N64 on Plasma - Clearing Up Image

bigdogchris

bigdogchris

Fully [H]
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
18,707
I'm playing an N64 on my plasma and would like some options to clear up the image as the composite input is very poor IQ. I thought about picking up the N64 SVIDEO cable but my TV does not have SVIDEO input. I looked into SVIDEO to RGB converters and they run $80 or so.

Are there any other options?
 
Old consoles never look good on HDTV just a fact hook it up and just enjoy the games. Or use a old CRT for old systems. This is the same as the other discussions here including the old Wii games on HDTV. Don't waste any money on this just realize that you are playing old games on a display much larger than these systems were ever meant to be played on.
 
The N64 was naturally blurry anyway, even on old TVs.
Now combine that with a native resolution of 240p (a few could do 480i using the expansion pack) and your tv upscaling that to 1080p. It's going to be garbage.
An S-Video cable or VGA adapter wont make THAT big of a difference.

I have an N64 too and it's so terrible it's almost funny. I play it anyway just for the nostalgia.
 
This isn't about the blurry N64 textures, this is about the poor quality/fuzzy images of composite cables.
 
I don't believe the N64 went above S-Video so if your TV doesn't have that plug you'd need a converter.
Don't know if it'd really be worth spending the money on a converter because even if the converter is good you're still technically taking an analog signal and turning it digital, and not only that but you're upscaling and fitting your TV resolution as well.
 
bigdogchris said:
This isn't about the blurry N64 textures, this is about the poor quality/fuzzy images of composite cables.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone is talking about the textures. The N64 was a blurry mess because of the resolution it outputted. You're not going to get much of a cleaner image even if you got a vga adapter.

I play my n64 on my old crt because it looks like garbage on my lcd.
 
For completeness, video scalers do exist which will make even 240p look good on 1080p displays, but you can expect to pay several hundred dollars at minimum.

Buying used, the DVDO Edge (and not the DVDO Edge GREEN, which has a firmware issue with scaling 240p), for instance, does a rather good job at scaling almost all older material to 1080p HDMI. This unit still has some pronounced ringing with scaled 240p sources, but overall it does very well, getting you maybe 90% of the way there.

Some more expensive scalers and combinations of scalers will take care of the extra 10%.

Again, I am not sure if this applies to your situation, but I wanted to share that it is possible.
 
bigdogchris said:
If the SNES has this much improvement going from composite to SVIDEO, I can't imagine the N64 wouldn't.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJJlVI4IuJs

There's a lot less fuzziness around the lines because SVIDEO isn't compressed like composite is. I'm seeing this on the n64.
Click to expand...

SNES will look better on S-Video than N64 on S-Video. I had tried both cable setups on the N64 and usually liked the free anti-aliasing with composite.

I have a DVDO VP50 at 1080 HDMI out and I'm not very impressed testing with using
SNES S-Video
PS2 Component
Genesis S-Video Mod doesn't work right but composite was ok. (worked on CRT)

Best bet is either emulation through a PC-2-TV or a CRT. I played Super Mario World on a emulator and it looked gorgeous with some filter tweaking. It was killing my old Pentium 4 at 1080. Lol yet super meat boy (steam) worked great.
 
I would consider a high end video processor if you want a true solution. But regardless of how well its processed if it doesn't come out originally from the highest output method possible it'll still always look sub-par to what it could be.

This is one video processor option you could use that will output it from S-Video to HDMI :

http://www.amazon.com/DVDO-High-Def...id=1358229734&sr=1-3&keywords=Video+processor

Not cheap but I've actually seen this one in action and I highly HIGHLY recommend it to any retro gamers that want a real option for outputting old games in the best detail possible without just running an emulator (which I feel is cheating..).
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I would get N64 remotes for the PC and make a cheap emulator box, no way in hell would I want to play one on my 58" Plasma.

Your sorta stuck between spending alot of money or just dealing with it tbh. I know exactly what you are talking about, I got SVideo for all of my consoles back in the day specifically because of this.
 
I used to use Svideo on my CRTs back in the day and was actually very surprised just how much of a difference it makes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top