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General discussion

snes to hdtv

Aug 5, 2009 7:46AM PDT

Is it possible to hook up snes or sega genesis to a mitsubishi 736 series hd tv and if so how do i do this. The kids want to vid and these are the only systems we have for now. Thank you in advance for any help.

Discussion is locked

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Link, comment.
Aug 5, 2009 7:54AM PDT
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Sure
Aug 5, 2009 7:59AM PDT

Sure, the SNES and probably Genesis both had Composite video adapters. These might be a little hard to come by these days, though Nintendo also used the same cables for the N64, so you could hit ebay and Craigslist to see if you can find anyone selling something.

You can also use the regular RF modulator that came with it assuming your TV has one too. It should be capable of decoding NTSC signals from the SNES.

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It's possible, but...
Aug 6, 2009 9:23AM PDT

Yes, it is possible to connect your SNES to an HDTV tv, but keep in mind that a SNES is an 10+ years console, and by that, there might be --no, there WILL be-- some grafical glitches and some sprites that won't look as good as you remember them to be, but it wont be because your sistem or your tv is damaged, they are just not fully compatible, and as far as I know you cant correct that. And remember, those games looks better in an small screen.

Enough of that, game on !!

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Not quite
Aug 6, 2009 12:47PM PDT

Not quite... It's not a compatibility issue, it's a resolution one.

Most HDTVs are at least 720p capable, but the SNES was long before the age of the HDTV and so only has a max resolution of something like 320x240. So basically the HDTV set simply shows you just how bad things always looked, but you never noticed because the old TV resolution was so low.

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that not quite is missing info!
Oct 3, 2010 7:47AM PDT

ok since the invention of the tv untell the dawn of hdtvs each tv had 525 lines not u have the 720p the 1080p and 1080i. the number for those hdtvs is how many lines there are p is progresive scan, this means each line is scaned in order! the i stands for interlace so it does all even number lines then does the odd number lines. lol im 17 and taking tv pro right now, had to learn how tvs work but it helps some. i have this problem with a SNES i have a LCD hdtv from visio and get cable through charter and me and my dad cant get it working. we have switch cable it came with. how do we get this to work. Please use simpule words so its no big tech terms, its a pain tring to explain it to my dad.

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I think
Oct 5, 2010 11:14AM PDT

I think you still have a wee hit of studying to do. Your info sounds like it's for PAL regions, and it was 576 lines, NTSC had 480. Of course NTSC was essentially 60Hz, and PAL was 50Hz, so you could say it balanced out a bit. There was also NTSC-J for Japan which was slightly lower still than NTSC.

That all said, none of that really has any bearing on what's being discussed, which is why I left it out. I could get into the history of TV, and how color TV was actually developed back in the 1920s, but those pesky two world wars sucked up a lot of the parts needed to manufacture color sets, then the idea was kind of forgotten about for a while. Doesn't have any real relevance to the topic, so why get into it?

The basic point is that the SNES came well before anyone had much more than a dream for HDTV, let alone any sort of support to implement it on a wide scale. Trying to use it on an HDTV set will not be without issues.

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connections for snes
Aug 7, 2009 9:27AM PDT

snes connected to the antenna input and tuned to channel 3 should allow you to play on any tv set. I still play 'Secret of Evermore' on my Sony 40" Bravia!

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This is what I did...
Oct 5, 2010 12:06PM PDT

I bought a Coaxial (F-type) to Female RCA Adapter ( http://www.atariage.com/howto/images/rca_coax_adapter.jpg ) at Radio Shack. Just get any Yellow Composite cable and plug it into the "RF out" on the SNES. Then take and screw in the Coaxial to RCA Adapter into where the Antenna/Cable wire goes, and plug the other end of the RCA cable into the Coax to RCA Adaptor. Set TV to Antenna mode, get Channel 3 or 4, (pending on TV) plug in the AC Adaptor, pick a game, and everything should work. Hope this helps you out!