XCM V-Box (USA/JAP) modification (allow any video input, not just the Wii), special thanks to Divineo.net 17th of May 2007

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Introduction

The XCM V-box is a video adapter for the Nintendo Wii allowing you to watch the video of your Wii on the PC (and record it / take pictures). There are two versions of the unit (at this time) one for USA/JAP users and one for European users. At this point in time I only have the USA version at my disposal (externally no difference can be seen, so make SURE you get the right one for your system/purpose). Each unit can handle all types of video (PAL/NTSC/SECAM) however the units do not take the same video input. The USA/JAP unit takes S-video whereas the European version will not.

What video type will be used is something I do not know yet, however due to the fact that the European Wii system is incapable of outputting S-video this will definitely not be used (thank you). I am still unclear why the team did not use composite or better component which both region units are capable of producing.

As these products are not much more then tuner cards (for the specific video/signal type) they can be used with every device that outputs that kind of video type. This is also advertised by the team by adding the feature of inputting other video signals using a special adapter (which you have to buy separately).

The adapter has however not yet been released and as I am inpatient I have made my own modifications (at this time only to the USA/JAP unit) allowing scart (s-video) and composite input (due to the fact that I added composite to the USA/JAP unit it can now also work with European Wii systems). In this document I describe how you too can make this modification with easy to follow pin-out schemes and explanations (thank you pinouts.ru for excellent documentation on different video cables / converters!).

So in short following this guide will allow you to use any video outputting device (provided it has a signal, converted to or the same as, the format supported by the video box) with your (USA/JAP) XCM V-box.

The Guide

A bit more background information in detail; As I stated earlier the USA/JAP version of the XCM V-box uses S-video as it's signal. S-video is composed out of two data lines, one of which is (Y) luminance/brightness and the other is colour/chroma (C). These lines are split to create better image quality as opposed to composite video which has both signals on one data line. The PAL Wii however (and lots of other devices) cannot produce S-video. Thankfully though, a very easy and cheap way of splitting composite into S-video is available (though there is quality loss in that way. Using a better method results in a much more costly solution) leaving us with a V-box that is also capable of using composite signals.

In this guide I will explain how to add a scart plug (female or male, doesn't really matter but I choose female) that will use S-video signal and audio signals and how to add composite + audio (three female 2 pin RCA plug connectors). If you understand how I do this you are of course free to vary from pinout and add or remove whatever you feel is proper.


What you'll need for the USA/JAP unit mod:
• A proper soldering iron + proper tip; nothing really special is needed but good hardware always makes your job easier
• Soldering tin + wire (not too thin, but thin enough)
• A philips head screwdriver that fits the screws used in the V-box
• Sanding paper or other small sanding equipment
• Three 2 Pin female RCA plugs (Tulp connectors in dutch, google for images)
• 1 (fe)male scart connector
• 470pF Ceramic Capacitor
• (6 different colours of) Wiring (not specifically thin or thick); in my guide I do not properly shield wires possibly resulting in degradation of the signal (you can read more on how to properly shield wires thanks to google).
• Optional; a bit of Europrint (PCB) to split the wires in two (because we want to connect both a scart cable and composite plugs you'll need every cable twice)


On with the modding!
First of all see if your unit is working; connect it to your Wii and PC (and install the software). If everything is okay you should get video streaming on your PC screen (when using the, unmodified, USA/JAP V-box on your PAL Wii you will get distorted video, this is normal). If so remove it from your computer and Wii and move it over to your working area.

Make sure you are grounded (do not have an electric charge) and follow normal safety precautions for when dealing with electronic components and soldering.

I do not take ANY responsibility to whatever you do to your unit, yourself or others.
If you end up with a broken unit, it's your fault not mine!

Now let's open this baby up :). To open the V-box you must remove the four pads from the bottom of the unit. Underneath you will find 4 philips head screws. Remove them and gently lift the top part of the shell from the bottom whilst holding the USB and Wii video cable in place.

Now that you have opened your V-box you should see a nice small rectangular PCB with the USB connection on the left and the video connection on the right. To lift it out of the bottom you can use a flat head screwdriver on the side, but at this point you can probably also just turn over the box. Be careful during the whole modding process not to move around the video or USB cables too much as they might brake (the XCM team have however superglued them so it isn't something you need to be REALLY scared of). As you can see on the right side the video cable is composed out of 6 lines. As we want to connect our own plug we want to solder to them but the XCM team have superglued them to the PCB (which is a good thing really). If you turn over the PCB however you'll see the same set of six solder points that the wires are on but now clean of messy cable or superglue (rejoyce)!

Keep a good eye on the orientation of the board compared to mine as this is crucial to the modification (obviously). Here is the pinout I have made for the box (helped by the notes on the PCB itself);

Sorry for not having an image without cables already attached. This does however give you a good idea how to connect the cables (I highly suggest you use the same colouring scheme or something similar and take a picture, that way you will not have to re-open your V-box every time you want to check what wire was what).

Now to connect wires to the solder points first roughly check the length (I'm going to say this one more time, please use a colouring scheme, stick to it and take a picture) so the cables make it to the outside of the box (via a hole we are going to make later on, you can choose your own location). As for the positioning of the wires I suggest you do it similar to mine (all lines directed down then right to the nearest exit aside from the black one which would obstruct the closing of the V-box if placed similarly). Once you're done soldering you can check if the cables don't short to make sure. You have now placed your wires, you CAN superglue them in place if you want but that will make them harder to remove if needed. To get them outside the V-box (when it is closed) you will have to make a hole in the shell. Personally I choose to do it at the top where there was no cable yet (see image below) but I think I would have preferred to have had it on the same side as the Wii video cable. Make sure you don't make the hole too small or too big as that would either cause the cables to break or move around too much.

Aren't you glad you used a colouring scheme and took a picture :)!? You'll never have to open the V-box again! Alright now to split the wires in two to allow for both a scart connection and composite connections. Personally I used a bit of PCB but you can do whatever you like.

Now here comes the relatively hard part, hooking up all connections. To make this easier I have made a pinout image you can follow instead of complicated typed instructions;

checking your newly modified unit
If you've connected everything you can test it out by hooking up whatever video outputting device you want to test and turn both the box (hooked up to the PC) and your device on and see the result. The video might be garbled or filled with noise. That could be cause by a number of things but here are a few;


• Make sure both video and audio ground are indeed hooked up to a ground
• Change the hardware settings in the XCM application to match the video device you are using
• Cables or soldering are/is of too low quality; change cables or resolder
• Cables are too long; shorten them, usually happens with lower quality cables
• The Composite to S-video conversion is too harsh; change to a more expensive method or get a higher value capacitor (which might help with the video signal but will also make it less clear)

These pointers might help you fix it but might not. Personally I still have a “ticking” noise when using the video box which I think is caused by problems with the video stream. I have pretty long cables and also other things that might be causing my problem (such as not shielding ANY of the cables properly).


Finishing up
If you are happy with your results you can tape up the cables or put heatschrink on them (or any other method of keeping them together) to make the box easier to handle. That's it, you're done! You should now be able to use your USA/JAP XCM V-box with any video source (provided it has S-video or composite output).

If you want to use the XCM V-box as a TV tuner, you can think about using an old VCR. As many VCRs takes the TV video and output that via composite (or S-video). That way you can use that signal with your V-box resulting in it becoming a TV tuner (though a rather big one).

I hope you enjoyed my guide and now have a pretty good TV/video tuner for your PC.

-Simon van de Berg

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