Genny: Svideo mod?

[Lhadatt]

I have a Genny model 1 (yay Altered Beast!), and the composite sucks. Are there reputable people I can turn to for getting a Svideo mod put in?

Thanks!

[Melf]

I know of a few from the Digital Press boards who can mod your system. Trust me, it's more than worth it.

Oldschoolgamer does mods too. He gives a full warranty and can even replace dead cart bateries!

[Genesis Knight]

Remember, though, that an s-vid mod will mess up the visual tricks that the programmers designed for lower-quality connections.

[Melf]

???

I've never experienced any problems while playing in S-video. What problems are you referring to specifically?

[Mel]

I think making the image too sharp can reduce the quality of the graphics. I think the original intention is to utilize the bluriness to create sort of a shading effect.

Supposedly of course, I've never tried it.

[Genesis Knight]

Exactly. Dart, I believe, talked about this in an earlier thread. The lighting effects in the second scene of the first level of SoR2, for instance: look great in RF or RCA, but look horrible in s-video and emulators.

Programmers apparently used the blurring property and relative sluggishness of the RF connection to do all sorts of special effects, including transparency, that you lose on S-video.

[Elusive]

Ah. It seems I was mistaken in my little piece on the benefits/drawbacks of modified console Video-Outs. Allow me to explain:

From what I've seen on my TV playing Streets of Rage 2 in both RCA and RF format, the format you use has varying effects - mostly minor.

Compare the images I posted:



vs.



The first one was taken in an emulator; the second is how the game will look on a real TV. I was wrong, in that the emulator displays every pixel perfectly - like I said, the emulator displays EXACTLY what was shown by the Mega Drive.

The second image, however, will happen no matter what cable you use to connect to the TV. Different methods all have both advantages and disadvantages - RCA offers a clearer colour image, SCART offers a slightly bright, sharper image, S-video apparently offers a bigger contrast difference than the other methods. However, the difference these cables make to the gameplay is negligible, due to the TV itself messing with the image.

In short, the TV is responsible for the majority of what is shown - using S-video, RCA etc. etc. will not noticably change your gameplay. They may achieve little tiny differences, yes, but nothing major like the emulator pic.

Sorry if I was unclear in the first place, guys. *kicks self*

[Genesis Knight]

You're excused. Very nicely done explanation there. ^_^

[LiquidSnake]

I'm not sure if i'm reading your reply correctly, but the difference between the Genesis on a TV through composite and S-Video is actually a big difference. Normally, s-video from composite should only be a small, better detailed upgrade, but on the Genesis its a large jump. In SOR 2, for example, on my TV using a Gensis through S-video, the pic looks more like the emulator pic (though the light in that bar doesnt look as bas as in the emulator pic). Again, sorry if Im misreading your post, but there IS a large difference for a Genesis from composite to S-Video. If that's what you meant...then I agree

[lordofduct]

The difference is NOT gonna be as drastic as his two images. But it will be a little more noticeable if you pay close attention. Personally though I've played my genny on RGB (SCART for you europeans) and the difference wasn't as extreme as those images, but still a difference was noticeable.

Remember RGB is the best analog signal you can get (emulator doesn't count, it creates a digital video of the game in its standard res and then stretched digitally when you full screen it which causes pixels to stay square like that and makes it very noticeable on the high res comp monitor where as on a TV this doesn't occur because the res is down near that of the genny. Even on HDTV its not that bad because it can put out down at those res's when it has to unlike monitors which sometimes have minimums of 800X600 more then twice that of the genny's 320X224). I say though deal with the very minor things like that to get the wonderful picture everywhere else.

I'm not denying that the effect will be less effective. But its not that drastic.

Also emulators shouldn't be used as a comparison its emulating the interlaced mode to (all tv's are put out in interlaced video as opposed to computers progressive scan). This causes big differences in the video. With the mesh design of that lighting when placed in interlaced video it would blur a lot of the yellow because of the way interlaced works (splits a frame into two and projects every other line for 1/60th of a second and then the other half the other 1/60th of a second taking up a total of 1/30th of second per full frame which would balance out the frame rate back to 30fps or 60hz)

[Electroman]

My question for the S-VGA mod is how can it be implemented for the 32X? Has it ever?

[Zebbe]

And my question is how is the picture quality different if you compare SCART and S-video?

[Joe Redifer]

Gaaah! I hate it when people refer to SCART as a format, like S-video. SCART is just a cable. That cable can carry RGB, S-video, composite, audio, or anything they want it to carry, just like RCA cables can. Well actually RCA can't carry RGB and/or S-video. But they carry composite video or audio or even 5.1 digital audio. SCART can carry a bunch o' different formats at the same time.

RGB is better than S-video. I'll have a comparison article up within a few weeks, hopefully and you can see for yourself. None of the crappy examples taken from emulators, but REAL pictures instead.

PS - The Genesis always runs in progressive scan on analog TVs except for Sonic 2's two player mode.

[Zebbe]

Ooops, ofcourse I should have written RGB instead of SCART :P. Looking forward to see your article.

[Genesis32x]

Article? Where!?