| General Category > General Discussion |
| Nintendo (SNES, N64, GameCube) S-Video cable suggestions? |
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| Bear78:
OK, I am looking for some suggestions when it comes to S-Video cables for my SNES, N64, and Gamecube. Before anyone post "Go buy a cheap one on eBay" let me just say that the cheap ones suck (personal experience as I have tried them). The reason being they all have a Yellow plug on them and do not produce a true S-Video signal (you can find a lot more on that subject here: http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?157562-Any-recommendations-on-an-s-video-cable-for-SNES-N64-GC). I was tending to get the "Screen door" effect with the cheap cables as they are running the S-video and Composite though the same wire. I know I can get some official Nintendo ones or some Monster ones but those are both pretty expensive just for some cables (SNES around $30 and Monster is going around $50). I looks like the Innovation S-Video cables might just have the S-Video and no yellow plug but I can't find any real "reviews" on them. So my question is, what is everyone else using? Any good suggestions? Or should I just sink some cash into the official Nintendo ones? Currently I have what I think is an old Madcatz one I am switching back and forth between my SNES and N64 and some "Multicable" for Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube for my Gamecube. Both have a yellow plug but the Madcatz actually works really well (bought it back in the day and can't find them online) while the other one is "OK" but not as good as it should be. |
| Shugo Takahashi:
Funny I should come across this topic - I just recently did some hard searching for some first-party S-video cables so I could connect my SNES/N64/GCN all at once with S-video quality (switchboxes are a lovely thing, going behind the entertainment center to swap the only S-video cable I own between consoles is not). If you want to seek out first-party cables, you're in luck, because I can save you some trouble. The trick lies with Japan! These cables, unlike in the west where they were only sold via special order, were more commonplace in Japan because they were sold at retail. But the reason they don't show up often on eBay is because the real Japanese bidding marketplace is Yahoo Auctions Japan. Search Yahoo Auctions Japan for "任天堂 S端子" (Nintendo S-Video) and you'll find several official first-party cables floating around for as cheap as under $10. Copy yen prices into Google to get it converted into your local currency if you're unsure of the exact price of what you're looking at. Be sure to run the auction pages through Google Translate to make sure you know what you're getting into, too. The downside, though, is that most sellers on that site only ship to Japan. If you don't have a friend who lives in Japan, you'll have to use a middleman service to bid/buy from the site and have it shipped to you. I personally use shoppingmalljapan.com, but their system complicated and cumbersome to use. I recently came across easyauctionjapan.com which seems to be simpler, but I haven't used them so I can't speak for their reliability or how their middleman/shipping fees compare to Shopping Mall Japan. Do some research on these sites and how to use them before you dive in. Obviously third-party cables still show up on Yahoo, so there are two things to look for in the photos to confirm authenticity: the console connector and the box. Third-party peripherals never put "Nintendo" on their console-side connectors, but the official ones have the Nintendo logo molded into the plastic. The Japanese version was also sold in a grey box (SNES/N64) and a black/white box (GCN), and many sellers still have the box. If you see an auction with a picture of the box with Nintendo logos on it, it's genuine. There are also two variants of the cable, one with a black console connector and one with a dark grey console connector. Both are genuine; black is from the GCN era and dark grey is from the N64/SNES eras. They're both the exact same cable on the inside, though obviously the GCN version will more likely be in better shape due to being manufactured more recently. If you have any questions, just ask. In my opinion it really is worth it to go to the lengths to get first-party; you're guaranteed to be getting the intended video quality and not throwing a crapshoot with the various third-party ones (most of which are garbage). |
| Bear78:
Cool, thanks for the suggestion man, I will check that out. |
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