N64 owners, your video problems are over.

Retr0gamer · 06-05-2011 01:56PM #1

Good news for PAL N64 owners sick if shitty composite video, I've found the solution.

Recently on a thread someone said that s-video worked on PAL N64's. My bull**** alarm sounded but curiosity got the better of me and I had a look. Seems I was right and wrong. S-video does work on the PAL N64 but Nintendo left out components so that it doesn't work properly. The video displays but all the colours are ultra bright and over saturated. However I stumbled across a thread about someone that hardwired a s-video cable to the N64 console and added the extra components himself and got it to work. There was a message on the thread saying you could mod the s-video cable itself with the components for a cleaner mod.

Anyway was on consolegoods.co.uk and saw that rob had modded s-video cables for sale so inquired and seems these cables would work on a PAL system but not NTSC so I took a chance.

The cable arrived today and I can happily report it works beautifully. The picture quality is amazing. No more dot crawling and the colours are far more vivid. To the naked eye there's no difference between this and RGB. I tried Perfect Dark which is massively improved by this cable. Goldeneye was improved as well but less so since it seems to over use the N64 blur and looks absolutely terrible anyway. Other games like Mario 64, Mario Kart and 2D games like Mischief Makers really are substantially improved.

Now the difference between composite and s-video on the N64 isn't as amazing as the difference between composite and RGB on a megadrive and the SNES because of the awful N64 anti aliasing blur. if you look at the edge of a polygon instead of a diagonal with a staircase effect going up it you have pixels smudged randomly along the edge which looks even worse. Still I highly recommend this cable because even with Nintendos awful anti aliasing this cable is a massive improvement over AV composite.

Edit: I also tried this on the NTSC machine. The only game I had was Conkers Bad Fur day which unfortunately a very dark game anyway. It was hard to see the screen but it is at the best of times anyway but I have a feeling that this cable displays an image that is a bit too dark on a NTSC N64 consoles.

RedXIV · 06-05-2011 01:58PM

Sweet

now I just need to buy an N64

Steve X2 · 06-05-2011 02:05PM

I think I'll grab one of those cables myself. Sounds like a nice easy upgrade to the visuals.

.

OwaynOTT · 06-05-2011 02:16PM

sorry where'd you get the cable?

Retr0gamer · 06-05-2011 02:25PM

From: http://www.consolegoods.co.uk/

Used him plenty of times.

Setun · 06-05-2011 05:42PM

Thanks for the info retrogamer. My curiosity is most certainly piqued.

Barlett · 06-05-2011 06:43PM

So this is the cable to get if you want to get a good quality picture on your HDTV?

CiDeRmAn · 06-05-2011 07:37PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Seems I was right and wrong.

Just thought I'd pop that there, for no reason :rolleyes:

Retr0gamer · 06-05-2011 08:04PM

Barlett wrote: »

So this is the cable to get if you want to get a good quality picture on your HDTV?

Yep it will make it look amazing on a CRT as well. On an LCD it won't look quite as good but it's a massive improvement.

80s Synth Pop · 01-10-2011 04:56PM

Looks like the ultimate perfect N64 video solution will be available soon - http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43034&start=15
N64 to VGA for all region consoles!

K.O.Kiki · 02-10-2011 03:37PM

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

Looks like the ultimate perfect N64 video solution will be available soon - http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43034&start=15
N64 to VGA for all region consoles!

:eek:

Schorpio · 02-10-2011 10:32PM

Oh - I thought everyone here knew about the consolegoods s-video cable?! Whoops - I've had one of these for a while

I was stung before with an unmodded s-video cable which displayed a far too bright and over saturated picture.

The one on consolegoods is the only one I know of that actually works properly. If you're into your 64, it's a most buy!

Bacca49 · 08-12-2011 11:05PM

IS this the 'N64 S-Video cable - PAL verison' one?

Retr0gamer · 08-12-2011 11:51PM

Yes it's for PAL consoles.

80s Synth Pop · 09-12-2011 09:46AM

you're really missing out using a PAL n64. Switch to a USA model and rgb mod it with the amp method (Google "THS7314 N64 RGB mod") - here is a screenshot I took after completing this mod:

Looks perfect to me!

Myrddin · 09-12-2011 10:22AM

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

you're really missing out using a PAL n64. Switch to a USA model and rgb mod it with the amp method (Google "THS7314 N64 RGB mod") - here is a screenshot I took after completing this mod:

Looks perfect to me!

The PAL N64 svideo cable is damned close to the NTSC RGB. Way less hassle too.

80s Synth Pop · 09-12-2011 10:43AM

EnterNow wrote: »

The PAL N64 svideo cable is damned close to the NTSC RGB. Way less hassle too.

50hz.... just couldn't do it

Steve X2 · 09-12-2011 10:44AM

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

50hz.... just couldn't do it

Retr0, is that you?

.

Myrddin · 09-12-2011 11:24AM

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

50hz.... just couldn't do it

I've both an NTSC & PAL console, the mod just isn't worth it. Trust me, I love modding things

Steve X2 · 09-12-2011 11:36AM

EnterNow wrote: »

I've both an NTSC & PAL console, the mod just isn't worth it. Trust me, I love modding things

It's true, I used to be a girl called Mary before Enter modded me.

.

Pyongyang · 09-12-2011 11:41AM

Steve SI wrote: »

It's true, I used to be a girl called Mary before Enter modded me.

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBOQzSk14c

Andrew76 · 09-12-2011 11:44AM

Steve SI wrote: »

It's true, I used to be a girl called Mary before Enter modded me.

.

I knew he was good with a soldering iron but that's something else indeed!

Myrddin · 09-12-2011 11:50AM

Steve SI wrote: »

It's true, I used to be a girl called Mary before Enter modded me.

.

He wanted two boobs, no surprise there. He felt two boobs are better than a single protrusion. Steve SI - Symmetry taken to the extreme

80s Synth Pop · 09-12-2011 11:53AM

EnterNow wrote: »

I've both an NTSC & PAL console, the mod just isn't worth it. Trust me, I love modding things

I thought videophiles preferred the separate lines for red, green, blue as being superior to the two line luminance and chroma... Perhaps the difference is not noticeable. Regardless, RGB is required for the SLG3000 scanline generator tool chain anyway.

Check out this mod for direct VGA output

Steve X2 · 09-12-2011 11:53AM

EnterNow wrote: »

He wanted two boobs, no surprise there. He felt two boobs are better than a single protrusion. Steve SI - Symmetry taken to the extreme

.

Myrddin · 09-12-2011 11:57AM

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

I thought videophiles preferred the separate lines for red, green, blue as being superiour to the two line luminance and chroma... Perhaps the difference is not noticable. Regardless, RGB is required for the SLG3000 scanline generator tool chain anyway.

Check out this mod for direct VGA output

There would be a difference, between the two the mod isn't really justified. The svideo cable makes it pretty close. Then again I'm no videophile

o1s1n · 09-12-2011 12:28PM

80s Synth Pop wrote: »

Easy peasy.

Enternow - I'll pick up my N64 and have it down to you tomorrow, cool? Will be back an hour afterward to pick it up.

I don't have that VGA board, but I'm sure you could put it together in minutes.

Retr0gamer · 09-12-2011 03:03PM

I have an NTSC N64 (20 euros from Rage, felt like robbery

) but by the time I got my hands on one I was 2 games away from owning every N64 game I deem worth owning so it's just too much hassle and money to go and collect everything again for NTSC. So at least with the modded s-video cable I don't have to play games in composite. The N64 looks absolutely abysmal in composite so it's very welcome. If you aren't going for any fancy pass through video processing then an NTSC machine with s-video is fine. The difference between RGB and s-video is very minor, almost unnoticable and it gets rid of dot crawl.

For anyone starting off an N64 collection or thinking of starting an N64 collection whatever you do do not collect PAL games. NTSC all the way.

The Last Bandit · 09-12-2011 03:10PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

For anyone starting off an N64 collection or thinking of starting an N64 collection whatever you do do not collect PAL games. NTSC all the way.

Ah jeesss now ya tell me.. Ah the PAL stuff isn't that bad particularly on a 21" crt while wearing very scratched glasses.

Myrddin · 09-12-2011 03:13PM

The Last Bandit wrote: »

Ah jeesss now ya tell me.. Ah the PAL stuff isn't that bad particularly on a 21" crt while wearing very scratched glasses.

It's not like you'd have trouble collecting the good games again, there's an awful lot of sh1te on N64

Retr0gamer · 09-12-2011 03:21PM

The main problem is I got a lot of the best games in a very reasonable bundles from adverts or whatever it was when it was still on boards. I'd have to buy all the games individually now and some games like Majoras Mask and Ocarina have gone up in value because of all the ****ing idiots paying over the odds for games that aren't rare at all. It would cost a lot more.

The problem isn't how the games look on a PAL consoles. Get a modded s-video cable and it looks fine. It's the slow down on a lot of games which makes then not as much fun to play. An considering a lot of N64 games have major framerate issues then it makes playing a lot of games really bad.

Nintendo were very good (with the exception of a god awful Wave Race conversion) with PAL conversions as were the UK based devs like Rare and DMA but outside of the you've got some very dodgy PAL conversions from the likes of Konami.

There's also the fact that there's a few very good Japanese and US exclusives that are must haves like Ogre Battle and Sin and Punishment. TBH I just used the virtual console for these games.

N64 owners, your video problems are over.

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