USA Transplant adapter question

[silverdrop]

Hello All -

I am looking for some smart and technical people to offer me some advice. I'm from the USA and now living in France permanently. I brought my gamecube with me and I know that I can't plug it in over here -- the USA uses 120v and France is on a 240v system.

I would love to play my gamecube again, so I'm looking for an adapter. I THINK I need to find an adapter that can handle 120-240v for input. What I don't understand is could I just buy a European adapter? Or would that fry the inside of my Gamecube? I'm confused about what the adapter actually does ... like, why does it have that black box sitting between my GC and the wall?

I've looked online and found some adapters that claim to handle 120 to 240v for input and all post output as DC12v (which is what my USA adaptor lists). For example, I found this website listing the part, but I'm not even sure if this is actually what I need (and I don't want to buy it, pay for the international shipping and wait, all just to fry my system).

[the website: http://store.richspsxparts.com/gacuacad.html] The product description is: Game Cube AC Adapter. Goes from the Game Cube to the wall outlet. This item is NEW and is guaranteed to work with your gamecube. This is a replacement for the model DOL-002 AC Adapter. This AC Adapter works in Model DOL-001 and DOL-101 GameCube systems. We offer a 90 day warranty on this item. This AC Adapter works on 110 - 240V.

I hope this is the right place to ask these questions and thank you in advance. Also is there any more info I should provide?

[megalomaniac]

No adapters, no converters
Buy the PAL version of a Gamecube power supply

[kel01]

megalomaniac beat me to it while I was typing but I'll post it none the less.

Why pay for international shipping? If you are now in France then buy a GameCube adapter that was made for the french market and plug it into your NTSC GameCube. As you stated the output voltage for all GC adapters is 12v so it is only the wall voltage that you need to worry about, hence the reason to buy one made for the french market.

I have a NTSC GameCube and rather than mess around with voltage step down converters I just use a UK GameCube adapter for it from one of my PAL cubes.

[AC_Orange]

Yeah I can confirm this as well. I have an American Gamecube that works with PAL power adapter

[megalomaniac]

haha...and i have a PAL gamecube running on an american power brick

[AC_Orange]

Hehe, if only it was this easy with other consoles!

[MockyLock]

Hello
If I can add something, I'm french so i may help you for PAL french stuff

[silverdrop]

Wow guys! Thanks! I've been really worried about this. I'm having a similar problem with my PS2, and after I did some research (found out I need to buy a power adapter for the PS2 Slim, the model with the external power source so as to not fry it), I found out it's difficult. I'm glad to see it's so easy with the gamecube and I'll be buying one this week.

Anyone have any suggestions for the PS2 fix? Or should I do it through PM? I realize this is a GC forum.
For the PS2, I think I know what to buy, it's just finding it is the problem. Amazon.com has a lot of products that they won't ship to France, and Ebay has a lot of products that are unclear (ie. what model number is the part? I know for the PS2, it's only a certain model range that will do the trick.) Anyway, I'll check back or I'll check the PMs, whatever the community decides.

Again, thank you all for the help!

[BenoitRen]

This might be a silly suggestion, but have you checked out Amazon.fr?

[silverdrop]

The problem is ... I think I need the American part and you can't really find any on Amazon.fr.
However, after this new information here about the GC (the fact that all adapters have the same output) I will definitely look to see if there's a similar solution. Still, I know I need an external power adapter to feed the proper output into my machine. I have a regular PS2 with an internal power source -- but if I use the correct PS2 slim power adaptor with the external power source, I was told it would be ok. I'll have to investigate more.

[dilav]

The problem is ...

???
What is the input voltage marked on your GC and PS2 power adapter? What model is your PS2?

[MockyLock]

If i understand,
your PS2 is a "regular" fat model ? So the power cable is just a "electric cord" and your US PS2 will want 110 Volts. For this one, you'll need a 110-220 adapter (i use one for japan stuff).
The GameCube has a external power source. It's the power adapter itself that require a particular voltage. I think (as it was told earlier) that you can use a french adapter.

[silverdrop]

So, to review: I bought the external power cable for the GC and the machine did not blow up (hooray!) but I still can't play because now I need the cable that runs from the GC to the tv. It didn't really occur to me before, but the connectors on the back of the tv are different (although they look the same at first glance!). So, I've got a cable on order and should have it up in a week or two when I get the piece.

And as for the PS2, I finally understand and now I'm looking for a "transformateur" (transformer brick) to convert to the 110.

[MockyLock]

About the GC cable, what do you mean about the TV connectors being different but looking same ?
And about the 220-110 power supply, it's a device almost every european-french gamer should have. Very useful for foreign systems.

[silverdrop]

I'm working on getting the adaptor.

For the tv connector -- the piece that actually CONNECTS to the tv is different for USA consoles than for European consoles. They look similar at first glance, but once you try to attach to the tv, you can see that they are not compatible.

[silverdrop]

I'm almost ready to give up. I need help again!

So, I have the proper power cable -- the gamecube turns on. I found a "peritel" cable to connect the GC to the TV -- but I only get sound, no video!

My tv is not old -- and I'm given to understand that newer model TVs can play both NTSC and PAL. I'm not sure if that's the problem or not.

However, everywhere I looked, I was only able to find the peritel cables, not the red/white/yellow cables. The cable I found looks like this:
connect into the GC *notice it has the red/white/yellow slots*
connect into the tv

I have tried connecting it to both AV slots in the tv, both with the same problem -- audio, no video.
Is there some further piece I could buy to make use of the red/white/yellow slots on the peritel cable to connect to the corresponding slots on my tv?

Additionally, here is the website with my tv model -- it lists that it is compatible with PAL, NTSC, and SECAM http://www.sony.lv/product/tv-102-40-lc ... ations#tab

[kel01]

The 5v output from the GameCube's AV out is probably forcing your TV into RGB mode. Unfortunately the NTSC GameCube does not natively output RGB.

Try disconnecting the wire that is connected to pin 16 inside the scart plug in your second picture. This should allow your TV to accept the composite signal instead of expecting an RGB signal. Don't forget to insulate the wire after disconnecting it, it is connected to 5v at the GC end and could fry your TV or GameCube if it short circuits with any other pins in the scart plug.

Even better, if your TV supports it then pick up a GameCube S-Video cable or if you don't mind the cost then a GameCube component cable. Composite is one of the worst signals that can be used from a console, quality wise.

[silverdrop]

I don't think I'm technical enough to do what you suggested kel01, however, I got it working. I bought some simple RCA connector wires to connect from my tv to the little RCA holes on the peritel cable from the GC. I figured since the audio was working, there was just some problem with the USA GC sending video signal into the peritel port on the tv, and since they wire had an RCA capability, I tried that. Anyway, phew! Now I can finally play it. Thanks for all the help guys.

[MockyLock]

Just to add:
As kel01 told you, composite is the worst picture quality ever (except RF but well... we would talk about Atari
As he mentionned, you should look after a component cable. That's what I have and the picture is really beautiful.

[silverdrop]

Sorry I'm so stupid. I'm not this stupid in other aspects of life, I swear. I'm not very technical and I'm doing most of this in French, which is not my native language.
So, you guys must be right. The picture I have is quite ugly -- and I thought maybe it was because I'm on an HDTV, but maybe that's not the case?

So, what am I using? I looked up the differences between svideo and composite and found this page: http://www.diffen.com/difference/Compos ... vs_S-video

After looking on my tv, I don't see a place where I would plug in that funky svideo connector.

Furthermore, I'm using this thing that everyone calls a "peritel" and I paid 5 euros for the peritel cable and then 20 euros for the RCA cable to actually get video. Now, I looked up gamecube svideo cable on amazon.fr and I see one listed for less than 3 euros, but I'm not sure it's REALLY an svideo -- http://www.amazon.fr/C%C3%A2ble-S-Video ... B003KRNM2S

When I look at the pictures on amazon for cable s-video gamecube, I'm also seeing this post for a composite cable: http://www.amazon.fr/C%C3%A2ble-Video-C ... o+gamecube

Both the "s-video" and the "composite" look the same -- GC plug on one end, red/white/yellow pins to go into the tv. What's the difference between the two products? Or are the sellers just selling the same thing under two different names?

[HomelandReloaded]

Both the "s-video" and the "composite" look the same -- GC plug on one end, red/white/yellow pins to go into the tv. What's the difference between the two products?

If it's got a yellow plug it's composite video. If it's got a thick round black plug it's S-video (which is better than composite).

If you've got a US GameCube you canot get RGB, but you can get S-video (which is almost as good) or composite.

[silverdrop]

Both the "s-video" and the "composite" look the same -- GC plug on one end, red/white/yellow pins to go into the tv. What's the difference between the two products?

If it's got a yellow plug it's composite video. If it's got a thick round black plug it's S-video (which is better than composite).

If you've got a US GameCube you canot get RGB, but you can get S-video (which is almost as good) or composite.

Ok, I have a US gamecube. I don't see any place on socket on my FRENCH tv to plug an "S-video" cable into. So ... is what I"m using now the best I can do?

If not, could someone post a link to the actual product I should look for? Just so I'm not so clueless?

[kel01]

Some TVs will accept S-Video on the scart socket using an adapter. You will need to check in your TV's manual or spec sheet.

http://www.amazon.fr/Bulk-SCART-60-Adap ... B0017ZH80C