Worth getting my Genesis 3 modified with s-video?

[Flak Beard]

I've been shopping around a bit for mod services, and it looks like the cheapest I could get my system modded for would be about $40 or so.

Thing is normal composite doesn't really look that bad to me on my TV. Although, the sprites seem to lack definition when compared to my SNES. Not from a graphical standpoint, but more pixelation can be seen. Does the Genesis output natively in a lower resolution than the SNES? If so, I'm not so sure shelling out the money for an s-video mod would be worth it.

I can see the difference for sure, but how much will it improve sprite detail?

http://www.sega-16.com/feature_page.php ... onnections

Any advice, suggestions or alternative methods?

[Hatta]

Why not do it yourself? Parts are cheap and soldering is fun.

[Flak Beard]

Why not do it yourself? Parts are cheap and soldering is fun.

I unfortunately know nothing about soldering and don't own an iron. I'd rather find someone who's done the mod before.

[ott0bot]

I've heard the mod helps...but if you are using an LCD....it'll probably still look a bit pixelized unless you have a quality upscaler on your tv. I heard it's better, but not amazing. Sadly, CRT is pretty much the best way for vintage sega stuff in the US uless you want to spend 200 bucks on a upscaler. sheesh.

Also you have to be ready to sacrafice your system when you do a mod, knowing that something could go wrong. I'd still say do it yourself and learn. Pick up a high heat soldering iron kit at radio shack for 10 bucks and give it a shot.

I have another model 3 i'd sell you if your mod goes bad. Still cheaper than the 40 bucks. And even if that 40 bucks includes shipping it still seems pricy. Have you asked any of the guys on sega-16 forums. Although most of the mod crazy guys live in Europe....

[Flak Beard]

I've heard the mod helps...but if you are using an LCD....it'll probably still look a bit pixelized unless you have a quality upscaler on your tv. I heard it's better, but not amazing. Sadly, CRT is pretty much the best way for vintage sega stuff in the US uless you want to spend 200 bucks on a upscaler. sheesh.

Also you have to be ready to sacrafice your system when you do a mod, knowing that something could go wrong. I'd still say do it yourself and learn. Pick up a high heat soldering iron kit at radio shack for 10 bucks and give it a shot.

I have another model 3 i'd sell you if your mod goes bad. Still cheaper than the 40 bucks. And even if that 40 bucks includes shipping it still seems pricy. Have you asked any of the guys on sega-16 forums. Although most of the mod crazy guys live in Europe....

Yeah I might have to poke around their forums and see who's doing mods.

After a little research though, I think it's just a matter of the Genesis having a lower resolution compared to the SNES (320 x 224 vs 512 x 448). In which case, having s-video won't really help with the pixelation my eye tends to notice.

Looks like I just need to sit father back from the TV.

[ott0bot]

I've heard the mod helps...but if you are using an LCD....it'll probably still look a bit pixelized unless you have a quality upscaler on your tv. I heard it's better, but not amazing. Sadly, CRT is pretty much the best way for vintage sega stuff in the US uless you want to spend 200 bucks on a upscaler. sheesh.

Also you have to be ready to sacrafice your system when you do a mod, knowing that something could go wrong. I'd still say do it yourself and learn. Pick up a high heat soldering iron kit at radio shack for 10 bucks and give it a shot.

I have another model 3 i'd sell you if your mod goes bad. Still cheaper than the 40 bucks. And even if that 40 bucks includes shipping it still seems pricy. Have you asked any of the guys on sega-16 forums. Although most of the mod crazy guys live in Europe....

Yeah I might have to poke around their forums and see who's doing mods.

After a little research though, I think it's just a matter of the Genesis having a lower resolution compared to the SNES (320 x 224 vs 512 x 448). In which case, having s-video won't really help with the pixelation my eye tends to notice.

Looks like I just need to sit father back from the TV.

haha! Seriously. I re-arranged my living room and sit back farther and even on my crt everything looks better. i just need some more controller extensions now!!

[Flak Beard]

So after doing a little more research, it turns out only a handful of SNES games use the full 512 x 448 resolution. Most run in 256 x 224, so I'm not sure why there's such a huge difference in PQ between the two consoles considering the Genesis is 320 x 240 native. Do Gennys just output a crappy signal?

[MrPopo]

It's possible, because I noticed a very peculiar thing with my Genny. If I hooked it up to my LCD I was seeing a weird, almost scan lines, effect. On games like Phantasy Star II the boxes that indicate options would be broken up. When I ran it on my old CRT from college I saw none of these effects. So there might be something funky with the Genny signal that makes it unhappy.

[Pulsar_t]

The most common way of displaying extra colors is with the use of raster effects, which involve simply changing the on-screen color palette in between TV scanlines as the picture is being drawn. Sonic games use this to make underwater effects. A lesser known trick is to use the priority bit of a pixel for color purposes, allowing any color to have 3 shades (normal, bright and dim) and effectively tripling the number of colors available onscreen. However, this trick compromises the video display processor's capabilities so drastically that it was rarely ever used, especially for in-game graphics. Finally, many developers simply relied on dithering, a simple artist's method of drawing pixels of two similar colors in an alternating, checkerboard-like manner, and relying on the inaccuracy of composite or RF video signals to blend the colors together into a third color. On a side note, this same method could be used to make a fake transparency just by leaving every other pixel blank.

I hope this explains the bad image quality when using non-RF cables for the Sega Genesis. Genesis Plus for the Mac (and GC/Wii) emulates dithering quite nicely. Shame's there no Windows port of it.