BVM N64 footage

[bobrocks95]

You can get consumer CRTs that have a high voltage regulator that virtually eliminates blooming, and I don't notice any color bleeding over RGB.

[andykara2003]

Interesting. Do you know of any sony model ranges that have this?

[bobrocks95]

Sony models that I know have it are the HS420, FV310, and XBR960. As far as I know the FV310 is the only model that's strictly 480i though.

No clue on other brands. It was a development that happened after Sony had a stranglehold on the market so it's possible it's a unique feature they brought over from their professional lines to consumer sets in an effort to stay competitive.

[andykara2003]

Cheers

[Monstermug]

Not sure if you still need this but here are some screens from my N64 on a Sony BVM 20F1E









Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9sAuYO ... e=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTrdOMP ... e=youtu.be

[andykara2003]

Thanks a lot Monstermug, much appreciated The pics of Paper Mario & Yoshi's story look pretty good - but I expected that to the case as they're 2D games. If it's easy & the N64 is still hooked up would it be possible to see a couple of pics of Zelda in gameplay, but capturing the whole screen head on? Then it could be blown up to exactly 20" and will give a really good representation of a fully 3D game at the same size, full screen - but no worries if it's a hassle in any way.

Thanks again for those though, the sky in Zelda looks pretty strongly scanlined from what I can see - it's usually the lighter areas that are most affected.

[Monstermug]

Sure thing, all my consoles are permanently plugged in =) There is a terrible glare from the light coming through the door. I might take some pictures tonight unless these ones will do.









If there is any particular game you want to see just let me know.

[andykara2003]

That's so good of you, thanks a lot! That confirms it, the Mario 64 shots are very scanlined so I think for me, the BVM seems to be ideal for 2D content only (only my opinion though). The 2D stuff does look beautiful. I'll probably end up getting one anyway eventually as a last purchase just for that. They don't seem to come up very often in the UK but I'll keep an eye out. They're more common in Germany but I'm not sure I could buy one without seeing it first...

[Monstermug]

That's so good of you, thanks a lot! That confirms it, the Mario 64 shots are very scanlined so I think for me, the BVM seems to be ideal for 2D content only (only my opinion though). The 2D stuff does look beautiful. I'll probably end up getting one anyway eventually as a last purchase just for that. They don't seem to come up very often in the UK but I'll keep an eye out. They're more common in Germany but I'm not sure I could buy one without seeing it first...

To be honest I can barely see the scanlines when playing 3d games on the N64. I do admit though the N64 has a weird blurry effect that does my eyes in. I actually want more scanlines to counteract this effect. I might feed it in to my emotia tomorrow and see what 240p looks like.

[andykara2003]

That's interesting -I think I'll get one anyway now - I think it's probably the sort of thing you have to see in person. I know what you mean about the blurriness - they went a tad overboard with the hardware antialiasing!

P.S. I'd be interested to hear about your results with the Emotia..

[bobrocks95]

That's so good of you, thanks a lot! That confirms it, the Mario 64 shots are very scanlined so I think for me, the BVM seems to be ideal for 2D content only (only my opinion though). The 2D stuff does look beautiful. I'll probably end up getting one anyway eventually as a last purchase just for that. They don't seem to come up very often in the UK but I'll keep an eye out. They're more common in Germany but I'm not sure I could buy one without seeing it first...

To be honest I can barely see the scanlines when playing 3d games on the N64. I do admit though the N64 has a weird blurry effect that does my eyes in. I actually want more scanlines to counteract this effect. I might feed it in to my emotia tomorrow and see what 240p looks like.

I'm confused, aren't 98% of N64 games 240p anyway?

[andykara2003]

Yes - so I guess the Emotia wouldn't change anything?

[Monstermug]

If that's the case it would be pointless. I always assumed N64 was 480p but I'm probably confused with the gamecube.

[bobrocks95]

The N64 only officially supported RF, Composite, and S-Video, so it couldn't do anything in 480p.

[andykara2003]

I have my N64 in RGB but yes it only supports 480i at the most - but that BVM only goes up to 480i anyway.

[Monstermug]

Your right. I'm getting my p's and i's mixed up now

[Ed Oscuro]

I'm confused, aren't 98% of N64 games 240p anyway?

Really? I thought most were 480i.

[andykara2003]

Only a few games had the 480i option - but the RAM expansion was required.

[bobrocks95]

Only games I know of that had 480i were Banjo Tooie, Star Wars Rogue Squadron (optional), Perfect Dark (optional), and some of the Turok games (again, optional).

[andykara2003]

Banjo Tooie only ran in low res mode. Aparently most N64 games only ran at 256×224 - which I didn't know!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64
http://nintendoenthusiast.com/forums/th ... pecs.1639/

Here's a list of games that supported the expansion Pack. Most used it for playing at 480i (but often the framerate suffered as a result).

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Nintendo ... ansion_Pak

A few of these (like Majora's mask) used the extra ram for other reasons, i.e. to have more detail on screen etc.

[bobrocks95]

Not sure where your source is for Banjo-Tooie being 240p. I could be wrong, but I know when I played it on my CRT there were no scanlines (replaced by interlace flicker) and the vertical resolution increase was obvious having just finished Kazooie. I don't own it to confirm but everything pointed to it being 480i...

[andykara2003]

I can say for absolute certain that BT didn't run in 480i or use the expansion pack in any way. I''l look up a source...

[andykara2003]

http://www.giantbomb.com/banjo-tooie/3030-2871/

It didn't use the expansion pack and no game ran at 480i without it...

[blizzz]

Banjo Tooie is 240p. Just checked it on my CRT.

[bobrocks95]

I was quite certain Banjo-Tooie was the sole game that ran in 480i without needing the expansion pack (it was the second-to-last game of the console's arguably most prolific developer).

I'll concede though, and chalk it up to human memory sucking in general when it comes to old details.

[Joelepain]

I know Rogue Squadron, Battle for Naboo and Star Wars Racer have a high rez option that runs at 480i.

Perfect Dark, even with High rez mode activated, still run at 240p.
Found this link once and it strikes me at first, but the informations are correct.

[blizzz]

Star Wars Episode 1 - Racer has the option to switch between 480i (flicker and only 30fps) and 240p (scanlines and 60fps). I don't know why anyone would pick 480i in that game.

[Ed Oscuro]

Only games I know of that had 480i were Banjo Tooie, Star Wars Rogue Squadron (optional), Perfect Dark (optional), and some of the Turok games (again, optional).

How about Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness? It has a "high resolution" mode.

[andykara2003]

It does. All the hi-res games are in that list I linked to.

[Joelepain]

Star Wars Episode 1 - Racer has the option to switch between 480i (flicker and only 30fps) and 240p (scanlines and 60fps). I don't know why anyone would pick 480i in that game.

I may be wrong, but I don't think Racer runs at 60fps even in 240p. With the little rivality of the time "Super beautiful 30fps wipeout vs super fast 60fps but ugly f-zero X", if a game that looks as good as Racer can run at 60fps on n64, this is a huge achievement.
But I agree that the framerate suffers in high rez mode (the game must be running at 20 or 15fps in 480i)
And I think Star Wars Racer is one of the games that you really can see the difference between 240p and 480i. The picture is really more crisp.