NES poor image via composite

[emwearz]

So I got myself a new TV (42inch 1080P), I was previously using my NES on an old CRT via RF, and it looks great.

I just tried it on my HDTV via composite and the colours are really bad (like I put the brightness on 80% or something), it looks fine (though grainy and general bad image) through RF. So I tried it on my old CRT and same thing, fine through RF, but overtly bright/faded via composite.

Any ideas how to fix this / what to look for?

[ChuChu Flamingo]

NES has always had poor composite, but the quality really depends on your displays comb filter.

Do you by chance have your TV on VIVID picture mode? That mode is garbage. You should change to standard/custom and adjust the contrast/brightness/sharpness. contrast should be near 50%-65%, but it depends on the tv. Manufacturers often at times put things way too high to show it off at store displays.

They call NTSC not the same color for a reason. Good luck.

[emwearz]

Again, I tried it on 2 different TV's (one not HD) to test that out.
The picture is perfect for everything else (including the NES via RF), so it is not my TV's colour/contrast settings.

[Hobie-wan]

I think the NES is one of the systems that did funny things with the output for the 2 interlaced fields that helped it look better on old CRTs, but your newer TV might be choking on.

[emwearz]

That's why I tried it on an older CRT and it still had the same issue.

[Hobie-wan]

That's why I tried it on an older CRT and it still had the same issue.

Derp, I fail at reading today.

[OmegaMaximum]

Yhea, the NES really doesn't have that great of a composite out, and is much better using RF.

From Wikipedia - NES 2 - Top Loader

The RCA composite video output jacks were removed from the system as well, an RF connection is the only way to connect the system to a television unless you have the console modified to add composite output. The original video amplifier circuit path on the motherboard was poorly designed and created faint black lines in the game image.

Though the faint black lines are a general issue, the quality from the composite jacks are more often then not, pretty bad. It also depends on your system, I have an NES and the composite is fine, guess I just got lucky.