Video cables

June 1, 2010 1:03 PM

I need to run a live feed from a camera to a video mixer about 100-150 feet away. The camera has a composite (Y, Pb, Pr) output, and the mixer has component, s-video, and vga inputs. What's the most effective solution that will give me the highest quality feed?

Should I run a long s-video cable and convert from component to s-video at the camera? Run a long vga cable? Or run the component long, and convert at the mixer? Any suggestions?

posted by kraigory to media & arts (12 answers total)

First-- Y/Pb/Pr is component. The single yellow plug is composite.

They're all analog signals, though, so you're going to have some signal loss. Probably roughly the same with each. (Though of course, component and VGA are higher quality than S-video or composite.) Over that distance, you'd have signal loss even with HDMI. You're going to need some sort of signal booster, or perhaps VGA over CAT5 or component over CAT5 would do the trick.
posted by supercres at 1:22 PM on June 1, 2010

Sorry; I realized that only addressed the "long cable" issue. I'm not sure whether it would be better to do the VGA signal or component signal over CAT5, and which end to covert at. But those should be the formats you deal with. Component can handle at least 720p. (I saw a while back there was discussion of upping the spec to 1080p, but contentholders didn't like the idea.) See here for a discussion of VGA signal resolution.
posted by supercres at 1:26 PM on June 1, 2010

This thread seems to suggest that a robust solution is to use component video over rg-6 cables.

Be aware that there are different specs for rg-6 cables, some seem to be built especially for long cable runs.
posted by talkingmuffin at 1:32 PM on June 1, 2010

Although it may be technically outside the specs for component, it certainly can support 1080p. Can't imagine that the camera does, however.
posted by The Lamplighter at 1:38 PM on June 1, 2010

Okay, my problem seems to be converting. There are plenty of component to vga adapters, but it seems they only work when the vga destination is able to accept component over vga.

How should I convert the component signal?
posted by kraigory at 2:00 PM on June 1, 2010

There wouldn't be any converting - just straight component running over RG6 cables.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 2:16 PM on June 1, 2010

And do please note that you reversed component and composite in your writeup.

Component: 3 wires for red, green, blue.
Composite: 1 wire for everything
posted by Threeway Handshake at 2:17 PM on June 1, 2010

But my mixer is SD, and can only accept composite (1 yellow wire for everything), s-video, and vga (from a computer- built in scan converter). The mixer won't accept component, or anything HD. So how do I down-covert the component HD signal to something my mixer will take?
posted by kraigory at 2:26 PM on June 1, 2010

What type of mixer is it?
posted by schmod at 2:45 PM on June 1, 2010

Edirol V-8
posted by kraigory at 3:12 PM on June 1, 2010

It might be worth it to put one of these at your source if possible, and feed into one of the eight standard input channels. Then you should be able to get away with one cable, right? If it's getting scan converted anyway, you wouldn't have to go through the expense/trouble of keeping the Y/Pb/Pr separate all the way to the mixer.

Or that could be nonsense. Analog signals are funny things.
posted by supercres at 4:36 PM on June 1, 2010

Some devices use one of the Y/Pb/Pr ports to send/receive a composite signal (likely with a settings change). I'd check the specs on your camera to see if that might be the case.
posted by nobody at 8:05 PM on June 1, 2010