Does SVHS to RCA converter decrease the picture quality?

[Deadtrees]

I just started using SVHS cable for my TV OUT connection. It works perfectly fine and I'm amazed how those video files look much better on the TV than on the monitor. However, the only problem is that I have to use my PC speakers in my room instead of using TV speaker in living room. I have 2 options to solve this matter:

1. I can get extra audio cables.
2. I can get 3 RCA(1 for video and 2 for audio) cables.

Because I do not want to buy an extra cable just for audio, I'm thinking about returning this SVHS cable and gettting 3 RCA cables as it's cheaper. I do have that SVHS to RCA adapter came with the video card, too. However, I'm worried that the SVHS to RCA adapter might decrease the picture quality. Will it?

 

[Pariah]

Yes, it will. S-video is almost always a higher quality transport than composite (RCA). S-VHS is a VCR format, S-Video is the cable you are talking about. There is no conversion when using one of those cable adapters. Those adapters only work on 7pin S-Video connectors which contain extra pins for the composite signal as compared to the standard 4pin S-Video connector.

 

[Deadtrees]

Thanks for the reply!
The cable I'm currently using has 4 pins as my video card has 4 pins. From what I understand, it means that it doesn't carry audio signals unlike those 7 pin ones.
What I'm thinking about is

VGA - Svideo to RCA converter - RCA cable to RCA cable on TV input.

 

[Pariah]

Oh OK. I thought you were talking about one of the cable only adapters that comes with ATi cards and old DVD hardware decoders. They use 7pin SVideo that allows for composite out as well. SVideo is a video only transport, audio is seperate, unless there are proprietary solutions out there.

Regardless of how you get the signal there, RCA will be lower quality than SVideo.

 

[Deadtrees]

I see that no matter how good my output is, it will automatically decrease to the input soket of TV.
In order to keep S-Video quality, I'll have to get an RCA to S-Video cable.

In other words, the set-up has to be

VGA - S-Cable to RCA converter - RCA to S-Cable - S-cable TV Input.

Am I correct?


(Well, I'm not sure about this, either. I think the video data will be mixed once it passes the converter and that TV will process the mixed data)

 

[Deadtrees]

The reason why S-Video is better than RCA is because S-Video separates Luminances and Chrominance channels, however once it passes the converter I think those channels would be mixed. And, TV will process those mixed channels just like if it came through plain RCA cables.

However,
Am I right about this?

 

[Pariah]

The quality of the video will be at best the worst level it is converted to, no matter what you do with it after that "downsample." If you convert S-video down to composite, converting it back to S-video will not bring back S-video quality as that quality was lost in the converstion down to composite. If you want S-video quality on your TV, it has to be S-video from the computer all the way to the TV.

 

[Deadtrees]

Now, it's clear!
Thanks for clearing it out!
I'm just going to get that 2-RCA cabl for the sound.

 

[Jiggz]

Good move. Because it's not the connector actually that makes the big differenct although it does. The S-Vhs cable just like mentioned earlier separates the Lum and Chro signals which is processed separately when connected to the S-Video input of the TV. If the signal is mixed either by inputting to the RCA inputs of the TV or using RCA converter the S-VHS quality is gone. So you've better off using separate audio cables.

 

[fixxxer0]

i tried this and picked up too much noise and got crappy sound quality