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An unusual connector on an ordinary S3 Virge board.

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First post, by Kruton 9000

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Just saw noname S3 Virge/DX card for sale at a local auction with an unusual connector along usual vga connector. It doesn't look like a video-in or -out or S-Video connector, but rather like an audio jack! There's only one extra small chip on the board - a CD4052B from TI and I don't know why it is needed.
Can anyone identify what this connector is and what it's for? I've seen a ton of different S3 cards, but I've never seen one like this. I'm just curious to know what it is and how it should work.

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Reply 1 of 5, by Joseph_Joestar

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There are a few of those cards on the VGA Museum S3 Virge page.

On the Expert Color card, that connector seems to be labeled as "S3 MPEG Audio" so it may have something to do with that. Possibly related to an MPEG decoding add-on or some such.

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Reply 2 of 5, by Thandor

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-21, 18:10:

There are a few of those cards on the VGA Museum S3 Virge page.

On the Expert Color card, that connector seems to be labeled as "S3 MPEG Audio" so it may have something to do with that. Possibly related to an MPEG decoding add-on or some such.

It’s indeed a connector for MPEG Audio. The Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 also features the same connector. The manual states: “Audio Output for Optional MPEG Video Player”.

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Reply 3 of 5, by PD2JK

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I always thought it was a CD audio connector. 😁

When you don't have a sound card installed, you can still get some audio output.

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Reply 4 of 5, by Jo22

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Interesting. Weren't there other PCI cards with an 2,5 or 3,5 jack for 3D shutter glasses, too?
I know that they normally use data pins on COM port,
but three pins (L/R/GND) are sufficient to shut the left/right LC display of shutter glasses.
And if my memory doesn't play tricks on me, then there had been OEM cards with a jack for shutter glasses.

Edit: Just checked. Some people agree on my memories, apparently.
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/com … 35mm_jack_most/

Edit: The "Kasan WinX Pro", a S3 Trio 64V+, had an "3.5 mm (1/4") stereo jack"
http://www.stereo3d.com/boards.htm

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Reply 5 of 5, by darry

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-03-21, 18:10:

There are a few of those cards on the VGA Museum S3 Virge page.

On the Expert Color card, that connector seems to be labeled as "S3 MPEG Audio" so it may have something to do with that. Possibly related to an MPEG decoding add-on or some such.

Probably for decoded audio audio when using one of these video decoder daughterboards, I would guess.

What MPEG daughterboards attach to S3 cards?

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