GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion

[bmw]

Finally received all my stuff. The custom N64 to S-video adapter I purchased is AWESOME. The separate upconverter I purchased is of high quality too - the most important feature of which is its ability to de-interlace the S-video signal before it goes to the CRT monitor.

The difference between the composite video and s-video was immediately apparent, but it was difficult to get pictures to post here. I ended up bypassing the upconverter and instead feeding each one through the tuner card on my computer so I could grab a screenshot, then had to try different pictures until I could find one that really exaggerated the difference between the two. And here it is, zoomed in 500 percent. S-video to the left, composite to the right. This is from Bond's watch menu.

[MultiplayerX]

there it is!!!! proof you can do it without spending $300 bucks
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[img]http://imgur.com/ud785Jq[/img]

[bmw]

The guy I bought my S-video box from had 3 of them listed and he sold out within like 24 hours, me getting the last one. I paid $23 for it.

He has since listed another one, though raised the price to $30. Still a steal of a price considering you will pay at least $50 for an official N64 S-video cable.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nintendo-Nintendo-64-S-video-Breakout-Box-Cable-/251533570957?pt=US_Video_Game_Cables_Adapters&hash=item3a9091b38d

I haven't torn mine apart to see what's inside, but the build quality on the outside is solid.

[MRKane]

Looking sharp! (pardon the pun hehehehe)

So is that an upscale also or just a s-video? And how would it differ from using a GameCube s-video connector for instance?
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No Mr. Bond, I expect you to be re-coded!

[bmw]

Its an upscale but not the way I normally use it. To get actual screenshots, I connected the S-video cable to the S-video input on my computer's tuner card, the software of which upscales and de-interlaces.

The overall image quality is SLIGHTLY better when ran through my stand-alone upscaler than through the tuner card, as posted, but there would have been no easy way to take a picture of that since it bypasses the computer and goes straight to the monitor's input.

The official gamecube S-video cable should provide identical results.

[MRKane]

Ok - I was thinking that running it through a computer could get some pretty good results if you had an edge preserving smooth running through some throughfare software of some sort.

The GC s-video cable actually arrived today and I was quietly stunned by being able to see actual pixels for the first time from the N64. Frankly it looked horrible at first but after a heap of tinkering with the television I was actually able to get a pretty good picture.

Still it could be better methinks. I will definitely look into this!
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No Mr. Bond, I expect you to be re-coded!

[bmw]

That was one my observations as well - the picture was so much sharper that it almost exaggerated just how low the native resolution output is. But I quickly got used to it and still prefer it over the more blurred composite output.

[SubDrag]

I remember buying an official S-Video cable years ago, and although it probably was "better", I stuck with my Composite cables. It just didn't look right, something was weird.

[MRKane]

The composite picture on my TV was pretty nasty, and the svideo is substantially "better" in this situation (there's some odd d-wave setting on this TV which seems to nicely soften everything and prevent bleeding - it's a second hand TV with no manual so I've no idea what the setting is).

Won't work through the Doctor 64 however!

There just seems to be something about modern televisions and the old consoles not having a good picture - I'm not really sure what it is but it doesn't look as nice as the old CRT - and that's not nostalgia talking either. I've got both!
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No Mr. Bond, I expect you to be re-coded!

[mistamontiel]

I so wished I'd seen blown-up CRT more but they're oh so rare.. and an arm and a leg to move

CRT displays RULE
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[Wreck]

If Radorn was still an active member, he'd be able to go into amazing technical detail over this topic. I remember him talking about it before, but it may have been in chat.
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[bmw]

Yesterday I just forked out $450 to acquire an exceptionally rare Sony GDM-FW900 24-inch 16:10 CRT monitor. Almost half that cost was for professional packaging and shipping. I used to own one but it died a few years ago, I can't wait to get my "new" one (seller claims very low hours of use on it).

CRT monitors and tv's no doubt handle analog signals better than do LCD displays. And I'm still convinced that a high-end CRT monitor looks better than any LCD I have seen to date for displaying VGA content. Its a shame nobody makes them anymore, they will quickly over the next few years become harder to find.

[MRKane]

I agree with you on that one! There's more than just something about the CRT screens...I use to have a very large computer monitor which weighed a ton (literally about 40kgs - couldn't give you the size from memory) that I got from the rubbish dump. Higher resolution than a standard TV and worked nicely through the little conversion box that I brought from the local tech shop.

Old CRT monitors usually don't get thrown out...we have to bury them when they die :'(
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No Mr. Bond, I expect you to be re-coded!