Zune DIY: tv output cable. *Project Completion*

View the updated project log on my personal site, XodusTech.com

So I recently got a zune. And to top it off a new camera. So this will be my first mod without using a motorola razr. All grown up. Anyway back on topic:

The Zune is a pretty neat device and If you do not think so then tough. This isnt what this thread is about. Most importantly I found out that the zune had the ability to output video to a tv using composite video through the headphone jack. Which made the thought occur to me that it must use a 4 way plug. Meaning that unlike a normal stereo headphone plug which as 3 rings, this jack would have contacts for 4 rings.

After digging in my box of every part known to man I found I had about two of the little buggers to solder up with 4 rings. The first I used as a tester to figure out the pinouts. The other I used to build the actual cable. But I am sure the pictures will speak better:


First I had to outline the Pinouts of the actual plug


Next I found one of those straight through av cables and cut it in half


I then Stripped the wire and prepared the connector


I next started to solder it up. Sure its not pretty but it works


4 out of the 3 wires all soldered up


All the pins soldered up, still not pretty, but I tried


The finished cable. Note the zip tie I used, this is to round the cable for when I can find some heat shrink tube to encase it in.


The cable plugged into the tv.


And a better shot of the cable plugged into the top of the Zune


Close up of the zune


And like magic the same image now on my TV


This is an actual video I put on my Zune, 2 points for the one to name it


All in all It was a fairly straight foward mod. Sure I could have bought the real cables for god knows how much money. But why bother. Also I have tested this cable on two different zunes, one running the v1.1 firmware and mine running the v1.2 firmware.

Thanks for taking a look

 

Nice mod, I wish I had your skills and free time, plus things to actually do.

 

Good stuff Warrior_Rocker, building things out of what you have sticking arround instead of going out and spending too much money is always the way to go!

I recently soldered a apple studio display from ADC to DVI.

 

For me free time is whenever I make it. If I wanna mod something.. I just find the time to do it. Plus its the holidays who dosent have an hour or so to pull something off. And with all the money spent this year. Ill save about 30 bucks by building my own cable.

 

btw it's going to work on iPod too, not sure if the composite out and common ground are the other way round in ipod version of such cable, you will have to try and see

 

I bought a cable of ebay ages ago for my ipod video, its exactly the same cable/pinout setup was cheap only £6 and i use it for work.

Personally i would have just got a cable from ebay as i found it easier and much more better finish than the rip-off apple thingy.

Ohh its thats film with val Kilmer...Mission to mars or Red Planet.

 

You should heatshrink that connector Warrior_Rocker. Heatshrink makes things look so much more proffesional imo, plus it il protect it.

 

I am way ahead of you with:

Also I found this image someone has made to detail the differences in the AV hookups:


This shows that you could use either the iPod or the standard cable to hook it up, but the colors would not match. That is what I was shooting for in this mod is the matching colors. And trust me as soon as I can run to the store to get a few more materials I will finish this up pro style.

This is just one of those It was really late and I said hey it would be neat to do mods. I do not fancy waiting a week for some silly overpriced cable to come off the internet.

 

Nice job, thats a good mod. How that Zune? Any quibbles with it? I wouldn't mind one if its a good piece of tech.

 

The zune itself I like, the software takes a few minutes of getting used to, but the sync features are pretty cool. That whenever you make changes to your ''library'' it will propagate those changes over to your zune when you plug it in.

The screen looks quite nice, and once the whole thing picks up a little bit I am sure new features will be added. The radio and the wifi both work exactly as described. I can send songs and pictures between my brother who also has a zune with no issue.

 

Isn't the original ps1 monitor a standered camcorder cable?
This is more of an informative question because i brought one of them (kudos to warrior for saving the extortionate amount of cash i paid out on mine)
Hmn interesting to note but on some devices pins 2&3 are fliped

 

Yea, the real problem comes in where some devices have the ground in a different location which would cause all the signal lines to not work right. I was really shooting to have mine have the correct colors as it would bug me having to plug the wrong colors in. And MS wants something like $99 for the home a/v kit, which isnt soooo bad since it comes with the dock a power cord a power brick the remote and av cables. But just the av cables are enough for me.

Personally I challenge anyone to find the differences in output quality from this DIY cable vs the expensive MS or monster cables.

 

Monster (sometimes) is better quality but the cheep one i brought was clean and crisp.
I had a choice of 2 cables so what did i do ? hit google, hit the electronics catalog piced a lead (just happened to be labled sony) pluged it in (tv end not jack end) then stuck a meter across.
Why all this? well thats how i found that some equiptment switches pole 2&3 and that the ipod also uses a 4 pole jack.

 

Its funny sometimes, becuase I have been installing car audio systems for quite some time as something to do on the side. Sure I may not be pro or anything. But its funny to see when people buy the really expensive cables for their car and it wont even work. And I can find rca wiring in a junkyard and it work perfect.

The most important thing to know is the difference between expensive crappy stuff, and the expensive for a reason stuff. The problem is that sometimes the simpler you do something the better it turns out. I guess its not to say that a real nice cable isnt going to be better than cable you make yourself. Its just that... you honestly never know what kind of quality the manufacturer puts into something. When you build it yourself, you know exactly what quality was put into it.

 

thats pretty cool
is the movie star ship troopers?

 

I was thinking that too.

 

I say its Mission to Mars

 

I am probably going to buy a Zen Vision M with some Christmas money and that also connects to the TV but I don't want to fork out £17 on a cable so I will probably buy a camcorder one for £5-6 and change the pins to suit the Vsion M. Any advice on how to do it as cable modding isn't something I have tried before.

 

To change over from say a camcorder cable you would need to rip the cable apart all the way down to the little plastic 4 pin connector I have shown at the very top of the thread. Using this pinout table It shows that the zen will share pinouts with a good many other products so it may be wise to find one made for one of the others for cheap.

It all has to do with the ground pin. Perhaps a bit of explaination as to why it is important: Each of the 3 outputs (Video, Right Audio, Left Audio) uses a signal wire labled on the pinout table, and a common ground with each of the other 3 outputs. When the pinouts get shifted the shared or common ground now gets put on a signal line and not the ground line of the players output. Now that each output wire is using say the video signal output of the player as its ground the signals will no longer work. And also the polarity of one or more may be reversed. This is why a complete rewire is required. This is exactly what I have done in my project, is a complete rewire of the original pinouts of the cable(s) I hacked up.

And congrats to: atanum141. The movie is indeed Red Planet. I just felt like watching it on my zune to put it through its paces. I found the movie entertaining while giving a good contrast of colors (the dark of space, the reds and oranges of mars, etc...)

 

Yeah, here is the cable that I was thinking of getting:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=29308&criteria=VIDEO&doy=27m12

I have now ordered the player so I will want a cable. How would I go about stripping that cable and changing the pins?