Need help - video cable

[allan gould]

I really need some help from the tech/IT people to see if there is such a cable that has a video male yellow plug at one end and a mini USB (or firewire) connector on the other end. I want to be able to connect my video low light camera directly to my digital video camcorder. See attached photo. That way I can have a non- computer solution to capture video in the field and then at home download to my PC and start stacking etc.
Please don't tell me there is such a cable without telling me where I can get it. That would be too much like my first wife.

[Kal]

I don't think there will be a cable. The yellow video cable will have an analog signal, the usb & firewire both are digital signals.

[Dennis]

I have what appears to be that cable - it came with my Pentax *ist DS. I guess it's for connecting the Pentax (mini USB) to the TV (Yellow RCA) to view photos on the TV screen? Close to the mini USB end, there is a moulded in-line cylinder. Not sure if this is some filter for EMI/EMC suppression?

I purchased my Pentax *ist DS from Photo Continental at Mt Gravatt so I suggest you try there.

Cheers

Dennis

[ballaratdragons]

:lol: You guys crack me up!!!:lol:




I did a similiar thing. I plugged a digital camera device into a coaxial socket on an old TV and it works fine!!! Darren (Wombat)(He is a Techi/IT guru) said "How'd ya do that!?!?"

I just jammed the connection in and it works :shrug: :lol:

Hey, anything is worth a try whether you think it will work or not! Necessity is The Mother of invention.

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

All these plugs are obtainable from Dick Smith's or Jaycar or similar in user-configurable types, that is, solder it yourself.

The standard USB has 4 contacts, and the RCA has 2, shell and centre pin. So the next step is to figure out with a little experimentation which contacts in the USB plug should be connected to the RCA contacts.

It is unlikely you will blow anything up with the 2 devices you mention if it is not right the first time.

Cheers

GeoffW1

[jjjnettie]

I've been looking for a similar connector for my Gstar-ex. Hoping to run the astro camera through my mini dv camera. An ideal setup.
No luck whatsoever. I tried DickSmiths, Jaycar, Tandy etc etc. I was informed that there is in fact an Analog/Digital converter you can buy, but the price was about $600. Too rich for me.
My solution was to nick the DVD recorder from the telly in the lounge room and hook the Gstar up to that. Once I've finished recording what I want, I just grab the disk and transfer the files to the puter. To see what I'm recording I plug a CCTV into the video out of the recorder.
The DVD recorder is a much cheaper alternative to a lappy. My Sanyo recorder cost less than $250.

[Dennis]

Here is a photo of the cable as supplied with my Pentax. I would assume that most DSLRs and Compact cameras would have such a cable for viewing in-camera images on a TV screen?

Worth trying the photo shops.

Cheers

Dennis

[allan gould]

Thanks for all the replies. I will go to DS and see if I can cobble together a cable. JJJnettie if I do get something to work I'll let you know. Dennis, my Panasonic digital comes with a propriety cable like the Pentax that is a digital to analogue but its not firewire (blast) as I thought I had it as I sifted through all the cables Ive accumulated at home. The other route is to get a pcmcia video capture card which was mentioned by Steve Massey who was very gracious with his time and help. The pcmcia video capture cards are $30-40 on ebay. To all of you thanks, your help was greatly appreciated

[allan gould]

Geoff
Easy said than done. When I pulled apart the firewire connector it had immediately under the plastic outer coat a web of fine wires which were insulated with clear wrapping from an inner nest of : two black wires and two additional web of wires each enclosing a green and red or an orange and blue wire.
This makes a total of 6 wires in all plus 3 layers of webbed wires.
A fine nest of stuff. Guess I will try and find which carry the digital video signal

[jjjnettie]

Keep us posted Allen.
It'd be great to just plug the camera into the camcorder.

If you're interested, here's a handy list of camcorders that do have Video In sockets. One could probably pick one up 2nd hand by now, the list is pretty old.
I downloaded it when I first concidered buying the Gstar.

[allan gould]

Thanks for that JJJnettie,
I have a JVC that has a firewire video in port, so if I get it to work I'll let you know as I agree that porting video directly into my camcorder would be brilliant.

[GeoffW1]

Hi Allan,

Yes, no argument there, I was thinking though of a single conductor braided shield cable, which is all you can connect to a standard RCA plug. The ground pin on a standard USB plug, A or B, is no. 4, so that is the braid connection, and all you then need is to find which other one has the data signal. It could be either 2 or 3, pin 1 being voltage usually.

See

http://pinouts.ru/SerialPortsCables/usb_cable_pinout.shtml

but this is for full-blown data transmission. I agree though that wiring up a mini USB plug would not be all that easy.

Cheers

GeoffW1