Sdallnct

I'm going to run a S-video to my pj which is all well and dandy. To keep things neat, on my electronic end I'm using Leviton custom connection system. The problem is the S-video connector takes bare wires. So I'm going to have to clip the connector off of one end.

To see what it looks like, I clipped off the connector of a short crappy s-video cable I had sitting around. There is a red and white. Exposing these further, each has two wires. I'm assuming the outer wrapped wire is the ground with the inner wire being the signal. Correct? While the Levetron has 4-spots for wires, 2 are marked with a Y and 2 are marked with a C. A Google found me this,



But what I can't find is: Is the red lead on the wire Luminance or Chrominance? If I was clipping both ends of the wire I would know to just be consistent. But I'm only clipping one end, with the unclipped end going directly into my pj.

Any help would be appreciated

jonw9

I am pretty sure the wires are coaxial, so the outer conductor is ground.

I would also think you could try it one way and see if the picture works, then try it the other way if it is not too much of a hassle.

Or if you had a multi-meter you can check the pins to the exposed wire, using the resistance setting.

Spiky

I doubt that the internal insulation color is an industry standard. Different cables could easily be different. Just test it out as jon said, can't hurt anything. Only the Y cable will give a pic by itself.

Sdallnct

Well on my "test" wire I really had problems. The wire that carries the signal is really delicate. I tried 3 or 4 times and couldn't get it just right. I had such trouble I got nervous cutting of the end of my 25 ft cable. Yea, not that expensive of a cable, but a pain in the A$$ to run in my set up.

So I went to plan B. I had picked up a 3 port Levitron fase plate. Two of the them I put in RF adapters (1 for my dish, 1 for my OTA HD). The 3rd one was to be for the S-video adapter. Instead I just left it empty and the s-video cable just slipped through (was close) and I connected directly to my dish receiver.

Still neat looking. One less connection in between. Will see how it goes.

jonw9

One thing that may help in the future is "tinning" the wires with some solder before trying to screw it into the terminals. It will make them stiffer and easier to work with.

Sdallnct

Yea, the thing is this had no terminals. It it a small notch for each wire. In reading the instructions it appears there is a tool or something you are suppose to use and I believe you leave the insulation wrap on and when you push in there appeared to be these small blades that cut into the insualtion to make contact.

Maybe with the tool it would have been easier, but no big deal. It worked, it is neat looking. I was kind of pissed that I was going through so much trouble for SD Dish, but my tivo went out and so instead of dish to tivo via s-video, then tivo to pj via component, I have to go direct dish s-video to pj.

jonw9

Ahh, IDC (Insulation Displacement Connections) are pretty much a pain with-out the proper tools. I am glad to hear it is working out for you, plus you will probably benefit from the less connections.

Sorry about the TiVo going out. A good excuse to buy a series 3 now!

Sdallnct

Actually it is kind of good it went out. I had one of those Toshiba DVDp/Tivo media center players. I picked it up cheap several years ago. It was actually pretty decent. I really liked the convenience. Plus since it was one of those units that ran on "basic" tivo, there were no monthly cost, but of course it was a water down version of tivo. I had been happy with the built in DVDp on my X1, but since I got the HD70, I have not been overly thrilled with it. When I got a PS3, SD disc on it were better then the DVDp in the Tivo player and the PS3 is not known for having very good SD play back.

So I had been debating and debating what to do. At x-mas I grabbed one of those Bravo D1 players that you need to replace a capacitor on, and never did anything with it (except lose the remote some how). Well first the Toshiba started having problems reading disc's something it had never had a problem with. Then I couldn't get it to update, something is needs to do often and had never had trouble with. Finally the other day it just wouldn't power up. So tore it apart to get the DVD that was in it out and salvaged the 80g HD and moved the D1 in it's place (after replacing the capacitor). What a difference. The D1 is awesome!

Right now I'm only using OTA HD + my SD Dish receiver. I have not "upgraded" to HD on dish. Still debating. OTA HD is so good I'm afraid I'll be disappoint if I go to HD Dish.