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Old consoles on new TVs

Martin

Martin

TS Member
One for the geeks this, I've recently dug out my old Nintendo 64 and Sega Megadrive, but unfortunately I can't get them to work on my fairly modern TV. When I say fairly modern, it's old enough to know analogue TV was a thing, but new enough to have HDMI etc.

All i have with the N64 is the standard RF cable, and that doesn't work, but I've also tried it with the SCART connector that works for the Gamecube.

Likewise the Megadrive only has the RF output.

Whatever source I put the TV on it says there is no signal, even after scanning on old fashioned TV mode.

Is there any way to get them working or are they consigned to history like the CRT TVs they worked on?
 
this guy explains it well for most older consoles, I was tying to hook up an original playstation, it only cost £5 for the S video cable.
If that doesn't work, an emulator on a laptop via HDMI to the tv is another option.
 
I have an N64 that I use on a modern(ish) TV. I use the cable that outputs composite (the red, white and yellow RCA connectors). That should be a straightforward PAL video signal, unless you have an NTSC console? Could be a knackered cable.

I've no idea about tuning in to the RF coax, I've not had to do that since the days when you tuned a TV with a dial! :p Do you have an old VHS player? Might be worth trying to tune that to the RF output, and feeding it from the VHS to the TV with a SCART .

Good luck!
 
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Got the N64 working on the second attempt with composite, no idea where to start with the Sega as it only seems to have RF and some big connector that it doesn't say what its for. Not going to have to buy some sort of cable, am I?
 
Martin said:
Got the N64 working on the second attempt with composite, no idea where to start with the Sega as it only seems to have RF and some big connector that it doesn't say what its for. Not going to have to buy some sort of cable, am I?
Click to expand...

I think the second connector is designed for the Mega CD and 32X add ons. You don't need them to play just the Mega Drive though.
 
UPDATE: Got the Megadrive working now too, seems the problem was connecting the modern arial to the RF connector thingy was confusing it, take the arial out and away we go!
 
Whats the quality like? I tend to think older games consoles (PS1 and 2, Gamecube etc) don't look as good on modern screens compared to CRT's, may just be me though.

Also this post reminds me how awful aerial connections were compared to SCART and HDMI.
 
The colours on the N64 aren't great and it's quite dark, hard to judge the Sega considering the last time I played it was on a tv about half the size and about 14 years ago so it's bound to look bad to me. :p
 
I have my SNES hooked up to a HD TV in my front room (on top of the PS4 no less!). Concerning things like colours and overall picture, it's absoutely fine, but a minor annoyance I have is that the picture cover up the screen completely and it just has two big black bars at the side. It ruins the immersion a bit, but it's a minor issue :p

I have a PS1 set up in my bedroom and played it on my HD (but small) telly. Then I was intended to get a newer telly, but it was too big to fit in my room and I had gotten rid of the original one before hand. So I was stuck with a retro one and honestly I thought it felt better playing it on the retro one as it was originally designed like that.
 
TedTheHuman said:
I have my SNES hooked up to a HD TV in my front room (on top of the PS4 no less!). Concerning things like colours and overall picture, it's absoutely fine, but a minor annoyance I have is that the picture cover up the screen completely and it just has two big black bars at the side. It ruins the immersion a bit, but it's a minor issue :p

I have a PS1 set up in my bedroom and played it on my HD (but small) telly. Then I was intended to get a newer telly, but it was too big to fit in my room and I had gotten rid of the original one before hand. So I was stuck with a retro one and honestly I thought it felt better playing it on the retro one as it was originally designed like that.
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Yep to my eye playing on the PS1,PS 2 and GameCube on the modern Flat sceen I have doesn't look as clear a picture as it did on my old CRT TV I used to have.
 
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TedTheHuman said:
but a minor annoyance I have is that the picture cover up the screen completely and it just has two big black bars at the side. It ruins the immersion a bit, but it's a minor issue :p
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That's because it's a 4:3 console. Nothing makes me want to punch people more than idiots demanding their screen is filled at the expense of stretching the picture. ;)
 
DiogoJ42 said:
That's because it's a 4:3 console. Nothing makes me want to punch people more than idiots demanding their screen is filled at the expense of stretching the picture. ;)
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I know why it does it, Slaphead. ;) It just annoys me whenever I see it. To be honest though I'd rather have not have it stretched, it'd look horrible :p

To give you a specific example, Sky 1 have recently redone Season 8 of the Simpsons so it fits the whole screen, unlike Seasons 1 to 7. Honestly it looks horrible I'd rather have the 4:3 picture!
 
And this is the reason I still keep hold of one of these:

$_1.JPG


The sort of TV you tune with a screwdriver!

I find it tends to vary a lot depending on the console. For some reason if I hook my NES, SNES or N64 up to any newish TV using RF I find the picture quality to be very hit and miss. SEGA gear on the other hand seems to just work. I think the Nintendo stuff just has some aversion to the in-line RF switches I use.

The trickiest thing I found when I first bought an LCD was figuring out how to disable the built-in Freeview tuner so that I could tune it to analogue frequencies for the older consoles.

For the sake of quality I try to use SCART wherever possible, which fortunately is quite easy on the Nintendos. The Master System and MegaDrive are pretty forgiving with RF, but I still prefer to use SCART on the Saturn and Dreamcast.

Just make sure you have plenty of SCART splitters! :p
 
Or a surround amp with smegloads of inputs.
 
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D ! You hook up using RF ? Heathen ! Pic quality must be soooo bad :(
Luckily I still have my CRT tv which accepts both 50/60 hz and an rgb signal.
:D
Nothing better than playing games on a jap snes at full screen, the way it's meant to be :p
 
DiogoJ42 said:
Or a surround amp with smegloads of inputs.
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Unfortunately:
  1. I don't want all the consoles in the living room (not enough space :p )
  2. Our amp only has like 2 RCA inputs, and the other 7 are all HDMI
 
Egad, man, how many consoles do you have? Or is this your collection of archaic media players as well? How's that laser disk going?
 
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