Choosing a television to play NES through ps2/gamecube gen

[mugenmidget]

hmm, so what do you guys think about the pvm to scart converter? Found one on ebay, specifically made to connect european or japanese scarts to a 25 pin sony pvm rgb. Does the converter preserve the RGB signal?

I made something similar at one point to use with European Mega Drive 1 SCART cables, and it worked great for getting RGB out of the Genesis 1. It should work with a few systems, but there'll be exceptions. For instance, the European Sega Saturn SCART cables expect +5V on a different pin on the Saturn, as discussed here: http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4236.0

If you use Japanese "SCART" (21 pin) then all should be fine there. But the Japanese and European standards are wired differently, so you wouldn't be able to use a European SCART to PVM adapter with a Japanese cable, you'd need a pass-through to rearrange the pins. However it looks like the seller on eBay with the SCART to PVM adapter also has a Japanese to European SCART adapter, so you probably already knew you were covered there.

There's also things like the SNES where your cable construction should be different based on the region of the console: http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id= ... ndomultiav

Fortunately eBay is full of SNES SCART cables intended to be used with a US system, so you should be good to go there.

[shateredsoul]

ok, i actually understood most of that, just one question based on your last point on how some scart cables may need to vary for different regions of the snes.

Does that mean that my usa snes can't use a Eurpoean scart? Is it safe to just go with a Japanese scart converter? If so, does anyone know a good place to buy Japanese scart cables? seems that the European ones are not as easy to find.

[mugenmidget]

Basically what's missing AFAIK on a traditional European SCART SNES cable is 220uF Capacitors in series for the red, green, and blue lines. And I think they might have 75 ohm resistors on the R,G,B lines you'd have to remove:

http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id= ... ndomultiav

According to Jim Christy, the US and NTSC SNES have a 'DC offset', which is basically extra voltage, on the RGB lines (1v DC according to Jay Tiltons site). You can filter this out with one 220uf capacitor on each of the RGB lines (+ towards console, - towards display). PAL SNES systems do not need these caps, but require 75ohm resistors to ground in their place in order to get the video contrast down to the correct level. PAL GameCubes need the caps, NTSC GameCubes don't output RGB through this connector.

But people on eBay are selling cables that work with US NTSC systems but have the same pin out as regular European SCART. If you got one of those, you wouldn't need the Japanese to European adapter. Something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nintendo- ... 2eb81fe4e3

[shateredsoul]

man wow, just got the KV32HS500, it's heavy, but definitely doable between 2 guys. The guy I bought it from had trouble holding his end up though, I was afraid he was going to drop it!

Xbox 360 looks awesome on it, tries snes s-video and it looked ok. Maybe my expectations are too high? I expect good quality to look like an emulator on lcd where you can see all the pixels. I'm still planning on getting the Sony PVM so I appreciate the link to the SCART cable MugenM. Are there any other systems that have the similar issue with scart?

I was thinking of doing scart on the PVM for nes, snes, master system, genesis (mega drive), but not too sure if i should do n64, ps1 and saturn on the pvm or the behemoth tv. I know I saw some recommendations out there for tv size, I have a hunk that the Sony PVM would be the way to go. On the Sony Wega I'll probably do ps2, dreamcast, wii, gamecube via wii, and xbox 360.

I ordered a vga adapter for the dreamcast, I need to look into the best way to get that to convert to component or hdmi, if that fails i'll use my comp monitor.

Thanks for the advice guys, oh and I got the Sony Wega for $60 , too bad I had to borrow a truck and pay like 25 in gas. Oh well, it worked out.

[CRTGAMER]

man wow, just got the KV32HS500, it's heavy, but definitely doable between 2 guys. The guy I bought it from had trouble holding his end up though, I was afraid he was going to drop it!

Xbox 360 looks awesome on it, tries snes s-video and it looked ok. Maybe my expectations are too high? I expect good quality to look like an emulator on lcd where you can see all the pixels. I'm still planning on getting the Sony PVM so I appreciate the link to the SCART cable MugenM. Are there any other systems that have the similar issue with scart?

I was thinking of doing scart on the PVM for nes, snes, master system, genesis (mega drive), but not too sure if i should do n64, ps1 and saturn on the pvm or the behemoth tv. I know I saw some recommendations out there for tv size, I have a hunk that the Sony PVM would be the way to go. On the Sony Wega I'll probably do ps2, dreamcast, wii, gamecube via wii, and xbox 360.

I ordered a vga adapter for the dreamcast, I need to look into the best way to get that to convert to component or hdmi, if that fails i'll use my comp monitor.

Thanks for the advice guys, oh and I got the Sony Wega for $60 , too bad I had to borrow a truck and pay like 25 in gas. Oh well, it worked out.

No need for a second screen PVM
That is unless you plan on doing link games. Congrats! Your HD CRT is identical to mine! I reviewed the WEGA and listed the best inputs for all the Retro consoles, also have the manual PDF linked back at my CRT vs LCD signature link. At the Video Finds Thread you mentioned it was a different model number, does your WEGA include a memory card slot in the front? Its limited to Sony brand Magic Gate 128mb sticks.

A weak power supply
Should your Sony TV have problems powering on, check my Twenty Dollar Repair Guide listed in the Guides section. The power supply has two chips that have a history of failing. To avoid a premature fail, don't turn on if the TV recently was turned off, let it cool down first for a couple of hours.

VGA
The Dreamcast VGA adaptor may not work on the HD CRT. I have tried going from VGA to HDMI, no luck. I have not tried a VGA to Component Scaler, maybe that might work since its all analog? Please post if you get VGA to work. If you go the computer monitor route be sure its a CRT, the Dreamcast Lightgun works!

Anamorphic
Another trick is keep all the components at 480p to get a FULL screen. Any higher resolution will result in widescreen with black bars on your 4:3 HDTV. But a perfect HD CRT for game consoles that do not have a widescreen mode! If you don't mind full screen stretch set the DVD player to widescreen, anamorphic movies will fill up the CRT.

[Zing]

tries snes s-video and it looked ok. Maybe my expectations are too high? I expect good quality to look like an emulator on lcd where you can see all the pixels.

SNES/PS1 s-video on my standard definition Wega looks exactly as you describe: you can see all the pixels. Even with sharpness set to the minimum, it is still a little too sharp for me. So far, I have preferred to use composite.

The reason your s-video may not look as sharp may be due to the "high scan" nature of your TV. The TV cannot display the 240 line source directly. It upscales the image using their trademarked "DRC" circuitry. You can try tinkering with the DRC settings, but even at the least interfering setting of "interlaced", it will be line-doubling the image.

[shateredsoul]

I was a bit confused since your tv seemed a little different than mine (no memory card slot, well not that I remember at least), I went back to the tv, the model number is actually
KV-30HS420

here's a link to the tv http://www.amazon.com/Sony-KV-30HS420-T ... B0002F7I9O

It has an hdmi input and is widescreen, when I play 4:3 games it gives me the black bars, which is fine by me. I'll see if I can play with the DRC settings.

One things I noticed that was really weird, Yoshi's island really has issues. The screen moves up and down, and has some distortion. Checked it with the rca and s-video and I see it while using both, not an issue with other games. I bet it has to do with some special chip used by yoshi's island.

Well, since I may stick to the Wega and just call it a day... does anyone know any good sources for s-video cables? It's a little hard to pass up the pvm though, it's at $50, and I see many other places selling it for waaaaaay more. Plus, Yoshi's Island

by the way,the picture for xbox 360 is amazing. I used to have it on a 720p Samsung, man what an improvement. I will not be looking forward to bring that back down those stairs though.

[AppleQueso]

Probably totally pointless to mention it now, but my gaming tv is a Panasonic CT-32SL14J. No progressive scan, but its pretty big and has an awesome picture, especially for retro gaming. Was totally worth the $40 I spent on it.

[CRTGAMER]

I was a bit confused since your tv seemed a little different than mine (no memory card slot, well not that I remember at least), I went back to the tv, the model number is actually
KV-30HS420

here's a link to the tv http://www.amazon.com/Sony-KV-30HS420-T ... B0002F7I9O

It has an hdmi input and is widescreen, when I play 4:3 games it gives me the black bars, which is fine by me. I'll see if I can play with the DRC settings.

One things I noticed that was really weird, Yoshi's island really has issues. The screen moves up and down, and has some distortion. Checked it with the rca and s-video and I see it while using both, not an issue with other games. I bet it has to do with some special chip used by yoshi's island.

Well, since I may stick to the Wega and just call it a day... does anyone know any good sources for s-video cables? It's a little hard to pass up the pvm though, it's at $50, and I see many other places selling it for waaaaaay more. Plus, Yoshi's Island

by the way,the picture for xbox 360 is amazing. I used to have it on a 720p Samsung, man what an improvement. I will not be looking forward to bring that back down those stairs though.

Get the PVM, its a good compact spare for link play or play a game while the TV is on. Since yours is a widescreen, curious if 480p, 720p and 1080i all have the same size black bars on 2:35 widescreen movies? On my HD CRT 4:3 KV32HS500 1080i really is squeezed with huge black bars.

Please post if you get VGA to component transcoder to work.

Merry Christmas, Manual for your WEGA:
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/KV30HS420rev.pdf

[AppleQueso]

Get the PVM, its a good compact spare for link play or play a game while the TV is on. Since yours is a widescreen, curious if 480p, 720p and 1080i all have the same size black bars on 2:35 widescreen movies?

...I can't imagine why they wouldn't unless the TV has different overscan settings for different resolutions or something.

the 2:35 black bars being encoded into the 16:9 image and all