NES on a modern TV?

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,825
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,843
Country
Poland
There's absolutely no reason to buy an external scaler for your retro gaming - your TV already has a scaler, that's why the screen is stretched out. Unless your TV has a crappy hardware scaler, you don't need an additional one - don't waste money on something you probably don't need. A lot of people invest in a crappy TV just to buy an expensive scaler later on when the price of both combined could probably just get them a good TV.

The NES can be connected in two ways - using the RF modulator (useful back in the day when RCA was not commonplace, these days a terrible solution as the picture quality is really dodgy) or RCA cables (available on the other side and far superior, as the sound signal is not mixed in with video signal and they're not processed by the RF modulator), but keep in mind that the NES does not output Stereo sound, so you'll need to use one RCA splitter to get sound from both speakers.
QROVa2v.jpg
You could fool around with soldering direct connections to the on-board video encoder to squeeze out a little extra juice out of the system, but you need to know what you're doing. Start off by just testing the system as-is and if the picture quality will leave a lot to be desired, think about further modifications.
 

Plstic

Guru Meditation Error
Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
1,196
Trophies
1
Location
Milwaukee WI
XP
2,812
Country
United States
There's absolutely no reason to buy an external scaler for your retro gaming - your TV already has a scaler, that's why the screen is stretched out. Unless your TV has a crappy hardware scaler, you don't need an additional one - don't waste money on something you probably don't need.

The NES can be connected in two ways - using the RF modulator (useful back in the day when RCA was not commonplace, these days a terrible solution as the picture quality is really dodgy) or RCA cables (available on the other side and far superior, as the sound signal is not mixed in with video signal and they're not processed by the RF modulator), but keep in mind that the NES does not output Stereo sound, so you'll need to use one RCA splitter to get sound from both speakers.
QROVa2v.jpg
You could fool around with soldering direct connections to the on-board video encoder to squeeze out a little extra juice out of the system, but you need to know what you're doing. Start off by just testing the system as-is and if the picture quality will leave a lot to be desired, think about further modifications.

Except most internal scalers suck or they aren't being utilized correctly. The scaler in my Sony Bravia XBR is absolutly horrid and it's a top of the line TV. The best scaler out there is still the XRGB Framemeister.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,825
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,843
Country
Poland
Except most internal scalers suck or they aren't being utilized correctly. The scaler in my Sony Bravia XBR is absolutly horrid and it's a top of the line TV. The best scaler out there is still the XRGB Framemeister.
Alright then, pay $375 (Amazon price) for an expensive scaler and scale up passable composite signal. Meanwhile you could use that money to modify the NES to output pure RGB or S-Video signal that's going to look quadrillion times better and you'd probably save $200, if not loads more, depending on how you go about modifying the system.
 
  • Like
Reactions: the_randomizer

Plstic

Guru Meditation Error
Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2010
Messages
1,196
Trophies
1
Location
Milwaukee WI
XP
2,812
Country
United States
Alright then, pay $375 (Amazon price) for an expensive scaler and scale up passable composite signal. Meanwhile you could use that money to modify the NES to output pure RGB signal that's going to look quadrillion times better and you'd probably save $200.

Then scale it with the framemesiter haha. I have the RGB mod but I just hook it up to my Sony PVM.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Foxi4

the_randomizer

The Temp's official fox whisperer
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
31,284
Trophies
2
Age
38
Location
Dr. Wahwee's castle
XP
18,969
Country
United States
Alright then, pay $375 (Amazon price) for an expensive scaler and scale up passable composite signal. Meanwhile you could use that money to modify the NES to output pure RGB or S-Video signal that's going to look quadrillion times better and you'd probably save $200.


The same can be done to an Snes right, install an RGB video mod? I've even heard of people doing HDMI on those.
 

Foxi4

Endless Trash
Global Moderator
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
30,825
Trophies
3
Location
Gaming Grotto
XP
29,843
Country
Poland
Then scale it with the framemesiter haha. I have the RGB mod but I just hook it up to my Sony PVM.
Techically speaking, an expensive, high-quality TV coupled with an expensive, high-quality external scaler and using an expensive NES PPU modification for RGB output would be ideal, but we're talking about ridiculous expenses here. Most everyday users really don't need this kind of picture clarity, nobody's going to play their NES games with a microscope against the screen. :P
The same can be done to an Snes right, install an RGB video mod? I've even heard of people doing HDMI on those.
Modifying the SNES to output RGB is childs play, getting S-Video output out of it is a matter of buying a different cable. You can get even better results by replacing some on-board chips, but I digress. HDMI mods are usually just doing that plus adding a small scaler to the innards.
 

Silentsurvivor

Banned!
Banned
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
249
Trophies
0
XP
239
Country
United States
I just bought a DVD scaler that had the drive busted for cheap and it does the job fine. It takes component, S-video and composite and outputs component/composite. It does all the necessary interlacing things to remove artifacts and then the TV does the scaling fine.
 

The Real Jdbye

*is birb*
Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2010
Messages
23,293
Trophies
4
Location
Space
XP
13,850
Country
Norway
Hey,
I'm thinking about buying a NES along with a Everdrive N8 but is it even possible to use the system on a modern LCD TV? Which cables do I need and does it look okay?
Also does anybody here have any experiences with the Everdrive N8? Do Gamegenie codes work well?
You'll get the best possible image with a RGB mod, but it will work fine as is. Composite cable recommended.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    Xdqwerty @ Xdqwerty: *yawn*