Which Scart Cables will work on my RGB modded N64?

Which Scart Cables will work on my RGB modded N64?

For the last few months I've been doing some research into which SCART cables you can use with the N64RGB board and i was surprised by how many cables it can support depending on how you wire the system up.

The N64RGB board is a very important mod as it allows all N64s from around the world to be modded and not just early model NTSC units. And it allows the same DE-blur feature used in the UltraHDMI and allows you to stack that with the rounded pixels of a PVM, the FirebrandX profiles of the Framemeister or the 5X scaling of the OSSC.

I have spoken to both Rob Fletcher from Retro Gaming Cables and Tim Worthington to gather this information and i want to thank them both for all their help.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BUY SCART CABLES FROM A REPUTABLE CABLE MANUFACTURER.

The N64RGB board is setup to use NTSC SCART cables by default, however shorting jumpers 1-3 on the board will allow you to use PAL SCART cables.

You then have to wire either the 75ohm CSYNC (CS75) output or the 5Volt TTL CSYNC (CS#) output on the N64 RGB board to the correct pin of the multi-out depending on which sync type you are using and whether or not your cables have a resistor on the sync line.

 

If you have a modded NTSC N64 (Japanese or North American, it does not matter) then you can use the N64 RGB SCART cables sold by Retro Gaming Cables (either the CSYNC or the Sync-on-Luma) and they will work perfectly (I use the Sync-on-Luma one myself) NTSC N64s already have S-Video traced out to the multi-out of the console.

 The CSYNC cable takes Sync-on-CVBS (Composite Video from pin 9) and cleanly extracts the CSYNC signal from it with an LM1881 and a 470ohm resistor. The composite video signal is grounded with a resistor in the multiout so that it does not travel up the wire to the scart head, which avoids coupling and gives you a cleaner image. As long as you have Composite video you will be able to use this cable.

NTSC SNES/SFC cables should also work on both regions of console provided you do not short any of the jumpers and you wire the CS# output to pin 3 of the multi-out connector. RGC's NTSC SNES/SFC cables have a resistor on the sync line to turn the 5 volt TTL Sync signal into a 75ohm compliant signal. You MUST use the TTL output for that cable. You can safely use the Sync-on-Luma cable for the NTSC SNES 1Chip-03 console, but you need to run a wire from the CS75 pad to pin 7 of the multi-out if you are using a PAL N64 console.

 If you want to use the NTSC N64 CSYNC SCART cable on a PAL N64, then you DO NOT bridge any jumpers and the cable will extract the CSYNC signal from the Composite video signal (CVBS).

 If you want to use the NTSC N64 Sync-on-Luma cable on a PAL N64, then you DO NOT bridge any jumpers and you wire the CS75 Output to pin 7 of the multi-out. (PAL Consoles do not have S-Video natively, so you must run this wire to pin 7 or the cable will not work.)

If you want to use a PAL GameCube SCART cable on a PAL N64 then you ask your modder to short jumpers 1-3 and nothing else. I do not recommend using anything other than the fully shielded PACKAPUNCH cables for GameCube (or their equivalent from Retro Access) as this signal will be very noisy (Unless you cut the trace for composite video on the motherboard and wire CS75 to pin 9).

If you want to use a PAL SNES SCART cable on a PAL N64, then you ask your modder to bridge jumpers 1-3 and run a wire from the CS75 output pad to Pin 7. 

And finally the HD Retrovision component cables work with both regions consoles and will take whatever type of Sync you throw at them. 

I hope this helps you find the right cables for your needs.