Fraudulent AV cable on Ebay

It doesn't say it's a cable for connecting a USB output to AV. It says it's a connection from a USB style plug to 3 RCA.

It wouldn't surprise me if some equipment is using USB sockets in this way. They wouldn't be USB devices.

Whether there was an intention to mislead - well, that's a tough call.

Sylvia.

There is a tremendous range in cable prices, although I don't know how good they are. I've only bought one cat-6 cable from the second cheapest web business (not ebay, but only because i didn't think of it) and it seems to work fine. The cheapest web store came recommended by someone on a newsgroup, maybe this one.

But are USB cables more complicated than most others?

Did you have the other end plugged into the intended device? If the other end isn't plugged into anything, nothing happens when you plug in a USB plug, right? more below.

Further down it says "USB Male A to 3 x RCA (Video/Audio) Cable"

And the heading says "USB Type Male A to 3x RCA AV A/V TV adapter Lead Cable"

This is not in Australia, but the seller has a 99.6% positive rating and he's charging 32 US dollars including free local shipping.

Your seller has 99.2% positive**. Is he really selling junk?

As to the relevance of his answer, maybe that answer he gave you was jjust the first thing he thought of to get rid of you.

What did you expect? The standard tiny moulded USB hood could not be expected to contain any significant electronics, but I guess you have to have some electronics knowledge to know that. But the ad clearly says it's an "adapter lead" or "adapter cable" and no mention is made of it being a "converter" or having any other functionality, but the "Video/Audio" thing is a bit confusing, that should be clarified as it clearly cannot be used for video or audio purposes.

Fraudulent? Probably not deliberate, just the usual Chinglish mash-up I guess.

Only if it uses the "USB certified" logo. I think anything else is fair game.

Dave.

As a seller the ONLY option you have is to leave positive feedback! The crippled rating system is one of but many things turning ebay into a joke.

Dave.

Which average consumers don't have. The person who bought the thing doesn't have sufficient technical knowledge to work that out, simply wanted to run a AV television set from his laptop computer (which doesn't have TV outputs, just DVI and VGA.).

ty,

as

To the average consumer, if you asked/showed them this cable, I'm certain that a majority of them would think that it's function in life was to convert USB to AV from a standard PC. They dont know the difference between an "adapter" and a "converter".

No Logo on the plug.

log.com

No - they are just a 4 way shielded cable, though the data leads are likely twisted together in a certain way (like Cat 5 leads) in order to attain the high data rate.

that is the opposite, that acts as an AV input for recording AV signals to a PC, not outputting AV to a TV set.

It wasnt me, it was a non-technical friend who wanted me to test it as it "wouldnt work" when he received it, he just repeated to me what the seller sent to him when he emailed for support for it.

because the thing "looked too good to be true" and as David mentions - there wasnt enough room anywhere in it to put any significant electronics, I didnt want to risk it.

Measuring it showed it to be just straight through cable with a few ohms resistance (obviously the resistance of the cable itself).

Based on this, there was no point in connecting it to a TV or stereo.

Its a piece of junk, I told him to return it to the seller for a refund - if its even worth the effort and postage expense to possibly get what's left of his $9.95 after paying return post. Bin job.

Agree, I gave up totally on selling on Ebay, after getting a 50% non paying bidder rate (and ebay does nothing about this, and keeps your listing fee) and then this ridiculous paypal 30% 3 month reserve holding rule, for the average person its just a waste of time to sell on Ebay except for items that:

I don't complain too much about myself though, I had a really good run on there while Ebay was good, got rid of 90% of the crap I wanted to made a tidy profit out of it,

the people I really feel for are those who went to a lot of time and effort to establish an Ebay business, maybe even left their job, invested substantially in stock, leased premises etc, to find themselves totally screwed over by Ebay over the last couple of years, making their effort unviable, and to add insult to injury: due to the economic climate, they might not easily be able to get back into their old profession again.

I do still occasionally buy stuff on Ebay though, but nowhere near as much as before.

log.com

This is a classic case of somebody buying an item and not knowing enough about it to make an informed decision.

Chalk it up to either "buyer beware" or "look before you leap".

There is a common sense rule that says if you don't know what you are doing, don't do it.

Charlie

It seems to be an accessory for the PSP, see Ebay #190290595607 JC

USB can be used for many things, not just the common ones. Cables for charging cell phones from the USB port do not follow any standard other than power and ground.

This cable is for a specific purpose and will not work elsewhere.

Its a piece of junk, I told him to return it to the seller for a refund - if its even worth the effort and postage expense to possibly get what's left of his $9.95 after paying return post. Bin job.

Just because you do not know how to use it does not make it a piece of junk.

Yawn. Lots of those on eBay.

I regularly come across USB-A to USB-A leads, with a plug on both ends and no "bridge-chip" electronics in the middle.

For example

Inserted between two items without support for that style of connection, these leads can possibly cause some damage to their ports, or at least confuse a user expecting something magical to happen after the smoke.

This is a legit cable, however have a read of the warnings I supply on my sales page, compared to say ebay sellers:

Cheers Don...

Don McKenzie Inscribed thus:

Don, check your web page menu flyout. It doesn't work right in Opera V10.1 on Linux.

Other than that, quite informative. I've a couple of those cables and had no idea why anyone would need them.

This can sometimes be a trap Have a look at:

In the moulded hood, which looks a similar size, they fit a USB to TTL interface.

However, I wouldn't be selling this item without pointing out that it was just a cable adapter, and ***NOT*** an A/V interface.

My conclusion, he doesn't care about the customer, just his pocket. He doesn't understand that a happy customer, may be a returning customer.

Cheers Don...

thanks Baron, first report I have had on that one.

yes thanks, I got them in because a manufacturer made a wrong decision, but has since corrected it.

Over the years, I couldn't count the number of times I have seen a wrong decision made on a connector.

Cheers Don...

Don, interesting presentation, looks life "full disclosure"

I use Opera 9.64 on Win98 and had no trouble negotiating around your website. What is the specificURL that caused a problem?

thanks Robert, that is the way I have always done business. Why sell something to someone, when they can't use it? You make sure the customer understands what it is before they purchase, when the product specs may come under what I would call, open to "mis-interpretation" easily.

I put my own interpretation on it, and put this up on the product page, and users can then make a more informed choice on product usage.

wouldn't come up as a specific URL. I suspect what the Baron was getting, was the flyout menus being corrupted in some way.

For instance, if you hover over PICmicro, to the right you should get two new entries "Hardware" and "Software" flyout menus. No doubt you see this, he doesn't.

Cheers Don...