Added RGB jacks to my SNES (with pics)

[skate323k137]

In short, I decided it would me more fun to add my own RGB output to my SNES than to order a SCART cable. The mod is very simple, direct lines to R, G, B, and sync with 220uF capacitors on the R G and B lines. I opted to acutally use composite video for csync since my PVM accepts composite video as sync.

The results were, as expected, pretty awesome.


Soldering to the R, G, B, cvid, and Gnd


Mounting RCA's and re-mounting the PCB


Blurry ass pic of adding the capacitors. Later added electrical tape to them as a precaution.


Back together


Amazing picture quality. Super stoked, and it was cheaper than a scart cable. Huge thanks to gamesx.com for all their RGB info and A/V pinouts.

[Ziggy]

Nice, I would do the same. I currently don't have any monitors or TVs that accept RGB, but I've thought about it before, and if I ever need to output RGB I'll probably do something similar instead of buying a SCART cable. If I ever do need to output RGB, it'll probably just be to convert it externally, so I'd probably use some sort of DIN connector for the output instead of individual RCA jacks, but yeah, same idea. Nice job.

[skate323k137]

Thanks!

If you're on the fence about a PVM, do it. They're fantastic, I don't know how/why I waited so long to get one.

If you don't have the room for a big ass CRT and want to use an upscan converter instead, that's awesome too. I just couldn't justify spending over $300 for a XRGB3 or similar. Another big reason I went the PVM route is I want to get some JAMMA boards, a CPS2, and maybe an MVS. I figured it was a better option to get a PVM that takes RGB directly than to spend about the same amount of money an a jrok to encode component and/or s-video. Luckily I have plenty of room at my place so space is no issue.

I actually ordered a scart -> BNC breakout cable for my PVM, only because I don't want to open my already modded saturn to do a similar mod like this to it. Same with my genesis, it's already overclocked and s-video modded, so it's a rats nest internally already. I'll probably just get scart cables for those consoles out of a combination of laziness and precaution.

[Ziggy]

If you're on the fence about a PVM, do it. They're fantastic, I don't know how/why I waited so long to get one.

Ah, well, video quality for retro systems is a whole can of worms for me right now.

I can't justify spending the prices on converters and transcoders either. I've actually been looking into things that I can build myself for cheap, such as RGB-YPbPr and (which I know sounds weird) S-Video-YPbPr. I have way too many side projects going on right now tho, like the SNES YPbPr output mod, so once I get a few things out of the way I'll focus more on other things.

I was once thinking about getting a PVM, but after scoring a Trinitron at a thrift shop, I've lost interest. The Trinitron displays a wonderful picture. I use to think of composite as pure shit, but I've honestly mistaken composite for S-Video on my Trinitron a few times now. It makes everything look so much better. So I'll focus on getting at least S-Video from all possible retro consoles, and not worry about not having RGB. Although I am also looking into YPbPr, there might not be that great of improvement over S-Video. We'll see what happens.

I actually ordered a scart -> BNC breakout cable for my PVM, only because I don't want to open my already modded saturn to do a similar mod like this to it. Same with my genesis, it's already overclocked and s-video modded, so it's a rats nest internally already. I'll probably just get scart cables for those consoles out of a combination of laziness and precaution.

Yeah, I hear ya. The Saturn uses a non standard mini DIN plug, but the Genesis (all models) use a standard DIN (or mini DIN) connector. That being that case, you could easily make your own RGB cable for them if you wanted (and not have to open the console up).

[skate323k137]

s-video on a nice tube, especially a trinitron, does look damn near as good as RGB. I have a couple nice tube TV's that have excellent quality pictures even with composite, but s-video is noticably nicer. I sold my gamecube component cable and use an s-video cable for it and honestly the difference is pretty neglegable. Noticable if you're really looking, but not worth the cost by any means.

Good call on the genesis using a standard DIN, I may as well make my own cable for it.

[Ziggy]

Yeah, I pretty much hate buying cables in all cases. Especially for retro consoles because the choices aren't usually that good. Making your own cables or adding jacks to the console is the best way to go, IMO. Or in the case that neither are possible, I had another idea. Like the Dreamcast, I want S-Video for. Not a whole lot of room in the console so I don't wanna add jacks. Non-standard AV cable so you can't make your own. But I was thinking about cracking the AV plug open and seeing if I could move the composite pin to S-Video luma, than add another pin in there for chroma, and then be able to make my own S-Video cable out of it.

[skate323k137]

That might be possible (modifying the cable to move/add pins).

I know there's not a lot of room in there, it's definitely one of the harder consoles to fit anything "extra" in. However, if people can cram a VGA mini db15 in there you could probably find enough room to mount an s-video jack.

[Drakon]

Too bad the common style ppu model snes has such blurry rgb.

[skate323k137]

Too bad the common style ppu model snes has such blurry rgb.

It's not all that bad. I hooked s-video and RGB to my PVM at the same time so I could switch the input to compare. Clarity/definition wise the RGB is only a little bit better than the s-video (which is fine honestly), but the color is definitely more vivid with RGB.

[Ziggy]

I was wondering where you got those black RCA jacks from.... RADIO SHACK! I usually like to use the appropriate colors for jacks, but this time I didn't wanna wait for shipping so I picked them up from Radio Shack.

I actually just added RGB jacks to my SNES as well.

Warning: Blurry pics from my phone's shitty camera:



Only I didn't add the caps, for reasons I explained here.

This is my PAL SNES, which is the 1chip version. I've been sitting on it for a while, but finally got around to doing all the mods I needed to do to it. First and most importantly, I had to change it to output NTSC 60Hz. I didn't install switches though, I just hardwired it. Also changed the lockout chip. Then I did the S/PDIF mod (that's the black tape seen in the internal pic) since I finally got a new AV receiver with digital inputs. Then, since I was lucky enough to score a professional grade transcoder for super cheap, I added RGB jacks.

Oh yeah, also had to widen the cart slot so I could play my NTSC-U carts.