Question: I've been thinking about getting a Commodore 64 machine. However, I realise there's obviously no video cables I have that will work. But when I looked online there are many people using S-Video to VGA and stuff like that. My TV is quite old and has an aerial (RF antenna) port in the back but I'm not sure if that would work. Other than that I can't find the S-Video to C64 cable that all these videos show. (They then put it into an S-Video to VGA converter)

Am I able to use the aerial cable to run the C64 and if not, how do I find a C64 out to S-Video cable? I don't feel comfortable making one.

Answer: 
You can use the aerial port on your TV, but you probably need a switch box for that to work. Every C64 came with the cable and switch box in the box but they are infrequently used today because the picture quality is the lowest.

The C64-to-S-Video adapters are available on eBay. You need a C64 monitor cable to plug into it.

Converting composite or S-Video to VGA is more complicated but there are devices which can do it. There is a popular one called the GBS-8220, also available on eBay, that can convert composite/YUV and CGA/EGA/RGB to VGA.
I don't know what your budget is, but if you can afford it then consider a C128 and old RGBI-compatible monitor instead. It will still "look cool" and allow you to "program with limitations". You will gain a crisp 80-column display, ability to program for both the 6502 and z-80 CPUs, and a much better built-in BASIC.

BTW, RGBi stands for Red, Green, Blue, intensity. It was a digital signal providing for 16 sharp colors, 4 bits for each pixel. They were black (no bits set), light grey (R+G+B bits set), red, green, blue, cyan (B+G), magenta (R+B), and yellow (G+R). Each of those base 8 colors had an enhanced intensity when the i-bit was set. Among everything else, this turned light-grey to white, and black to dark-grey.

I used my C128 with a Sears *Total Video System*. It combined a TV and monitor modes for monochrome, composite, and RGBI. This was perfect for the C128 because the composite worked with C64 mode and the RGBI worked with the C128 modes. (Plus it was my TV.) Here is a [1985 article](http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue58/computer_video.html) which includes descriptions of the Sears TVS as well as other flexible monitors of the period.

If you wish to avoid buying an old separate monitor/TV, see [this article](https://sites.google.com/site/h2obsession/CBM/C128/rgbi-to-vga) for building an RGBI to VGA converter. Sigh, it looks like your TV doesn't have VGA either. However, this should hook up to just about any computer monitor you happen to have.