Showing posts with label A/V Connectors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A/V Connectors. Show all posts

Component Video Heading To Dreamcast Courtesy Of HD Retrovision

Recently here at the Junkyard we took a look at the different types of A/V connection that you can use with your Dreamcast. The various types of cable that most people will be using to get an image ono a television or monitor will fall under the umbrella of either RF, composite, RGB SCART, S-video or VGA. It looks like we'll soon be able to add another connection type in the near future if HD Retrovision has anything to do with it: component.

We did mention this very fleetingly in the aforementioned article, but it seems that those clever lot over at HD Retrovision - purveyors of high quality cables for all manner of retro systems - have been experimenting with a Dreamcast YPbPr component cable for some time now, and the tweet above shows that they have a working prototype that allows for 480p images for VGA-compatible games and 240p for those which aren't.
This is particularly interesting for those who want to play games like Hydro Thunder and Air Force Delta et al without the need to constantly switch cable types. Hopefully we'll hear more about this interesting development in the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, be sure to check out the HD Retrovision website here.

A Beginner's Guide To Dreamcast A/V Cables

While we here at the Junkyard pore over the minutiae of Dreamcast collecting and the more obscure side of the console's paraphernalia, it has become increasingly apparent that the Dreamcast is attracting a whole new audience as intrigued gamers start collecting for the system. The Dreamcast has been undergoing something of a renaissance for a couple of years now, and as such we thought it was about time that we offered up some basic 'beginner's guides' to various aspects of the Dreamcast for those who aren't fully au fait with the many foibles of the hardware.
First up, we're going to look briefly at the various cables that will allow you to connect your Dreamcast to a tellybox or monitor doo-dah, and what the pros and cons are. As the name suggests, this really will be a quick reference guide, giving the bare minimum that you need to know if you're a bit clueless when it comes to cables and connections and don't know your SCART from your composite or your VGA from your RF. Hey - it's a minefield out there if you're new to the scene, but luckily old uncle Junkyard is here to guide you...like the blind leading the blind! Please remember that this is a beginner's guide and so I'm not really going to go into the science behind it all. I'll leave that to someone with far greater knowledge than I have.

OK, so the first thing to know is that there are a number of different cable variants for the Dreamcast and they all give a picture of varying quality and have differing connectors on the business end. The bit that goes into the Dreamcast's A/V port is pretty much identical though and it looks like this:
The underside of this connector does have a differing number of pins depending on the type, but physically at least, they look the same. The key thing to remember is that you shouldn't try to jab this end into your TV or monitor. If you do, at best you'll end up with a broken cable; at worst you'll end up electrocuting yourself and burning the house down. Probably. Right, on to the good stuff. There are 5 main connection types for the Dreamcast and these are they...