problems playing genesis on HDTV television

[Genesis32x]

I am having problems with my 1st gen genny, i have it hooked up through an RFswitch, i have tried eliminating the VCR with no success same as with putting it through the VCR loop.

Symptoms:
It is really grainy i can hardly see anything, sometimes it will be grainy color and sometimes it will be grainy B/W with interferance lines going through the screen.

Im not retarded when it comes to electronics, i have hooekd up many many many many DVD players to VCR's hooked up to Surround sound systems with receivers and anything else imaginable, but for some reason i cant get around this one, im sure its a hardware issue maybe with the RFswtich or the console its self.

The TV is a 60" HDTV philips rear projection monitor.

heres a link to the TV that i am hooking it up to, the VCR isnt anything special but maybe a factor? who knows.
http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-60PP9363

[gearguy]

"Im not retarded when it comes to electronics," - why the hell are you useing an RF cable then?
Grainy pictures are synonymous with RF.
Just become a man and use RGB. (Or failing that, RGB with a YUV 4:4:4 Component transcoder)

If you experience problems with the RGB as well, then get a different TV.

[Joe Redifer]

You can't use RGB with an HDTV. You need component video. What I personally think the problem MAY be is that the HDTV does not like 240p video. If it is something like that, then component video won't help you. Nothing can really be done about this. Some HDTVs work fine with 240p and others do not. The ones that do display 240p will upscale it to 480i (bleh). It also could be a bad tuner, a bad RF adaptor or some such thing.

[gearguy]

You can't use RGB with an HDTV. You need component video. What I personally think the problem MAY be is that the HDTV does not like 240p video. If it is something like that, then component video won't help you. Nothing can really be done about this. Some HDTVs work fine with 240p and others do not. The ones that do display 240p will upscale it to 480i (bleh). It also could be a bad tuner, a bad RF adaptor or some such thing.

Actually you can use RGB on a HDTV.

Perhaps not your rubbishy American ones but us Europeans certainly can.

Also you can wire up a SCART to a "VGA" connector and there is a chance that it will sync as it is most probably just wired up tot he RGB in on the TV processing chip.

He could convert the video to component...

[Joe Redifer]

First of all VGA and RGB are not the same thing. Our TVs do have VGA, DVI, HDMI and component as well as the standard RF/composite/s-video/whathaveyou. The fact that he is posting from the state of Washington probably means he has a US TV, like he should. So RGB won't help him and I don't think component would either.

I'd first suggest trying a composite cable just to see if your particular TV can sync to 240p. I already know one guy whose HDTV wouldn't.

[gearguy]

First of all VGA and RGB are not the same thing. Our TVs do have VGA, DVI, HDMI and component as well as the standard RF/composite/s-video/whathaveyou. The fact that he is posting from the state of Washington probably means he has a US TV, like he should. So RGB won't help him and I don't think component would either.

I'd first suggest trying a composite cable just to see if your particular TV can sync to 240p. I already know one guy whose HDTV wouldn't.

VGA is a form of RGB.
VGA IS RGB.
31Khz RGB.
All "RGB" is is red green and blue with a sync signal of some form.

If the CHIP in your TV can sync to both 31Khz and 15.7Khz RGB then it should have no problem at syncing with "TV" level RGB (15.6 - 7Khz) And don't worry about what type of sync.
VGA supports both V, H and C Sync so you shouldn't have a problem with that.

Component might be able to help him.
He could use a RGB to Compontent converter in conjunction with an upscaler.
Failing that, he could use a PAL DVD recorder with RGB ins and use the component outs in the hope that it would upscale the video (most of the cheapo ones do...)

Or if his TV has VGA inputs he could try getting it to sync with 15.7Khz RGB 240 Non-interlaced or failing that buy the X-RGB2 to upscan it to 480 non-interlaced 31Khz RGB.

VGA is RGB whether you like it or not.
It's just not 15Khz RGB but regardless of that it IS RGB.
Get over it

[Joe Redifer]

Get over it? I only mentioned it once and what you said is what I meant. I don't think any US TVs will sync down that low through the VGA connection, especially when 99.99999% of VGA computer monitors no longer do. Plus he'd have to get a custom cable built.

The issue is figuring out if his TV can handle it before spending tons of money just for component. Upscaling would work but that is even more expensive and you get scaling artifacts even with the best scalers. Some can even have a bit of lag.

[gearguy]

Well an upscan converter doesn't scale, meerly duplicates the lines.
So using an upscan converter such as the XRGB2 doesn't actually introduce artifacts to the picture.
Perhaps if the TV does not sync to 240p He could use an upscan device, however they are expensive...
Probably not worth it.
I don't really see any point in playing 320*240 games on a HD TV anyway ;p

[Joe Redifer]

I agree with that last sentence wholeheartedly.

[Ginoscope]

I agree with this as well...trying to play my genesis on a HDTV LCD gave me all sorts of issues. Got myself an analog set and now I am in genesis heaven.

[oneupthextraman]

I had a problem like this onece, I just got my friends RF modulator, and it worked fine. (Same system, different lengths of cord). I think your Modulator is just wearing out. Mine did, and before I was using a RF modulator, and now I use a 32X! Much sharper.