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Old NES to HDTV
Geod
swim, swim, hungryRegistered User regular
swim, swim, hungryRegistered User regular
I have an old top loading NES, with a Coax output. How does one hook this up to an HDTV that has no coax inputs? I'll be buying an HDTV shortly. Also, anyone know of any good device to hook up all my systems(6+) at once? Thanks!
Geod on
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Hooking up a coax-only system to something that has no coax inputs: get a cheap VCR that has both coax input and composite (or s-video) out. Run the coax in, and composite out, and there you go.
You can do the same thing with a TV Tuner card for your computer, if you want to avoid a VCR cluttering things up.
Here's the link.
Yes, do this. And the answer to your next question, "isn't there just a cheap coax to composite converter I can buy", is no. Converters are available, but they need to have their own power source due to the nature of the RCA signal. This makes the hardware more expensive (and bigger) which, in turn, drives up the price. So, if you're going to spend $30 or more on a bulky piece of hardware that you have to plug into the wall, why not make it a VCR?
No, I'm suggesting that it's impossible to tune HDTV without an RF input. Durr.
Coax is the standard RF input connector for NTSC SDTV broadcast, analog NTSC cable, and ATSC HDTV broadcast. Now, as for whether the tuner on the other side is digital-only (ATSC) is a different story... I've NEVER seen one that was digital only and I doubt one exists. At least, not one built into the TV. The point being, even if the TV can't tune analog, the TV will still have a coax connector. Even when analog broadcasts end in 2009, the tuners will still be needed for older devices... like the model 2 NES.
Now, if he does not have the original RF switch, it's possible that the OP is looking for a coax connector like the one on the back of the NES. It looks like what people refer to as coax for digital SPDIF. That is just a coax RCA Cinch connector for the RF switch. You can adapt it to the standard type and run it to the TV's coax, but you'd have to disconnect it to reconnect your antenna (that's what the RF switch does automatically). Connecting them at the same time with splitters would cause interferance on channels three and four from the nearby channels (2 & 5) in broadcast and the occupying channels (3 & 4) in analog cable.
It's also possible that the OP got an HDTV monitor that is not even a TV at all. It has to have either an SDTV or HDTV turner to be either an HDTV monitor or an HDTV... otherwise, it's not a "TV." It's an HD monitor like nearly any PC monitor.
Now, the OP doesn't even own an HDTV. He's seemingly made an assumption that they don't have coax. So far, you're the only one claiming to have seen TVs without coax.
It'll look a bit better to with composite out anyway.
Also, yea every HDTV I've ever seen has had coax input, look into it when you're out shopping around.
RF can be better than S-Video, though I doubt the NES' is. Broadcast (RF) is the full NTSC spec and can be notably better than even DVD. If it is adapted internally from RGB and there is no interferance, composite is entirely not needed. If it is adapted from composite, then it can't possibly be better than composite.
Just thought I'd throw a wrench into the whole Component > S-Video > Composite > RF thing.
It's the older ones that included composite. The reason it is still on the motherboard for the model 2 is because the original Famicom didn't have it so the model 2 in Japan added it (called the AV Famicom). Yay for modding but, if you're going in, you may as well do an RGB mod.
Oh, and chances are extremely slim that you will find a device to hook up all your systems unless they all use the same signal type. Though I think most consoles with the exception of your version of the NES support composite video (the red/white/yellow sets). I don't know about the PS3, but the rest do. In which case, a simple switch box will do the trick (similar to this but I've seen 5 or 6 input switch boxes before).
....you might as well buy a play choice ten off of ebay.... yeah, that's the ticket..
(see what I'm doing, lets make this the most expensive solution possible)
on a side note, I totally got a "office space vibe" cause I logged back in and had a PM from a few different bosses about my "improper TPS reports"
I was confused for a second, because I was like, "dude, RF modulators are cheap and generally not nearly as bulky as a VCR."
Then I realized he was wanting to go the other direction, RF to RCA. Shit.
Standalone converters for this can be found, I'd imagine...but it's not exactly a "common" thing so they'll likely be more than you want to pay. Economies of scale don't really kick in on these because it's not something you can move millions of units of at Wal-Mart. The cheapest on I'm finding is this, though in fairness it has a lot more functionality that the VCR solution would have. You just have to ask yourself if you need it enough to pay for it, because you can find an old VCR with a working tuner for like $.50 at a garage sale (since you don't care about the actual moving parts of the VCR, the age of the unit will be of less concern).
So yeah, at that point your cheapest and easiest option will be to add a VCR to the mix. I actually had to do this for a while, because I was trying to watch a US TV signal on a European television...it wasn't even an NTSC/PAL problem (the TV converted that internally) it was the audio band. Long story short, it had RCA inputs and the VCR did the trick.
I LOL'd. What kind of "devices" are you looking at? Consoles have only added newer outputs and televisions / AV receivers have only added newer inputs. Nothing has been gotten rid of. Even with an older TV, you can still get RF modulators and AV cables for the modern systems. A newer TV should have everything. That covers old and new, so there is no "slim" chance.
He's not "wanting" to go the other way. He's confused and thinking that TVs don't have coax anymore. He's wrong: They do. END OF THREAD.
Sorry to break the silence and my own declaration of "thread OVAR," but I just picked one of these up at a thrift store today (SCORE! I found it with a Saturn and import Rockman 7). I'm playing it on my 52" Sony KDL-52XBR2 LCD HDTV and these lines are terrible. They are far from being anything I would call "slight." It appears to be refurbished because it's in awesome condition, the AC adapter and RF switch were taped to it with their original twist ties intact, it has "22" written on the bottom in permanent marker, and the serial number barcode on the bottom is stuck over an older one. I wonder if it was "refurbished" for this specific problem?
Anyway, does anyone know if the AV mod makes this go away?
I was far luckier in 1996 when I found one new in box for $5 at a local yard sale. I can't believe I sold it for $15 to get the money I needed for my N64. I never noticed any lines back then.