Page 1 of 2
Xbox -> Shitty old TV connecting question
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:17 pm
by glossy
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*
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:20 pm
by plained
ey glossy how is it hehe
yea put the signal thruogh a vcr input and out to tv through that areil out yo
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:25 pm
by glossy
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...
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:26 pm
by glossy
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, ... ?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:26 pm
by plained
hehe i doent even have to play tapes so blown heads are fine
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:32 pm
by YourGrandpa
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.
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:32 pm
by glossy
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 ?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:34 pm
by glossy
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.
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:34 pm
by plained
grambs do some learning on 50khz and 60 khz yo
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:42 pm
by YourGrandpa
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...
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:43 pm
by Foo
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.
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:48 pm
by glossy
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
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:49 pm
by YourGrandpa
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.
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:49 pm
by glossy
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
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:53 pm
by glossy
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
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:55 pm
by Foo
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.
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:58 pm
by glossy
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

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 2:59 pm
by Foo
You currently have the xBox wired into your monitor?
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:05 pm
by YourGrandpa
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.
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:12 pm
by glossy
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
Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:13 pm
by glossy
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

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:58 pm
by glossy
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

Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:04 pm
by MKJ
prolly around 34, huh ?
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:11 pm
by plained
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
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:14 pm
by glossy

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