Revisions&RGB

[TheModdingN00b]

I've been reading on how there are different board revisions for the Nintendo 64 and was wondering on which of the few revisions mentioned would be the best to choice for my first attempt at a portable?

Also, I'd like to know more information on regarding the RGB component for said revisions and what I have to do in terms of connections. Thanks for the help. P.S Re-writing do to the reason that I already know of RGB but misinterpret my question.

 

[Prog]

Welcome to the site, ModdingN00B!
I've taken the liberty of relocating your thread to N64. In this forum, if you scroll up you'll se the mega-sticky, which has a wealth of resources.
For whatever reason, this guide was not in it, which I will remedy, but look here. This is a guide regarding all the motherboard revisions.
EDIT: Actually it was there, just difficult to find. As for using RGB, you'd need to hook up an RGB amplifier to make it work on an RGB-capable screen

 

[Miceeno]

You need to start with a Rev 3 or Rev 4 N64. Then you have to use a three channel video amplifier (THS7314) to amplify the signal to where its usable. After the amplifier you need a 75 ohm resistor on each if the three channels. From there you can either use a SCART television (good luck in the states) or a device that supports the uncommon sync rate (15.75kHz I believe). The PSone natively supports N64 RGB in this fashion. From there if you want to use it on anything other than the SCART TV or the PSone screen you need a GBS-8200 to convert it to VGA. To feed the signal into that you will need to get the Sync Line for an RGBS signal. You can either build a sync splitter (or some products exist called the Sync Strike) to strip the RGB Sync line from the composite video output. Or you can use the Y Luma line from the SVideo output.

Here's a link to a half decent guide except instead of pulling the RGB signal from the resistors R8, R9, and R10 you need to get the signals from the capacitors next to them C124, C125, and C126.

If you want a more authentic look you can build a Scan Line Generator that will anti alias the image (CRT Screens already give this look). Mmmonkey has a guide on building one. And there also exists products out there that can do this too.

As long as you keep you wires short, shielded, and away from wires with power going through them you should get an acceptable image on screen. Personally I don't think its worth the effort. I've done these mods to three of my N64's and I have to say that a TV with a good scaler board and composite or svideo inputs will give better results with less effort. My $350 Samsung 40 inch TV from Wal-Mart does a really good job with its composite input. But for my monitor I bought a fairly pricey upscaler that does a really good job at converting the signal to VGA and cleaning up the image.

When I finish my AIO portable I will have to do some comparison pictures of RGB vs Composite/Svideo through an upscaled. Here's a link to that work log in case you are interested in some pictures of the RGB amplifier and GBS-8200.

EDIT: Fixed the links and updated the N64 RGB output to 15.75kHz as thats what it outputs and VGA requires 31.5kHz.

 

[Bush]

+1 on Samsungs upscalers. My ex had a little 20" that would take composite as if it were RGB or a nice digital signal. Unfortunately not all TVs are made equal and recent Samsungs are the only ones I know of that do that. Heck, it was even doing this weird on the fly AA that made everything WAY sharper and smoother than 480i should be.

I use an auditorium projector from 2006 (XGA but has DVI and VGA) for most of my old consoles. I plan on doing this mod and pumping the signal through an SLG3000 eventually. I've got a beat up rev4 sitting on my shelf I'm going to pop into my old smoke grey case and then maybe I'll finally be done with my N64 setup. Although I'd honestly like to grab an old Sony widescreen flatscreen CRT that takes 720p/1080i with component and DVI.

 

[Miceeno]

Thanks for reminding me of the name of the SLG3000 Bush. That's the product to buy. I tried mmmonkey's diy scan line generator guide here and I wasn't pleased with the results. It worked but the lines were way too wide for my taste.

As for the OP's portable, RGB mod a rev3/rev4 with a PSone screen. As for me, I'll play on either my Samsung TV's upscaler, my other upscaler (this one is similar but not the same as my good one), or if I really want quality I emulate with high resolution texture packs.