Review: Performance S Video Cable for Dreamcast

[Ragfish]

performance.jpg (20.23 KiB) Viewed 6348 times

I know that VGA is usually the preferred video signal for Dreamcast, but I like playing on a nice big CRT which doesn't have inputs for that, and S Video is the next best thing. I've found that many off brand S Video cables have a checkerboard effect, an audio buzz, and just aren't much better looking than regular composite. The official Dreamcast S Video cable is expensive, and I didn't know of any good alternatives, so I took a gamble on a $10 cable by Performance.

The cable doesn't have any composite output, just an S Video plug and 2 RCA plugs for sound. Strangely, the S Video plug is colored yellow, but don't be fooled, as again there is no composite output on this cable, only S Video.

The picture is nice and clean with no dot crawl, much better than composite. There is no checkerboard effect to be found, this is "true" S Video and not composite coming out of an S Video plug. The sound is also good, with no audio buzz that you get on crappy cables.

Overall, the Performance S Video cable is good. If you're looking for an S Video cable for your Dreamcast, this one is recommended. If you're playing on a monitor or a flatscreen TV then you might as well just use VGA instead, but hopefully this will help anyone who was in the same boat as I was.

Here's a few samples using a capture card and this cable.

(Anyone who can guess all the games saved on my VMU above will win a grand prize of nothing)

[ChristinaDreamcustDC]

Thanks for the screens! S-Video and composite cables together are known for being more likely to have significant checker boarding, as you implied. The video was nice.

[Ragfish]

Thanks for the screens! S-Video and composite cables together are known for being more likely to have significant checker boarding, as you implied. The video was nice.

Indeed, I had a cable like that for my original Xbox and it was terrible, with a very noticeable checkerboard and a loud audio buzz that made me not want to play at all.

[AyeYoYoYOOO]

Same one I use.

It looks shockingly great thru the retroTink2x, into an mcable gaming edition, into smartTV.

[areyareadyherewego]

heh, thanks a lot! just as I was wondering if there's a good dc s-video solution

price is right and you look out for the things that would bother me

maybe ill pick one up to use w my 14" CRT.

Dreamcast is the only system I have a digital solution for, DCDigital. So it's been hooked up to my HDTV exclusively. But maybe ill give it a try

and s-video to rt2x is a great idea! probably much better than the pound crap, etc.

[Ragfish]

heh, thanks a lot! just as I was wondering if there's a good dc s-video solution

price is right and you look out for the things that would bother me

maybe ill pick one up to use w my 14" CRT.

Dreamcast is the only system I have a digital solution for, DCDigital. So it's been hooked up to my HDTV exclusively. But maybe ill give it a try

and s-video to rt2x is a great idea! probably much better than the pound crap, etc.

Glad to hear it was helpful, nobody ever talks about DC S Video so I figured it would be useful to somebody.