C-Sync in N64

[tcancian]

Hi. I own a early production brazilian Nintendo 64, and apparently, it has C-Sync at the Pin 3. It looks quite exactly like this:

http://i1045.photobucket.com/albums/b457/Link83_photos/N64%20Motherboard%20Revisions/NTSC/NUS-CPU-03_Back.jpg

It even has the "S" at Pin-3. But according to the GameSX wiring diagrams, my NTSC SNES RGB cable uses the Composite Video instead of the C-Sync.

My question is, is there any real advantage of modding my board (cutting the trace to Pin 8 and transfering the C-Sync from Pin 3 to Pin for my image quality? Currently, the mod is very dark at my TV. It demands 100% Contrast Ratio and 100% Brightness. I've heard about some "x-pattern" corruption in image at assembler forums, and I have to admit, even though RGB looks MUCH better than Composite, from far away in Sector Y at StarFox, it almost looks like as if there's dot crawl around edges. Unfortunatly, my user is pending approval and I can't view the images to tell if it's the same.

So what's everyone's opinion here? Assuming I have a buffered C-Sync, and won't need to build extra circuitry, should I mod this? Will my image quality increase? If I cut the trace, will composite be gone for good? Or would I still be able to pick it from the C11 point where it comes from? Maybe I could order some more cables and find out if there's any way to mod the cable instead of the system...

By the way, should I remove the 220uF caps at the cable? I've heard you don't actually need them for the N64 signal. Do caps weaken signals?

[RGB32E]

Using C-Sync on the N64 doesn't provide any picture quality improvements over composite video for sync.  CSYNC from the N64 is really only useful for situations where the device does not accept composite video as sync (RGBCv not accepted but RGBS is).

Early, earliest, whatever, RGB output from the N64 REQUIRES an amp.  

Lawrence, please update or remove the non-wiki RGB page:

http://www.gamesx.com/rgbadd/rgbn64.htm

The page is misleading as an un-amped RGB signal never produces anywhere close to proper results.  The fairy tale about an early N64 working great without adding additional components is a bad joke!  It's almost as bad as the belief that the SNES is limited to only 256 on screen colors! :p. (ex. DKC3 displays over 1000 on certain screens)

A RGB amp for the N64 is relatively easy to install (if you have the right circuit).

[tcancian]

Using C-Sync on the N64 doesn't provide any picture quality improvements over composite video for sync.  CSYNC from the N64 is really only useful for situations where the device does not accept composite video as sync (RGBCv not accepted but RGBS is).

Early, earliest, whatever, RGB output from the N64 REQUIRES an amp.  

Lawrence, please update or remove the non-wiki RGB page:

http://www.gamesx.com/rgbadd/rgbn64.htm

The page is misleading as an un-amped RGB signal never produces anywhere close to proper results.  The fairy tale about an early N64 working great without adding additional components is a bad joke!  It's almost as bad as the belief that the SNES is limited to only 256 on screen colors! :p. (ex. DKC3 displays over 1000 on certain screens)

A RGB amp for the N64 is relatively easy to install (if you have the right circuit).

A rather bold statement indeed. Anyway, next week I'll try to make an amp using BF494s, the real issue is that I can't find the THS7314 in Brazil nor any stores in the USA willing to ship to Brazil (except for express, which is kinda expensive). So, no increments from Composite Video Sync then? Know something about this so called "x-pattern" they talk about in Assembler forums? From far away, how do enemies and particle effects look to you in StarFox 64?

[RGB32E]

I'll have to take a look..!