aumann
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Post by aumann on Jan 8, 2016 1:36:15 GMT
Hello everyone, I am looking into buying a Saturn and had a few questions: I will be connecting my Saturn to a Sony Trinitron CRT via S-video. Which would be the best svideo cable to use? Are the hybrid svideo/composite cables a viable option? The reason I ask this is because when I was buying an Svideo cable for the N64 I found out the hybrid svideo cables were incorrectly wired and only sent out a composite signal. This is the cable I was looking at link. Thanks. |
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Post by MIK on Jan 8, 2016 10:19:28 GMT
Sega Saturn's video port is unique to just that make of console meaning Megadrive and Dreamcast can't use it's video leads. If your screen supports S-video then the lead should be good, however...
If your from PAL land as in Europe/Australia then Sega consoles were designed to display RGB as the best possible picture on a classic CRT via a Scart Lead. In the UK especially, every Sega Saturn came with a Scart Lead in the box as standard. RF leads or anything else had to be bought separately. Your CRT should have a scart socket on the back, plug and play.
If your from the USA hopefully someone else can offer the best advice to which lead to obtain.
I've always used RGB scart leads with Saturn's here in the UK as have most people from this part of the world.
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aumann
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Post by aumann on Jan 8, 2016 16:55:32 GMT
Hi MIK, thanks for the response. I am aware the best connection would be RGB SCART but I'm in the US so I'll be using S-Video for now. My question is if all S-Video cables for the Saturn are more or less equal? Do Saturn hybrid S-Video cables have display problems like the N64 hybrid S-Video cables which only display composite?
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Post by buckoa51 on Jan 8, 2016 17:30:26 GMT
I've never seen a S-video cable that can only display composite, how would that even work? There's luma and chroma, if you stuffed composite video down that it'd give a black and white picture at best.
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aumann
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Post by aumann on Jan 8, 2016 17:45:16 GMT
The hybrid S-Video cables for N64 had the three composite leads along with the svideo lead all in the same cable. Most of them were wired wrong internally and had the video channel outputting from the yellow and svideo lead so they were not outputting a true svideo signal despite having the svideo lead. The ones that worked correctly were the non-hybrid ones which only had the two audio connections and S-video lead, no yellow composite lead. That brings me to my question of the Saturn S-Video cables having the same problem as the N64 ones.
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Post by buckoa51 on Jan 8, 2016 18:26:03 GMT
S-video is two wires though, composite is just one (plus audio), so not sure how that is supposed to even work. I know N64 S-Video cables need resistors and capacitors to cut down on picture noise, but I can't see how you can stuff composite down an S-video line. Never heard of such problems with Saturn S-Video cables, but then never heard of it on the N64! Just did some research, I believe you're referring to the checkerboard problem, that's not because it's displaying composite, it's just because the cable isn't wired right. It can affect ANY third party N64 S-Video cable. - gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendomultiav - You need a 75ohm resistor to ground and 220uF capacitor in series on Luma. 75ohm resistor to ground and 68nF capacitor in series on Chroma (at least on some machines anyway). Anyway, the TL:DR of it all, no, Saturn isn't affected by this. |
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aumann
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Post by aumann on Jan 8, 2016 18:41:00 GMT
S-video is two wires though, composite is just one (plus audio), so not sure how that is supposed to even work. I know N64 S-Video cables need resistors and capacitors to cut down on picture noise, but I can't see how you can stuff composite down an S-video line. Never heard of such problems with Saturn S-Video cables, but then never heard of it on the N64! Just did some research, I believe you're referring to the checkerboard problem, that's not because it's displaying composite, it's just because the cable isn't wired right. It can affect ANY third party N64 S-Video cable. - gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendomultiav - You need a 75ohm resistor to ground and 220uF capacitor in series on Luma. 75ohm resistor to ground and 68nF capacitor in series on Chroma (at least on some machines anyway). Anyway, the TL:DR of it all, no, Saturn isn't affected by this. Thanks for the correction Bucko. I knew the N64 S-video cables weren't wired correctly which is what brought on my question about the Saturn cables. I'm glad to hear Saturn doesn't share this problem. Would any third party s-video cables work fine or are there any preferred ones with better quality? |
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Post by buckoa51 on Jan 8, 2016 18:45:10 GMT
Differences in quality should be marginal at best, but I'll defer that question to our US readers, my Saturn's are all using RGB.
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Post by zyrobs on Jan 8, 2016 19:56:28 GMT
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Post by buckoa51 on Jan 8, 2016 23:54:36 GMT
Yeah I know, but he was suggesting composite was sent down the S-Video connector too. Mystery has been solved though.
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Post by MIK on Jan 9, 2016 10:46:14 GMT
This might be what aumann was referring too... Some leads such as this DragonCube one below is branded as an S-AV lead for GameCube, on the side it states it will also work with N64. On the face of it you might think this is an S-video lead yet when you plug it in an N64 you do not get an S-video picture. Instead you get some fuzzy interfering over bright and washed out colour looking picture for both AV & S-video settings, the picture is slightly worse in S-video. The S-video image also displays in colour btw. Some people may confuse it to Composite Video in what they are seeing but it's not, the picture is completely fucked up and unusable. So yeah this problem more than likely refers back to Buckoa's link where such a lead will need fixing: gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:nintendomultiavUse the lead on a GameCube however and the picture is fine.  From what I can make out, some 3rd party cables that support both N64/GameCube are either wired wrong or have been misleading when stating they also work with N64. |
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Post by buckoa51 on Jan 9, 2016 10:59:47 GMT
If you miss out the resistors/capacitors it shouldn't be /that/ bad, you just tend to get a checkerboard pattern over certain parts of the image that's reminiscent of composite dot crawl. Yay for universal RGB for N64s though. And of course HDMI (coming sooon  ) |
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NiGHTopian
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Post by NiGHTopian on Jan 10, 2016 17:58:58 GMT
I actually have both types of cables on my two Saturns. One is using a 3-wire s-video cable hooked up to a 36" Trinitron. The other is using a 4-wire(s-video/composite combo)cable hooked up to a newer 42" RCA LCD. They both look great through s-video. I did try the 4-wire cable through composite on the LCD tv and you could tell a difference compared to using s-video. The 4-wire cable is "gold" plated and from Retro-bit, and I'm not sure of the brand of the 3-wire cable because it came with my Saturn many years ago.
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Post by xDerekRx on May 4, 2017 6:27:20 GMT
Didn't want to start a new post. Figured this one was only marginally old.
Anyway I finally bought an S-Video cable for my Saturn to use on my 32" Trinitron. Not sure why I waited so damn long. Been using composite on it for about a year now.
Absolute night and day quality difference on an already amazing CRT.
Ill probably go one last step further and possibly do Scart to RGB on the Trinitron to squeeze the last bit of juice out of the CRT.
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Post by atolm on May 4, 2017 7:17:34 GMT
did you mean scart to component? rgb is carried over scart, so I'm not sure what you meant by "scart to rgb"
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