Difference between S-video and RGB

[Ed Oscuro]

That adapter is just routing signals through a SCART adapter, isn't it? I wouldn't be worried about quality degradation.

[andykara2003]

That adapter is just routing signals through a SCART adapter, isn't it? I wouldn't be worried about quality degradation.

I was suspecting that - I think you connect it through the second scart adapter in the back of the TV marked 's-video'

I'm wondering if there might be varying configurations, one of which is more desirable. Like when some scart cables/adapters only deliver composite instead of true RGB.

Does anyone know if there is a recomended type?

[Thomago]

Does anyone know if there is a recomended type?

Just take the basic type (male scart on the one side, female S-Video, Composite and Audio L/R on the other) and you will do nothing wrong.

[blizzz]

On my TV, the N64 looks a lot better with RGB than with S-Video. S-Video is oversaturated and has some color bleed (using a Monster cable). RGB has great colors and is perfectly sharp.

[andykara2003]

Does anyone know if there is a recomended type?

Just take the basic type (male scart on the one side, female S-Video, Composite and Audio L/R on the other) and you will do nothing wrong.

Thanks for that

[andykara2003]

On my TV, the N64 looks a lot better with RGB than with S-Video. S-Video is oversaturated and has some color bleed (using a Monster cable). RGB has great colors and is perfectly sharp.

Interesting. But surely with s-video, you gain control of colour saturation on the TV (which, as far as I know, you don't usually have with an RGB source), so you can reduce the saturation?

[Ed Oscuro]

Does anyone know if there is a recomended type?

Just take the basic type (male scart on the one side, female S-Video, Composite and Audio L/R on the other) and you will do nothing wrong.

With S-Video, the composite plug does nothing. Leave it unplugged. I'm sure the adapters have a RCA jack for composite as a matter of convenience but it doesn't need be plugged in - in fact I would leave it unplugged.

But surely with s-video, you gain control of colour saturation on the TV

In what way?

[andykara2003]

But surely with s-video, you gain control of colour saturation on the TV

In what way?

I just mean that if blizzz finds that the N64 s-video is oversaturated, surely he can just turn down the saturation control on the TV?

[blizzz]

Yes, I can tweak the colors for S-Video a bit. Just wanted to say that RGB looks better for me. But it all depends on your display and your personal preferences.

[andykara2003]

Yes, I can tweak the colors for S-Video a bit. Just wanted to say that RGB looks better for me. But it all depends on your display and your personal preferences.

Cool - just out of interest, what type of display are you using?

[blizzz]

A normal consumer CRT TV, B&O MX4000.

[andykara2003]

A normal consumer CRT TV, B&O MX4000.

Ahh - OK, I guess I'll find out more when my s-video cable turns up

[Thomago]

With S-Video, the composite plug does nothing. Leave it unplugged. I'm sure the adapters have a RCA jack for composite as a matter of convenience but it doesn't need be plugged in - in fact I would leave it unplugged.

Good point - leave it unplugged. I remember our old family TV, a Loewe Planus. It had a front input panel with both S-Video and Composite sockets. If you connected both at the same time, the picture got too bright.

[andykara2003]

Good point - leave it unplugged. I remember our old family TV, a Loewe Planus. It had a front input panel with both S-Video and Composite sockets. If you connected both at the same time, the picture got too bright.

I love the look of those Planus' - I'm waiting for a E3000 Planus 4063 to come up on eBay....

[andykara2003]

I'm sure I read somewhere that there was a varying quality of output video quality among the various revisions of the N64's hardware. This isn't to do with RGB compatible N64's where only the earliest revisions are moddable, but just the quality of the standard s-video output across all revisions.

I've tried to research this but most of the info is about RGB modding and since, due to some kind people's advice on this thread, I'm leaning towards s-video, I'm really interested to learn which revision has the better output quality. I'm only looking into NTSC consoles.

I think I remember reading somewhere before that the video output quality was improved somewhat in later revisions - does anyone have any knowledge of this?

[blizzz]

I haven't heard that about N64 consoles. I can only say that the quality on the NUS-CPU-04 is great. Don't have any other NTSC consoles to test. For SNES consoles it's very much true, but there it's not always better to get a later revision.

Btw, afaik every N64 revision can be RGB modded. At least every PAL motherboard is moddable. There's a new chip that makes it really simply. I guess you could use the same mod technique for the later NTSC consoles.

[andykara2003]

I haven't heard that about N64 consoles. I can only say that the quality on the NUS-CPU-04 is great. Don't have any other NTSC consoles to test.

Thanks Blizzz, much appreciated. That's the last revision that were RGB moddable - an earlyish one. Does anyone have further info?

[andykara2003]

Just to say thanks to the Fudoh & Fagin in pointing me towards s-video for N64.

It's definitely more suited to the N64's picture in my opinion. RGB is actually technically sharper but it brings out the flaws too much in the N64's blurry pixelly output.

S-video softens it beautifully and makes it much more watchable.

My next mission is to see if it looks better on a 21 inch rather than 25 inch TV.