VGA TO S-VIDEO OR RCA ADAPTER CABLES

Have you just recently bought or used a new electronics tool or product that was very good or something other readers should avoid? Post your comments and product test results here.

VGA TO S-VIDEO OR RCA ADAPTER CABLES

Postby Tomi Engdahl on Wed Jun 28, 2006 5:22 pm

Here is some general comments on one product type that keeps confusing users of computer video cards. This is not a test of this particular product listed on this web page, but general notices on all similar products and their usefullness in general:

The web page http://www.computercasesandcables.com/ccc/CV-25120.html
says:

VGA TO S-VIDEO OR RCA ADAPTER

NOTE: Note Though this adapter works with most video cards, some video cards do not support this adapter.

VGA HDDB15 Male Video Card to S-Video and TV RCA Composite Adapter Cable Converter Spitter

Application: VGA Video Card to S-Video and RCA TV Adapter Cable
Connector: D-Sub High Density 15 pin Male to Mini Din 4 pin Female and RCA Jack Cable
UL 2919 Coaxial Low Voltage Computer Cable

Image


My comments:

The claims on this product are not entirely correct and many people seem to confuse this kind of cables to real converters (I have received several mails on this ans answered questions on several forums regarding those).

This cable does not do any signal conversion at all. This cable just connects S-video and TV RCA connectors to certain pins on VGA connector (RGB pins) that can be defined to send besides standard VGA signals also the video formats those S-video and TV RCA connecors shoudl carry. This kind of adapter works only on some video cards that have built-in VGA to TV conversion circuiry that works in such way that you can configure the card to output either standard VGA signal or TV S-video/RCA signals from the VGA connector. This kind of cable work only on some video cards (at least Matrox dual head models), definately not with most video cards on the market.

This cable works as advertised only for those who have a special video card that can be set to output TV signal from VGA connector. Most video cards do not support this special extra non-standard feature. Thsi kind of adapter does not with most video cards, at least most of the cards I have used over the years.

For all other uses (VGA signal conversion etc.) you might think this kind of cable is completely useless and waste of money.
Tomi Engdahl
Site Admin
 
Posts: 1839
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2003 6:15 pm
Location: Espoo, Finland

Return to Product Tests and Comments

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests

cron