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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Consumer Hardware & Components > Powerbook S-Video out to a TV's composite in...

Powerbook S-Video out to a TV's composite in...
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brapper
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Jan 18, 2005, 12:05 AM
 
So there are cords that "split" into composite video and audio lines.
Just wondering if anyone's given it a shot with their PB to a TV, and if so could you let me know how it worked out.

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tooki
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Jan 18, 2005, 03:58 AM
 
S-video does not carry audio. If any PC laptops do this, it's a non-standard implementation using extra pins.

All 13, 14, 15 and 17" PowerBook G3 and G4 models have an S-video port on the computer and include an S-video to composite adapter cable.

The 12" PowerBooks accept an adapter that goes from the mini-VGA/DVI port to S-video and composite.

I've used the S-video output on both my PowerBooks and it works fine, within the constraint that composite and S-video will never carry a computer-grade image, nor could any standard-definition TV display one. But it's fine for simple presentation slides, and fine for DVD and other video display.

tooki
     
brapper  (op)
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Jan 18, 2005, 03:14 PM
 
Originally posted by tooki:
All 13, 14, 15 and 17" PowerBook G3 and G4 models have an S-video port on the computer and include an S-video to composite adapter cable.
I've used the S-video output on both my PowerBooks and it works fine, within the constraint that composite and S-video will never carry a computer-grade image, nor could any standard-definition TV display one. But it's fine for simple presentation slides, and fine for DVD and other video display.

tooki
I don't recall receiving an S-Video to composite, only an S-Video to S-Video that was ridiculously short. I'll dig around for it though.
And yeah, I'm just thinking of DVD's.
Thanks tooki.
     
barang
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Jan 18, 2005, 03:26 PM
 
I was under the impression that a SD TV could display close to a computer-quality image at 640 by 480, 'cause that's the native NTSC TV resolution.
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OperaMan
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Jan 18, 2005, 07:01 PM
 
SDTV's display an interlaced image=ewwwwww

And at a size any bigger than 20 inches 640x480 looks terrible
     
indigoimac
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Jan 18, 2005, 07:13 PM
 
There are S-Video to Composite adapters, I got one with my PC Video Card, as for where to get one I don't know but someone must sell them
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tooki
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Jan 18, 2005, 08:31 PM
 
Originally posted by brapper:
I don't recall receiving an S-Video to composite, only an S-Video to S-Video that was ridiculously short. I'll dig around for it though.
And yeah, I'm just thinking of DVD's.
Thanks tooki.
Yeah, you looked at that adapter cable wrong. It's an S-Video plug to a composite jack, and is maybe 3 or 4 inches long.

Originally posted by barang:
I was under the impression that a SD TV could display close to a computer-quality image at 640 by 480, 'cause that's the native NTSC TV resolution.
No, it's not. It's 525 lines. NTSC is analog, so there are no discrete pixels. Some of the lines are deliberately overscanned, and thus not visible. Some are deliberately left blank, and some of the blank lines are used for data (like closed captioning and teletext). Realistically, about 500 lines are left.

Consumer digital video at standard definition (DVD and DV) is normally stored at 720x480 pixels: the pixels aren't square, but rather are taller than they are wide.

Regardless, only component video and digital video can transmit the whole NTSC resolution.

S-Video can resolve up to about 430 lines, composite up to maybe 400 lines. VHS can only resolve about 240 lines, by the way.

On my little 21" TV, using composite video with quality cables, 640x480 is realistically not pixel-for-pixel visible. 512x384 is much sharper, but of course is a microscopic amount of desktop space. For DVD playback, 640x480 works pretty well, though.

tooki
     
Freeflyer
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Jan 18, 2005, 08:54 PM
 
I use my powerbook to watch tv programs that I've downloaded. It's not dvd quality that's for sure, but it doesn't look much worse than a vhs. Perfectly watchable.

I use svideo out from the powerbook to svideo in on the tv. Generally I'm playing avi files of around 400Mb per 50 mins. I live in Borneo so this is the only way to keep up with the programs I like to watch.

If I want high quality, I hang the 90" diagonal screen, power up the projector and stick in a dvd. Sweet.

Cheers,

J.
By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out - Richard Dawkins
     
brapper  (op)
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Jan 23, 2005, 03:15 AM
 
Originally posted by tooki:
Yeah, you looked at that adapter cable wrong. It's an S-Video plug to a composite jack, and is maybe 3 or 4 inches long.

tooki
Thanks, yeah you're right again.
So using an extension to the composite in, it works great.

I gather, however, that I'm stuck with the one resolution setting (800x600) that OS X offers, or am I mistaken?
     
tooki
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Jan 23, 2005, 04:14 AM
 
What do you mean, the one resolution OS X offers? I get a whole range of options for S-video out, from 512x384 to 1024x768. (Of course, that all gets shrunk down to the low TV resolution.)

tooki
     
brapper  (op)
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Jan 23, 2005, 10:46 PM
 
Originally posted by tooki:
What do you mean, the one resolution OS X offers? I get a whole range of options for S-video out, from 512x384 to 1024x768. (Of course, that all gets shrunk down to the low TV resolution.)

tooki
Yeah, unfortunately I'm only offered 800x600.
     
tooki
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Jan 24, 2005, 02:19 PM
 
Where are you looking? If you're looking at the displays menu in the menu bar, it'll only show you the recently used modes.

The Displays pane of System Preferences should show you all the options. For TV, this will be the 4 supported TV resolutions, once each for NTSC and PAL.

tooki
     
brapper  (op)
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Jan 25, 2005, 04:16 PM
 
Originally posted by tooki:
Where are you looking? If you're looking at the displays menu in the menu bar, it'll only show you the recently used modes.

The Displays pane of System Preferences should show you all the options. For TV, this will be the 4 supported TV resolutions, once each for NTSC and PAL.

tooki
Indeed. I didn't realize those were only the recently used ones. Thanks tooki.
     
   
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