About a year ago, I added an s-video jack to my sega saturn. There's some light noise in the picture, especially during loading times. I simply soldered wires from the bottom of the motherboard and ran the wires to the s-video connector which I put on the battery door. I believe the wires are picking up interference and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. Thanks!
Are u soldering to the test points underneath the av-connector? Have u soldered the 2 ground pins on the s-video connector?
Yes and yes. I took apart the Saturn to double check. In the next day or two I'll try and take some pictures. The noise on screen is very subtle.
Yes, pics would be good. It's either picking up noise from within the console or the s-video cable is picking up noise. Have u tried a different cable?
Thought that Saturn can output the S-video using the Saturn S-Video cable without any mod. Am I missing something here?
When I did this mod over a year ago, the saturn s-video cables were scarce. If you look around, there a lot of examples of people who have done this mod. It's a pretty simple one to do. It looks like there's a company that is making aftermarket s video cables for the Saturn now (Retro-Bit), but I already did the mod and I was simply looking for suggestions on how to improve it. In order to get RGB out of the Saturn, I would need to get a custom SCART cable. SCART cables were originally made for PAL systems, and, if memory serves me right, the PAL SCART cables aren't compatible with NTSC Saturns, hence the need for a custom made one. This site sells custom made SCART cables: https://www.retrogamingcables.co.uk/sega/saturn My NTSC TV, doesn't support SCART and I would need to get a SCART to HDMI converter or some other kind of scaler. This can get pricey and messy. If you know a simple way of getting RGB out of the Saturn please let me know. I'd love to be able to go straight from the Saturn and hook it up to something like the VGA input on the back of the TV...
I use RGB on Luma Scart cable with RGB->HDMI converter from Amazon with my hybrid Saturn with country/freq mod on my Dell PC monitor and the PQ is more than acceptable. Can't say for sure but unlike TV, on my PC monitor I don't see the issues others with the same converter often experiencing...
Thanks dj898! I did some looking around on the old internets last night and the scart to HDMI converters are pretty inexpensive and this seems like a great option. I remember when I did this mod, the only options at the time were s video, or a framemeister. The framemister is really expensive and I couldn't get s video cables. I believe Racketboy was once selling the s video cables and he had stopped. Nope. I had used a ribbon cable. There is not a lot of room in the Saturn to run a wire from the pins on the bottom of the AV connector to the battery door. This could be my issue. Here are some pics: I'm seriously thinkinking of just removing the mod and going with SCART to an HDMI converter now.
It's normal, on some of the single board model 2s. Even if you use SCART or composite, with the native connector, you'll pick up interference when the drive moves around.
Did you try the saturn on a different tv to rule it out. As for those cheap scart to hdmi they can add some lag.
Unshielded cable run next to lots of noise emitting parts. What could possibly go wrong? You might want to consider SCART to component instead of HDMI, if being able to use a wider range of displays is of any value to you.
