quick question about rgb modding us n64's

[mt50]

hi, i've just purchased a US N64 from another world it was ?20 with 2 pad fully boxed etc, i go to pick it up on thursday, so i would like to know if someone could tell me if the one i have purchased can be RGB'd.
all i can tell you is that it is this pack here-LINK.
the one with a purple pad aswell as a normal pad.
also can a mod i US n64 to play NTSC-J games?

thanks

[gamelife]

not sure about the RGB mod. but if you want to play NTSC-J games, just cut out the tabs inside the N64 cart slot

[nigel1210]

here the rgb mod:

http://www.gamesx.com/rgbadd/rgbn64.htm

[Hitcher]

The only way to know for sure is to open it up.

The first US N64 I had was the unmoddable type.

I got another from ebay.com really cheap as it was just the console unit and nothing else.

[mt50]

thanks people guess i will just have to hope i can RGB it

[Ginza]

Can i mod my pal one?

[mt50]

Can i mod my pal one?

no PAL n64's can't be modded, i think that there was one ver of it released in france that could be rgb'd but that was it.
thats one of the reasons i just got a us n64 to go with my pal one. that and the fact it was only about ?8 more than buying a convertor to play imports

[jatpool]

im waiting on my us n64s to come from ebay
i also bought them for the rgb mod
does anyone know what type of wires to use?
also what does the pic look like (any pics)
i currently use the red,yellow,whitle leads
i have a s video but the pic looks super bright and a bit distored

[charlesr]

You need to look at the motherboard. If you don't have an opening tool, you can get them on lik-sang or I'll lend you mine. I'll send you a pic of what the motherboard needs to look like too.

[charlesr]

Jatpool, the rgb pic is way better. The svid is overbright and not really worth using. The easy (saurian) rgb mod gives a great pic but has been reported to give a flicker on bright screens for some people (which can also be sorted). The gamesx mod linked above gives a good rgb signal but is overbright.
Do a search for rgb in this forum (see keyword search at bottom of Q&A forum page) and look for ones with N64 in the title. There's absolutely loads of threads about it.
I've got spare good quality rgb cables going cheap if anyone needs one.

[Papercut]

All the details are here:

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/viewtopic.php?t=14604

To figure out whether you can mod your N64 or not:

Some later models (about 1998 onwards) have a different video amp, and cannot be converted to RGB in this way.

old model (rgb moddable) - VDC-NUS BU9801F at pcb location U4
new model (not rgb moddable) - MAV-NUS RS5C282 (or RS5C382) at U1

I just found this out the hard way

You can't really tell externally, the part no.s etc. are the same.

The brightness problem depends on the scart cable more than anything, some have dampening capacitors (to darken the image) and some don't.

Its the combination of both that determines what the right mod and cable is for you. There isn't a right or wrong mod.

[gIzzE]

The svid is overbright and not really worth using.

There are 2 cables different cables for ntsc and pal machines, if you use a pal s cable on an ntsc machine the above is true, if you use an ntsc cable on a pal machine the image is too dark.
It is the same with composite too, I am going to take a couple of pics, also the comb filter in my philips does an excellent job of S video and it actually looks as good if not better than the RGB.
However on our Sony the comb filter is ****e and RGB always looks better, it really depends on what display you are using.
The S video cables from lik-sang, the 3 in 1 cable work alright with the ntsc N64 btw.

[Shadow_Zero]

I'm a bit confused now. If you have a RGB modded NTSC N64, what RGB cable is the good one then?

And Gizzi, can you tell some more about the "comb filter" ?
I dunno what it is, but your story about the differences is true. S-video on the N64 looks fine on my Philips tv, but with my gf's Samsung tv it's UTTERLY crap (yes, it's that bad). Though on the SNES s-video looks very good on that same Samsung tv (as well as my Philips tv, but RGB is the best ). So how's that possible?

[gIzzE]

Shadow you can use the GC RGB cable for Pal systems this will give you a nice pic.

I will try and find time to type some more stuff up tomorrow, in the mean time have a look at this post on Avforums by a guy called Nic Rhodes

Component vs RGB vs S-video vs Composite

read the first few replies too as it explains that in an ideal world RGB should be better than S but we generally use scarts which are a crap type of connection.

[Shadow_Zero]

Dunno who you're talking to now exactly (or perhaps everyone that's interested ^_^ ).
I already read that article, most certainly interesting!
I still need to get a NTSC N64 before I can do anything with that heh
RGB looks better with my SNES than composite and s-video, so I assume my Philips tv has a good RGB connection (even both my SCART's support RGB and s-video!).

Regarding my previous post, I find it weird that a tv displays s-video very good with the SNES, but utterly crappy with the N64. Maybe there's a (technical) explenation for it, but in the first place it's very weird in my view.

Hmmmz, I need to check the gameshop here if they got that 3rd party RGB cable in stock again. Perhaps one day I will have so many Nintendo RGB cable I could start a review site haha!
Haven't tried the official one thoroughly yet though (not planning on buying one, for 35 euros).