I needed a component cable for my Xbox, so...



Everyone knows what this is. Xbox's way to make us pay extra for features that already exist within the box we've already paid for.

RANT

Now, go grab the Composite Stereo AV adapter that came with your xbox which you likely never used.



Slide out connector from shielding sleeve.



Contacts revealed.



Wires revealed.



At this point I just removed the metal shielding. Nearly everything is grounded though the cable insulation anyway.

Here's the fun part.







The original set up is shown above. Pins 1 and 2 make your Right audio channel. 14 and 15 for Left. 23 and 24 for composite video. Pin 24 is actually a variable pin, meaning it has the ability to perform multiple functions. Jumping pins 5 and 17 tell the system to output composite video in NTSC format through pin 24. We need to change all of this.



Here, Pin 18 is jumped to pin 6 and pin 19 jumps to pin 7. This tells the system to enable Component mode. Now, pin 9 is outputting Blue Component (Pb or B-Y), pin 11 is outputting Luminance Component (Y), and that leaves 22 to output the Red Component (Pr or R-Y).

NOTE: Pin 13 outputs VCC. Even more importantly, pin 20 outputs +12V. Before hooking everything up. Carefully double check your work and stay clear of those pins. Notice that the new conductors used for this mod dance around pin 20! You don't want to feed your TV/Monitor's component inputs 12 volts of destruction!

It's also worth noting that pins 10, 12 and 21 are equal grounds. So, don't worry about swapping them. EG: using Yellow's Ground as Blue's ground and Blue's as Yellow's. Just be sure that all three of those pins are connected to ground.



So, now I have my Component signals outputting through what were originally Composite Stereo plugs.

I went ahead and colored the ends to match standard component colors with a Sharpie marker. This is why I used the red for red component, yellow for luminance (yellow takes well to green coloring since yellow is one of greens primary colors), and white for blue component. The results were better than I expected. I decided to make a new AV plug handle entirely out of hot glue. because, it ain't an AlphA mod if it doesn't involve hot gluing something!

Since I had been using my X2VGA+ up until today, I have my Xbox feeding my surround sound via Optical S/P-DIF. But, that's gone now. Luckily, activating component video involved jumping pins 18 and 6 which also tells the system to activate S/P-DIF output. So, I could have my digital 5.1 audio again via RCA jack. S/P-DIF used Pin 3 and the same ground as the rest of the digital signals.



Yeah, it's extra ghetto. but, at this point I just wanted to play my damn game. I'll make it look pretty some other time.

