The rgb / s-video nes / famicom

Currently the best setup for the rgb nes / famicom is the following:

Certain revisions of the nes and famicom have less video interference than others when you install a rgb ppu chip. The two best models are the nes 2 and the av famicom. Both the nes 2 and av famicom have the same quality distortion free picture. Other models (toaster nes, twin famicom) have more jailbars in the image.

Doing the ppu socket mod is safer in the nes 2 because the nes 2 pcb traces aren't masked so if you break a trace you can easily repair it. The av famicom traces are masked so if something gets broken or disconnected then it's a pain to find the broken connection. However the nes 2 also has certain weaknesses. The pin that the powerpak outputs extended audio on doesn't have a pin connection in the nes 2. The nes 2 cartridge slot is physically missing the pin that connects to the powerpak extended audio.

The AV famicom has a multi av port built right in so you don't have to install one yourself. The av famicom also is perfect for audio wiring. You can wire up the powerpaks extended audio by modifying your nes to famicom adapter. And famicom games with advanced audio are plug and play in the av famicom.

When you upgrade the system to rgb the signals coming from the rgb ppu are a little messed up. If you just build an amp and / or a video encoder you'll get all kinds of issues going on like flickering backgrounds. The only fix I found for the video issues is this kit here:

http://homepage3.nifty.com/F-LABO/ProductsList.html

It's up to you how you get this kit out of japan. I use a proxy company called sutocorp to order these kits.

This kit perfectly amps the picture and fixes pretty much all the video issues I was having.

Another plus of using this kit is that the audio circuit on the kit greatly improves the audio quality of the nes. It increases the bass without it sounding muffled, it also works great with famicom games that use advanced audio. Even the powerpak with the extended audio sounds great on this audio circuit. I only found two games that didn't sound right on this audio circuit but out of the hundreds of other games I tried everything else sounded fine. The two games that sound strange are tmnt 2: the arcade game and kirbys adventure. Both of those games use "pop" sounds for drums but the pop sounds get filtered out by the sound circuit. Luckily it's possible to wire up a switch that allows you to switch between the default system audio and the upgraded audio.

The kit is designed specifically for the av famicom but you can install it into any model of the nes or famicom if you know what you're doing.

My next goal is to attempt upgrading the video encoder on this av famicom kit from a cxa1645 to a cxa2075. If I have success I'll post the results and the method to upgrade the encoder. The cxa2075 produces a much sharper and cleaner picture so it's ideal for any console.

Today I soldered together the video circuit of one of the kits I ordered. I wanted to test if it's possible to replace the cxa1645 that comes with the kit with a cxa2075 so I didn't solder in the encoder chip. Since I just wanted to test if the chips would be compatible I wired up the cxa2075 in such a way that it would easily be removable. So I present you with......

The cxa2075 av famicom prototype:



And does it work?



Better than I expected! Now I'm going to clean up my gaming area and test to see if the video quality looks improved over the cxa1645. There's also a chance that the picture quality will be even more improved with the encoder soldered right onto the kit but I ran out of loose cxa2075 chips and I'm waiting on the next batch to show up.

I recently found out how to mix in the powerpak extended audio to the upgraded audio kit in such a way that it sounds 95% like the real audio hardware it's reproducing. This has been a fantastic discovery but it makes it so the nes to famicom adapter you use with the powerpak can only work with the upgraded audio circuit turned on.

I noticed when installing video encoders inside other systems like the sega genesis that using the colour subcarrier line from the console itself made the image quality improve. The nes doesn't have a colour subcarrier line but it has a crystal speed that's 6x the speed that the colour subcarrier needs to be....I've been trying to find a circuit that would divide that signal to the right speed but havn't had any luck. I have a feeling that if all the components on the console (especially the ppu and the video encoder) share the same clock signal source then the picture quality would improve.

Which of the kits do I need on that list - the 6000 yen one (that one appears to be sold out actually - would the 4000 yen one work?)

Would the 3000 yen one work if I'm only interested in RGB?

6000 yen kit isn't sold out you're just looking at the older kit that's out of date. The 6000 yen one comes with just the video circuit parts the 8000 yen one is for both video and audio upgrades. I've never tried any of the cheaper / older kits.

I somehow scrolled down too far without even realizing it, my bad!

Did you just have your proxy service make the order with them, or did you have to fill this order form out yourself.

dumbidiot wrote:

Did you just have your proxy service make the order with them, or did you have to fill this order form out yourself.

I used a proxy service

[quote="Drakon"]Currently the best setup for the rgb nes / famicom is the following:

Certain revisions of the nes and famicom have less video interference than others when you install a rgb ppu chip. The two best models are the nes 2 and the av famicom. Both the nes 2 and av famicom have the same quality distortion free picture. Other models (toaster nes, twin famicom) have more jailbars in the image.

ive got a broken nes 2 that i bought new. one day im going to do something with it when i get $. ive got to fix it first though.

its symptom is a solid purple screen when you turn it on.

btw, have you ever heard of anyone getting ahold of the rare A/V nes 2 and rgb modding it to see if the picture is any better yet?

id like to see it. and yes, if i knew back then i could have just sent mine back and got an a/v, i wouldnt have given it a second thought.

i

Honestly I don't really care if the av model of the nes 2 is any better. The rgb / s-video from the common nes 2 / av famicom is so good that there's no need to improve it any further.