Looking for some unmasked pcb pictures

[Drakon]

Hi I'm looking to see where the traces go on the gamecube video encoder s-video circuit. I'm looking to hopefully find filter caps on the luma line so I can remove them and see if it improves the sharpness at all. What would really help with this would be pictures of a s-video gamecube pcb with the masking removed. So far I found this:

http://forums.benheck.com/viewtopic.php?p=442669

Unfortunately this is only one side of the pcb. I also found these:

http://forums.modretro.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2118

Again unfortunate, this is a pal board so it's the rgb circuit not s-video. If anyone can help me find the s-video traces on both sides of the pcb and where they connect + what they connect to, this would be super helpful. It'll save me a lot of probing time.

Something else to note I already removed some caps to ground on my gamecube along the luma line from using my probe. Removing the first cap closest to the rohm encoder made the picture very dark. Getting that teeny cap back on was a lot of work but I managed it. I removed two caps to ground further down in the circuit but nothing changed.

[megalomaniac]

i looked over the pics ive collected and it appears i only have the same ones you already linked...

[Drakon]

Oh well, thanks for atleast looking. I retraced the luma circuit by probing anyway. The first "cap" to ground turned out to be a 75 ohm pull down resistor. With this encoder the stronger the pull down resistor the brighter the picture becomes. There's nothing on the circuit making the image blurry it seems. I'm guessing gameboy games showing up a little blurry has to do with the gamecube having a much higher resolution?

Here's a gameboy capture taken from the system:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4nWpx8W ... load_owner

For the sake of comparison here's a capture from a gameboy advance I consolized:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjcG0jn2Jr8

Unfortunately the consolized gba has that annoying colour pattern which only shows up on my capture card but not on my tv. It seems for making gameplay videos I'm stuck between blurriness or crisp with a messed up colour pattern.

[megalomaniac]

you really need a component cable to bring out the best video quality GC and Gameboy Player have to offer

[Drakon]

you really need a component cable to bring out the best video quality GC and Gameboy Player have to offer

Gamecube games are super sharp on my tv from the gamecube, it's only gb player stuff that's blurry. Since regular gamecube games are nice and crisp the culprit isn't the s-video circuit. Probably the upscaler built into the hardware / software is blurring the gb player image. I did manage to figure out how to make s-video brighter without the need for an amp, otherwise the circuit doesn't really need much tweaking.

[Drakon]

you really need a component cable to bring out the best video quality GC and Gameboy Player have to offer

Component cable makes no difference with the gb player:



http://retrorgb.com/gbacompare.html

The gb player is blurry by default, my guess is that the upscaling engine does this.

[megalomaniac]

You see no difference???

[keropi]

bit ot, but how do you get 480p with the GB player? I run the NTSC-U ISO and it's still 480i...

edit: pressing B during boot, right? I had the wrong impression the switch was automatic in supported titles/hardware combo...

[Drakon]

You see no difference???

Top two component shots look blurry compared to rgb from the gba tv adapter.

[keropi]

You see no difference???

Top two component shots look blurry compared to rgb from the gba tv adapter.

hmmm will try with RGB later and see if this stands... tbh with either 480i/480p I am getting a "filtered" image (maybe it's normal as the gba resolution is scaled) but those filter options the gameboy player offers make no difference for me...

[deckard]

You see no difference???

Top two component shots look blurry compared to rgb from the gba tv adapter.

It seemed the RGB GBA had the sharpest picture, however the overall look of the 480p component video was the best. The sharpness of the TV-Out adapter really showed the stretching from 240x160 to 640x480, which took away from the overall experience.

I haven't personally tried the TV-Out adapter for the GBA, but from those screenshots I tend to prefer the 480P NTSC Component video too.

[megalomaniac]

You see no difference???

Top two component shots look blurry compared to rgb from the gba tv adapter.

is the GBA tv adapter a hardware addon for GC?
...no


while the tv adapter may seem sharper, it could only be used as a possible reference between the accuracy of the GB Player vs original GBA.
Since the adapter outputs a stretched 480i output, then even the adapter fails to display native GBA resolution on your TV so it should not be used as a reference to indicate the component cable does not offer better video quality because its a comparison between different pieces of hardware doing two different things to get a signal on the screen...

so as ive stated, for the GC and GB player itself. the component cable offers the best video output solution

[Drakon]

You see no difference???

Top two component shots look blurry compared to rgb from the gba tv adapter.

is the GBA tv adapter a hardware addon for GC?
...no


while the tv adapter may seem sharper, it could only be used as a possible reference between the accuracy of the GB Player vs original GBA.
Since the adapter outputs a stretched 480i output, then even the adapter fails to display native GBA resolution on your TV so it should not be used as a reference to indicate the component cable does not offer better video quality because its a comparison between different pieces of hardware doing two different things to get a signal on the screen...

so as ive stated, for the GC and GB player itself. the component cable offers the best video output solution

Good point, I misread, sorry. I just assumed from your comment that using s-video is the reason why the gb player is blurry, turns out it's got the same blur with component and rgb.

[RetroRGB]

Component cable makes no difference with the gb player

That's not true. Please click on that picture to view the image full-sized. If you look at it at 100%, you'll see the 480p picture is sharper.

What my page tries to explain is that it's not just the sharpness of 480p that makes it better: There's no "interlaced flicker" when using 480p. Combine that with the sharpness and it actually looks much better than the Gamecube in 480i.

As stated on that page, just because the GBA TV adapter is sharp, doesn't mean it's better. It is a very crisp image, but due to the interlaced video output, I prefer the look of the GC in 480p. I realize that's just my opinion though...but I think most enthusiasts would agree.

I'm sorry, I tried to have my page written to make that clear. I'll try and revise it when I have time and hopefully make that point easier to understand.

The best possible solution would be playing a GBA game in 240p. The GC/GBP looks great when down-converted through an Extron Emotia, but native 240p would be best. Unfortunately, I haven't found a solution for that yet.

[Drakon]

Component cable makes no difference with the gb player

That's not true. Please click on that picture to view the image full-sized. If you look at it at 100%, you'll see the 480p picture is sharper.

What my page tries to explain is that it's not just the sharpness of 480p that makes it better: There's no "interlaced flicker" when using 480p. Combine that with the sharpness and it actually looks much better than the Gamecube in 480i.

As stated on that page, just because the GBA TV adapter is sharp, doesn't mean it's better. It is a very crisp image, but due to the interlaced video output, I prefer the look of the GC in 480p. I realize that's just my opinion though...but I think most enthusiasts would agree.

I'm sorry, I tried to have my page written to make that clear. I'll try and revise it when I have time and hopefully make that point easier to understand.

The best possible solution would be playing a GBA game in 240p. The GC/GBP looks great when down-converted through an Extron Emotia, but native 240p would be best. Unfortunately, I haven't found a solution for that yet.

It's all preference really. I built both a modified gba tv setup and a gamecube with gb player rig. The gba tv adaper is noticeably sharper but there's rainbow banding in the image, and the stretch mode is horrible with it. With the gamecube it stretches perfectly but it's blurry. I know s-video isn't the cause of the blur as regular gamecube games look nice and sharp on my crt. Overall I prefer the gb player.

I just wanted to point out that going from s-video to component still won't give you as much of a sharpness increase as using the gba tv adapter. The main issue with the sharpness of the gb player doesn't seem to be the type of video signal you use. I just want people to know that using a component cable on a gamecube or even a pal rgb gamecube won't be as sharp as a gba tv adapter.