Terrible image, but what are the brightness ‘trails’ to the right of the white text?
This is on NESRGB, but I have noticed it on SNES too (1 chip and non-1 chip), all RGB SCART, retro access cables, RGC SCART to BNC breakout, PVM-1954Q.
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Phosphor trails. The light emitted takes time to “decay” after each sub-pixel of the CRT turns off.
That’s why you really only see it against a completely black screen, usually when pure white pixels are flying across. Lowering the brightness or contrast may minimize it, but it’s totally expected behavior of a CRT as far as I know.
If those trails are there while the white pixels AREN’T scrolling, however, you should probably lower the contrast if I had to guess.
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Thanks, I must have bumped the brightness when I moved, it was way too high. I still need to dial the overall picture in, but much better now.
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Yep that looks perfect!
So naturally once I get everything set up the way I want - something breaks. My N64 is no longer outputting a stable image and is instead showing a rolling, garbled blue mess. I’ve confirmed this with my OSSC and directly to my CRT. So either my N64 spontaneously decided to break, or the more likely culprit is my RGB cable decided to break when I plugged it into the switch.
Any thoughts?
Sadly I don’t have any other cables I can test it with as my other nintendo cables are csync.
Mike Chi’s new RAD2x in partnership with Retro Gaming Cables. Cheap console specific beginner HDMI out that converts RGB to 480p HDMI. If no RGB is detected then it line doubles composite out automatically.
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Have you tried plugging that cable into another Nintendo system? I want to say I think the SNES should support sync on luma or composite sync. Least then you can know for sure it’s the cable, if it does it on another system.
I did, but I got no video - I could be wrong but I thought that the SNES was CSYNC but could pull composite sync with a special cable.
Anyway, I got it working again but its intermittent so they’ve already shipped me a new cable, I think there’s a break or loose connection in there somewhere.
The only thing special about the cable would be that composite video would be going to the sync line, but that’s how sync on composite works (which is what I meant to say in that above post, composite sync is the same as CSYNC). If a system supports Composite Video and S-Video then it supports sync on composite, and sync on luma as that would be how those two would get their sync. If your N64 cable was RGB with sync on composite or sync on luma it should work fine on your SNES. It sounds like it’s the cable anyway and hopefully the replacement works.
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Do you all use surge protectors for your AV equipment? What kind? I was thinking I should maybe invest in something. I have my PVM plugged into an robust power strip and flip the switch off on it when I’m not using anything, but that obviously does nothing if a surge happens while I’m using the monitor.
I recently found these at walmart, and they seem to be prefect for retro stuff, with their 6 separated plugs for wall warts.
I typically use battery backup with surge protection. It tends to keep things smoothed out so you don’t have to worry that things will turn off.
I have one similar to that. The other one I have I plug non wall wart things into it and I keep it inside a cable management box so everything looks neater. I need a bigger box for the one that fits wall warts. I also put my gscartsw inside one of these kinds of boxes. It’s easy to clean dust off of them because it’s just one flat surface.
I have a velcro roll that one of the comms guys on a job site gave to me that I use to cut pieces from to make my cables look neat. I asked him for 5 feet and he threw me a roll that I think is 75 feet and told me to keep it. I’ll never run out of this unless I start doing the cable management for everyone I know and then some. lol
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I was wondering what solution everyone uses for their Dreamcasts, as I’ve found that every video signal has some sort of flaw:
VGA - not compatible with any consumer CRTs that I own and not compatible with every stock game
RGB - not compatible with every stock game
S-Video - compatible with every game but video quality could be a bit better
Was hoping there would be some solution by now 
Toro box can output 240p, 480i, and 480p via SCART. It’s a universal Dreamcast solution that works if you have the right sort of display for it. I’m using it with a PVM 20L5.
Also, VGA boxes have composite and S-Video options with a switch too.
Toro = $75
Year I use a Toro to Framemeister. Or just regular scart if using the the PVM. No games I have don’t work with RGB.
Does your PVM accept 480p? NTSC Skies of Arcadia doesn’t work via scart at 480i.
Nope, but I don’t play RPGs anyway. If I wanted to play it could use the Framemeister though.
Ah yes good point, overlooked that part.