Speedlink cable - How?

[Michael88]

Hello guys,

Please take some time to answer me a few question about my new purchase: A speedlink cable.

I was shopping around in my favourite computer/software dealer and my eyes got stuck at a cable with some letters on it: '' RGB and gold-plated connectors! Best image quality through RGB! For PSP and other consoles''
It was inexpensive and I bought it just to see if it works and what it actually does.

Now I have a problem! There is absolutely no users manual and I dont know which cable to connect to the TV to get performance increase because Iam a TV-noob.

I connected the PSP cable to the PSP, there is a box at the cable with a button saying '' AV/RGB''. (Activated RGB) and connected it with the extremely broad cable to the TV. (?) There is also standart PSP Video cable (Yellow) and the S-Video cable which broke because it was too fragile.


Turned RGB on (PSP & cable box) and I saw ......nothing spectacular , just the old (not increased) quality.

I expected a magical tool to get GT4 graphics a lot better better..

Should I throw the cable out of the window? (Like my money)

And whats RGB?

 

[wfooshee]

RGB is a special monitor connection, your TV probably doesn't have it.

 

[Michael88]

RGB is a special monitor connection, your TV probably doesn't have it.

My TV has a port for every cable, that broad cable (dont know what it is), the S-Video, Video only(yellow), it also has a DVD-HDTV port, and a bunch of other ports I dont know. (Green, blue, etc)

 

[SirBerra]

Isn't a speedlink cable the equivalent of snake oil? Guaranteed to cure all ills for a small cost. Just kidding.

Supposedly gold connectors do conduct electricity better, but only a few percent better. Too bad you broke the S-video connector. That connector provides the better video quality of the two. Better than RGB connectors by a small margin. In general, I would say that you probably wasted your money since you broke the S-video connector.

You want much better graphics? Buy yourself a $3000 Sony Bravia HDTV and some $100 Monster video cables. You actually might see some improvement if your eyesight is good.

 

[Michael88]

You want much better graphics? Buy yourself a $3000 Sony Bravia HDTV and some $100 Monster video cables.

I have a 2700$ TV, but no I dont own such moster cables.

However, I always used the S-Video cable for playing with the PSP (before puchasing that new speedlink cable), and I NEVER saw improoved graphics. I tried to see improvement but I didnt found even a single bit of better quality.

What a waste of hard earned money.

And I have a very good eyesight, I go target shooting every sunday with my rifle.

 

[Famine]

Hello guys,

Please take some time to answer me a few question about my new purchase: A speedlink cable.

I was shopping around in my favourite computer/software dealer and my eyes got stuck at a cable with some letters on it: '' RGB and gold-plated connectors! Best image quality through RGB! For PSP and other consoles''
It was inexpensive and I bought it just to see if it works and what it actually does.

Now I have a problem! There is absolutely no users manual and I dont know which cable to connect to the TV to get performance increase because Iam a TV-noob.

I connected the PSP cable to the PSP, there is a box at the cable with a button saying '' AV/RGB''. (Activated RGB) and connected it with the extremely broad cable to the TV. (?) There is also standart PSP Video cable (Yellow) and the S-Video cable which broke because it was too fragile.


Turned RGB on (PSP & cable box) and I saw ......nothing spectacular , just the old (not increased) quality.

I expected a magical tool to get GT4 graphics a lot better better..

Should I throw the cable out of the window? (Like my money)

And whats RGB?

RGB = Red/Green/Blue. The amount of each of these describes the colour of every single pixel on every colour TV screen ev4h. By splitting the colours into three channels, rather than piping them all down the same connector, you should see an improvement in contrast and colour quality - much the same way as splitting sound into left and right channels improves audio quality.

Proper RGB connectors have FIVE leads - one white and one red, paired, for the left and right audio channels, and another three in red, green and blue, for the colour channels. Any cable which ends in three yellow, red and white leads is only a standard composite video input (RGB can often be referred to as "component" input, as the colour signals are split into their three components) with the two audio inputs.

An extremely broad cable is just a standard SCART/Euro-AV input.

For your reference:
RGB/Component video
Composite video
S-Video
RF Connector (what we used in the olden days).
SCART.


All are actually analogue signals. RGB is the best of these, and closest to the digital standard of YCbCr (also called YUV - where Y is the luminance channel and CbCr/UV are the two chrominance channels).

 

[opendriver]

What we used in the olden days?


I call those my GT2 days...

I have no idea what this cable does besides "improve" picture quality

...................

 

[Michael88]

Thanks a lot Famine! 👍

Now I gonna get the right RGB connector, my TV also accepts blue & green so I just have to buy the right connector.

Hope there is some noticeable quality increase.

 

[Famine]

Yes there is...

 

[Michael88]

Yes there is...

Hmm, that sounds a little bit sarcastic.....

 

[Famine]

There is one thing with proper RGB/YCbCr cables - you need to go into the PS2 browser menu and tell it to output to YCbCr first. Oddly it seems to be able to display images just fine either through the RGB or composite cables afterwards, but only the composite ones beforehand. If you get a screen full of green or purple, you haven't set it right...

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

Component (RGB) cable is a significant step up in PQ, only marginally lower in quality than HDMI/DVI... although the upcoming HDMI v1.3 should resolve most of the current handshaking problems with devices using HDMI.

Just remember that it is CRITICAL to calibrate each input seperately!!!!!!

Too often someone buys a beautiful state of the art display, and yet never calibrates each input. The result of which is that despite the superior quality of component, with the default settings on the display, it may easily look inferior to S-video, and even composite.

There are several excellent video calibration discs and software out there, like AVIA, and DVE. These discs cost less than $30 and will make a huge difference in getting the best possible performance out of your display, be it a monitor, DVTV, RPTV, Projector, CRT, LCD, DLP, LCoS, Plasma, SED, OLED, etc.

If you are comfortable playing around with the service menu, and can get your hands on a good Spectroradiometer or Colorimeter, and even a quality D65 lamp, you can go beyond a basic calibration. You can use these tools in combination with specific test patterns from these discs to properly calibrate your display's grayscale so that it tracks as close to D6500 as possible... which is one of the most important elements to achieving a properly calibrated display for optimum video performance.

If you are not comfortable, or do not have access to this equipment, I would strongly recommend you contact the fine folks at Imaging Science Foundation, and ask for a referral for an experienced ISF certified calibrator in your area. Be sure to get referrals from the calibrator as well, and don't be shy about inquireing how much experience he or she may have, and how much experience they have with your particular display.

Doing so should insure you of a trouble free experience and excellent results.