Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Video cables and signals - help (kinda long)

Help please.

I recently purchased and X1 projector that's in part to Sushi's inspiration and encouragement. I'm trying to decide what two cables to purchase for now and future use - 1 S-Video, 1 Component or 2 Component. It'll be a 30 foot run so the cables aren't cheap and I want to think this through.

The X1 has a 7 pin S-Video input (480i) and a VGA input (480p, 720p, 1080i). Both have adapters that enable running component video lines into each. Here's where things get interesting...

My DVD player is currently not progressive (480i). I have a Tivo unit that outputs S-Video (480i). My first question is, can an S-Video breakout cable be used to send a 480i S-Video signal through a component cable into the S-Video adapter for the X1? I get that S-Video is a two piece video signal where component is three, but things get a bit vague after that. I'm not sure I understand how a two or three piece signal can be sent through the same jack.

Eventually I will upgrade the DVD to progressive, which means I'll use the VGA port for a component connection and then I really could get by with an S-Video cable run into the Video port for Tivo. However, I'd like to use the component signal from my DVD player now for a better image and that means I'll need to use the Video port of the X1 with the component adapter. That also means that I'll need to send the Tivo signal to the X1 with component cables and use the receiver to switch inputs for the component out.

Have I made any sense? If so, any input would be appreciated.

You are in a dilemma. You have curently 2 svideo sources with one svideo in.

special svideo input - progressive via component breakout(only can be used on X1 since special pins) or interlaced svideo

vga input - progressive input via vga or vga breakout to component

Since you DVD is interlaced use the svideo cable to the svideo input on X1. The Faroudja chip will kick in and give you a somewhat progressive look. Now that Tivo is also svideo out then you have an issue. Unless either one of those devices (Tivo or DVD) has a component out then you need to keep on switching back and forth unless your receiver has svideo switching.
I do not think there is a svideo to component adapter. I might be wrong on that. But I thought Svideo sends luminance, chrominance and grounds for each equalling to 4 pins while component sends RGB.
You might need to get that progressive DVD player sooner than you thought. They are relatively cheap nowadays.
Quality of chips could be better or not than the X1 Farouja chip. So get a svideo for the Tivo and get component for your new DVD player.
I personnaly run a HTPC via VGA 15 pin to VGA X1 because it gives overall better picture than my Progressive Malata DVD player even into the Faroudja scaler.

Enjoy your X1...I know I have.
http://www.spacelofts.com/x1/

Saturn

Thanks for your help. My receiver does do video switching, which has gotten me by so far using S-Video for both. I'm just curious to see if the picture is much better with component cables even with the 480i DVD signal.

I think the ability of the S-Video port on the X1 to use component in has me trying use it. Bottom line, one day, maybe sooner than later, I'll have the progressive DVD player using the VGA port via component(or VGA? - hmmm, there's a new problem). Don't some new DVD players have a VGA out?

I guess I'll get the S-Video cable now and figure out the rest when the time comes based on the future DVD player.

The TiVo has an S-video output and the DVD player has a component output, right? So run S-video from the TiVo to the projector's S-video input, and component cable from the DVD player to the projector's computer input. Did I miss something?

How do you like that X1? How big of a picture are you projecting?

No, you're not missing something, I think I'm trying to complicate things. Since the video input can accept a component input with an adapter, trying to see if that route would be better down the road for some reason.

I'm really happy with the projector. I've got about an 86" 16:9 image on a homemade screen. Certainly beats the RPTV that the same money would buy. Movies are great and I'm pretty amazed at the Tivo quality.

Toby,

I cannot answer the X1-specific questions better than already covered by others, but I suggest you consider the Mogami brand S-video and/or component cables available at svideo.com. They are surprisingly thin, but I have no appreciable picture degradation whatsoever, through 75' runs of these cables.