[Davidgilmour]

I want to buy the Japanese version of the Panasonic HD SD1 videocamera through ebay. Problem is that the Japanese got HDMI and Component but their Component is not the Red Green Blue RCA/Phono plugged cable but a different one. It's called the D-terminal cable and looks like this. It does contain the same YUY Y Pr Pb component signal as we know it but the plug is different. Does anyone know if I can buy a spare component cable for the Panasonic SD1 or a converter that will use the japanese d-terminal as input and outputs the red green blue cable?

This is what the D-terminal looks like:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._connector.jpg

and this is the camera connector:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2...rminalsia5.jpg

It's in the middle. Any help is appreciated!

[redsox_mark]

I would think that the UK camcorder would have the same connection (on the camcorder end), so if you bought a component cable for the UK model that would work.

The connection on the camcorder end looks very much like the connection on my Sony HC1... can't tell for sure from the photo though.

[Davidgilmour]

Thanks, but the UK version won't be released before april 2007. It has not even been announced officially in Europe. The USA version will appear sometime in march but I want to order the Japanese camera this week. Since I have a SD Plasma (Panny PW7) I can not use a HDMI cable and the AV cable that comes with it won't give me any good quality (red/white cable). So I am looking for a short term solution that might help. Wikipedia says about the D-terminal cable the following:
" It is possible to use a simple breakout cable to connect a D-Terminal connector to a world standard 3 RCA jack or BNC component connection "
But it does not say how. Remember it uses the exact same YuY signal so it should be easy but how?

Wikilink --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Terminal

[JefUK]

Until a suitable cable becomes available outside of Japan I think the only way to connect by component is to use the supplied D-Terminal cable and carefully remove the individual wires from the back of the plug and connect these to 3 suitably coloured phone plugs. Use the wires that go to pins 1-6, as shown on Wiki , and carefully insulate the ends of the other unused wires. To do it properly use 3 short lengths of good quality screened cable with heat-shrink sleeving to insulate the joins in the wires and cover the whole join with larger diameter heat-shrink.
The D-Terminal connector on the breakout cable ,for which you give a link Component Cable, will not fit the socket on the camera. I think the socket is a Min-D, in which case the Canon Component Cable CTC-100 may fit - if you can find one of those!

[Davidgilmour]

Thanks Jef. I have been searching all over the web for a solution. Going so far that I know how to spel D-Terminal and Component in Japanese I found several sellers on Yahoo Japan for D-terminal-component cables.

This is what is inside the Box (middle cable is the d4 cable)

http://panasonic.jp/dvc/sd1/img/spec_huzoku.jpg

The thing I would need is this one :

http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/9...1600004bk9.jpg

But than reversed! This is a male D4 with female component and I need a female D4 with male component. I can't find the female D4 connector anywhere on the net.

This is how a female D4 connector looks ( look at slot 1/2 component ).
http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?i...b2rear2kn3.jpg

I will buy the camera and try to either buy a Canon cable or take the cable to a store with the wikipedia information and ask them to cut it out and make a component cable from it. ( I have 2 left hands ).

I find it so strange that no one else in the world has this problem but I think that most people will use a HDMI cable and since I have a SD plasma I can't use HDMI.

Thanks!

[JefUK]

If I understand your problem correctly you want to connect your camera to a Panny display which uses seperate component inputs (3 RCA Phonos).

All the photos you link to show cables with standard D-Terminal connectors, and these will not fit the camera. I think the camera uses what is known as mini-D, being much smaller than the normal one.

So, until the cables you need are available in Europe the only way is to take the included "mini-D" to standard D-Terminal cable, cut off the standard D-Terminal connector and connect the wires that were on pins 1-6 to 3 seperate phone plugs.

I would expect a suitable cable to be made avilable when the camera is sold here.