The Nintendo 64 Ultra HDMI Mod Is Amazing But Is It Worth The Price?

Moving older retro gaming hardware to today's standards with HDMI seems to be a big focus for a lot of people now with newer TVs seemingly eliminating standard composite ports more and more. Today we are taking a look at the Ultra HDMI mod for the Nintendo 64. This is an internal mod that requires soldering to make it work and the results are amazing.

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[batman]

Definitely not worth the price when you can get a Soulja Boy console.

[jamess.]

Nintendo just needs to make a n64 Classic so we don’t have to drop 150+ just to have a hdmi port

[randallcromer]

Wow, I didn't know this was even possible, time to break out my old Nintendo 64 and have it moderately just like yours. I still have 64 game's for the system. I would love to be able to play them again. Thank's for your time and effort in making this video, I appreciate it.

[GawainSSB]

Personally i think some things look "better" on the original. The darker colors in Tony Hawk and Beetle for example. Some assets and things I'm sure were designed with the composite output and N64 anti aliasing in mind. Though, a lot of things definitely look objectively better on the ultra hdmi, like text clarity.

I find the gameshark anti aliasing off cheats to be a lot more interesting since it actually noticeably improves the framerate on some games.

[andiCNH]

It looks different only because you're bypassing the N64's "horizontal Blur" filter (it's hardware AA implementation) with the Ultra HDMI ‘VI De-Blur’ option and probably turned on Gamma Boost and Sharp Pixel mode too, it's nothing to do with the fact you're outputting over HDMI, it's all adding/removing post-processing with the mods options. If you had the config right it would look identical to regular N64, and nothing with this mod can increase performance. Other mods allow you to do all this on hardware, or software if you use a ROMcart
If you played Quake there is a different implementation by the devs that can be disabled in the settings called 'filter', this option in quake led to some hackers discovering how to remove it using a GameShark codes.

[herohunter]

DOOM 64 could benefit from this mod. Anything to brighten that game up is welcome.

[kdkseven]

I've had my UltraHDMI modded N64 for a year now and i love it. Cleans up those dark, blurry N64 visuals perfectly. Love playing those N64 shooters like the Turok games and Quake II again. I'd highly recommend it, if the price tag doesn't scare you off.

[justanotheryoutubechannel]

The improvement on Star Wars Episode 1: Racer is lessens due to the colour palette and high speed. The speed gives you less time to appreciate the sharper visuals, and the 480i resolution also lessens the improvement due to the blurring only affecting the 240p hardware, and the more brown-ish colour palette hides the colour improvements as there are less colours to pop.

[adamsfusion]

The N64 RGB can do component video. Only costs the board and some time. Looks just as good as the UltraHDMI with a little less lag if that's all you're wanting.

[mtoad]

"Stretched image on the left", meanwhile the radar is a perfect circle, while on the right it's oval.

[alphanate]

Man. That definitely looks so much better. I like to think that I'm pretty proficient at soldering, and I don't think I'd feel comfortable doing this mod. I only have my one N64. I wouldn't want to fry the board or bridge some points.

[dev]

It is to my understanding that if you sap the video signal from the connection between the graphics chip and the RF/AV circuit without disconnecting it from the board to give it back boosted to normal levels, it will look darker, just like any old style AV mod for RF consoles. I think there should be 3 image quality comparisons: HDMI N64 on HDMI, HDMI N64 on composite and finally unmodded N64 on composite.

[jeremyjulkowski]

Man, soldering that ribbon cable to the independent leads on the processor chip inside that N64 looks to be a painstaking process and if I ever were to do it, I would take my damn time and use lots of flux to ensure the solder joints flow smoothly to said processor. Fortunately for me, I have over 20 years soldering experience working on RF equipment, so doing this mod would be straightforward for me, but again I'll emphasize: I'll take my dear sweet time doing it!

[JuanDiaz-jorw]

I would love to see this Ultra HDMI with the M classic together..

[synical]

Absurdly expensive for such a minor increase in quality.

[dlang]

I love my ultra hdmi n64 that put in. Dont forget to update the firmware to 1.08 (I think) as it goes up to 1200p now and has other small fixes. You update through the everdrive 64. Great videos by the way!

[JohnDoe-wqeu]

I'd love to see an analogue console based on the N64 come out.
Those guys do absolute magic, if anyone could make a system that can finally play these games smoothed out and using that same proprietary technology they use so that it now only plays like it used to it plays better. It would be so freaking fantastic to finally play GoldenEye looking decent and with a frame rate that doesn't constantly betray you.

[TimedRevolver]

I noticed a bit of an issue with this. While the HDMI images were certainly more colorful and sharp, they also lost a lot of shading. It was especially noticeable in Mario 64 and Tony Hawk.

For example, in Bob-Omb Battlefield, the grass in the HDMI version was certainly more colorful, but the Composite had better shading. You can even see it in the intro when you hop across the grass to go into the castle. The shading on the grass is almost entirely gone.

In Tony hawk, the metal looked brighter, but also less defined because it seems whatever the image goes through before being rendered in Composite, it adds some kind of shading that drawing the image right from the source lacks.

Overall, I don't think it's worth the price or risk of killing your N64. The HDMI is definitely more colorful and sharp, but it also loses picture qualities like shading.

[dalayzie]

Certainly with some of these games, it’s a clear literal night and day

[skilarbabcock]

Cant beleive you didnt show Zerldo Sockarina of Tome