PAL N64 problems with S-VIdeo
I recently got an S-video cable for my PAL N64 from consolegoods.co.uk. It looks great on my CRT; much better than composite and way ahead of RF. The trouble is that on every HDTV I've tested it with, I get a weird rainbow effect with the colours.
The video shows what I mean:
Any suggestions? With both the CRT and the HDTV I'm using an S-Video/composite to SCART adapter.
Best Answer
It looks like you need to change your TV from progressive scan to interlaced (or vice versa as applicable).
I've seen flickering like this from this problem before, and here's why it happens:
There are 2 ways to feed data to a TV. Progressive scanning sends it one line at a time, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. Interlaced scanning sends all the odd lines, then all the even lines, 1st, 3rd, 5th, ..., 2nd, 4th, 6th, and so on.
If you have your TV in the wrong mode it could cause this.
Pictures about "PAL N64 problems with S-VIdeo"
Can PAL N64 use S-Video?
Here's an easy breakdown of all the video-out options from the N64: All N64's support composite video out using the same cable and luckily, the composite signal from an N64 is very good. Finally, all NTSC and most PAL N64's can output S-Video without a mod, but you'll need a different cable for PAL than NTSC.Is S-Video better than composite N64?
S-video is a small but appreciable step above composite video. This standard separates the luminance and chrominance signals into their own wires, resulting in no dot crawl artifacts, better luminance resolution, and less color bleeding.Do PAL N64 games work on NTSC?
PAL consoles, on the other hand, are locked down to just the PAL carts, but as said above, the NTSC ones are not. The only way to play NTSC games on PAL is to get a cart adapter.Getting the BEST video quality from a PAL N64 (NO MODS!)
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Answer 2
On my HDTV I set the output to 'SCART-S', this means the s-video cable can run through my scart adapter and into my tv via scart. The problem you have is that your output is set to SCART and not SCART-S. Once you've changed this, it should fix the rainbow effect. If you don't have this option on your TV however, then you may have to find a TV that does.
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Images: Kindel Media, Miguel Á. Padriñán, Kindel Media, Alex Green