gamecube real digital cable

[tesla246]

Hey guys, plz go easy on me coz im new and I am not english

i came to this forum because there are lots of people who know what they talk about :P

here goes:
i have red a lot about the gamecube component cables and how they were necessary to output 480p on your cube.

However the digital out port on the gamecube is digital right?
So that cable converts a digital picture into an analogue picture right?

Now was my question:
Is it possible in any way to mod an hdmi/dvi cable or make a cable on your own so that the digital picture goes into a digial input on your tv without it being converted into analogue?
And if so, is there a tutorial?

And is it possible to get digital sound from your gamecube?

thanks in advance y'all

[tesla246]

interrested in telling me, anyone?

[Tetlee]

I'm afriad it would be a "no" to both those questions, certainly not that I know about anyway, sorry.

[tesla246]

but there is a site that says something about gamecube digital, however, no one has taken advantage of it (yet?)

here's the link:
av:nintendodigitalav [NFG Games + GameSX]

What i wanna know is if it is technicaly possible

thanks for the reply anyway

[tinoest]

It appears they did offer one

Buy Game Cube D-Terminal Video Cable (Gamecube) - Order Now!

However due to the lack of people buying it and using this they disabled it on later models. Cost cutting measures I assume

edit for further info

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...en-GB%26sa%3DN

[tesla246]

@tinoest

thanks for the reply, but... you are are mistaken.
The D-terminal cable actualy is a component cable with a D-terminal socket (for japanese market, D-terminal was japanese analoque standard)

D doestn't stand for digital (i think) because it can only carry a analoque signal. Here is a link explaining it though:

D-Terminal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

No one ever released a truly digital cable capable of carying the digital signal, that the cube outputs.
So no cable that carries a digital sound or digital video signal (let alone both), altough the cube supports it natively.
Thats the reason why im so interrested in it and also because I will soon buy a large HDTV and that would certainly improve picture quality even above component!

But thanks again for the reply anyway

[tinoest]

If you read the comments on both the links I put they mention outputing at 480p, from that I would guess it does offer progressive scan but at a standard tv output 480 (I think 480 is the old SD anyway..)

[tesla246]

thanks for the reply tinoest

I did click on your links and i saw the D-terminal, wich i know is capable of outputting 480p signal (EDTV).

However, the cable is analoque. it said digital on the site, but that only refers to the fact that it accepts a digital signal and converts the signal into analoque. There is a DAC (Digital Analoque Converter) chip inside doing that process since the japanese D-terminal standard inputs on the tv's only accept analoque (just like component is also analoque)

What I want to know if it is possible in any way to make a (custom?) cable that takes advantage out of the digital signal the cube outputs. (without converting to analoque, that is).

So to get digital sound and/or digital video.
Digital sound is already possible troughout a mod. I already reffered to that link in my starter-post, but I'll post it again:
av:nintendodigitalav [NFG Games + GameSX]

or in specific:
http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendogcda

thanks anyway for the reply tinoest

[tinoest]

The second link I posted has some information on getting component out from the gamecube, however it seems the poster never tried it and you would need to change the chip that is in the d-terminal cable.

So from that it might be possible but you need a DAC of some sort to change it into the correct format for component out. Personally from what ive read it does'nt seem worth the additional effort, however with some clever trickery and a few dac's it should be possible.

Sorry I could't help more.

edit: I was referring to the information from this page http://ramblings.narrabilis.com/wp/g...ve-scan-cable/

[tesla246]

thanks for the reply tinoest

So you're saying that it would be possible to convert the (then usable analoque component output) back to digital?
But wouldn't that result in a loss of quality?

Thanks anyway for posting but I guess i'll just give up, its too complicated anyway for me, because I'm a noob with cables and stuff :P
However, if anyone reads this and is interested as well, thus has some knowledge or knows how to make it work and/or where to buy additional pieces to make it work, feel free to reply in this topic

Thanks for the information tinoest, it's much appreciated
p.s. were you interested in this matter as well?

grtz, tesla246

[tinoest]

From this quote

he signal coming out of the gamecube is reported to be YCbCr. The signal needed by component is YPbPr.

I expect that you will have to do some internal trickery with either a DAC or some other IC, which one I would't know without looking into it. Once you have managed that it should just be a simple plug in an play approach. When I get the chance I will probably research this a bit more and see what IC's are available to do this, they will most likely be a SMD design which limits what I can do. (My soldering is not good enough to allow me to SMD solder)

I don't see why you would need to convert to analogue and then back to digital again. My use of the word DAC might of confused the issue. You just need to convert from YCbCr to YPbPr.... I think

YCbCr is a Digital output btw whereas YPbPr is a Analog one.

Definition of: YCbCr

One of two primary color spaces used to represent digital component video (the other is RGB). The difference between YCbCr and RGB is that YCbCr represents color as brightness and two color difference signals, while RGB represents color as red, green and blue. In YCbCr, the Y is the brightness (luma), Cb is blue minus luma (B-Y) and Cr is red minus luma (R-Y). See component video.

YCbCr Is Digital
MPEG compression, which is used in DVDs, digital TV and Video CDs, is coded in YCbCr, and digital camcorders (MiniDV, DV, Digital Betacam, etc.) output YCbCr over a digital link such as FireWire or SDI. The ITU-R BT.601 international standard for digital video defines both YCbCr and RGB color spaces. See YCbCr Sampling.

YPbPr Is Analog
YPbPr is the analog counterpart of YCbCr. It uses three cables for connection, whereas YCbCr uses only a single cable (see YPbPr). See YUV, YUV/RGB conversion formulas and ITU-R BT.601.

edit: above was from http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_te...i=55163,00.asp

[tesla246]

thanks for the answer,I think I understand now, a little.

But if you have a digital component video cable, would that solve the problem if you mod the nintendo analoque cable into a digital one, or do you need to have codecs and all sorts of that stuff?

Also, do modern hdtv's accept digital component throughout their component inputs? (think not, but just asking) If not, you'll have to buy a converter to HDMI or DVI right?

Thanks, you're a big help

[tinoest]

But if you have a digital component video cable, would that solve the problem if you mod the nintendo analoque cable into a digital one, or do you need to have codecs and all sorts of that stuff?

Well after reading into this abit more, in theory the signal coming out of the gamecube which is reported to be YCbCr should be able to feed straight into a TV that accepts that type of input.

You would need a codec to decipher the MPEG video stream MPEG-2 video compression shows how it all works. (Be prepared to read it for a while to understand..atleast I needed to) If a TV can do the decoding for you then you should be able to input the digital signal straight into the tv.

Component is a analogue connection tho Component video - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which is capable of carrying signals such as 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i and1080p, and new high definition TVs support the use of component video up to their native resolution.

So I would personally look into converting from YCbCr to YPbPr in the cable as the d-connector does. an then just input that into the TV.

Hope my muddled thoughts help a little...probably confused you more as im good at doing that..

To go back to your inital question about the digital out, that I forgot in my long posts. Yes it should be possible, however it is probably best not to as component offers the choice of outputing at a Hi-def standard anyway, unless you don't have a component input and this is the issue?

edit: The gamecube does offer audio digital out http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...?postid=823773 however I can't find the schematic that the person refers to in that thread. Only what IC he used.

edit again: I found the circuit diagram http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendogcda I think you had linked to it earlier? Anyway digital audio is a possibilty. An by the looks of it quite a simple one.

However for the video aspect you do know that you will never get above a 480p resolution? Which is just a very good SD stream?

[tinoest]

A bit more info, the chip that is specified av:nintendogcda [NFG Games + GameSX] appears to not be available anymore, an im yet to find a specification sheet for it so I can find a suitable alternative.

I also found G. Cube Accessories - Gamecube GC VGA Cable which has a digital to vga cable, im not sure if that is any use for you? It must have some form of conversion in it of course an only works with NTSC gamecube games not the PAL ones, as they don't ouput at 480p for some reason im yet to figure out....

There is also this http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?..._cmpv-dol_chip which is of some use, however it appears no one actually knows what the chip exactly does...

[tesla246]

wow thanks tinoest, you're amazing

realy a big help. And yes i do already have the official component cables, but was wondering if you could get an even higher quality since the component cable converts digital into analoque, as I want that digital data :P (altough you won't get higher than 480p, I'm aware of that matter)

Thanks for the many links. I've read the Mpeg 2 link mostly, and what I can understand from it is that I need a Mpeg 2 decoder right? wich decodes the gamecube digital bitstream into an usable format right?

Too bad the chip isn't longer available

But what exactly do i need to complete this matter?
I've read about people using a crystal, TOS linke (optical cable right?) and all that kind of stuff, wich I've never heard about (yes I'm a noob )

And tinoest, you know awfully lot about this, were you interested as well, or have you already obtained digital audio/video?
Also, many thanks for the informative content in your posts, you're my fav member on this site already