Hooking up an NES
 

I'm going through a moment of nostalgia and really want to play some Tecmo Super Bowl. So I went out and bought a copy, but I can't seem to get the system to work on my plasma. Shouldn't I just be able to screw the NES RF thing into the ANT connection on the back of my tv? Am I missing something or is there some kind of device I need?

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Seems like that was right, and doesn't your TV have to be on channel 3 or 4?

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Did you blow in it?

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Lol, yeah I blew in it.
I set the TV to the right channel, but it is just static and says signal is too weak. You can't hear any sounds from the game either.

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Does your TV not have composite inputs that you could use?

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Depending on how old the nintendo is I'm pretty sure IT doesn't

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The NES came with composite cables. The later ones, anyway. The top-loading one did as well.

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My TV has RCA audio inputs, but not video.

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This thread reminds me of a Cowboy Bebop episode....

Does it work on any other tv in your home?

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It's the only tv I have.
Ok, so I got it to work by plugging the video RCA into the Y composite jack. But the video is incredibly shitty. It's black and white and the screen shakes and it's all fuzzy but it is playable.
But the game is just as fun as I remember it.

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It always had composite outputs in the US, but since his TV doesn't have composite inputs, it is a moot point.

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it's the NES.. Isn't that the way it's supposed to look?

i could have sworn it didn't have composites on it until later. Meh, my memory is going so i am probably wrong

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Did you say you tried plugging the yellow cable into the Y connection of the component inputs? :lol: Yes, that will give you black and white because you're only connecting the luminance (B&W) portion of the video. The other two cables are for the color.

If the TV really doesn't have a composite input, you could get a composite to s-video adapter: http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...seq=1&format=2. Then just connect an s-video cable from the adapter to the TV. It has s-video, right?

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You mean COMPONENT. Composite is Yellow Red Blue.

Your TV has to have composite outs. What is the model of the TV?

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Sorry, component. I always get the two names mixed up.
This is the tv I have: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Insignia...&skuId=9299886

And here is what I have to work with:
http://images.bestbuy.com/BestBuy_US...9299886_ba.jpg

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Yeah, I've never heard of a TV model that didn't have at least one set of composite connections, even if they are on the side or something.

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It's funny, but I tried hooking up everything and that is the one thing that actually kind of worked.
And no, the TV doesn't have S-Video.

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Okay, it looks like the AV1 input will accommodate either component or composite (but obviously not both at the same time). You probably need to go into the TV's menu and find the setting that switches it to composite.

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Okay, looking at that diagram... did you connect it to the top or bottom set of composite connections?

Edit: Nevermind, Drexl had the same concern I did and posted first. :)

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I had it connected to the top set of composites.
I did try it on the bottom set, but I didn't unplug the blue and red cables that I already had plugged in there (from my cable box, which uses that set of composites). So maybe if I unplug those and try it again it will work?

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If you can switch AV1 to composite, the red and blue inputs won't be used. The 3 inputs on top are for AV2, so plug in all 3 component cables of the cable box there, and its 2 audio cables.

Note that the NES is mono, so you might only hear sound from the left or right side of the TV. Unless, that is, you either enable a mono setting in the TV menu (if it has such a setting) or get a splitter adapter to split the signal to both channels.

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Thanks, I'll give it a try when I go home in a little while.

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Looks like it's time for a visit with everyone's FAVORITE Christmas morning must-have: an RF modulator.

EDIT: Christmas morning must-have from 15 yrs ago, that is.

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Speaking of RF, that was the only way to connect a pre-NES system like the Atari 2600. I think you'd need a modded version with a different video output soon, because the RF connection used relied on analog tuners. You have to assume they're dropping those from new sets.

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No dice. All I get is a gray screen and I can't find any way to change the connection to composite in the menus. :(

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Well, I checked the manual. I noticed that there are separate input choices (as you cycle through them) for AV and Component 1, even though they share the same connectors. Have you selected the AV input?

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Yeah, when I switched them up it automatically came up in the input choices as AV instead of Component, but just the gray screen comes up, no sound either. We have some LCD monitors at work that I am going to try using it with. If that doesn't work I guess my only option is to go buy an ancient tv to play it on.

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[shameless plug]Hey, that relates to my sig![/shameless plug]

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Will the RF connection really be going away, though? That's what the antenna on my plasma connects to for OTA HD programming.

On the other thing you mentioned, I actually just soldered one of the video mods into my 2600 last week. Now it outputs both composite and S-video, as well as stereo sound. It looks and sounds surprisingly good.

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Well, what I meant was that you wouldn't be able to directly connect it anyway, since RF video connections in those consoles emulate an analog TV signal. Without the analog tuner, you couldn't get an image from the console without converting it into something else first.

However, I had forgotten about cable TV, which will probably continue to offer analog service for a while. So the tuner will stay for that, at least.

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I get the exact same gray screen on the monitors here at work.
Going to pick up one of those RCA--->S-Video adapters tonight and give that a shot.

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A gray screen is one of the things that can happen with a bad/dirty 72-pin connector and/or dirty contacts on the cartridge.

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Do you have an A/V Receiver? Could you plug RCA cables into that?

That's how I have my old games hooked up. The Yellow/Red/White RCA cables are plugged into the A/V Receiver, and the video is then output from there to the TV.

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God you're so shameless. You're like the Borg.

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Has anyonE Mentioned to yoU an aLternATIve methOd of playiNg this game on your newfangled television yet?

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Looks like that's what the problem was. I kept blowing in the cartridge and inside the Nintendo itself and reinserting the cartridge and eventually it worked. So it was hooked up right, just the game itself wasn't working properly. Thanks everyone for their help.

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Told ya.

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Couldn't find a great NES thread so I just wanted to post in this one about a couple cool items I just picked up.

Got both of these at a local mom and pop electronics repair shop. I'm really psyched about the test station as they're a bitch to come by and hard to find complete. :)

http://i50.tinypic.com/2hycglu.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/2s8h6jm.jpg

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Isn't that test station worth a lot of dough?

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That's pretty awesome especially the neon sign. I always want to keep at least one older style tv around for the fact that the old consoles look like crap on newer style tv's. Of course now there's the Wii which you can get some old games with the virtual console but it's not the same.