N64 Luma-Glooma

[korpse413]

Please refer to album here: (only 5 pictures)

So Sudden Realization Ralph moment for me - this whole time I have been using an incorrect cable for my N64. Yes, please lay on the laughter, I deserve it lol.. I blame myself, mostly for lack of research and letting myself being misinformed along the way thinking N64 must only ever use Luma or something. I've been meaning to crack open my SCART cables for awhile now (see here) and kind of glad I did.

What are your opinions on my next step? I already own 2x CSync Nintendo multi-out cables, instead of buying a third should I just change this Luma cable into a CSync one? Or, should I in fact still be going for Luma Sync on my N64 and just run the traces to do so? What is the best output? Is it even apples and oranges?

I do not have any source material on how to do either of these changes, so if anyone could give their suggestion and maybe share a How-to I would totally appreciate that. Thanks for any insight!

[Lawfer]

Why not use an official Nintendo GameCube or Super Nintendo scart cable?

[RGB0b]

Are you currently having an issue with your N64 cable? There's nothing wrong with using luma as sync, provided your equipment is compatible.

[darcagn]

There are many N64 consoles that can easily be modded for RGB without an N64RGB device, but do not readily have csync available. For those consoles, the best cable is a luma cable, so that's probably why you ended up with a luma cable.

csync is better to use than luma but I seriously doubt you would even notice the difference.

If you want to change the cable then move the wire connected to pin 7 (luma) on the multiout to be connected to pin 3 (csync) instead.

[korpse413]

The cable is functional. I guess part of me was just surprised that I am able to get sync and stable picture even though Tim Worthington's board is wired for CSync, but the cable is Luma. I figured since I am not doing the correct handshake that I would be losing out on quality, but I am hearing otherwise.. I still need to test it with one of my CSync multiouts and see if theres even a night and day difference.

[darcagn]

The cable is functional. I guess part of me was just surprised that I am able to get sync and stable picture even though Tim Worthington's board is wired for CSync, but the cable is Luma. I figured since I am not doing the correct handshake that I would be losing out on quality, but I am hearing otherwise.. I still need to test it with one of my CSync multiouts and see if theres even a night and day difference.

When the mod is done correctly, the multiout is wired to output all signals.

There is no "handshake" being done. The only difference is that a luma signal has brightness data and syncing data, and a csync signal only has syncing data. Your monitor or processor should get the information it needs no matter which you're using. While there is the off chance that the extra data in the signal can cause a problem, I have never seen this happen with luma and only when syncing on cvideo signal.

[RGB0b]

The cable is functional. I guess part of me was just surprised that I am able to get sync and stable picture even though Tim Worthington's board is wired for CSync, but the cable is Luma.

You're getting luma from the stock output; The RGB mod has nothing to do with it.

[korpse413]

Now I am confused, is darcagn incorrect here? Is my N64RGB board not taking over every output?

If I continue to use the Luma cable (not likely) I will be using stock N64 signal?

If this is true I have never been touching the N64RGB board this entire time.. I wonder how many others may have also made this mistake..

[Harrumph]

The R, G & B comes from the board.
I think he means when the install is properly done, the multi-out will be carrying composite video, s-video AND RGBs at the same time.

[bobrocks95]

The N64RGB connects the R, G, B, and CSync signals to the multi-out, which previously weren't wired at all. The N64 already had Luma and Chroma (the two parts of S-Video) wired stock.

Using Luma for sync doesn't mean you aren't using the N64RGB. You're still using the R, G, and B signals from that board. Sync type is negligible for the most part- you could change your cable to pull from the CSync output, but you probably couldn't notice the difference unless you're getting noticeable interference right now.

[korpse413]

Understood, thanks for the clarification all!

[korpse413]

Update / New Issue:

Tonight I installed an N64RGB board v1.1 into an NUS-CPU-05. I triple checked for any shorts and found none. I wired it for Luma sync by running a wire between CS75 of Tim's board and the Y multiout of the console. Using Super Mario 64 as a test cartridge I get stable picture during the title screen, then when Mario's face appears I loose sync for ~1 second, and it returns, then I will loose sync again during the beginning of the various attraction modes for 1-3 seconds and sync reappears until Mario's face comes back... rinse repeat.

Anyone have any ideas as to why I am dropping sync? Does it have to do with the innards of my Scart? I am using a BVMD20 as a display and if need be I can provide footage of what is happening in the A.M.



I have a SNES CSync cable to test, but I am not exactly sure how I need to wire the N64 since its different than the NUS1 models that have dedicated Sync. I tried wiring CS75 to V on the console and using the SNES cable but I do not get sync and the image is very dark / shadows are f'ed up.

Thanks for any ideas.

EDIT - Update to the Update:

Here is footage of what is happening - https://youtu.be/AbgYOaSyLng. As you can see the results are worst during the yousnow attraction demo (video 2:38)

I should also mention, SCART is being fed through an Extron Crosspoint switch. I have no reason to believe that this is causing the issue, but you never know.

Any help is appreciated