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S-Video

 

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S-Video


 
 

Overview

The luminanceLuminance (video)

As applied to analog television signals, luminance is the weighted sum of the linear RGB components of a color video signal,...
 (Y; gray-scale) signal and modulatedModulation

Modulation is the process of varying a carrier signal in order to use that signal to convey information....
 chrominanceChrominance Summary

Chrominance , along with luminance is one of the two components of a television signal....
 (C; colour) information are carried on separate synchronised signal and ground pairs.

In composite videoComposite video

Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an...
, the luminance signal is low-pass filterLow-pass filter

A low-pass filter is a filter that passes low frequencies well, but attenuates frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency...
ed to prevent crosstalk between high-frequencyFrequency

Frequency is the measurement of the number of times that a repeated event occurs per unit of time....
 luminance information and the colour sub-carrier. S-Video separates the two, and detrimental low-pass filtering is unnecessary. This increases bandwidth for the luminance information, and also subdues the colour crosstalk problem. The infamous dot crawlDot crawl Overview

Dot crawl is the popular name for a visual defect of color analog video standards when signals are transmitted as composite ...
 is eliminated. This means that S-Video leaves more information from the original video intact, thus having a much-improved image reproduction compared to composite video.

Due to the separation of the video into brightness and colour components, S-Video is sometimes considered a type of component videoComponent video

Component video is a type of analog video information that is transmitted or stored as two or more separate signals....
 signal, although it is also the most inferior of them, quality-wise, being far surpassed by the more complex component video schemes (like RGB). What differentiates S-Video from these higher component video schemes is that S-Video carries the colour information as one signal. This means that the colour has to be encoded in some way, and, as such, NTSCNTSC Summary

NTSC is the analog television system in use in Canada, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and some other countries, most...
, PALPAL

PAL, short for phase-alternating line, phase alternation by line or phase alternation line, is a colour en...
 and SECAMSECAM

SECAM, also written SCAM , is an analog color television system first used in France....
 signals are all decidedly different through S-Video. Thus, for full compatibility, the used devices not only have to be S-Video compatible but also compatible in terms of colour encoding. In addition, S-Video suffers from reduced colour resolution. NTSC S-Video colour resolution is typically 120 lines horizontal (approximately 160 pixels edge-to-edge), versus 250 lines horizontal for a DVD-encoded signal, or 30 lines horizontal for standard VCRs.

To summarize (for PAL formats substitute 576 pixels instead of 486 pixels):
  • RF modulating to channel 3 or 4 leads to interference from other electronics, in addition to modulation noise and distortion
  • Compositing chroma/luma leads to blurry and low-resolution (approximately 420×486 pixels edge-to-edge) due to C/Y crosstalk
  • S-Video leads to sharp images (approximately 700×486 pixels edge-to-edge when using a clean DVD source)


When used for connecting a video source to a video display where both support 4:3 and 16:9 display formats, the PAL television standard provides for signaling pulses that will automatically switch the display from one format to the other. The S-video connection transparently supports this operation. The S-Video connection also has general provision for widescreen signaling through a DC offset applied to the chrominance signal; however, this is a more recent development, and is not widely supported.

History

Although being present in professional market since early 80s, the S-Video cable standard was introduced in home consumer market with the release of S-VHSS-VHS

Introduced in Japan in 1987, S-VHS was an improved version of the VHS standard for consumer video cassette recorders....
 by JVCJVC

, usually referred to as JVC, is an international consumer and professional electronics corporation based in Yokohama, Japan...
 in 1987. JVC claimed that only with S-Video cables the new standard can play with its full potential, despite the cable not bundled in early S-VHS VCRs releases due to low penetration TVs with S-Video ports. The S-VHS format never obtained mainstream success although has been adopted in the Home Theater segment.

In the late 90s bigger TVs (> 25") started releasing the S-Video port as default bringing other devices supporting it such as Videocassette recorderVideocassette recorder Overview

The videocassette recorder, is a type of video tape recorder that uses removable videotape cassettes containing magnetic tap...
s, DVD playerDVD player

A DVD player is a device for playing discs produced under the DVD Video standard....
s, Satellite receiverIntegrated receiver/decoder Overview

An integrated receiver/decoder is an electronic device used to pick-up a radio-frequency signal and convert digital informat...
s, Video game consoleVideo game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer....
s and computer Video cardVideo card

A video card,, is an item of personal computer hardware whose function is to generate and output images to a display....
s. The format gained some popularity in early 2000s. With the introduction of the Component videoComponent video

Component video is a type of analog video information that is transmitted or stored as two or more separate signals....
 the S-Video began to be abandoned by the Home Video market but is still a default in modern video devices as a better alternative to CompositeComposite

The term composite can refer to several different things:...
 in older TVs, and to output the video signal from a computer or notebook to a TV.

There is some controversy around what the S letter means. JVC named Super Video in accordance to Super VHS. Others manufacturers named Separated Video and some others reffered to the format as S-VHS cable.

Connector

An S-Video signal is generally connected using a cable with 4-pin mini-DIN connectors using a 75 ohmOHM Overview

Sorry, no overview for this topic
 characteristic impedance. Apart from the impedance requirement, these cables are equivalent to regular mini-DIN cables (like Apple's ADBApple Desktop Bus

Apple Desktop Bus is an obsolete bit-serial bus for connecting low-speed devices to computers....
); these cables can be used for S-Video transfer if no other cable is available, but picture quality may not be as good. Due to the wide use of S-Video connections for DVD players, S-Video cables are fairly inexpensive compared to component or digital connector cables, and are routinely available in places where the higher-bandwidth cables are not.

The mini-DIN pins, being weak, sometimes bend. This can result in the loss of colour, or other corruption (or loss) in the signal. A bent pin can be forced back into shape, but this carries the risk of further damage, or even the pin breaking off.

Before the mini-DIN plug became standard, S-Video signals were often carried through different types of plugs. For example, the Commodore 64Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 personal computer, released in August 1982, became the best selling single computer model of all time, acco...
 home computerHome computer

The home computer is a consumer-friendly word for the second generation of microcomputers , entering the market in 1977 and ...
 of the 1980s, one of the first widely available devices to feature S-Video output, used an 8-pin DIN connectorDIN connector

A DIN connector is a connector that was originally standardized by Deutsches Institut fr Normung, the German national standa...
 on the computer end and a pair of RCA plugsRCA connector Overview

An RCA jack, also referred to as a phono connector or CINCH/AV connector, is a type of electrical connector whic...
 on the monitor end. (Also available via third-party vendors is an 8-pin DIN to 4-pin mini-DIN to connect the Commodore directly to a television.) The S-Video connector is the most common video-out connector on laptop computers, however many devices with S-Video outputs also have composite outputs.

The Atari 800 home computer featured S-Video outputs three years before the Commodore 64, in 1979, via a 5-pin DIN plug.

Both S-Video and audio (mono or stereo) signals can be transferred through SCARTSCART Overview

SCART is a French-originated standard and associated 21-pin connector for connecting audio-visual equipment together....
 connections as well. However, it was not part of the original SCART standard, and not every SCART-compatible device supports it for this reason. Also, S-Video and RGB are mutually exclusive through SCART, due to the S-Video implementation using the pins allocated for RGB. Most SCART-equipped televisions or VCRs (and almost all of the older ones) do not actually support S-Video, resulting in a monochrome picture if such a connection is attempted, as only the luminance signal portion is usable. Generally, a monochrome picture in itself can also be a sign of incompatible color encoding — for example NTSC material viewed through a PAL-only device.

Another incompatibility due to S-Video not being part of the original SCART standard is when connecting a SCART output device such as a cable TV box to a TV with a mini-DIN S-Video input. In many cases if this connection is made the result will be a predominantly black and white picture with most of the color (chrominance signal) washed out. An example of this is when connecting a SCART output of a FOXTEL Digital Box (Australia) to a mini-DIN S-Video input of a TV. An impedance mismatch between the SCART and mini-DIN interfaces causes the signal levels to be reduced to the TV resulting in the poor picture. This problem can be overcome by terminating the chrominance line of the SCART plug with a 75 ohm resistor correcting the mismatch. Many high end sets do support this connection however (without the termination), due to their inputs having a larger dynamic range.

Specifications

General

  • The 4-pin mini-DIN connectorMini-DIN connector

    The mini-DIN connectors are a family of multi-pin Electrical connectors used in a variety of applications....
    s are common on TVs, VCRs, and DVD players. Pinout mapping information can be found

7 pin mini-DIN


(plug or male connector shown, as visible when unplugged; female sockets appear left-right reversed)
  • Non-standard 7-pin mini-DIN connectors are used on laptopFacts About Laptop

    A laptop computer or simply laptop is a small mobile personal computer, usually weighing from one to three kilograms, ...
    s and video cards. The 7-pin socket accepts the 4-pin plug (unlike the standard 7-pin socket) and the S-video signals are available on the matching pins. When a 7-pin plug is inserted, one of the extra pins carries a CVBS composite videoComposite video

    Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an...
     signal for non S-video displays.
  • Some graphics cards require the remaining two pins to be shorted together to enable the CVBS mode. Many newer cards (especially those with inputs and outputs) will also require the 7+ pin connector and will not take the s-video cable directly. The 7-pin plug has a longer locating lug making it difficult (but not impossible) to insert it in a 4-pin socket. Damage to the plug and socket is inevitable if the plug is forced into the socket.
  • A 7-pin connector can also transmit YPbPrYPbPr

    YPbPr is a color space used in video electronics....
     or RGB component video, though the outputs are usually 3 RCA jacks for YPbPr and 5 BNC connectorBNC connector

    The BNC connector is a type of RF connector used for terminating coaxial cable....
    s or SCARTSCART Overview

    SCART is a French-originated standard and associated 21-pin connector for connecting audio-visual equipment together....
     for RGB. Such cables are often provided with video cards. Another type of Y/C signal is to be found on the Sony U-MaticU-matic Summary

    U-matic is the name of a videocassette format developed by Sony in 1969....
     series with a 7-pin connector.

9 pin Video In Video Out


  • Two variations of the 9-pin din connector are used by video cards with Video In Video Out (VIVO)Video In Video Out

    Video In Video Out, usually seen as the acronym VIVO, enables video cards to have bidirectional video transfer through...
     capability. Pinout mapping information for the first version can be found .

Other

S-video uses 2 parallel monochrome composite video signals to represent the chroma and luma subcarriers respectively.

Usage

S-Video is commonly used throughout the world. It is found on consumer TVsTelevision

Television is a telecommunication system for...
, DVD playerDVD player

A DVD player is a device for playing discs produced under the DVD Video standard....
s, high-end video cassette recorders, Digital TV receivers, DVRDigital video recorder

A digital video recorder is a device that records video without videotape to a hard drive-based digital storage medium....
s, and game consoles. Almost all TV-out connectors on graphics cards can support S-Video.

S-Video cables are used for computer-to-TV output for business or home usage. Because it is very simple to convert S-Video to composite signal (just the logical merging of the two through a filter capacitor is required), many electronics retailers offer converter adaptors for signal conversion. Conversion will not improve image quality, but will allow connecting to otherwise-incompatible devices. Converting composite signal to S-Video is harder, because once Luminance and Colour are merged it is hard to separate them while minimizing loss.

Due to a lack of bandwidth, S-Video connections are generally not considered suitable for high-definition video signals. As a result, HD sources are generally connected to a monitor by way of analogue component videoComponent video

Component video is a type of analog video information that is transmitted or stored as two or more separate signals....
 or wideband digital methods (usually HDMI or DVIDigital Visual Interface

The Digital Visual Interface is a video interface standard designed to maximize the visual quality of digital display devic...
). However, on the older monitors with S-Video but without HDMI and DVI, some graphics cards have full display (including bootup display) with HDMI, DVI and S-Video and partial full display (displaying only after the OS boots up) with component and composite. So in this case, a good connection will be the S-Video connection as it allows the user to see the display in the event he needs to adjust settings in the CMOS.

The situation with VCRs is a bit unusual: the common S-Video connector was designed for Super VHS and Hi8 VCRs as a high-bandwidth video connection, and has been used for the same purpose on a great number of other consumer devices, coming into greatest prominence with the rise of the DVD format. Many digitalDigital video

Digital video is a type of video recording system that works by using a digital, rather than analog, representation of the v...
, and all Hi-8, and S-VHS-C camcorderCamcorder

A camcorder is a portable electronic device for recording video * PictBridge...
s support S-Video out as well. Standard VHSVHS

The Video Home System, better known by its abbreviation VHS, is a recording and playing standard for video cassette re...
 VCRs do not put out a high enough resolution signal to saturate an S-Video connection, and therefore most such units, even those in combination units with DVD players (which commonly use S-Video or component outputs), require the output from the VHS deck to go through a composite videoComposite video

Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an...
 or RF connection.

See also

  • Audio and video connectorAudio and video connector

    Audio Audio connectors are electrical connectors designed and used for audio frequencies....
  • S-VHSS-VHS

    Introduced in Japan in 1987, S-VHS was an improved version of the VHS standard for consumer video cassette recorders....
  • RCA connectorRCA connector

    An RCA jack, also referred to as a phono connector or CINCH/AV connector, is a type of electrical connector whic...
  • RF connectorRF connector

    An RF connector is an electrical connector designed to work at radio frequencies in the multi-megahertz range....
  • S-video monitor
  • mini-DIN
  • List of display interfaces
  • Video In Video Out (VIVO)Video In Video Out

    Video In Video Out, usually seen as the acronym VIVO, enables video cards to have bidirectional video transfer through...