S-Video










From: Michael Current (aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)

Date: 10/19/96-06:19:57 PM Z









From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: S-Video
Date: Sat Oct 19 18:19:57 1996


Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 21:19:20 GMT
From: sunspot@well.com (Dan Flanery)
Subject: Can Atari Output S video?

LMNC01A@prodigy.com (Anthony Venticinque) wrote:

>Is there a way to convert the output of an Atari 800 to S video?

Yeah, I've done it.  You have to be using an Atari 8-bit that produces
true "S-Video" (some don't).  The 800 did.  Below is my crude diagram
of the 800's monitor jack, a 5-pin DIN port.

3          1
  5      4
      2

I'm using a True-Type font in my newsreader, so the alignment may be a
little off.  Anyhow, pin 1 is the composite luminance, pin 2 is
ground, pin 3 is the audio output, pin 4 is the composite video and
pin 5 is composite chroma.  The "S-Video" pins are the chroma and luma
pins.  Standard composite video comes from pin 4.

In order to build a cable, I got a 5-pin DIN connector from Radio
Shack, and used Nintendo's S-Video connector for the SNES for the
cable/S-Video plug.  I just hacked off the custom Nintendo end of the
cable and wired in Radio Shack's 5-pin DIN connector.  Of course, this
was several years ago, when S-Video cables were hard to find.  These
days, I'd imagine Radio Shack stocks those as well.

I found that the video quality improved quite a bit with S-Video, the
sharpness of the image in particular, however, my friend's old 800 had
some sort of fault in its video system which was only evident thru the
S-Video connection - some sort of color noise that would come and go.
I had seen the same thing, years before, on another friend's 800, but
on that machine it could also be seen thru standard composite video.
On this machine, the standard composite video was clean.

I've been told that the 800XL produces the cleanest S-Video of all the
8-bits, but have never been able to test it.  Good luck if you do
decide to build the cable.  Looks like Atari was 10 years ahead of its
time in this feature as well . . .

Date: 26 Dec 1995 13:24:29 -0800
From: chambera@cs.pdx.edu (Alex Chamberlain)
Subject: S-Video cables

Speaking of S-Video cables, you may want to check if you can get a 
Macintosh ADB keyboard cable cheaper--the connectors are exactly the same 
and all the pins are connected straight through.

---Alex Chamberlain
   chambera@cs.pdx.edu
-- 
Michael Current, 8-Bit Atari FAQ & Vendor/Developer Lists maintainer
   User groups: CAIN, SPACE, NWPAC / mailto:mcurrent@carleton.edu









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