Part 1: Composite/S-Video to VGA Converter Box

[rendermatt]

@MikeReiner The scaler I'm about to get on amazon can output 480p, its called "MyGica V2VPro Video to VGA Converter." Yeah I've done a lot of research and thinking on this and I think it should look nice, I'll be sure to post a video of my results.

[MikeReiner]

@logos2600
The HDMI converter was actually decent in terms of picture 'quality', but it's so dark. I cannot brighten the picture up, which ruins the whole thing for me. Cranking the brightness on the TV just washes the picture out.

The 64 in general runs at like.. 320x240 or something like that? Either way I'd heavily prefer it to be pixelated. Sharp pixelation is much better to me than blurry interpolation, that's all I want.

I'm pretty sure this VGA box is a cheap Chinese scaler.

[MikeReiner]

@logos2600 The only hope I would have is that it would 'sharpen' the image so to speak, make the edges of the pixels more defined, rather than blurry as they tend to be on HDTVs.

It.. was moderately better. Nothing to get excited about but it was superior to straight composite on this TV of mine.

But still a far cry from how it looks on a standard def CRT.

I am amused that some people would think it would turn the N64 into some sort of HD game console.

[rendermatt]

@MikeReiner Oh well at least the hdmi converter looked better for you. I'd argue that N64 is low resolution, so you're either going to get jagged edges or a picture that appears blurry. Pretty much all scalers in tvs and external scalers try to smooth and interpolate pixels, ie blur, so I guess you should try to look for something that just repeats lines/pixels. Maybe try one of those cheap chinese scalers for like 20$ on amazon?

[rendermatt]

@MikeReiner sucks about the brightness. Have you tried other settings like contrast, "picture" etc? Yeah almost all 3d N64 games run at 320x240. I'm about to buy a vga scaler that outputs 640x480, and make my own scanline generator (you can make one or buy one). I think it will be a good solution, this setup should look similar to CRTs and look better than blurriness or blockiness in my opinion.

[MikeReiner]

@logos2600 Yeah I played around with everything. It was fruitless, sadly. The Scaler itself lacks any options other than switching between 1280x720 and 1920x1080 and between composite and s-video.

If you come up with a good solution, post some videos about it, yeah?

[rendermatt]

@MikeReiner Did it look better than the N64 plugged straight into an hdtv, or were you expecting it to turn the n64 into an HD console?

[MikeReiner]

I'm curious how well this would work with my N64. I tried an S-Video to HDMI converter box and it was horrible.

[BoskovDime]

This video is OK, don't know why so much thumbs down it has. This isn't something to be perfect video, this is box-out, so what do you want more from this? Why should someone has this? Not everyone in the world has hdmi on their devices, like PS2, or some other devices.

[tommacino]

This is not a technical review. Why not pause on the important bits like cable ends to show whether it is a plug or a socket? Also VGA and composite are low res and anyone expecting high res, e.g. HDMI are going to be disappointed. What was the point of waving a CLOSED quick start guide in front of the camera? A very poor videothat does nothing to help prospective buyers.