Table of Contents

Nintendo GameCube Digital AV Connector

The DigitalAV connector carries digital sound and digital component video. Neither signal is useful by itself; the Nintendo component cable converts the digital to analogue component, and a chip is required to convert the digital audio to a usable format (TOSlink, etc). Special thanks to Oscar for this information.

There are other pages detailing the GameCube RGB + VGA and Digital Audio mods on this wiki.

Caveats

  • Most GameCubes have the digital connector, however to reduce costs Nintendo removed the port from newer systems. In times past Nintendo would exchange your console for one with the digital connector port on request. As of August 2006, they no longer offer this service .They instead offer assistance finding a used console with the appropriate port.
  • The GameCube is capable of creating a progressive signal, however the software must support it. No PAL software utilizes the progressive capability of the hardware (so no VGA either).

The Connector



GameCube Digital Connector
Pin Signal Pin Signal
1 DetectCable (pull high 1.8V) 2 54MHz Clock
3 ClkSelect(CP10) 4 GND
5 +12V 6 27MHz Clock
7 VDATA0 (CP09) 8 GND
9 VDATA1 (CP08) 10 VDATA2 (CP07)
11 GND 12 VDATA3 (CP06)
13 VDATA4 (CP04) 14 GND
15 VDATA5 (CP03) 16 VDATA6 (CP02)
17 +3.3V 18 VDATA7 (CP01)
19 LRCK (Audio) 20 GND
21 Data (Audio) 22 BCLK (Audio)
Note: (CPxx) = Chip Pin #

Video is sent as 4:2:2 YCrCb component. <Y><Cr><Y><Cb><Y><Cr><Y><Cb>
Y is set to 0 during blanking intervals, and Cr/Cb packets are used to transmit sync and flag information.

The Flags


Flags
BitFlagDescriptionOptions
0IInterlaced Flag0 = Interlaced, 1 = Non-Interlaced
1MScreen Mode Flag0 = NTSC, 1 = PAL
2KColor Burst Blanking Flag0 = Color Burst Should be Blanked Out
3BColor Burst Flag0 = Indicates location of Color Burst
4HHorizontal Sync0 = Horizontal Sync Active
5VVertical Sync0 = Verical Sync Active
6FField0 = Odd Field, 1 = Even Field
7CComposite Sync0 = Composite Sync Active
Note: Odd fields start Y:Cb Even fields start Y:Cr

The CMPV-DOL Chip

This is the chip used in the official Nintendo component cables. It's manufactured by Macronix, but is an ASIC (application-specific IC) made exclusively for Nintendo and neither company, as of February 2008, will divulge its secrets. The image below shows a cable with the RGB mod applied, hence the RGB select wire on pin 12, and the H/V Sync on pins 21 + 22.

Macronix CMPV-DOL Pinout
Pin Signal Pin Signal
1 VDATA7 2 VDATA6
3 VDATA5 4 VDATA4
5 3.3V 6 VDATA3
7 VDATA2 8 VDATA1
9 VDATA0 10 ClkSelect
11 54MHz Clock 12 GND
13 * 14 *
15 RED/Pr 16 GND
17 BLUE/Pb 18 3.3V
19 GREEN/Y 20 SENS
21 H-Sync 22 V-Sync
23 GND 24 GND
*1.2V Compensation or Filter??