has anyone noticed ...

[Shinobi69]

that the picture looks kind of noisy when using a video cable versus the RF adapter on the genesis?

[Shinobi69]

the AV cable i got only has 3 pins, shouldn't it have 9 pins?

[Joe Redifer]

No, it should have 3 pins, one for left audio, right audio, and composite video. The other pins would be for RGB and crazy stuff like that.

[Elusive]

Look at the AV-Out port on the back of your model 2 console. It has nine pinholes, yes? According to the Hardeware Book (http://www.hardwarebook.net/connector/av/sega2.html):

http://www.hardwarebook.net/images/conn/minidinspec9f.gif
^ the model 2 console/32X/Nomad/Multimega/whatever AV-Out port (squint to see the numbers =P)

1 = Blue
2 = +5V (for switching on the AV channel on your TV set IIRC)
3 = Green
4 = Composite Video
5 = Sync
6 = Audio Mono
7 = Red
8 = Stereo L
9 = Stereo R

Your AV cables - assuming they're the stereo 'yellow-red-white' kind - will hook up to points 4, 8 and 9. A SCART lead will connect to points 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9. An RF connector will hook to points 4 and 6, mixing the seperate points into one signal inside the boxy thing for the antenna port.

This is why an RF picture is so muddy compared to a SCART picture. With SCART, all the seperate video signals - red, blue, green, sound etc. - have seperate wires, and all come to the TV set seperately. An RF connector has to mix all the signals together to go into the antenna port, so they'll end up interfering with each other.