Questions that do not deserve a thread

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kazaakas@hotmail.com
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by kazaakas@hotmail.com »

nmalinoski wrote:
kazaakas@hotmail.com wrote:So I learned that using PAL consoles to output 60Hz leads to an off-spec 59-60Hz that's actually about one percent slower and this can cause problems. I was wondering, are all PAL consoles that are capable of 480p60 free from these issues? They must be equipped with a crystal that can perfectly reproduce 60Hz? Will that crystal only be used for 31kHz resolutions?

I'm European and my pre-480p era consoles are NTSC for this reason, but will my PS2, NGC and Wii be fine?
Are you referring to the ability of these PAL consoles to run NTSC games correctly, or their ability to run PAL60 games correctly?
I always like to use NTSC ROMs with my consoles, so I was wondering if I would get a 60Hz refresh rate out of those that's not out of spec.
Makinx
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Makinx »

Mendion wrote:Hi everybody. This is my first post here as an active member of the forum. A read A LOT and learned so much!

Very short and straight question:

Does the Front Loader NES (NES 001), when installing the NESRGB mod, really need the external voltage regulator connected or not?
I see some people installed it and some other just uses the voltage regulator the NES already has and is not using the supplied one on the kit.

I'm going to install the kit on the next days so, I want to be sure about this matter.


Thanks!
It doesn't strictly need it, but it's advisable that you install it. The increased load on the 7805 could cause it to overheat. Also, the heat of the 7805 causes problems with the adjacent capacitors. They often fail because they are so near the regulator. None of this might happen of course, but why take chances?

It's not that much work to install it anyway.
Mendion
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Mendion »

Makinx wrote:
Mendion wrote:Hi everybody. This is my first post here as an active member of the forum. A read A LOT and learned so much!

Very short and straight question:

Does the Front Loader NES (NES 001), when installing the NESRGB mod, really need the external voltage regulator connected or not?
I see some people installed it and some other just uses the voltage regulator the NES already has and is not using the supplied one on the kit.

I'm going to install the kit on the next days so, I want to be sure about this matter.


Thanks!
It doesn't strictly need it, but it's advisable that you install it. The increased load on the 7805 could cause it to overheat. Also, the heat of the 7805 causes problems with the adjacent capacitors. They often fail because they are so near the regulator. None of this might happen of course, but why take chances?

It's not that much work to install it anyway.
Great.

I have another one:

I'm not quite sure about the purpose of connecting +5V to the video out connector. I saw some mods with it and some without it.
I'm going to use a SNES multiout connector with RetroGamingCables SNES CSYNC cable (this one: https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/nin ... -wire-cord).

Can someone enlighten me?
Makinx
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Makinx »

Mendion wrote:
Makinx wrote:
Mendion wrote:Hi everybody. This is my first post here as an active member of the forum. A read A LOT and learned so much!

Very short and straight question:

Does the Front Loader NES (NES 001), when installing the NESRGB mod, really need the external voltage regulator connected or not?
I see some people installed it and some other just uses the voltage regulator the NES already has and is not using the supplied one on the kit.

I'm going to install the kit on the next days so, I want to be sure about this matter.


Thanks!
It doesn't strictly need it, but it's advisable that you install it. The increased load on the 7805 could cause it to overheat. Also, the heat of the 7805 causes problems with the adjacent capacitors. They often fail because they are so near the regulator. None of this might happen of course, but why take chances?

It's not that much work to install it anyway.
Great.

I have another one:

I'm not quite sure about the purpose of connecting +5V to the video out connector. I saw some mods with it and some without it.
I'm going to use a SNES multiout connector with RetroGamingCables SNES CSYNC cable (this one: https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/nin ... -wire-cord).

Can someone enlighten me?
European consumer televisions require a 1-3V voltage to SCART pin 16 to detect RGB signals. With no voltage, the tv will display composite signal (or nothing if this is not connected). So it depends on how and to what you intend to hook up your NES whether you really need it.
Mendion
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Mendion »

Makinx wrote:
Mendion wrote:
Makinx wrote: It doesn't strictly need it, but it's advisable that you install it. The increased load on the 7805 could cause it to overheat. Also, the heat of the 7805 causes problems with the adjacent capacitors. They often fail because they are so near the regulator. None of this might happen of course, but why take chances?

It's not that much work to install it anyway.
Great.

I have another one:

I'm not quite sure about the purpose of connecting +5V to the video out connector. I saw some mods with it and some without it.
I'm going to use a SNES multiout connector with RetroGamingCables SNES CSYNC cable (this one: https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/nin ... -wire-cord).

Can someone enlighten me?
European consumer televisions require a 1-3V voltage to SCART pin 16 to detect RGB signals. With no voltage, the tv will display composite signal (or nothing if this is not connected). So it depends on how and to what you intend to hook up your NES whether you really need it.
I want to hook up the NES to 2 things:

- A 14" Sony PVM that has BNC inputs. I already have the female SCART to BNC's cable.
- A gscartwsw_lite (that one is its way to my home right now). Then, after the gscartwsw_lite, 1 output going to my Framemeister and the other output going to a SCART to Component converter (a Shinybow SB-2840)
Last edited by Mendion on Fri Mar 02, 2018 12:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Fudoh
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Fudoh »

Neither the PVM nor the GScartSw require the switching voltage on pin 16. The PVM wouldn't see it anyway when using a Scart to BNC adapter and the GScartSw uses the sync signal signal (on pin 21) to detect signals and switch ports, not the signaling on pin 16.

It's meant for consumer TVs.
Mendion
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Mendion »

Fudoh wrote:Neither the PVM nor the GScartSw require the switching voltage on pin 16. The PVM wouldn't see it anyway when using a Scart to BNC adapter and the GScartSw uses the sync signal signal (on pin 21) to detect signals and switch ports, not the signaling on pin 16.

It's meant for consumer TVs.
That is very helpful. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
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DoomsDave
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by DoomsDave »

Is it possible to use any region power supply on any region slim PS2? For some reason I thought I had read this but a quick google on my phone and I couldn't find the answer.

For example I want to use an Aus power supply with a JPN slim PS2.
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Xer Xian
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Xer Xian »

Slim PS2s require 8.5V center positive, if your Asus PSU outputs that you should be fine. If it's slighlty above or below (+/-0.5V) it might be ok too, but don't take my word for it.

Superslims have internal PSU, which should be multivoltage. I have a JPN Superslim that I've never hooked up, I'll have to take the risk someday.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Ikaruga11 »

Does anyone know if you can disable the idle timer and announcer voices in Mario Kart Arcade GP 1 and 2? Google yields no results.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by FBX »

Fudoh wrote:
Can't the Framemeister be configured to accept and properly display the 720x480 frame size from the Dreamcast?
on the FM you can set any aspect ratoi you like. The problem is simply that the FM's upscaling on 480p sources isn't particularly great.
Yep, however, you can combine the OSSC into the FM to effectively 'upgrade' the FM's upscaling of 480 (960) content. In the image below, I show the result of FM directly trying to upscale 480p versus having the OSSC line double first before going into the FM (which I programmed to scale the OSSC feed 1:1 onto a 1920x1080p footprint):

Image

This was done purely for the novelty because you'd certainly want to use the OSSC exclusively. But say your TV doesn't like 960 feed from the OSSC, this is a way to get around that by using the FM.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Ikaruga11 »

Would converting the digital HDMI signal from the Hi-Def NES, Ultra HDMI N64, GCVideo GameCube/Wii, etc. to analog for use on a CRT give me a better picture than just using the NES RGB, N64 RGB, GameCube Component Cables and Wii Component Cables?
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by nmalinoski »

I'm in the US and need a couple male-to-male SCART cables; one for connecting my Dreamcast's Toro box to a SCART switch, and another for connecting said switch to my OSSC. Right now, I'm looking at the $20 USD 1m Sony-branded cables from Behar Bros and the ~$30 USD 1.5m Packapunch cables from RGC.

As far as I can tell, both are double-shielded and use quality components and metal SCART heads; so would it be a safe assumption that there would be minimal difference in performance between the two?
Dochartaigh
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Dochartaigh »

USA, Amazon, Prime, 10' or 15' same price $6.39. Don't think they use coax but give me a beautiful clear picture on my PVM's (I use them as extension cables, and for my Raspberry Pi 3 with Pi2SCART RGB board).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DY ... UTF8&psc=1
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by nmalinoski »

Dochartaigh wrote:USA, Amazon, Prime, 10' or 15' same price $6.39. Don't think they use coax but give me a beautiful clear picture on my PVM's (I use them as extension cables, and for my Raspberry Pi 3 with Pi2SCART RGB board).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DY ... UTF8&psc=1
Thanks for this! So weird that the 6ft cable is about twice the price of the 10ft and 15ft variants.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Dochartaigh »

nmalinoski wrote:Thanks for this! So weird that the 6ft cable is about twice the price of the 10ft and 15ft variants.
Probably because everybody wants the short ones which is where they make their money, so the longer ones are cheaper (which they fluxuate - those were like $15.99 at one point as well).
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by ChuChu Flamingo »

Those ones aren't fully shielded, but for the price you can't beat it.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by geiger9 »

Sorry everyone, I my haste to get an answer, I made a forum faux pas and didn't notice this thread. I deleted my thread and here's my question:

I'm trying to calibrate my JVC AV-32D502 in the service menu. This is my first time doing something like this. When I read the service menu for my set I think it is giving me the exact instructions to calibrate it properly to NTSC standards. Is that right? Again, this is my first time looking at a service manual. Anyway, there is some wording inside that is not familiar to me such as FOCUS VR [In HVT], H VR [In HVT], and SCREEN VR [In HVT]. What does "In HVT" mean? Will I have to open the CRT up? Also there is another section where it says to "receive a black-and-white signal" and adjust the screen until it becomes white. Is there some specific black and white signal or just any kind of black and white signal? It then goes on to say " Adjust the screen until it becomes white". Make the whole screen white? How is that calibrating my screen? I'm really confused.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Dochartaigh »

ChuChu Flamingo wrote:Those ones aren't fully shielded, but for the price you can't beat it.
What denotes fully shielded though? And which one/type is enough for these analog signals....and at what length is each type good enough that 99% of people wouldn't notice any interference or picture degradation? Isn't there like 6+ different ways of shielding cables? (probably more, just looked up a quick article on it since I barely know this stuff ;) --- curious as a lot of this is overkill for our needs and our short cable runs.
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FinalBaton
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by FinalBaton »

geiger9 wrote:Sorry everyone, I my haste to get an answer, I made a forum faux pas and didn't notice this thread. I deleted my thread and here's my question:

I'm trying to calibrate my JVC AV-32D502 in the service menu. This is my first time doing something like this. When I read the service menu for my set I think it is giving me the exact instructions to calibrate it properly to NTSC standards. Is that right? Again, this is my first time looking at a service manual. Anyway, there is some wording inside that is not familiar to me such as FOCUS VR [In HVT], H VR [In HVT], and SCREEN VR [In HVT]. What does "In HVT" mean? Will I have to open the CRT up? Also there is another section where it says to "receive a black-and-white signal" and adjust the screen until it becomes white. Is there some specific black and white signal or just any kind of black and white signal? It then goes on to say " Adjust the screen until it becomes white". Make the whole screen white? How is that calibrating my screen? I'm really confused.
I think that sadly, only a person who own a JVC set of that era and have messed in the service menu, can answer your questions regarding those settings.

For the calibration : maybe you can share the pages in the manual that describe this process? No guarantee but maybe someone will be able to answer you.

Btw how do you like the set? I've been wanting to try a JVC D-series for a while, they seem like terrific consumer sets. Apparently older JVC sets are great, too.
-FM Synth & Black Metal-
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ChuChu Flamingo
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by ChuChu Flamingo »

Dochartaigh wrote:
ChuChu Flamingo wrote:Those ones aren't fully shielded, but for the price you can't beat it.
What denotes fully shielded though? And which one/type is enough for these analog signals....and at what length is each type good enough that 99% of people wouldn't notice any interference or picture degradation? Isn't there like 6+ different ways of shielding cables? (probably more, just looked up a quick article on it since I barely know this stuff ;) --- curious as a lot of this is overkill for our needs and our short cable runs.
Hard to answer that question since there are many different displays (analog vs digital), what scart/switch box they are using (not all are created equal), what console, and what length you need. In general keeping cable lengths short helps significantly. If it were me I would just get a fully shielded cable for the output, the inputs are usually fine with just having RGBS shielded in my experience.

I doubt you would notice in blind tests on video on a decently built cable, but for audio it can make a difference in buzzing on bright screens, especially pure white. Most of it is console specific though from my experience. SNES is a big offender for this and I've read NESRGB can be as well.

In any case I was messing around with four cables to see the amount of hum they had for shits and giggles on pure white screens. These cables are around 5 feet long. Output is a fully shielded SCART cable from a Gscart Lite.

1- Official Nintendo Audio Cables (baseline for hum aka noise floor since it shouldn't have anything interfering with the audio. I could detect just the faintest hum at ear blasting volumes)

2- Some random cable I got for cheap years ago (hum was pretty bad even at normal levels and noticeable on more than just white screens)

3- Retro Console Accessories Regular Scart (hum was there if turned up high on white screens, but not bad.)

4- Retro Console Accessory Fully Shielded (hum was pretty much non-existent, a fraction higher than the official nintendo audio cables. I would consider this pretty close to the noise floor).

tl;dr if you listen with headphones you will probably notice this more. Most of the time I listen through speakers so idgaf.
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Xer Xian
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Xer Xian »

@geiger9: The labels you've read refer to controls that are located inside your tv, but unless you have poor focus or elevated blacks you don't need to mess with them. And you don't need the service manual either, in most cases running the 240p test suite on a console (DC or GC would be the most suited, but it's not relevant at all) and following the short instructions here to set the brightness and contrast will be enough to have a satisfying picture for gaming. If you need to tweak the geometry you'll probably have to access some 'hidden' service mode.

--

Regarding shielded cables, I was just looking for bnc to rca cables and somehow ended up in the magical world of audiophile-grade cabling, and man the going prices never fail to impress me - just a random example, look how nice it is, I could wear it around my neck :lol:
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geiger9
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by geiger9 »

Xer Xian wrote:@geiger9: The labels you've read refer to controls that are located inside your tv, but unless you have poor focus or elevated blacks you don't need to mess with them. And you don't need the service manual either, in most cases running the 240p test suite on a console (DC or GC would be the most suited, but it's not relevant at all) and following the short instructions here to set the brightness and contrast will be enough to have a satisfying picture for gaming. If you need to tweak the geometry you'll probably have to access some 'hidden' service mode.
Actually my set has some problems that go beyond adjusting picture, detail, etc. I did all those calibrations using Avia. There is some bending of the image in the upper left corner and bottom right. When I display a circle test pattern, the same areas seem to have this purple-ish color to them as well. I was afraid that someone would say I'd have to open the TV. Ugh. I'm not comfortable with that at all so I may just have to live with it.
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geiger9
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by geiger9 »

FinalBaton wrote:
geiger9 wrote:Sorry everyone, I my haste to get an answer, I made a forum faux pas and didn't notice this thread. I deleted my thread and here's my question:

I'm trying to calibrate my JVC AV-32D502 in the service menu. This is my first time doing something like this. When I read the service menu for my set I think it is giving me the exact instructions to calibrate it properly to NTSC standards. Is that right? Again, this is my first time looking at a service manual. Anyway, there is some wording inside that is not familiar to me such as FOCUS VR [In HVT], H VR [In HVT], and SCREEN VR [In HVT]. What does "In HVT" mean? Will I have to open the CRT up? Also there is another section where it says to "receive a black-and-white signal" and adjust the screen until it becomes white. Is there some specific black and white signal or just any kind of black and white signal? It then goes on to say " Adjust the screen until it becomes white". Make the whole screen white? How is that calibrating my screen? I'm really confused.
I think that sadly, only a person who own a JVC set of that era and have messed in the service menu, can answer your questions regarding those settings.

For the calibration : maybe you can share the pages in the manual that describe this process? No guarantee but maybe someone will be able to answer you.

Btw how do you like the set? I've been wanting to try a JVC D-series for a while, they seem like terrific consumer sets. Apparently older JVC sets are great, too.
I don't feel I'm qualified to critique it from a technical point of view but I'll make an attempt - the power supply must have something wrong with it because in the pluge pattern test, the vertical bars bend even at a low brightness (or was it picture?) setting. Not sure if this is inherent to the model or just this particular unit. I went and calibrated as best I could using Avia and I'm 95% satisfied with it actually. It was free after all and it even came with the matching stand. On the positive side, you can adjust picture, detail, saturation, etc on a per input basis which is pretty cool too. Another down is that the OSD is bad because it disappears after about 3 seconds of inactivity but you can get around that by going into the service menu. Not only does the control stay there as long as you want, the text doesn't take up 3/4 of the screen like the regular menu. That's minor stuff though.

I'll see about posting a picture from the manual when I'm off work.
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Xer Xian
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Xer Xian »

geiger9 wrote:Actually my set has some problems that go beyond adjusting picture, detail, etc. I did all those calibrations using Avia. There is some bending of the image in the upper left corner and bottom right.
in the pluge pattern test, the vertical bars bend even at a low brightness (or was it picture?) setting.
This sounds like a geometry issue - the brightness/picture setting has no bearing at all on it. Your TV is not too old so it most likely has digital geometry adjustments, you need to find out how to access them. They are probably in some 'hidden' service menu.

Regarding the purple-ish color, does it affect the white lines/circles of the test pattern or the black on the background? In the first case it might be a convergence issue (which I've read can be tricky to adjust), in the latter, probably a cap replacement would be in order? Please be aware that I'm not an expert in any way. I'll just paste a few generic CRT maintenance/repair links down below, maybe they can be useful:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Televisio ... and_Repair
https://www.repairfaq.org/sam/crtfaq.htm
https://www.repairfaq.org/sam/tvfaq.htm
https://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_monfaq.html
http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/TV_ ... _Diagnosis
http://www.arcaderepairtips.com/categor ... s-screens/
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Einzelherz »

If there's color distortion I would investigate degaussing before I started fiddling with the guns.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by LordHypnos »

I'm considering getting a vga splitter. I'm worried about lag. What do I need to know?
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by neorichieb1971 »

Did the original GBA come with a charger? I've seen a few unboxings on youtube and I can't see any charger in the box.
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by neorichieb1971 »

If I buy a GBA player for the Gamecube in Japan, is the disc going to be region locked and does that stop you playing UK GBA games? I'm assuming the disc is region locked to Japan and you can play any GBA games.. Right?
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by strygo »

neorichieb1971 wrote:Did the original GBA come with a charger? I've seen a few unboxings on youtube and I can't see any charger in the box.
The original GBA used AA batteries. It wasn't until the SP that a built-in battery (and charger) was included.
neorichieb1971 wrote:If I buy a GBA player for the Gamecube in Japan, is the disc going to be region locked and does that stop you playing UK GBA games? I'm assuming the disc is region locked to Japan and you can play any GBA games.. Right?
The GBA Player hardware is identical across regions. The disc is region locked, so it only works on consoles of the same region. The games themselves are not region protected. Also of note, if you use Game Boy Interface, you won't need a disc at all.
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