ArcadeVGA question

[jombee]

I know this is not a GameEx question, but I've been waiting a few days for an email reply from Andy at Ultimarc, and there has been no reply on in their forum to my question. Hopefully someone here can help me out.

I want to use a TV as a secondary monitor for my Arcade Cabinet. Can someone with an ArcadeVGA confirm that the TV out connection is 7 pin S-Video. My card is mounted and buried deep in my cab, and I cannot get a good look at it, and I really do not want to tear everything apart if possible. I know a regular 4 pin s-video cable does not work with it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[bkenobi]

The ArcadeVGA card is based on the ATI 9600 (as I recall), so my uneducated guess would be that whatever the ATI card uses, so does the ArcadeVGA.

[shaunopp]

I know this is not a GameEx question, but I've been waiting a few days for an email reply from Andy at Ultimarc, and there has been no reply on in their forum to my question. Hopefully someone here can help me out.

I want to use a TV as a secondary monitor for my Arcade Cabinet. Can someone with an ArcadeVGA confirm that the TV out connection is 7 pin S-Video. My card is mounted and buried deep in my cab, and I cannot get a good look at it, and I really do not want to tear everything apart if possible. I know a regular 4 pin s-video cable does not work with it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Just took a look at mine (a PCIe AVGA that's about 2 mos. old) and the S-video is definitely 4 pin. The chipset it's based on is dependant on whether it's PCIe or AGP:

"Powerful ATI Radeon 9250 AGP or Radeon X550 PCIe chipset for great performance in 3D games as well as emulation"

[jombee]

Thx for the reply.

Mine is also 2 months old or so, but is AGP. A four pin will not go into mine for some reason, guess I am going to have to open up the cab and take a closer look.

thanks again!

[bkenobi]

Not that it means anything about your card, but my Asus Radeon 9250 has a 7 pin din (svideo) on the back. It requires an ATI break out cable to work for TV (RCA and Svideo outs).

[jombee]

Not that it means anything about your card, but my Asus Radeon 9250 has a 7 pin din (svideo) on the back. It requires an ATI break out cable to work for TV (RCA and Svideo outs).

Thanks. I know for sure that a 4-pin will not go in so this must be the problem. It would have been nice to have a cable included, or at least have this mentioned in the documentation or on the web site.

[iano]

Thanks. I know for sure that a 4-pin will not go in so this must be the problem. It would have been nice to have a cable included, or at least have this mentioned in the documentation or on the web site.

Hi. I'm after plugging a 4 pin s-video lead into my arcadevga. It plugs in fine. Are you sure you have the s-video lead connector orientated the right way round (it's keyed). I cannot verify that this will work as a dual monitor solution because the card is sitting in my hand but it plugs in fine.

[bkenobi]

I don't think it will work unless the key is broken off because the keys are different shapes for 4 and 7 pin dins. Even if you were to break off the key, I don't know that the pins are in the correct position for SVideo, so I wouldn't just modify a cable unless you were okay with throwing it out. I would check around and see if you can pick up the splitter cable online.

Then again, maybe someone here has an extra one that they have no use for and would be willing to part with it. Just a thought...

[Stu1983]

I could never get the s-video port on my arcade vga to output any picture on my tv

Andy said something along the line of the cards alway output NTSC even if set to PAL and that my tv mustn't support true NTSC whatever that means. All I know is the tv works fine with my dvd player when I set it to NTSC and it also displays a picture from my other ati card whether it's set to ntsc or pal. I've tried 4 tv's so for 2 bravia lcds and 2 old crts that I had and none of them work with the Arcade VGA, it's not a big deal as I have a PoloStar aracde monitor conected to it but it would've been nice to output to the tv in the living room for some sofa gaming

Stu

[Brian Hoffman]

Have you tried something like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-to-TV-Encoder-Box_...9QQcmdZViewItem

[Stu1983]

Have you tried something like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-to-TV-Encoder-Box_...9QQcmdZViewItem

I remember trying an encoder box a few years ago but there was a very noticable lag while gaming, I've always avoided them since then but maybe technology has changed, anyone else had any experience with them?

Stu

[jombee]

Thanks for all the help.

A regular 4-pin S-Video cable plugs in, but is very loose fitting. It only displays a completely distorted black and white image. I have emailed Andy for help 2 times (1st email over a week ago), but have not received any reply yet. My TV is NTSC, any everything worked perfectly with my old Nvidia card with the S-video out.

[bkenobi]

That probably means that the plug is not svideo compliant. The data is certainly on the data pins, but they are not on the correct 4 in the correct position. I suspect, as I said earlier, that the splitter is required to make the connection. There is a web site out there that I've used in the past that describes the connectors and the data that's on each one, but I don't know if it details the ATI connector. I'm sure someone does, but I don't have a reference. You could either find that data and build your own cable or buy the splitter online.