PSVita's Mystery Port Explained -

Are you one of the unlucky people that own a 1k model Vita, and bought a Vita TV simply for the TV out functionality? I’m sorry to report that you, in all likely hood, we were scammed by Sony. It would seem the top executives at Sony are laughing at those of us who bought a Vita TV for the sole purpose of it’s Vita TV capabilities for a couple reasons, including 90% of current Vita games do not work because of Sony’s ‘whitelist’ and the ‘mystery port was originally meant to be for TV out capabilities!
Let’s take a look.

A common question asked by Vita owners was, ‘what is the Accessory Port for?’ Sony’s answer was, “Accessory port For connecting accessories (which are sold separately).” See link below.

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/psvita/basic/partnames.html

Recently, this question was asked an article on gamergen,com The interview states “Our Japanese colleagues Impress Watch had the opportunity to interview Muneki Shimada , one of the engineers who designed the PSVita TV”

Shimada stated, “To confess , PSVita already includes a video scalier.” Then the journalist asked, “You are telling us that original PSVita was supposed to broadcast to a TV via a single cable interface?” Shimada once again stated “exactly.” “Another engineer said during the interview that the PSP 2000 can be connected to a TV via an appropriate cable . This last thought suggests this type of product with for PSVita . Ultimately, the idea was not accepted. It stated since the new slim PS Vita 2k,does not have this type of connection, the PS Vita TV is here to satisfy the players wanting a TV out solution for their Vita’s.“

Basically, there is your answer, ‘if you want Vita TV out, buy a $100 Vita TV.’ Typical for those familiar with Sony’s line of PlayStation products. However, workarounds do exist and are currently being investigated, by some. Let’s take a look.

The First is the ‘PS Vita Video Capture Kit It,’ from 3dsvideocapture.com It was the first video capture kit for PS Vita WiFi model, but way expensive at $239.

Here’s quote from their website,

” This is a PSvita video capture. This item includes the following items. – Mini USB Connector
– Cameron USB FX SPA3
– JUNFLON Wiring
– Lead-free Solder Alloy
– Assembling Manual
– Installation Manual

You need to have a Mini USB Cable to connect to your PC “

Currently, known hardware modders/reverse engineers Yifan Lu and xmax katsu have been poking around inside the Vita. Yifan Lu was one of the first to investigate the ‘mystery port.’ He stated, “The unfilled pads next to the eMMC has something to do with a video. The direction of the trace goes from the SoC to the video connector. A continuity test shows that all the pads comes from the SoC and leads to some point on the video connector. Could they be pads used for testing video in the factory?

Looking at the VitaTV teardown from 4gamer.net shows that traces in a similar location coming out of the SoC goes through similar looking components and then into the Op-Amp and to the HDMI connector. This is a stretch, but could these traces output HDMI if connected properly? As a side note, I could not find any direct connection between anything on the video connector to either the mystery port or the multi-connector.

If Sony were to ever produce a video-out cable, there needs to be a software update as there doesn’t seem to be hardware support.” Here are some of their findings. Check here for more info about the USB and Mystery chip. Note: Yifan Lu mentioned the uses of the ‘mystery port’ here and that video out could be added through a firmware update.