My Mega Drive/Genesis issues, what to do next?

[Sefirosu789]

Hi all, hoping for some opinions on what to do next to fix these horrible problems on my md/genesis. It has some kind of "interference" and bad jailbars despite me performing all of the recommended fixes to the board.

Here are some of the pictures of it hooked up to an LCD TV. I have tried two TVs and it looks just as bad on both of them. It's hooked up with RGB SCART.

pictures:

Spoiler

I am using a retrogamingcables UK cable so this should not be the issue unless its a faulty one. I have lifted pin 6 off the CXA chip, pin 50 from VDP and removed C28 from the underside of the board. I also cut the traces to enable 60hz on my PAL system.

pictures:

Spoiler

Hard to see, but both are lifted.

Any advice is appreciated. I'm guessing I'll need to do a full recap or get an rgb bypass board? I thought it would look much better than this after doing the above "fixes"...

[Konsolkongen]

I would try turning the sharpness on your TV down, a lot, as well as turning off any other image enhancements it might have on. Switch it to game mode if you haven't already.

That's probably what causes those horrible outlines around objects, which could very well be the reason why the jailbars are so exaggerated too.

[Sefirosu789]

I would try turning the sharpness on your TV down, a lot, as well as turning off any other image enhancements it might have on. Switch it to game mode if you haven't already.

That's probably what causes those horrible outlines around objects, which could very well be the reason why the jailbars are so exaggerated too.

Thanks for the reply. On one TV switched it to Game mode and no difference. On the other TV, I turned the sharpness to 0 and it cleared up the "rectangular box" interference which you can see on the pink parts in picture 1.

I guess I will have to just recap the system most likely.

[Konsolkongen]

Have you tried turning the brightness down a bit, so that the blacks match the sidebars of your TV? Of course, this is only a good solution if it doesn't end up crushing details

[Sefirosu789]

Have you tried turning the brightness down a bit, so that the blacks match the sidebars of your TV? Of course, this is only a good solution if it doesn't end up crushing details

Would that not just hide them? I want to remove them :/

[Kez]

If "black" in the video is lighter than your TV's background, that usually means your brightness is too high anyway. If you are able to run 240p test suite on your Mega Drive, you can try to calibrate the brightness with that.

[Sefirosu789]

If "black" in the video is lighter than your TV's background, that usually means your brightness is too high anyway. If you are able to run 240p test suite on your Mega Drive, you can try to calibrate the brightness with that.

That's true. But I just turned the brightness down and it did make the jailbars for the colour black less noticeable but on all the colours it's still bad. On my CRT the picture looks fine however.

edit: I have tested my Gamecube with RGB SCART on both TV's and there was zero issues or jailbars. So therefore it must be the Megadrive/Genesis or SCART cable.

[evil_ash_xero]

Has retrogamingcables finally started shielding their cables? I had issues with their Genesis SCART cords. Like, as you turned up the brightness, you'd have sound issues. It was lame.

[Sefirosu789]

Has retrogamingcables finally started shielding their cables? I had issues with their Genesis SCART cords. Like, as you turned up the brightness, you'd have sound issues. It was lame.

I'm pretty sure they are shielded but only their more expensive cables are shielded on every line. I haven't experienced them issues but I haven't really turned up the brightness.

I've just got the Voultar RGB bypass board to attempt to fix the problems, however there is no updated installation guide. One thing which I'm not sure about is which pins are for 5v and gnd. I think it is "AGND" = ground, "AVVC" = 5V (both top left), can anyone tell me if this is correct? Diagram below along with a picture of another installation.

[rama]

The power pins are correct and the installation picture looks fine (if the RGB output pins of the CXA1645 are disconnected).

It will reduce the jailbars, but it's hard to say if they'll be totally gone.

[FBX]

DO you have LPF anywhere in the chain to the display? If not, you might try adding it. Also what revision console is this? I see from the pic you've installed Zach's bypass board. I had tried it myself, but the LPF on board didn't seem to have any effect. Might have to try an OSSC or something else with controlled LPF functions.

[RGB0b]

This looks like the "RAM noise" we've been talking about. What revision board is your Genesis Model 1?

[FBX]

This looks like the "RAM noise" we've been talking about. What revision board is your Genesis Model 1?

I spy a YM2612, so it looks to be a model 1 pre-VA7 based on the chip layout.

[Kez]

Not sure if that is actually a OP's installation or one they found somewhere, they said it is a pic of "another installation".