PC Engine AV mod

[Spector]

I sent a pm, but it hasn't shown up in my outbox. I don't know whether it got there now...

[Joe Redifer]

I've purchased a few SCART cables from Chaoticjelly on eBay and they've always worked well.  I added an amp and put a DIN-8 socket (from an old TurboTap) into the interface unit of my TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM.  I then removed the resistors from an old Mega Drive 1 SCART cable, made the audio cable fit into regular RCA plugs and there I go.  Since I am in the US, I transcode the RGB into component video.  Looks phuggin' great!



And, of course, a shot of my TV screen.


Note that I do NOT stretch 4:3 images to 16:9, since that is evil.  Of course this TV isn't 16:9 anyway, so that helps. 

[kungfukid]

Yeah, I know ChaoticJelly from over at sega8bit where he regularly posts. He's a good guy and REALLY knows his stuff when it comes to modding pretty much every system. He's done stuff for a lot of people I know.

[GUTS]

Joe what do you use to transcode to component?  A guy on the Gamesx forum recommended a Jrock box since they're pretty reasonably priced, like $65 or so.

[Michael Helgeson]

For component Jrok you'd have to buy something like the Jrok 4.0,which is actually around 85-90 bucks.

[Joe Redifer]

My SCART RGB to component (YUV) transcoder is made by CYP.  I had to import it from Australia and it was close to $95 or so.  it works great and I use it for all of my "classic" systems.  Totally worth it unless you plan on using it for only one system.



It does need a slight mod for sound, though, as it doesn't support sound at all.  It is very simple, just attach the RCA sound cables to the SCART pins inside.

[GUTS]

Sweet, yeah I need to get one of those, old systems look like ass on an HDTV through S-video or regular AV.  I just emailed the Jrock guy to ask about prices, I must have been looking at something else because I thought I saw $65 as the price for just the component one.

[Joe Redifer]

They'll look like ass on an HDTV with component video as well.  HDTV cannot handle 240p very well.  Play on an SDTV that handles component.

[FM-77]

They look like ass on ANY tv using composite or s-video!! 

[Keranu]

Composite rules.

[TR0N]

Composite rules.

Yeah right No Component and RBG rules.

No offense but composite is like looking through a dirty fish bowl.

[Keranu]

I don't see anything wrong with composite. It can look a bit poor on Genesis, but I don't mind it. But really, using composite isn't the end of the world and is cheaper and easier for a person like me to use. Not only that, but from what I've heard, using composite for older games can actually be better since dithering patterns will look nicer. I'm not a techie nerd when it comes to this (and frankly, I don't want to be; spare my life  !), so sorry if my n00bish post offends.

[termis]

I don't see anything wrong with composite. It can look a bit poor on Genesis, but I don't mind it. But really, using composite isn't the end of the world and is cheaper and easier for a person like me to use. Not only that, but from what I've heard, using composite for older games can actually be better since dithering patterns will look nicer. I'm not a techie nerd when it comes to this (and frankly, I don't want to be; spare my life  !), so sorry if my n00bish post offends.

You know, as much as I like tinkering around with systems, I was never a videophile myself.   I definitely have to agree with Keranu somewhat.  On older systems, if you get to see every single pixel clearly, graphics just start looking very blocky cause the original resolution of the game is too low (i.e. like running 8/16-bit emulators on your pc monitor and leaving off the dithering/higher resolution options.

But I can obviously see the benefit in using component/rgb hookups for newer systems where the resolution is high enough to not let the above happen.

Well, I dunno - am I really missing something here for not using rgb connections for a system like the tg16/pc-engine?

[Spector]

I don't see anything wrong with composite. It can look a bit poor on Genesis, but I don't mind it. But really, using composite isn't the end of the world and is cheaper and easier for a person like me to use. Not only that, but from what I've heard, using composite for older games can actually be better since dithering patterns will look nicer. I'm not a techie nerd when it comes to this (and frankly, I don't want to be; spare my life  !), so sorry if my n00bish post offends.

You know, as much as I like tinkering around with systems, I was never a videophile myself.   I definitely have to agree with Keranu somewhat.  On older systems, if you get to see every single pixel clearly, graphics just start looking very blocky cause the original resolution of the game is too low (i.e. like running 8/16-bit emulators on your pc monitor and leaving off the dithering/higher resolution options.

But I can obviously see the benefit in using component/rgb hookups for newer systems where the resolution is high enough to not let the above happen.

Well, I dunno - am I really missing something here for not using rgb connections for a system like the tg16/pc-engine?

I'd like to find out about the difference between rgb and av too. In the 1980s/ early 90s, when people played the PC Engine/Turbografx, nobody used RGB - the best they had was A/V. If it was good enough for them, then surely it's good enough for us now?

[NeoStuey]

Here comes a very non technical reply. 

From my own experience I'll admit that the composite image produced by the Interface Unit isn't too bad, but some things I've noticed with the composite connection is that the colours can seem washed out or even dull, their can be visible shimmering on fast moving objects or even still images with areas of high contrast. You can also get colour bleed, particularly reds and blues have indistinct edges leading to some images looking slightly blurred.

With a properly done RGB mod, ( thanks to chaoticjelly  ) the colour is much improved, the shimmer disappears and the reds and blue's are much better defined leading to a sharper image overall. 

AFAIK it was possible back in the day to mod the white PC Engines for RGB but the original mod drew a rather low powered RGB signal straight out of the PC Engine without any amplification. Colour booster amps were later released to rectify the problem. Starting out as stand alone boxes that your scart lead would plug into and then out to the TV. They were eventually replaced by a colour booster scart cable that was basically a female to male scart lead with the colour boosting amp wired in that you plugged between your PC Engine and TV.

The mod that chaoticjelly did for me put all the electronics needed back inside the PC Engine so the mod and amp are all self contained within the console itself. I guess that over time the electronic components needed to make such an amplifier have gotten small enough and that the technical knowledge has been refined over the years for this to be the case.

Posted by: Joe Redifer

Note that I do NOT stretch 4:3 images to 16:9, since that is evil.  Of course this TV isn't 16:9 anyway, so that helps.  Smile

I agree entirely, I wouldn't stretch the image either but unfortunately my TV has really horrible bright grey borders when running in 4:3 mode. I wish they could be set to black, I could live with that.  O:)