US SNES Output

[skykiduk]

I'm in need of some advice trying to connect my US SNES (V1) to my Dell FP2001 TFT Monitor. (I have a US SNES and the monitor is UK)

I have an RGB Scart lead that I use to connect to my TV, but the monitor has S-Video and Composite inputs. I bought a SNES S-Video lead from ebay, but it didn't work - no picture. I have also tried using a Scart - Composite lead with an adaptor into my existing SNES-SCART lead and that didn't work. Neither of these provide a picture when connecting to the composite connection on my TV either. :angry:

To get it working I have to connect my SNES to my DVD player (Panasonic A350) via the SCART input, and then connect the DVD player to my monitor using a SCART - Composite lead. This works fine and the display is NTSC@60hz

Can anyone tell me what lead I need to buy to connect the SNES directly to the monitor? (either S-VIDEO or Composite). Do I have to get a US lead, or will a UK one be okay.

From the monitor manual, the details of the two inputs are as follows:
S-video, Y input 1 volt(p-p), C input 0.286 volt(p-p), 75 ohm input impedance
Composite, 1 volt(p-p), 75 ohm input impedance

If anyone can help i'd be really pleased.
Thanks.
Rob.

[phreak97]

just get any snes av or svideo cable off ebay, there shouldnt be a difference between the us and uk cables at all.

[viletim+]

NTSC and PAL snes use different video output circuitry and slightly different cables. The difference is that the PAL cable double terminates the video (what were nintendo thinking???) and the NTSC cable doesn't. To put it simply, there is a 75 ohm resistor inside the PAL (for the composite cable - it's in the plastic, nintendo shaped plug) cable. To make it work with an NTSC console, open the plug and remove it.

This applies to the composite cable (video, left, right. 3x phono) and the SCART cable. I've go no idea about the s-video cable.

It's interesting that you should get no video at all. By plugging the wrong cable into the wrong system the worst that should happen is a dim picture. Many TVs can compensate for the 'low' signal and as a resault can display an adequate picture when the wrong cable is used.

[phreak97]

i dont have a clue what youre talking about. i use the same pal cables for my pal snes, n64 and gamecube as i do my two us snes consoles, and i even use them via a homemade pin converter with my megadrive. there are no components in a pal nintendo   AV cable at all.. i have opened about three.
however. i have never had a nintendo av cable made back in the snes days. all mine are post n64.

the fact still remains, a cable with no components in it at all will work completely fine on either region snes.

[viletim~]

phreak,

there are no components in a pal nintendo AV cable at all.. i have opened about three.

I've only got one nintendo A/V cable (it came with my nintendo 64). It definately has a resistor inside, connected between video and ground. Are you really sure that there's not resistor inside you PAL cables? checked with a multimeter? Of corse, my cable could be the exception but I don't think so. Here's why...

the fact still remains, a cable with no components in it at all will work completely fine on either region snes.

No, it won't. To prove this here is a table showing the video amplitude as a percentage of what it should be idealy. With and without the resistor, loads of 37 ohms and 75 ohms respectively.

Code Select Expand

.          With  Without
SNES PAL   100   130
N64 PAL    95    185
SNES NTSC  60    100
This doesn't mean that nintendo didn't supply cables without resistors in PAL areas (or vice versa), just that poor video will resualt. Without going into too much detail, video level too low typicaly looks a bit dim and the colours will look more saturated than usual. Video level too high appears washed out, lacking in colour. It can also resault in colour bleeding and and excessive contrast (it depends a lot on the TV).

If you don't believe me then try this: connect a pal n64 to your TV with a home made composite cable. Then connect a 75 ohm resistor between video and ground and notice the difference.

[phreak97]

i believe it makes a difference, but i dont know why your cables would be like that.. i use the very same cables with both pal and ntsc snes consoles, and they both look perfectly fine. ill open one right now. ok wtf, this one has it, youre right.. then why didnt my other one have one? :S:S:S now im ultra confuzed.

on closer inspection, they all do, youre completely right. i must have somehow picked up an ntsc cable and fluked ripping that one apart at some point. i swear i opened more than one though :s
anyway..

*phreak97 promptly converts one cable to ntsc and writes it on in permanent marker

[Vertigo]

I have one cable that works fine for RGB from a PAL SNES and a NTSC N64 (3-wires modded). This cable DOES NOT give a normal RGB picture from a NTSC SNES. The picture is massively white and contrasty. Would an official PAL RGB SCART for Gamecube make the NTSC SNES output RGB properly, or what?
I don't want to break the cable that I already have because it's good for 2 systems, but if I can get a PAL GC cable for a few quid (that seems to contain capacitors last I remember) would that work?

So many acronyms, so little time.

[Yod@]

This cable DOES NOT give a normal RGB picture from a NTSC SNES. The picture is massively white and contrasty. Would an official PAL RGB SCART for Gamecube make the NTSC SNES output RGB properly, or what?

In my experience, using a cable with 220uF caps on the R,G,B lines will fix the picture - so yeah, an official PAL GC SCART lead should do the trick.

[viletim]

There seems to be two types of RGB SCART cable. One type works on the PAL SNES and PAL N64 while the other one works on the NTSC SNES, NTSC N64 and both GCs.

[Vertigo]

There seems to be two types of RGB SCART cable. One type works on the PAL SNES and PAL N64 while the other one works on the NTSC SNES, NTSC N64 and both GCs.

WRONG!
Get your facts straight.
1) There is no RGB SCART cable for NTSC Gamecube. You have to splice together a digital cable and multi-out cable to get RGB from your NTSC Gamecube. This cable doesn't work with anything else, except that you will get composite video, sync and sound if you only plug the multi-out in, and only if that wire's been left connected.
2) By my own experience, my RGB-modded NTSC N64 works with the same cable as my PAL SNES.
3) Also by my own experience and that of Yod@, the PAL GC RGB cable works with a NTSC SNES to output RGB, because it contains capacitors where the PAL SNES RGB cable does not.
Also, there is a very small generation of PAL N64s that can actually output RGB, or be made to do so. The vast amount can't do it.

[Endymion]

1) There is no RGB SCART cable for NTSC Gamecube. You have to splice together a digital cable and multi-out cable to get RGB from your NTSC Gamecube. This cable doesn't work with anything else, except that you will get composite video, sync and sound if you only plug the multi-out in, and only if that wire's been left connected.

Do you happen to have the info on how to do this? I could swear I had the site for it bookmarked some time ago but it appeared to have gone down some time last year and I can't find the bookmark either.

[Vertigo]

Erm... yeh.
Chop the end off both cables.
Attach the red, green and blue colour signals from the digi out with the sound and sync from the multi-out into a SCART plug.
Attach the auto-switching voltage if you want.
That's about it.
You also need a 10K Ohm resistor in there to balance things out but I'm not sure on which pin and mine's at home. I bet Yod@ knows the answer to this one anyway.
Because the GC's sound comes from the multi-out, the digi-out has no sound
facility, this spliced cable is still DPL2-capable.

[viletim!]

Vertigo,

I know, my brief comment on nintendo cables was written without much thought put into it (the n64 doesn't even output RGB! :). You seem to know a lot on the topic, why not publish your findings somewhere? Last time I searched for gamecube video information I came up with scarcely anything.

[Vertigo]

You seem to know a lot on the topic, why not publish your findings somewhere?

There's already plenty of information on the internet and in forums such as this.

[Yod@]

I bet Yod@ knows the answer to this one anyway.

You have to lift pin 12, and feed a voltage to it via a 10K resistor (to switch the DAC into RGB mode, rather than component mode).

I found a site with some familiar pictures, but it looks as though the text has been babelfished a couple of times.

[Endymion]

I found a site with some familiar pictures, but it looks as though the text has been babelfished a couple of times.

I'll take what I can get, got a linky? The old site I am pretty sure was http://www.rgbcube.co.uk but it's gone gone gone for almost a year now.

[Yod@]

Apologies, I forgot to paste the link.
It's actually for a VGA cable, but if you're making a standard RGB SCART lead there are only a couple of minor differences - you can ignore the horizontal/vertical sync parts of the guide, and instead use an ordinary composite lead. Wire the composite video part to SCART pin 20, and the left and right audio to SCART pins 2 and 6.

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Technopolis-Mar...84/ngcrgb_e.htm