High Quality Diy Component Cable

[sinclairuser 11]

thanks to all who posted information on this thread, i made a different cable using the pinouts here i took a fully wired quality scart cable chopped off one end and soldered on the og xbox connector.

its exactly the same process but with a scart instead of 360 cable, i did this for a few reasons i'm in the uk and my unit is pal, now my main hdtv has component but it also has an rgb scart socket(samsung), but i also have a sony trintron wide in the bedroom which is a hybrid hd tube tv so scart makes sense.

in my games den i have an rgb monitor, so for me rgb scart pal is ok, i think its not much different to component, its way better than composite or svideo.

back in the old days i spent a lot of time and energy trying to get vga support switching regions, console mods, and bios updates it was a PITA, didn't fancy messing around again so pal rgb scart is a compromise i'm happy with.

if you have an hdtv even pal it makes more sense to use component, but for old tv's its the best you can get and on the sony it looks great.

[Steo1024 8]

I got my soldering iron today and managed to finish this cable. It was a struggle with the new tip, I should've use the tip from my old iron as it's much thinner. The soldering job I did was crap and it was a nightmare because the joints kept bridging, and to top it all off, it's using the plug from a crappy cheap RGB cable. Regardless to all of that, it does work and the picture looks pretty nice too. I'd probably like to make another at some stage using better solder and the finer tip, since I kind of feel like this one might break very easily.

[sinclairuser 11]

1 hour ago, Steo1024 said:

I got my soldering iron today and managed to finish this cable. It was a struggle with the new tip, I should've use the tip from my old iron as it's much thinner. The soldering job I did was crap and it was a nightmare because the joints kept bridging, and to top it all off, it's using the plug from a crappy cheap RGB cable. Regardless to all of that, it does work and the picture looks pretty nice too. I'd probably like to make another at some stage using better solder and the finer tip, since I kind of feel like this one might break very easily.

yeah i'm not a fan of those cheap av plugs, some of them are really flimsy and crap, which is the opposite of the genuine og xbox cables, if you have a few composite cables laying around sacrificing a couple to make them better makes sense, if you have an rf cable that would be good for the plug(if it has all the pins), then again did ntsc region get rf cables?, i know pal uk did(i saw one once), though why you would buy one when you got composite in the box is beyond me.

Edited October 11, 2019 by sinclairuser

[Steo1024 8]

I do have one composite cable somewhere and I have no use for it either, so it would probably be a good idea to make another one with that. If I wanted to play the Xbox on a CRT, I have a decent RGB cable for it anyway.

As for the cheap plugs being flimsy and crap, I definitely agree. Pieces of the plastic were breaking off and the pins were sliding back etc.

[sinclairuser 11]

1 hour ago, Steo1024 said:

I do have one composite cable somewhere and I have no use for it either, so it would probably be a good idea to make another one with that. If I wanted to play the Xbox on a CRT, I have a decent RGB cable for it anyway.

As for the cheap plugs being flimsy and crap, I definitely agree. Pieces of the plastic were breaking off and the pins were sliding back etc.

hi is you rgb cable scart?, i quite like the picture on rgb scart, my trinitron wide in the bedroom looks fantastic on rgb.

but even on the modern samsung downstairs it looks good, its a shame we cant build a component cable using the 360 cable and keep the composite plug as well, composite does come in handy when fixing xboxes/running boot discs, but with the way the og switches video modes i guess its either not possible or over complex, i would still like to make a component cable so i could side by side with rgb, but only have 1 composite lead left.

[Steo1024 8]

Yeah I planned to keep composite before, but it doesn't work because the jumpers activate a different video mode on the Xbox. Kind of a shame really since PS2 could do it. I have one of those retrogamingcables RGB cables and it looks good on a CRT, but the only reason I don't use it on my HD set is because it's interlaced. I don't have a good CRT and don't have much room for a big one, but if I did, I'd likely still be using the Xbox on it. The only one I have for now is a little 14" portable which is 4:3.

[bot_1 23]

thank you for this tutorial! 

it was incredibly useful, straighforward and also calming! even for a guy like me, that doesn't solder that often it was easy to understand and go through.

 

thanks again! good job! 

 

 

[Madman_X 2]

Thanks very much for the detailed writeup.  My first attempt took me way longer than I anticipated because I was having challenges getting the pins soldered on the connector.  I was finally able to do it and I'm using the cable now.   Hopefully, this is something I'll get better at over time.  Actually going to try the Wii2HDMI cable next since most TVs have HDMI, although my guess is that component would look better given the hardware.

MMx

[Jollyware 0]

Going to give this a try, got me a Monster component cable coming for the 360, but want to convert it.

[Mavox1 0]

I wonder how this compares to the official cables and the cheapos. 

[Cian Cunningham 36]

It's infinitely better than a cheap Chinese cable (as outlined at the start of the tutorial) and is just as good as an official OEM cable. It is a fully Microsoft cable once you follow the guide and use an official 360 component cable that will be individually and overall shielded. No question about quality on this one.

[NielsvdB 0]

any difference between scart RGB connection and this component cable?

[Cian Cunningham 36]

Pretty sure scart isn't HD

[prtscn 21]

18 minutes ago, NielsvdB said:

any difference between scart RGB connection and this component cable?

Scart on the xbox sucks. end of story.

Component is the way to go.

[bobbyd 1]

Wow!!!

I have tried  2 wii2hdmi board mods with varying success.

and to day I spent 4 hours doing this mod with a x360 cable the one with the filter and a cheap Chinese component adapter plug. 

I bought a component cable for my xbox about 10 years ago and was amazed at the picture quality. But after doing this mod I have released that for 10 years the picture was actually shit.  

I now have No ghosting Whatsoever! And the picture is sharper and clearer than using a wii2hdmi board mod.  I am genuinely amazed that a bit of shielding and 5 grounds as opposed to the one in the Chinese adapter makes so much of a difference.  

Using a thin soldering tip and temp controlled station helps to.

thanks

 

[Cian Cunningham 36]

I am glad you are happy. Component is what the Xbox gives out, Wii2hdmi are essentially component adapters so at best would be the same. The 360 cable quality is really nice, the individual and overall shielding is really nice. 

[BigSplodge 3]

Thanks Cian - I used your guide here and built myself a lovely "official" component cable for £5.

One thing to add - I couldn't be bothered messing about with an unsightly toslink optical adapter, but I did fancy retaining digital audio and realised that the spare yellow RCA could serve as a digital coax.  I wasn't sure whether the yellow cable would be rated at 75ohms but figured it was worth a try (plus, given all other video cables here have to be, I figured there was a good chance). 

I connected the yellow cable to pin 3 and its corresponding ground to pin 8.  The result: nice, clean, 5.1 Dolby Digital signal to my AV receiver, with no additional adapters or mess and it gives that spare yellow RCA a purpose!

Thought it was worth sharing for anyone else interested!

[Cryptonix 0]

On 5/15/2020 at 6:15 PM, BigSplodge said:

I connected the yellow cable to pin 3 and its corresponding ground to pin 8.  The result: nice, clean, 5.1 Dolby Digital signal to my AV receiver

Heyyy just wanted you thank you for this tip. Went to go make my cable last night and glad I scrolled to the end of this thread! Tested it out this morning on my Visio soundbar and it sounds great.

Big thanks to Cian for the original tutorial as well.

[BigSplodge 3]

No worries @Cryptonix, glad it went well.

Perhaps @Cian Cunningham - you might consider adding this additional tip to your brilliant guide, just in case others who could benefit from this additional step miss out?

Also, it might be blasphemy mentioning this here, but as an aside, you've inspired me to make a PS2/PS3 component cable using the same technique (and sacrificial 360 cable).  The only issue is that the official PlayStation AV connectors only contain the required pins, so an official PlayStation composite cable is not a worthwhile victim.  I've instead ordered a crappy Chinese knock off, but at least one that looks like it has a robust AV connector that I can liberate and combine with the 360 shielded cable and RCAs!  I'll keep you posted.

Edited May 20, 2020 by BigSplodge

[junkman77 4]

14 hours ago, BigSplodge said:

No worries @Cryptonix, glad it went well.

Perhaps @Cian Cunningham - you might consider adding this additional tip to your brilliant guide, just in case others who could benefit from this additional step miss out?

Also, it might be blasphemy mentioning this here, but as an aside, you've inspired me to make a PS2/PS3 component cable using the same technique (and sacrificial 360 cable).  The only issue is that the official PlayStation AV connectors only contain the required pins, so an official PlayStation composite cable is not a worthwhile victim.  I've instead ordered a crappy Chinese knock off, but at least one that looks like it has a robust AV connector that I can liberate and combine with the 360 shielded cable and RCAs!  I'll keep you posted.

The xbox360 cables are straight-up-quality shielded and flexible cables.  I have used them to make OGXBOX, SNES/N64(wRGB Mod) and PS1/2/3 cables.  Console5 has the unpopulated connectors.  The only console I personally have left to build one for is the Genesis.

[BigSplodge 3]

57 minutes ago, junkman77 said:

The xbox360 cables are straight-up-quality shielded and flexible cables.  I have used them to make OGXBOX, SNES/N64(wRGB Mod) and PS1/2/3 cables.  Console5 has the unpopulated connectors.  The only console I personally have left to build one for is the Genesis.

What did you use as your "donor" AV connector for the PlayStation cable?  I've had one turn up today which in truth actually doesn't look too bad.  However, I'm still determined to crack the connector open and solder the official 360 cables in its place.

I'm not sure how to open this particular plug without demolishing it though - would welcome any tips from your previous efforts!

 

EDIT: re-read your message and saw "Console5 has the unpopulated connectors" this time haha

Edited May 21, 2020 by BigSplodge
I'm dumb

[junkman77 4]

On 5/21/2020 at 7:01 AM, BigSplodge said:

What did you use as your "donor" AV connector for the PlayStation cable?  I've had one turn up today which in truth actually doesn't look too bad.  However, I'm still determined to crack the connector open and solder the official 360 cables in its place.

I'm not sure how to open this particular plug without demolishing it though - would welcome any tips from your previous efforts!

 

EDIT: re-read your message and saw "Console5 has the unpopulated connectors" this time haha

Note that for the SNES/N64 (With RGB mod) and PS1/PS2 cable you need to add the 220uF capacitors to the RGB lines.  I did this externally with an adapter board I made (pre-pandemic).  I found the green RCA to BNC cable at a Goodwill.

[BigSplodge 3]

On 6/3/2020 at 1:00 AM, junkman77 said:

Note that for the SNES/N64 (With RGB mod) and PS1/PS2 cable you need to add the 220uF capacitors to the RGB lines.  I did this externally with an adapter board I made (pre-pandemic).  I found the green RCA to BNC cable at a Goodwill.

That looks superb - nice job!  You should sell those PCBs

[Hector Hidalgo 15]

On 10/2/2017 at 6:02 PM, Cian Cunningham said:

Not too far away from yourself. I'm in Ireland. Ha ha

Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk
 

 

Cian, I made one of these cables and it works wonderful, that was about a year ago. But hear is the deal, I am getting a super nice TV, but it only has composite and S-video. Do you have any tips for me? Could I add Svideo to this cable somehow?

 

Thank you Cian!!

[Guffman 0]

I made one of these about a month ago for my Xbox, and then threw another one together for my PS2. Thanks for the tutorial, they both work great!