PS1 RGB/S-Video cable/output type questions

[DD-Indeed]

I took couple pictures from my gaming session, have to say, that I'm not very pleased about the picture quality, it's almost unplayable.

There seems to be missing pixels, like you can see here in the green grass section, those black dots:

http://s22.postimg.org/ykiduwvmp/20141021_185557.jpg


And what about that smoke over here:

http://s10.postimg.org/vjd5290l5/20141021_191022.jpg


And the picture don't fit or properly scale to the screen, no matter what I do with the TV settings:

http://s3.postimg.org/433xjjt9v/20141021_185010.jpg


So, advices would be nice to hear. Is the cable bad or does it have wrong pinout ?

[Yagotzirck]

Is the cable bad or does it have wrong pinout ?

if the pinout was wrong you wouldn't get any picture on the screen, so nah

the "smoke and black dots" you're talking about is nothing else than dithering... a lot of games used that as a form of primitive shading, I remember games like silent hill (as well as gt2 which you used in your screens) that abused the hell out of that.
Anyway if you're using a LED tv the quality will inevitably degrade, both because the artifacts are more visible and also because of the upscaling process, try it again with a crt tv (assuming you still have one)

Last but not least, boot the psx without any game in it and compare your video output with this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn2cK3Q34-o
If you get a clean and stable picture like in the second half of the video then your cable is fine, otherwise if it acts like the first half of the same vid chances are that you got hustled with a composite scart cable

[DD-Indeed]

Well, I don't have CRT, so only choice is to play as far from the tv, as possible. Picture will look better from a distance. And maybe, it's just, that the eyes have used to nowadays better image quality and TVs are bigger, that's why PS1 picture looks bad. But it was fun to play, very entertaining.

And yea, the picture improved, when I changed the basic cable to RGB. No more buzzsaw edges.

[Yagotzirck]

glad we sorted that out
Just one more thing: do you get any buzzing sound when turning the sound volume up, or it stays clean no matter how bright the picture gets?
If so, can you link where you bought that cable from? I've been searching for a properly shielded scart cable for a while now

[Administrator]

You don't want to wrap the cable in tin foil?

[DD-Indeed]

glad we sorted that out
Just one more thing: do you get any buzzing sound when turning the sound volume up, or it stays clean no matter how bright the picture gets?
If so, can you link where you bought that cable from? I've been searching for a properly shielded scart cable for a while now

No I don't, sound is fine.
Yea, about that cable. I did find it from, how would I put it, a jumble sale store. It was used and was hanging with hundreds of other cables in the rack, gotta have sharp eyes to spot those things. But it's black and thick, Sony's official cable and with a good shielding. But since it's black, it could be PS2 product. All original/official PS1 cables are grey, am I right ?

[Yagotzirck]

You don't want to wrap the cable in tin foil?

rofl, if there's a practical way to do that with each wire inside the main cover let me know
Though on a serious note the interference is not external, but rather created by the video-related wires internally, since the buzzing is almost absent when the screen is black and increases as the picture gets brighter(peaking when the screen is completely white or close to being so). Nothing major, but I'd rather not have to deal with that

No I don't, sound is fine.
Yea, about that cable. I did find it from, how would I put it, a jumble sale store. It was used and was hanging with hundreds of other cables in the rack, gotta have sharp eyes to spot those things. But it's black and thick, Sony's official cable and with a good shielding. But since it's black, it could be made for PS2. PS1 cables are likely all grey ones, am I right ?

Ah lucky you, I guess I'll just keep on searching/dealing with the buzzing
And yeah, the official ps1 rgb cables were grey and only for the jap market as far as i know

[DD-Indeed]

And yeah, the official ps1 rgb cables were grey and only for the jap market as far as i know

There's always chance, that it will pop in the eye from somewhere. I suppose that we have to browse every single shop and marketplace, until that founds. One thing would nice, if someone could do, is to find and collect those rare cables and sell them over here.

[DD-Indeed]

And now I'm really frustraded. What we have here on the top right corner ?

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img633/6124/Os9pZ8.png


Yes, original RGB SCART-cable! But, there's the but. I can't buy that cable alone, it's sold with all of those other things as a package.

[danhans42]

If you are wanting a very good quality cable I can recommend the Monster Scart Cable.

I have one, its gold plated, oxygen free copper, and very heavy duty cable. The quality is fantastic.

Hard to come by nowadays though.

Also there is the IXOS one as can be found on this website.. £102 is a wee bit steep though!!!
http://www.tvaudiocables.co.uk/item/1/a ... le-2m.html

[DD-Indeed]

If you are wanting a very good quality cable I can recommend the Monster Scart Cable.

I have one, its gold plated, oxygen free copper, and very heavy duty cable. The quality is fantastic.

Hard to come by nowadays though.

Also there is the IXOS one as can be found on this website.. £102 is a wee bit steep though!!!
http://www.tvaudiocables.co.uk/item/1/a ... le-2m.html

102 £ is absolutely too mutch. But, I found this: http://test.futureshop.co.uk/ixos-xpp15 ... -1162.html

That could be really good quality cable and price is fine. But, I've read about the csync mod, luma sync for the cable or in the motherboard. Here is the thing, what was said in RetroRGB:

''Sony Playstation - None of the Playstation systems output csync through their A/V ports. I suggest adding a sync stripper to the luma pin in an RGB SCART cable. Another solution would be to make your own output port and get csync directly from the Playstation's video chip. The earlier models use a CXA1645, where you can tap all the RGB signals, plus csync. The later models use a much smaller IC called H7240. Be aware that soldering to this is extremely hard and should only be done by people with SMD soldering experience. Unless you plan on adding your own output to the system, it's easiest to just use a custom cable, getting sync from luma.''

[Gradius]

Too bad those SCARTs are European standard and not Japanese (needed for XRGB users).

[Yagotzirck]

I don't understand the need to go through all that hassle, since TVs are able to strip sync from composite signal on their own
Besides, the rgb scart standard itself uses composite for synchronization so I don't really get what that retrorgb article is all about

[DD-Indeed]

I don't understand the need to go through all that hassle, since TVs are able to strip sync from composite signal on their own
Besides, the rgb scart standard itself uses composite for synchronization so I don't really get what that retrorgb article is all about

Well, maybe I'll just buy different kind of cables and see, what's the best for my TV. There seems to be better options for HDMI and S-Video cable settings, so maybe S-Video would be worth of try. And my RGB-cable tends to have some sort of sync issues, when I start the machine, picture comes and then it pauses for two seconds and then comes back again and when game is loading, it spins for a while and then it settles to right position.

[buttersoft]

So in theory my posts above, about using RGB through a 15-pin D-Sub VGA connector plug should work fine, only my TV wouldn't take RGB.

[Gradius]

Well, maybe I'll just buy different kind of cables and see, what's the best for my TV. There seems to be better options for HDMI and S-Video cable settings, so maybe S-Video would be worth of try. And my RGB-cable tends to have some sort of sync issues, when I start the machine, picture comes and then it pauses for two seconds and then comes back again and when game is loading, it spins for a while and then it settles to right position.

Looks like you just have a SYNC problem.

Perhaps you're using a C-SYNC (compose sync) and not pure sync.

Back 1996 I always used my PSX by using S-Video, I couldn't complain as I got a brand new Sony (Trinitron) TV back there.

Perhaps this can help you:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36871

Currently I have a X-RGB3 so I use my PSX and PS2 @ 1080p on my Plasma TV (HDMI).

[DD-Indeed]

Well, maybe I'll just buy different kind of cables and see, what's the best for my TV. There seems to be better options for HDMI and S-Video cable settings, so maybe S-Video would be worth of try. And my RGB-cable tends to have some sort of sync issues, when I start the machine, picture comes and then it pauses for two seconds and then comes back again and when game is loading, it spins for a while and then it settles to right position.

Looks like you just have a SYNC problem.

Perhaps you're using a C-SYNC (compose sync) and not pure sync.

Back 1996 I always used my PSX by using S-Video, I couldn't complain as I got a brand new Sony (Trinitron) TV back there.

Perhaps this can help you:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=36871

Currently I have a X-RGB3 so I use my PSX and PS2 @ 1080p on my Plasma TV (HDMI).

Thanks for the info. I'll read that topic when I have more time.

Lately, I've been thinking about buying an upscaler. Does those work well or are they useful ?

[Gradius]

X-RGB3 makes wonder.

Can upscaling PSX to 1080p w/o any problem (with HDMI output), directly from true RGB signals.

They have XRGB mini now, but with less control/options for video processing.

[DD-Indeed]

Bringing up this topic.

I dunno, that have this been discussed on anywhere, but I took a picture from my SCART-cable for PS1:




I've wondered for some while, that is it supposed to be like that, that it doesn't have all the pins on it ? It's official Sony cable thou, but since it's black, I suspect that it might be for PS2 as well. Someone propably could explain more about this or know more. On the SCART-head, there is this sort of PCB:





The reason why I'm asking this is that I just recently hooked my PS1 back to my TV, 40 inch Sony LCD. And I noticed, that there was some small noise on the picture, when I looked closely. So I thought, that is it either bad cable or something about C Sync, that I've read about.



EDIT: I totally forgot about this very bad issue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE_HO8e1adY

Either the cable is wrong one or the TV just doesn't quite accept the signal properly. TV is Sony's LCD from around 2009, Bravia-series one. Same issue happen when the game starts loading up. On here, I just resetted the console, but it also does that same thing, when pressing the power button as well. Strangely, after some while, the problem isn't anymore so bad, but still occurs.

I suspect, that the issue is on the TV, because when playing the games, there is some places in game menus, where the picture is not properly centered (gameplay is fine, picture is centered properly on that). So I perhaps could obtain and try those SCART to HDMI-converters.

[DD-Indeed]

Update:


I examined the cable more and decided to open up the AV-head. Discovered, that it uses Chroma-sync (pin 7), should it be like that ? The pins 5, 6 and 8 are not in use, as you can see from the picture:



I just thought out, that should there be more sync wires or change that sync wire placement to other ?


I just suspect, that the cable is the reason, why the picture spins on my TV for couple seconds before it settles down.