Xbox -> Shitty old TV connecting question

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:17 pm

I have a spare TV I'd like to use for my xbox -- the problem is, that it only has an aerial input, which screws up most chances of connecting my xbox

RGB, S-video or SCART, so is there any way (fancy cables, etc) that I could hook up my xbox to this TV? Also, it's a PAL TV, what would I need to be able to play NTSC games through this?

Thanks q3w *kiss*

Post by **plained** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:20 pm

ey glossy how is it hehe

yea put the signal thruogh a vcr input and out to tv through that areil out yo

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:25 pm

plained wrote:ey glossy how is it hehe

yea put the signal thruogh a vcr input and out to tv through that areil out yo

! didn't even think of that. thanks dude

now just have to track down a VCR...

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:26 pm

Memphis wrote:You'll still have shitty picture quality no matter how you do it

you mean, shitty quality on the TV? the whole setup works fine at the moment, ... ?

Post by **plained** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:26 pm

hehe i doent even have to play tapes so blown heads are fine

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:32 pm

How do you figure the TV is PAL? I've never heard of such a thing. PAL is a recording format that is decoded by the DVD player and then reproduce as an image onto your TV screen. Both PAL and NTSC will play on all TVs. It's the wide sceen pictures that won't play correctly on older units. But you can usually set the DVD player to the normal 4:3 format instead of the 16:9 wide screen.

Edit: And yeah, use a VCR to get your X-box picture. Hook the Coax out from the VCR to the antenna in on your TV. Then hook the RCA out of the X-box to the RCA in on the VCR. Set the VCR to channel 3 and turn your TV to channel 3. Presto ! The picture isn't going to be digital quality, but it'll be playable.

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:32 pm

Yeah, i'm gunna see if we or anyone else round here have a busted one that i can nab...

But seriously, who uses VHS anymore ?

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:34 pm

YourGrandpa wrote:How do you figure the TV is PAL? I've never heard of such a thing. PAL is a recording format that is decoded by the DVD player and then reproduce as an image onto your TV screen. Both PAL and NTSC will play on all TVs. It's the wide sceen pictures that won't play correctly on older units. But you can usually set the DVD player to the normal 4:3 format instead of the 16:9 wide screen.

The fact that on my main TV I can play NTSC games fine, yet on another TV here the image is fucked and black and white. PAL games work fine on both TVs.

PAL games would obviously be set up to output video at 25Hz, whereas a NTSC game would be set to output video 60Hz (iirc) and interlaced.

edit: and we're talking about an Xbox here, not a DVD player (although DVD players suffer the same problems as above-- disc to TV mismatches result in whack image). Wiring it through the VHS player could solve the PAL/NTSC problem, depending on how it works. I have less experience with VHS players.

Post by **plained** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:34 pm

grambs do some learning on 50khz and 60 khz yo

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:42 pm

glossy wrote:The fact that on my main TV I can play NTSC games fine, yet on another TV here the image is fucked and black and white. PAL games work fine on both TVs.

PAL games would obviously be set up to output video at 25Hz, whereas a NTSC game would be set to output video 60Hz (iirc) and interlaced.

edit: and we're talking about an Xbox here, not a DVD player (although DVD players suffer the same problems as above-- disc to TV mismatches result in whack image). Wiring it through the VHS player could solve the PAL/NTSC problem, depending on how it works. I have less experience with VHS players.

Hmmm.... I've never had these problems. PAL and NTSC "movies" play fine on all of my TVs and the TVs range in size and age.

You learn something new every day...

Post by **Foo** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:43 pm

We have this setup downstairs. We have the consoles attached into the scart input on the back of our VCR, then an aeriel lead from VCR to TV.

It fucks up on DVDs, either it's a copy protection method or it can't handle the frequency.. but games are fine.

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:48 pm

YourGrandpa wrote:
glossy wrote:The fact that on my main TV I can play NTSC games fine, yet on another TV here the image is fucked and black and white. PAL games work fine on both TVs.

PAL games would obviously be set up to output video at 25Hz, whereas a NTSC game would be set to output video 60Hz (iirc) and interlaced.

edit: and we're talking about an Xbox here, not a DVD player (although DVD players suffer the same problems as above-- disc to TV mismatches result in whack image). Wiring it through the VHS player could solve the PAL/NTSC problem, depending on how it works. I have less experience with VHS players.
Hmmm.... I've never had these problems. PAL and NTSC "movies" play fine on all of my TVs and the TVs range in size and age.

You learn something new every day...

yeah

My bigger TV is pretty newish, the other TV that doesn't work on NTSC is about 10-15 years old, and god knows when this old TV was made, some relative of ours died so i picked it up

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:49 pm

glossy wrote:Yeah, i'm gunna see if we or anyone else round here have a busted one that i can nab...

But seriously, who uses VHS anymore ?

They do make a converter too. But the quality of picture is going to be the same.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RF-Modulator-for-ho ... dZViewItem

They're called RF modulators.

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:49 pm

Foo wrote:We have this setup downstairs. We have the consoles attached into the scart input on the back of our VCR, then an aeriel lead from VCR to TV.

It fucks up on DVDs, either it's a copy protection method or it can't handle the frequency.. but games are fine.

Macrovision DVD protection

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:53 pm

YourGrandpa wrote:
glossy wrote:Yeah, i'm gunna see if we or anyone else round here have a busted one that i can nab...

But seriously, who uses VHS anymore ?
They do make a converter too. But the quality of picture is going to be the same.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RF-Modulator-for-ho ... dZViewItem

They're called RF modulators.

nice, thanks.

I don't get this whole "quality of picture" thing. Keep in mind i still watch my TV through a normal aerial connection, none of this HDTV bullshit yet

Post by **Foo** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:55 pm

I think he means that the xbox itself isn't going to be able to show its full potential through an RF lead.

However if your TV is so old it doesn't have scart, i suspect the lead wont matter, the TV will be fairly poor too.

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:58 pm

the TV is pretty shit

, it just means that hooking this up means I can do internets/coding at the same time as playing burnout4

Post by **Foo** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:59 pm

You currently have the xBox wired into your monitor?

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:05 pm

glossy wrote: nice, thanks.

I don't get this whole "quality of picture" thing. Keep in mind i still watch my TV through a normal aerial connection, none of this HDTV bullshit yet

NP...

What I mean is, whenever you convert an output you will suffer signal loss.

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:12 pm

Foo wrote:You currently have the xBox wired into your monitor?

i currently have the xbox connected to the main TV in the main living room

Post by **glossy** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:13 pm

YourGrandpa wrote:
glossy wrote: nice, thanks.

I don't get this whole "quality of picture" thing. Keep in mind i still watch my TV through a normal aerial connection, none of this HDTV bullshit yet
NP...

What I mean is, whenever you convert an output you will suffer signal loss.

okay, thanks. I'm sure i won't notice it (or it won't bother me too much) when it's connected to such an old TV -- as long as it doesn't disrupt my gaming, i'll be pleased with it.

Thanks for all your help guys, I'll track down a VCR and check it all out after class tomorrow

Post by **glossy** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:58 pm

Xbox s-video and audio

VCR

VCR aerial out

20+ year old TV. Had to switch to the 'U' band and scroll through a bunch of frequencies until I found the VCR... took a lot of trial and error but i got there.

thanks

Post by **MKJ** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:04 pm

prolly around 34, huh ?

Post by **plained** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:11 pm

hehe so you got a stereo one ey right on if you wanted you can plug it into a blaster or sommy for twin burnout sound

Post by **glossy** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:14 pm

maybe -- somewhere in the realm of "extremely" ?