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av:nintendomultiav

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SNES/N64/GameCube MultiAV connector

Cable

Console: 12-pin male 0.1“-spaced dual-sided card edge connector

PinNameDescriptionPinNameDescription
1 R RGB Red 2 G RGB Green
3 CSYNC* Composite Sync* 4 B RGB Blue
5 GND Ground 6 GND Ground
7 Y S-Video Y (luma) 8 C S-Video C (chroma)
9 CVBS Composite Video 10 +5V +5 Volts
11 L Left Audio 12 R Right Audio

*CSYNC/Composite Sync is replaced by +12V on PAL SNES and PAL Gamecube consoles (But not the PAL N64)

Not all signals are available on all systems:

Signal AV Famicom SNES SNES2 N64 GameCube NTSC GameCube PAL
Composite Video Y Y Y Y Y Y
S-Video N Y N Y Y N
RGB N Y N N N Y

Some AV cables have different internal components between regions:

Console Signal PAL NTSC
SNES Composite Video 75ohm resistor to ground on Composite Video Straight through to display
SNES S-Video Outputs S-Video but cable components (if any) are unknown at this time Straight through to display
SNES RGB 75ohm resistors to ground on R, G, B and Composite Video 220uF Capacitors* in series on R, G & B
N64 Composite Video 75ohm resistor to ground on Composite Video (220uF capacitor* in series is also recommended) Straight through to display
N64 S-Video 75ohm resistor to ground and 220uF capacitor* in series on Luma. 75ohm resistor to ground and 68nF capacitor in series on Chroma Straight through to display
N64 RGB Requires modification first - Only early French consoles can be modified easily. Any components will depend on the mod performed Requires modification first - Only early NTSC consoles can be modified easily. Any components will depend on the mod performed
Gamecube Composite Video 75ohm resistor to ground, 220uF capacitor* in series on Composite Video Straight through to display
Gamecube S-Video Does not output S-Video from the MultiAV port Straight through to display
Gamecube RGB 220uF Capacitors* in series on R, G & B. If you are going to watch/use the Composite video picture aswell (Scart connection) then you also need to use a 75 ohm resistor to ground and 220uF capacitor* in series on Composite Video Does not output RGB from the MultiAV port. RGB can be obtained from the 'Digital AV Out' port by using a modified Component/D-Terminal cable. For more info see here.

*220uF capacitors are polarised, and it is important that the positive leg always goes towards the console and negative leg towards TV/Display.

The PAL SNES was internally revised 4 or 5 times during its lifetime. Later consoles appear to have had different video circuitry and may actually work fine with an unmodified PAL Gamecube Scart cable (with capacitors) The best thing to do is to try an unmodified cable first, and then remove the capacitors/add resistors if need be.

According to Jim Christy, the US and NTSC SNES have a 'DC offset', which is basically extra voltage, on the RGB lines (1v DC according to Jay Tiltons site). You can filter this out with one 220uf capacitor on each of the RGB lines (+ towards console, - towards display). PAL SNES systems do not need these caps, but may require some 47 ohm resistors in their place in order to get the video contrast down to the correct level. PAL GameCubes need the caps, NTSC GameCubes don't output RGB through this connector.

Actually, there appears to be different PAL models with different RGB output. In my case, I had an RGB SCART cable designed for GameCube (I popped the SCART connector open, and there were resistors on the RGB pins). I also had two machines: “SNSP-001(SCN)” (PAL, Scandinavian model) and “SNSP-001A(FRG)” (PAL, Unknown origin, possibly French or German, guessing by the “FRG”). The SCN model did NOT work with the GameCube RGB SCART (picture became close to completely dark after a few seconds), while the FRG model works perfectly with the “capping” GameCube SCART.

For reference, here's the pinout I use to connect all my systems to my monitors. A single common pinout means I don't need a seperate monitor cable for each system.

For info on adding RGB to some Nintendo 64 systems, see here.

To add RGB to a SNES2 (SNESjr), http://www..

Here is the pinout for the GameCube Digital AV port.

PAL Users Note:

The PAL SNES and PAL Gamecube (But not the PAL N64) outputs +12v on pin 3, not composite sync (C-Sync). This is for a SCART TV to automatically detect RGB input. See the SCART pinout page for more details. Thanks to Mark K. for this info.
av/nintendomultiav.1232127681.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/08/27 20:44 (external edit)