Sega CD HELP!!!!

[George Foreman]

I just got a Sega CD Model 2 and for some reason the screen is in black in white and the image has a lot of noise. I am using a third party RF cable and all that came with the CD was an adapter.

[Joe Redifer]

Sounds to me like a bad RF cable. I can think of nothing else that would cause this. Unless, of course, only Sega CD ga,es are in black and white and everything else looks great (that would blow my mind). How did you hook your Genesis up before you got your Sega CD?

[George Foreman]

I just had the RF cable hooked up through the RF hole in the back and then plugged directly into the cable thingy. Also when I'm just playing Sega Genesis gamese they come in just fine. But, I have been having almost the same problems when I watch cable tv(half the shows are either black and white, have tons of noise, or don't show up at all). Oh, and my setup is just the same as before I got the CD except I have the CD's adapter plugged in.

Also I heard that the A/V cables for the Genesis are very rare? If they are, are there any good third party ones you would recommend.

[Joe Redifer]

Hmmm... Maybe your TV's tuner is going bad. Can you try this on another TV? Do you have a Genesis model 1 or 2? The Genesis model 1 has an output dedicated to RF, and I don't think the model 2 does. The AV cables aren't really rare. But if you have a Genesis 2 you'll want the stereo AV cables if you have stereo speakers. eBay is a good place to look, and you'll find most of them are brand new. Expect to pay about $7-$12 at the most. I think they are all 3rd party nowadays, and they seem to work fine.

One last question about the current RF: What happens to the picture if you wiggle the RF connection around near the TV when the Genesis is on? Does the color come back?

[George Foreman]

I have a Genesis model 1 right now and I'll try another TV when I get home. But, if I hold the cable in a certain place the color comes back but I still get a lot of noise.

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah... sounds like a bad RF cable to me. The bad part is after the TV tuner cable goes into it, and that's why that fails as well, I am betting. If you can move the cable and suddenly you get some of your picture back, that means there are loose/broken wires inside the thing. You shouldn't have a hard time finding a new RF cable if you really needed one. I would still try it out on another TV just to be sure.

Another thing to try is to disconnect the Sega RF connection and plug the TV antenna cable or whatever it is directly into the TV. Do all of the channels look good now? If so, then it is DEFINITELY a bad RF connector.

[George Foreman]

It's probably the RF cables because I just plugged it into my parents HDTV and had the same problems. Also the channels come in fine without the cables.

[Joe Redifer]

Bingo. Problem located. Now all you need is an A/V cable or a new RF adapter. Sell just one of your grills and you can be in A/V cables for life!

[George Foreman]

I just got a new RF cable, however, I still am noticing noticable amounts of noise. The black and white problem and the problems with the cable channels are non-existant though.

[Joe Redifer]

It is possible that you didn't get the greatest RF cable. It's hard to find a really good one. The ones that came with the systems worked pretty well... at least when they were new. I recently hooked up an RF cable to take some pictures of the screen for the video article I did for this site and I was amazed at how much noise I noticed. I was spoiled by not using RF.

[Melf]

Was there ever a great RF cable? :P

[Joe Redifer]

Hell yeah! Monster Cable! Everything Monster Cable makes is great and is better than life itself. True story: because I hate Monster cable with a passion as well as their overpriced crap, I sent an e-mail to the president of Monster Cable telling him I was building a new house and that every wire inside of it including electrical and phone would all be Monster Cable. He actually believed me.

[Elusive]

Was there ever a great RF cable? :P

I usually swap to RF output when playing games like Rocket Knight Adventures and Streets of Rage 2: the image a SCART cable provides is too sharp to properly blur colours to produce some spiffy visual effects. It's kind of ironic that in these days of higher and higher-resolution graphics, games were once produced and built with slight blurriness in mind.

[redrum666]

if you need an A/V cable for the genesis 1 bad you can use the turbo duo A/V cable it the same thing you can buy one at tzd.com for $12 the only problem is turbo duo is stereo the genesis 1 is mono so you will get some noise in the sound if you have the RED cable plug in

http://www.tzd.com/information.cgi?id=510

[George Foreman]

Just got my new A/V cable in the mail and the picture is crystal clear. Thanks, for the suggestions and help.