DIY S-Video Cable?

[JiggaD369]

is it possible to make s-video cable?

 

[BMXTRIX]

Yes.

S-Video is two pieces of coax with a mini-din connector on the end. You can pick up 2 bnc to mini-din converters online, then just use regular coax.

There are good converters out there, but the cheap ones look like this:

A pretty good one from Extron (www.extron.com) which we use all the time for commercial installation work:

 

[JiggaD369]

i wanna make my own s-video cable. i wanna know what type of cable should i use and connectors also.

 

[Burnzy]

Actually, if you are going to use one cable straight to the connector, the S-Video cable is made from two mini coax cables put together in one cable such as Beldens 1808A. You can use two RCA cables or use regular coax cable to make two RCA cables and use them with the adapters. For S-Video connectors, I've found some good ones from Vampire Wire at Zebra Cables.com, DIY connectors.

Hope this helps...

 

[JiggaD369]

im trying to connect my Dish receiver to my TV through s-video. but as i started researching online, i found out that u should remove the s-video jack on the dish receiver and replace it with 2 BNC jacks. then make a cable with 2 BNCs on the dish side and a RCA or RF on tv side. Which connector on tv side would work best? RF, RCA, or S-Video?

also if i tried this with the dvd player, meaning 3 bns on dvd to 3 rcas on tv side, how would it turn out?

 

[BMXTRIX]

The connector does not matter. Period.

You are trying to make things much more complex then they need to be or ARE in reality.

All analog video is carried on 75 ohm coaxial cable in order (generally) of quality:
Composite: Uses 1 Coax cable
S-Video: Uses 2 Coax cables
Component: Uses 3 Coax cables
SVGA: Uses 5 coax cables

The ends of the cables don't matter a whole heck of a lot. S-Video uses that nifty round mini-din connection (the one with 4 pins inside) to look distinctive, but there is no reason they couldn't just have used 2 RCA ends, or 2 BNC ends - it does NOT change the video that is on the cable!

The key component is what type of video do you plan to use and what do you want to achieve? If you plan on watching HDTV, that video signal requires a component connection between your set top box and the display device (TV). If you only want S-video, you can use a pre-made s-video cable and will achieve the exact same results as making one yourself. If all you want is regular composite video, then the same is true, just use some store bought composite cable.

The pros use BNC connectors not because it improves the quality of the image, but because BNC connectors lock into place so an idiot customer can't mistakenly pull the round mini-din cable out of a switcher. Likewise, regular RCA connectors just can be pulled off by a technician working on another component in the rack. Changing your connections will not improve the video quality. It's like having a home with a red key for the front door, or a green key for the front door. BOTH keys unlock the door and allow you inside, it simply doesn't make things better to use one over the other or lose sleep over it.

You hear a lot of talk about HD and DVI and HDMI... it's not the cables or connectors used that makes the difference, it is having a VERY high quality signal!

If you want the best image on your HD capable television, then feed it high definition television which you can only send over component, DVI, or HDMI.

Use the RCA connectors on your DVD player. Use the mini-din s-video connector already on your Dish box. Upgrade to HDTV if your tv supports it and you can afford it.

 

[RLA]

Hi all
Most conventional pre terminated S-Video cable's are good up to about 20 feet or so. For longer lengths a double run of RG-59 or RG-6 is the way to go About 10 years ago give or take we would run into this occasionally
When we were running long lengths to CRT projectors that were unscaled video grade units installed in Home Theaters

 

[BMXTRIX]

RLA: That's definitely true with 'conventional', read: retail store, s-video cables.

The better s-video cables, like those from Extron or likely Blue Jeans, actually use mini-coaxial cable of much higher quality than the garbage that is included with cheapo store cables. Or even better store cables.

In my handy-dandy Extron catalog they specify their S-Video cables up to 100 feet, pre-terminated. I would consider this company completely A/R about their cables meeting specifications, so I would believe that at that distance they will work as specified. MSRP is 66 bucks, so not terribly expensive even if you pay full price AND actually need 100 feet. 75, 50, 30, 20, 12, and 6 foot cables are available as well from them.