Cable and TV Tuners

Both the Game Gear and TurboGrafx Express gaming systems have TV tuners available to them. Recently, many people have been asking a question that has been overlooked here, and that question in in regards to how to attach Cable or an external antenna to their TurboVision or their Game Gear TV tuner. I feel this is worthly of a short page on the topic. The information provided applies to both the TurboVision TV Tuner and the Game Gear TV Tuner.

One option that may be available is using an adaptor cable. This was an adaptor cable made by Radio Shack, part number 15-1511. This cable is about six feet long and has a male 75-Ohm push-style F-connector on it and an 1/8-inch mono-style connector at the other end. This is a fairly graceful and easy solution to attaching an external antenna or cable to the TV tuner. Unfortunately, this is now a discontinued item, but if you can find it, it will be very inexpensive.

If you look closely at the picture, you can see the coax-end was lifted up a little so you could see inside of it. I did this on purpose.

Another Radio Shack option is a different part, this is 278-257. This is an adaptor plug. This plug is a 75-ohm female connector to a 1/8" mono connector. Using this part, you will need to provide your own coax cable. The compact size of this adaptor plug makes it easy to carry and easy to lose. Since it will require a coax cable to properly use this plug, it might be advisable to carry your own cable with you and leave it attached to your adaptor plug. The one you see here was purchased specifically for the web site picture. This adaptor plug is not for sale, since I can almost always use an adaptor plug at some point in time so it is in my best interest to just hang onto it. Besides, there are over 7,000 Radio Shack stores so you should be able to get your own adaptor for under $3USD.

AV is a different story, but the solutions are still easy. Assuming you absolutely need AV input, cables can be readily purchased. All one needs is a portable CD-player style cable. This is a cable that has a 1/8-inch stereo connector(2 rings) on one end and two RCA/Phono style plugs on the other end. Provided that it is color coded correctly, the white/left RCA/Phono end corresponds with TIP of the 1/8"-inch connector and the red/right RCA/Phono connector goes with RING on the 1/8" connector. Combining Left and Right from the source would require an extra adaptor cable but it can be done. The rest(sleeve) on the 1/8"-inch is a common ground used for both leads. The cable shown came from a Sony DiscMan

This single RCA female to 2 RCA-male cable can be used to combine the left and right audio channels into a mono feed. Do be wary of potential phasing and comb filtering when using less than prime audio source material.