S-Video Output on DualHead G400

[GT98]

Ok well I finally found a 12 ft S-video cable to hook my max up to my 27in TV. The problem is that I noticed that on the pigtail that Matrox gives you with the G400MAX, it has a 7 pinout output, but the S-video cable I have only has 4 pins on it and the Sony TV I have hooked it up too has only 4 pins also. I finally hooked up a RCA jack and it works fine. The is S-Video for european TVs?? Is there that big of a differance between RCA and S-Video output quaitly?

Thanks

Scott


------------------
Abit BH6 with a P3-450@558,128mb RAM,G400 MAX,SB Live!, Optiquest V95 19in montor, Asus 40x CD-ROM, Aopen 5x DVD-ROM, 2x CDR, WD 13.6 GB HD,SupraMax 56k modem

[JWilliams]

If I was a bettin' man, I would guess the extra 3 would be stereo sound, but the only thing I have hooked to my TV is a DSS receiver with RCA stereo out, and the Max dont do sound. This is why I went looking for a S-video A/B switch. My Sony VCR, which is no longer with us, I think didn't need separate audio cables, just the S-video, and
hooked to same TV. The S-video cable I have from computer to TV has only 4 pins also, but I'm not gonna drag out the E-center to see how many pins the cable from the DSS to TV has. 4 work with video.

[mgleason]

Well, I'm not sure for the technical reasons for the 7 pins, but I do know that almost all S-Video in ports (video capture, etc) use the 7 pin connectors. I have no idea why Matrox is using it on their video out connector.

[Joel]

I think it's because most s-video cables that you buy will be the 7-pin type and they want to be compatible. Under normal circumstances, as in a s-video hookup from a DVD player or a satelite receiver to a TV, the s-video cable carries the video signal as well as the audio signal. I know around here where I live all you can find is the 7-pin type of s-video cables.

Joel

[Sammie]

The extra pins are for audio, which your G400, being a video card, does not do.

If your TV supports s-video in, it'll either have the s-video connector or a SCART plug for it. You can get a scart-to-s-video+seperate-audio connector to hook things up properly, which is what I did. Remember to set the TV to s-video or you get b&w screen and no sound.

s-video uses more screen lines and has a slightly sharper/finer image than a normal PAL/SECAM image (european systems), which again has slightly more lines than NTSC (US system). The only drawback of the european system is it's 50Hz (25 frames x 2 a sec) as opposed to NTSC's 60Hz (30 frames x 2 a sec). Thankfully we now see a lot of 100Hz TV's, that digitally copy the frames to give 100 frames a sec (25 x 4) flicker free TV.

I believe the s-video out on the G400 is for PAL/SECAM only.

Hope this helps.

[TheScrewDriver]

The s-video output works for both PAL(european) and NTSC(North-America, Japan ... etc). The extra "holes" in the adapter are used for other purposes (SCART). You can use a standard 4-pin cable with no problems.

ScrewDriver

[Kruse]

Wow. I had a question, but I guess Sammie already answered it, so I'll ask another question instead.

I bought one of the S-VHS + Stereo RCA to Scart cables but only got Black-and-White on the TV.

Does anyone happen to know if setting the TV up for S-VHS is something you can normally do, or is it only on some (better) tv's??

[Sammie]

S-VIDEO or S-VHS is a standard that your TV needs to support would you want to use it. If your TV does not support S-VHS (or if you forget to switch it into s-vhs mode) the picture will be b&w. So, look in the manual of the TV and see if it mentions anything on s-vhs. If it doesn't, the s-video out is useless for you.
And yes, s-vhs is only found on some 'better' tv's, usually the rather big ones.

As for the screwdriver: there is a fundamental difference in how the s-vhs video signal is being transferred.

VHS

-------------------------------------
| 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 \-21
| 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 \ (Female)
---------------------------------------

PIN SIGNAL

1.........Sound-Right-Out
2.........Sound-Right-In
3.........Sound-Left-Out (or Mono)
4.........Sound-Ground
5.........Video-Blue-Ground
6.........Sound-Left-In (or Mono)
7.........Video-Blue-In
8.........Remorte Control
9.........Video-Green-Ground
10........Data-2
11........Video-Green-In
12........Data-1
13........Video-Red-Ground
14........Data-Ground
15........Video-Red-In
16........Synchronizing-In
17........Composite Video-Ground
18........Synchronizing-Ground
19........Composite Video-Out
20........Composite Video-In
21........Frame-Ground

S-VHS

-------------------------------------
| 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 \-21
| 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 \ (Female)
---------------------------------------

PIN SIGNAL

1.........Sound-Right-Out
2.........Sound-Right-In
3.........Sound-Left-Out (or Mono)
4.........Sound-Ground
5.........Video-Blue-Ground
6.........Sound-Left-In (or Mono)
7.........Video-Blue-In
8.........Remorte Control
9.........Video-Green-Ground
10........Data-2
11........Video-Green-In
12........Data-1
13........Chrominance-Ground
14........Data-Ground
15........Chrominance-In/Out
16........Synchronizing-In
17........Luminance-Ground
18........Synchronizing-Ground
19........Luminance-Out
20........Luminance-In
21........Frame-Ground

And the 6 pin connector for s-vhs is:
__ __
/ - \
/ 5 1 \
| 6 | (Female)
\ 4 2 /
\ 3 /
-----

PIN SIGNAL

1......Chrominance
2......Luminance
3......Ground
4......Audio-Left
5......Not Connect
6......Audio-Right

mini-din 4 pin for s-vhs
_ _
/ -- \
/ 3 4 \
|1 2| (Female)
-| [] |-
----

PIN SIGNAL

1......Luminance-Ground 2......Chrominance-Ground 3......Luminance-Signal 4......Chrominance-Signal

No sound needed for video only, no sound pins on the g400 connector. Now you know all there is to know about SCART. fun isn't it...

[adamhamilton]

Could I take the video out (from the s-video connector) from my MAX, take the audio left and right line-out from my sound card and wire them up to an s-vhs cable which would then connect to my TV's s-vhs input?

[nips home to check the connectors]

Ah - the s-video output from the MAX is 7-pin and the s-video input on the front of my Sony TV is 4-pin. It does, however, have a second scart connector on the back that the manual says can take s-video input.

Could I construct a scart cable that takes the s-video or composite output from the MAX and the left & right line-out from the sound card?
Note that the cable run will be about 10-15 meters.

[This message has been edited by adamhamilton (edited 09 December 1999).]

[Sammie]

Most TV front connectors are 4 pin, since they will be used to connect a handycam and have seperate connectors for the audio. The cables do too in most cases, so that ppl can re-route the sound through a mixer or stereo. SONY tv's with s-vhs and a second scart support s-vhs through the second scart input. Press the input button untill you see the input of scart2 with a small s in front.

The cable you want is simple enough. You can buy an s-vhs scart to s-vhs mini-din 4 + the two audio channels seperate (input/output). They are mostly used to connect videocameras to the scart plug, the camera's s-vhs mini din is always 4 pin, with seperate sound ouput. The cable would look like this:

[S-VHS SCART]
|
|_________[mini-din-4 s-video]
|
|_________[audio left in/out]
|
|_________[audio right in/out]

Indeed, hook up the s-vhs from the G400 to the mini-din 4 and the audio from the sound card to the audio input (same connectors as output) on the scart conversion cable. I tried this, it works fine. You would get the audio from the TV speakers, and get volume control on the PC... You might be better off connecting the sound card to a stereo though, provided you have one close to the TV...

Note however that 10-15 meters is VERY long for a video signal to be carried on a cable. s-vhs is extremely happy with a cable of not more than one meter (I know, that's not much, but you get a great looking picture). I cannot tell you how much degredation you get over an s-vhs cable that long (if they exist at all), but it'll be noticable, I'm sure. As for the audio, it's best to keep that short too, but it won't suffer as much as the video will. And if you intend on playing the audio over the TV speakers, I doubt you'll hear the difference.
I would definately not recommend connecting several s-vhs cables to get the 10-15 meters you want, that'll make things even worse. IF you decide to try to connect the s-vhs over such a long distance, make sure you use 1 long cable for maximum quality.

[adamhamilton]

> Indeed, hook up the s-vhs from the G400 to the mini-din 4

Would I need an adaptor to do this as the G400 s-vhs connector is 7-pin mini-din?

[Sammie]

No, not really. I honestly can't think of a reason why Matrox put a seven pin female s-video connector on that cable. Maybe it's because they were made in China, dunno really.
The seven pin female on the G400 splitter cable is pin compatible with a four pin video signal only s-video cable.
I'd like to post a pic of the SCART to s-video+audio plug, but don't know how to get the pic in this msg.

[waxling]

This 'lost' thread explains what the three extra pins are.
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/005719.html

In short they carry RGB, for a scart connector.

[Sammie]

I suppose they can, yes. That would mean you switch to normal signal, not s-video.
When the s-video signal is on, it seems 2 of the three extra pins give a composite signal and the third is unused. It should be like this, with 2 and 3 for the composite and 6 not connected.


_________
/ \
| 7 6 5 |
| 4 3 2 1 |
| |
\ OOOOO /
---------

1:GND
2:Composite
3:GND
4:GND
5:Luma
6:not connected
7:Chroma