Do you think there might have been a financial incentive beyond saving a bit of money per machine, like maybe high margins up-selling people on S-Video cables etc?
Not in that case, because all signals are softened on SNES, even RGB. And SNES consoles were pretty high quality manufacturing in Japan, vs Mega Drives which were farmed out to Taiwan and other even cheaper places ASAP, hence cutting corners.
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Well, we know the 1-Chip version corrects this issue out of the box. I do wonder how deliberate the choice actually was or if it were some sort of design flaw that they later corrected with the 1-chip model.
I have to imagine, however, that if it were a flaw it would have been corrected when redesigned for other markets when launched outside Japan. But it wasn’t. It still took a few years for the 1chip to emerge.
Myself, I never owned a 1chip until about 1 or 2 years ago when I “upgraded” and I was pretty floored at just the extent of the sharpness difference. Like, it went from fairly soft and muddy to Genesis levels of RGB sharpness.
Also, non-1chip models specifically looked soft during brighter screens in my setup, regardless of which CRT I used. Dark scenes looked a bit more “correct” on my CRTs. It leads me to think that it was not a conscious choice and rather a design flaw - something in the hardware was incorrectly tuned to make brighter scenes bleed more.
I’m sure this is all documented somewhere and I believe there is even a mod that fixes this if I’m not mistaken.
I think it was deliberate as most models have it. Major changes were made to the board but the video output was kept the same. Presumably they thought it make things look more natural and less ‘computery’ which was one of the advantages of their much larger colour palette.
The 1-chip is a late generation (1995?) cost cut model, some consider it a borderline clone console. No reason for them to ‘correct’ at that point for late adopters, they likely just couldn’t be bothered emulating the visual softness. The Super Fami Jr of course omits RGB while using the same chips too, so why would they fix visual output then immediately reduce it.
Makes sense. And when you look at N64, you can see that “softness” was an intended part of their visuals considering the sheer lengths they went through there to eliminate aliasing. I kept my original SNES just in case I ever want to revert to it from my “upgraded” model.
The thing is, on a consumer CRTs I don’t think I ever knew these consoles were “softened” back in the day. It’s only when upscaling or playing on RGB monitors that I’m able to notice something was off. So they may have just really dialed settings into the hardware for the “composite” signal and the others were afterthoughts.
I played my SNES via RF the entire generation. It’s all my family TV had.
I know some people who ‘upgraded’ to AV cables… which they plugged into their VCR… which went to the TV via RF.
I actually got the AV cables to split out audio to my stereo, but video was still via RF.
Maybe the softness worked better with low quality video? I can say for sure my Mega Drive 2 looked FAR worse over RF, which is of course also composite.
Finally got a chance to play around with the new Super HD System 3 Pro.
First off, it’s really well made. The case, the quality, and the feel is really nice. I have two complaints about the case though:
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The microSD card slot is very recessed, and you simply cannot insert or remove it without very long fingernails or some sort of tool. I guess the older version (Super SD System) was like this too. Seems like an ridiculous oversight that they didn’t fix that.
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The unit is too tight for NA and UK TG16 systems. They are not officially supported, but you can make it work just fine by loosening the screws on the case slightly, inserting it onto your system, then tightening the screws back down. This isn’t really something they could make work any better, as the back of the TG16 is simply a little bit bigger than its PCE brothers.
Okay, let’s talk about functionality.
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Right out of the gate I noticed that the volume levels of most games is lower than expected. I talked with the discord support team about it and we ran through a bunch of tests, and I guess it’s just normal behaviour. I can mitigate this by adjusting the gain on my extron switch, but if you buy one of these, prepare for it to be quieter than your other consoles. They said it was only 4dB difference, but it seems like quite a bit more than that according to my tests.
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The interface is good. There isn’t a ton of room on the screen for the cover art, so the cover view is nice, but it may not be to everyone’s liking.
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I ran into some issues with compatibility, but after fiddling a little bit with different BIOS files and the “Alternate CDROM Program” option it seems to be fine.
Overall I’m very happy with it. The output quality is fantastic (I’m using RGB to a CRT), and it plays perfect. Finally being able to dive into the SuperGrafx and CDROM games is something I’ve wanted for a long time, so I’m stoked.
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You have a SuperGrafx???
No, I mean to say that this unit plays those games.
Ditto with the N64. Was kind of shocked at how different the composite output is between my PAL N64 and my NTSC-J N64 though. While I no longer have the old 14" Phillips TV from the 90s, the difference in image quality is ginormous. Both look good, but the PAL N64 that I grew up with certainly exhibits a much softer image which suits some games better than others.
The NTSC-J system may well be S-Video running off the same composite cable.
is there anything like terra onions super system 3 for the duo-r? adore this system but i’d be all over an SD option for discs that didn’t involve gutting the drive
I’ve been buying loads of PC Engine CD titles the last month. Really getting in to the system these days.
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I recently got a copy of Aero Blaster and it didn’t work, just kept booting to a yellow screen. Tried cleaning the contacts with a q-tip and a bit of alcohol and it still wouldn’t work. Thanks to reading some older posts in the thread here I tried cleaning with a stick eraser and boom it works fine now. 
Seems like erasers are just abrasive enough to get the toughest grime off those contacts. Glad to hear it works! It’s a really cool game.
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Got some replacement Hucard sleeves, as the old ones were getting worse with the stickyness etc.
New on the left obviously
Now my Hucard games (well, 15 of them as that’s how many sleeves I got) will look nicer!
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Where’d you get those? Could use a few new Hucard sleeves myself.
Also just want to say I love PCE Salamander so much, my favorite port of the game.
So I have my first PCE on the way with an IFU and CDROM along with a cap kit and parts for an RGB mod.
What I’m worried about is the middle gear in the CDROM unit. I was hoping to pick one up in advance just in case there is an issue. Does anyone know where I can get one? I’m located in Australia and the only ones I have found are in the US where it will cost me an arm and a leg to ship.
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Are they able to be 3D printed?
I’ve seen a seller that is 3D printing them but the shipping cost from Europe is obscene.
My unit hasn’t arrived yet so here’s hoping the gear is in good shape.