[RARusk]

In my experience the Monster Cable is better than the official Sony one due to thicker, better wires, better plugs, and, most importantly, better ground shielding which eliminates a lot of interference.

[youxia]

7 hours ago, RARusk said:

In my experience the Monster Cable is better than the official Sony one due to thicker, better wires, better plugs, and, most importantly, better ground shielding which eliminates a lot of interference.

Have you actually compared the image they produce side by side?

[newtmonkey]

Like @youxia mentiond above, any generic well-made cable should be fine.  I'd avoid the "Cheap generic PS1 S-Video cable" and "Generic All-in-One cable" personally, as I've not had good experiences with those kinds of cables on other systems; they tend to pack in too much stuff and skimp on shielding, etc. to keep the price low.

 

I use an "Official Sony S-Video cable" for my PS1 and it looks fantastic.

[Cobra Kai]

On 10/16/2022 at 1:59 AM, KeeperofLindblum said:

I did manage to find this on eBay, but it's going for $40 with free shipping.
 

The stupid part is I looked around my cables and realized... I already had a cheap S-Video cable for my PS1. (I'm an idiot.) I will still probably consider upgrading at some point and passing my cheaper cable along for free though.

 

If anybody else has experience or input, I would definitely be interested in hearing it! 

My experience is just get a PS2 slim, which has a better variety of cables to choose from. I mean, it can do Component as well as S-Video. I know that's probably not the answer you want, but it truly is the smart play IMHO. You want to talk about bliss? Component signal with something like the PS1 Raiden Project, or Strikers 1945....it's miles better than the S-video you'll get out of the PS1, and the load times are better.

 

I do have the Monster S-Video cable for the PS1 and  I have to concur with the other guy above, it has a spectacular quality about it. Very thick lining, but also very flexible. I don't think I've ever seen other cables quite this good for video games. In the end though, it's still just delivering an S-Video signal. I couldn't say if the Monster Cables provide any cleaner of a signal over a cheaper alternative. I doubt it to be honest, because I have a lot of experience with S-Video on a multitude of game systems and used a wide variety of cables and never noticed one brand being better than the other.

[RARusk]

22 hours ago, youxia said:

Have you actually compared the image they produce side by side?

Years ago I had a Power Macintosh with S-Video ports in the back for limited video recording. At that time I acquired a Nintendo S-Video Monster Cable and was doing a little playing around with the recording feature using my N64. I used the regular Nintendo brand S-video cable for some Turok 2 and the image didn't look too great. I then switched out the regular cable with the Monster Cable and it looked pretty close to RGB and looked great. I would later acquire the Monster Cable versions of the PS S-Video, PS Component, and OG Xbox Component. Whenever I need to use my systems on my old TV I use these.

 

The regular first party Sony S-Video cables should do the job for your purposes but I wanted to share my knowledge and information on the Monster Cables with everybody here as they are the absolute best for the consoles they are made for. BTW, considering that these cables were limited run and they are of high quality I think $40 is a good price for one. Certainly beats several hundred dollars for the official GameCube Component Video cable.

[youxia]

On 10/18/2022 at 9:29 AM, RARusk said:

Years ago I had a Power Macintosh with S-Video ports in the back for limited video recording. At that time I acquired a Nintendo S-Video Monster Cable and was doing a little playing around with the recording feature using my N64. I used the regular Nintendo brand S-video cable for some Turok 2 and the image didn't look too great. I then switched out the regular cable with the Monster Cable and it looked pretty close to RGB and looked great.

This sounds like there might've been something wrong with the cable itself, if the difference was really that big. I'm a bit of a CRT fanatic, and have just finished taking photos from N64 for this collection. I used a cheapo S-Video cable from Aliexpress for the connection. The quality is also "close to RGB" with no interference, and I also have a few other micros/consoles which use basic cables for S-video with great results. I had one for 3DO which had a lot of noise but it was a ridicululously cheap job (like >4 bucks) and also very long - 5 meters. Bought a slightly better one which is fine.

 

It's very easy to suggest yourself when talking/thinking about these slight differences, hence my question about side-to-side comparison. It happens to me all the time, since I constantly switch between many different displays and connection types.

 

And Monster cables are well known to be overpriced, to the point were they literally became memes and have dedicated Wikipedia section on the subject. That doesn't mean that they are bad of course, I'm sure the IQ quality is also great on them, but it just can't be better than on another well-made cable because they can't improve the original signal. So imo it's rather pointless overpaying for them. Build quality in a cable only matters to some extent - it's not a moving part, and for 95% of time it will just hang/lie there undisturbed.

 

In the end of the day, it's anybody's choice and indeed 40$ is not breaking the bank. Still, I prefer to do it my way and spend the difference on something else. And if the OP already has a cable, then trying it out is probably the best idea. If you don't see any interference using this cable then a Monster one won't really improve anything past that.

[Steven Pendleton]

On 10/18/2022 at 8:44 AM, Cobra Kai said:

My experience is just get a PS2 slim

unless one of the PS1 games you want to play doesn't work on it, as the later slim models have the highest amount of compatibility problems. No PS2 model has perfect compatibility, as I guess the PS1 GPU is emulated in all PS2 models and they apparently didn't get it right, but the later ones got rid of all of the PS1 components and run PS1 games entirely through emulation, and the emulator apparently has some problems.

 

I forgot to mention it before, but I couldn't see any notable visual differences between S-video and RGB on PS2 for PS2 games at all, although I did not test it with PS1 games. There is an advantage to using YPbPr/YCbCr on a PS2, though, as that will let you use progressive scan on the ~250 PS2 games that actually have it, and I don't think you can do that with S-video, so if you're going to get a PS2, use YPbPr/YCbCr just in case you have one of those rare progressive scan PS2 games. I tested Thunder Force VI with RGB just now and progressive scan seemed to work fine with RGB, but no promises for other games over RGB. I have no other 480p games to test, so no promises with RGB, but YPbPr/YCbCr should give you progressive scan on the very few games that have it.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Steven Pendleton

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

I still need to get the ps1 adapter for the genesis cable, but I've been playing ps1 games on a PS2 slim via a video to my '99 trinitron and it looks great.  Not as good as they look using component out my '05 Toshiba, but amazing. 

 

What I currently need is an s video cable for the original Xbox. I have component cables for it but I want to be able to use a video on the trinitron. Maybe composite is good? I hooked up the TurboGrafx via composite to the trinitron and was blown away actually.  It looked almost as good as using that booster box to get rgb out of it to component.