I have a friend who needs this to connect his laptop DVD drive to his TV. How much is such a converter typically? He went to J&R Music World here in New York and was quoted a price of $100! That's insane!

Can anyone tell me if they can be found cheaper elsewhere?

Here you go... S-Video to RCA cable $24.00

http://www.svideotorca.com/videoware...iladapter.html

(Price is at the bottom of the page)

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I am the one who calls himself I AM!

I like their marketing differential statement:

What our customers say:. "The reason I selected your product is it is one-piece. No loss of signal from couplings."

I'd say that's the least of the problem with that conversion.

I believe Radio Shack also has an adapter that sends the signal either way for about $20. But it would be prone to that terrible "loss of signal from couplings."

[This message has been edited by X (edited January 17, 2001).]

The Monster Cable unit at $100 retail is a bit spendy, but I did a side by side comparison to the Radio Shack unit and it is FAR superior.

I've done some comparisons...
A cheapo $5 RCA female to S-Video convertor cable loses a great amount of light level and causes a weird crosshatching effect on the TV. A $20 single cable RCA to S-Video (or the other way around) from Radio Shack causes dot crawling that looks worse than going straight RCA to RCA. A $400 powered RCA/S-Video convertor module where you can get from a high end HT store shows no signal loss from what I can see. The Monster convertor cable at $100 looks slightly different than the powered module, but looks just as "clean". Maybe slightly more washed out, but at 1/4th the cost, it's not too bad if you don't want to lose a lot of quality.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by El Pollo:
I've done some comparisons...
A cheapo $5 RCA female to S-Video convertor cable loses a great amount of light level and causes a weird crosshatching effect on the TV.<HR>

Interesting. And correct about the low-end one. I got one with a video card upgrade to convert the s-video to composite. Tried it on my set and got the cross-hatch while the s-video looked good.

Go with the Monster or the Tributaries C2S --both around $100. Far better than the cheaper Radio Shack converter.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by AW:
Go with the Monster or the Tributaries C2S --both around $100. Far better than the cheaper Radio Shack converter.<HR>

I'd really rather use the crappier RS one and put the remaining $80 toward a new TV.

$80 towards a new TV? Are you sure that would get you a better TV? An extra $80 is insignificant in the TV realm, IMO. Spend the (extra) $80 towards an S-VHS VCR. That'll get you the composite to S-Video (or reverse) conversion with no signal loss, plus a good VCR you can use for the rest of the life of the VHS format.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by El Pollo:
$80 towards a new TV? Are you sure that would get you a better TV? An extra $80 is insignificant in the TV realm, IMO. Spend the (extra) $80 towards an S-VHS VCR. That'll get you the composite to S-Video (or reverse) conversion with no signal loss, plus a good VCR you can use for the rest of the life of the VHS format.<HR>

Good idea, but connecting DVD to a VCR will probably give you Macrovision problems. There may be ways around it with a computer, but you have to know what you're doing.

Since I got my 27" Wega FS16 for $520, and most other sets of that size are significantly cheaper, $80 didn't seem such an insignificant contribution toward it.

X, wouldn't a Video Stabilizer (AKA Video Copymaster, etc.), the likes of which they sell at Best Buy for around $50, do the trick?

It has an S-Video and RCA Input and Output, and as far as I've heard, the only downside is that it strips the CC from the output.

It might be worth considering, at the very least.

-Rab

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Rab:
X, wouldn't a Video Stabilizer (AKA Video Copymaster, etc.), the likes of which they sell at Best Buy for around $50, do the trick?
-Rab<HR>

There's Macrovision I and II. You need about a $100 one, the Sima Color Corrector, to be sure. That might be the wisest choice because it would still be "useful" after getting a new set.

These guys have it for the best price I've seen. The banner on the top of the page rotates to show $10 off a $100 order so pick up something for $.05 too. I have not used this nor dealt with these guys. I have a Sima automatic video switcher which works very well.

http://www.videoguys.com/sima.htm