What gaming cables do you use?

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AlexHiro4
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What gaming cables do you use?

Post by AlexHiro4 »

Hey guys!

As of late, I've been really obsessed with retro gaming and the best types of cables to use. A lot of people that have more money to spend than I do will invest in RGB SCART cables and either an RGB PVM, for the old school CRT look, or a Frameister, for the upscaled modern-day display look. Then you have me, who uses the best quality cables that don't require modding, buying a special monitor, or a high-end upscaler. Just because I'm nosy, and because I really enjoy trading info about gaming setups, I wanted to hear how you guys have your stuff hooked up. Modern consoles too of course.

Here are the cables I use:

27" Sharp CRT:

NES - Gold plated, fully shielded, monoprice.com composite cables.

SNES - Hand made S-video cable from "gamesnow" on Ebay. His cable is gold plated, fully shielded, and grounded.

Sega Genesis - Cheap, nickle-plated, generic composite cables.

Sega Genesis Plug-and-Play by AT games - Gold plated, fully shielded, monoprice.com composite cables.

Playstation 1 - Supposedly the official Sony brand S-video cable. However, the video quality is crappy, so I think I may have been ripped off on Ebay and received a fake. I will commissioning "gamesnow" from Ebay to make a Playstation S-video cable for me in the near future.

Sega Saturn - I currently use an inexpensive, but not necessarily cheap, gold plated Retro-Bit S-video cable. However, just like with the Playstation, I will commissioning "gamesnow" from Ebay to make a Sega Saturn S-video cable for me in the near future. He's already agreed to both this and the Playstaion cable even though he usually just focuses on Nintendo brand S-video cables.

40" Sanyo LCD (older model):

Nintendo 64 - I currently use the official composite cables that came with the system, however I'm waiting on an S-video cable from "gamesnow" to show up in the mail. I should be receiving it within the next week.

Nintendo Gamecube - Get ready for this....I have the official Nintendo brand component cables! These are the only truly expensive cables I own, but I kind of lucked into them. My best friend's nephews destroyed his Gamecube, but he saved these cables for some reason. Anyway, even after telling him how much they were worth and that he should sell them on Ebay....he just gave them to me outright. Such a great buddy!

Also, on a side note, I use the Gameboy player attachment with my Gamecube to play my GBA games when I'm at the house.

Playstation 2 - Cheap, generic, nickle plated component cables. I should really upgrade these to higher quality component cables.

Sega Dreamcast - Retro-Bit VGA Cable. I've heard horror stories about using these Dreamcast-specific cables instead of using a good quality VGA box with a good quality standard VGA cable, but so far..no issues. However, one of these days I'll upgrade to the Toro VGA box by Behar Bros and get a good quality standard VGA cable from monoprice.com.

65" Samsung LED 4K:

Nintendo Wii - Cheap, generic, nickle plated component cables. I should really upgrade these to higher quality component cables.

Playstation 3 - Gold plated, shielded, fully-grounded HDMI cable from monoprice.com.

Anyway, that's how I have all my non-portable consoles hooked up! Please let me know how you guys have your systems hooked up as well. I totally geek out over discussing this stuff, and I love hearing different perspectives of how systems can and should be hooked up (either on a budget or with a good chunk of change at your disposal). Plus, I love hearing what retro consoles people still have in general.

Have fun!
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by Kizyr »

One TV (Samsung 4K) that I hook up everything to as needed:
RetroDuo (NES/SNES) with component cables (EDIT: meant composite cables)
Genesis/SegaCD/32X with coax cable and three giant-ass AC adapters (WTF Sega)
Japanese and US Saturns with component cables (EDIT: meant composite cables)
Japanese and US Playstations with component cables (EDIT: meant composite cables)
PS2 with component cables (EDIT: meant composite cables)
XBox360 with HDMI
Laptop (for Steam games) with HDMI

...so yeah, I prefer component cables (EDIT: meant composite cables) where possible. As much as I love Sega, those 16-bit-era systems were such a pain to deal with. KF
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by AlexHiro4 »

Sorry it took so long for me to respond. I had a busy weekend.

When you say component cables, do you mean composite cables? Component cables have 5 plugs (Red, White, Red (again), green, and blue). Composite cables are the red, white, and yellow cables. The reason I ask is because no component cables exist for the original Playstation. Obviously the component cables for the PS2 have the same plug and will fit in the PS1, but no picture will come out. Also, the only component cables I'm aware of for a retro Nintendo console are some hand-made ones for the SNES by a company called HDRetrovision. I'm not aware of any component cables made for clone systems like the RetroDuo.

Anyway, it's super easy to mix the two words up, so I was just curious to know which one you meant.
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by ShugoHanasaki »

I pretty much just use my PS3 and PS4 and both have HDMI cables?
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by Kizyr »

AlexHiro4 wrote:When you say component cables, do you mean composite cables? Component cables have 5 plugs (Red, White, Red (again), green, and blue). Composite cables are the red, white, and yellow cables.
Ah yes, I meant composite cables (corrected my earlier post). I'm not sure off-hand what my PS2 uses -- could be either component or composite cables -- but the other older systems (except Sega ones) definitely all use composite cables. Didn't know there was a different term for the two. KF
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by Shinto-Cetra »

Straight HDMI, RGB JP-21 to HDMI via Framemeister, or Component/YPBPR. I don't bother with Composite/S-video anymore (never bothered with RF to begin with). RGB just pwns them. Also just so everyone knows, you actually CAN get fanmade Component cables for Saturn, an ebay seller called Doujindance made/makes them. I have used them on a CRT, and they are fantastic. HD Retrovision makes fan-made Component cables for SNES/Genesis/Neo-Geo/and Saturn (via an adaptor to Genesis) and PSOne and Dreamcast component cables are planed.

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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by AlexHiro4 »

Shinto-Cetra wrote:Straight HDMI, RGB JP-21 to HDMI via Framemeister, or Component/YPBPR. I don't bother with Composite/S-video anymore (never bothered with RF to begin with). RGB just pwns them. Also just so everyone knows, you actually CAN get fanmade Component cables for Saturn, an ebay seller called Doujindance made/makes them. I have used them on a CRT, and they are fantastic. HD Retrovision makes fan-made Component cables for SNES/Genesis/Neo-Geo/and Saturn (via an adaptor to Genesis) and PSOne and Dreamcast component cables are planed.
Ah, so you're a JP-21 retro gamer rather than SCART, eh? You're the first person I've run into so far that has that preference. Any particular reason? Just curious. I haven't invested in a Frameister because of how pricey it is, and I've also heard that there's around 1.5 frames of lag. I realize this is significantly less lag than other upscalers, but using a CRT is lag free, so that's why I prefer to go that route with my oldest stuff.

I recently acquired a CRT that has Component inputs, so I plan to switch everything that's already hooked to my CRT (except for the NES and cheap Sega plug-and-play) to component at some point. I'm on HD Retrovision's mailing list, so I plan to acquire the SNES and Genesis cables, and the Saturn adapter whenever the cables get back in stock. I'm also aware of the plans for a PSX (or PSOne) adapter and a Dreamcast cable. I actually emailed Nick, from HD Retrovision, about the PSX adapter, and he said the holdup on their production has been because of not finding quality connectors. They may actually have to manufacture the connectors themselves, which would take awhile. As for connecting the Dreamcast via Component, I may wait awhile on that. To my knowledge, VGA is going to provide the sharpest picture. I'm willing to wait and see what other people have to say after the cable comes out though.

In any case, once I get all these cables, I plan to get a GSCART switch to hook them all up. Good times! :-)
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by Shinto-Cetra »

AlexHiro4 wrote:
Shinto-Cetra wrote:Straight HDMI, RGB JP-21 to HDMI via Framemeister, or Component/YPBPR. I don't bother with Composite/S-video anymore (never bothered with RF to begin with). RGB just pwns them. Also just so everyone knows, you actually CAN get fanmade Component cables for Saturn, an ebay seller called Doujindance made/makes them. I have used them on a CRT, and they are fantastic. HD Retrovision makes fan-made Component cables for SNES/Genesis/Neo-Geo/and Saturn (via an adaptor to Genesis) and PSOne and Dreamcast component cables are planed.
Ah, so you're a JP-21 retro gamer rather than SCART, eh? You're the first person I've run into so far that has that preference. Any particular reason? Just curious. I haven't invested in a Frameister because of how pricey it is, and I've also heard that there's around 1.5 frames of lag. I realize this is significantly less lag than other upscalers, but using a CRT is lag free, so that's why I prefer to go that route with my oldest stuff.

I recently acquired a CRT that has Component inputs, so I plan to switch everything that's already hooked to my CRT (except for the NES and cheap Sega plug-and-play) to component at some point. I'm on HD Retrovision's mailing list, so I plan to acquire the SNES and Genesis cables, and the Saturn adapter whenever the cables get back in stock. I'm also aware of the plans for a PSX (or PSOne) adapter and a Dreamcast cable. I actually emailed Nick, from HD Retrovision, about the PSX adapter, and he said the holdup on their production has been because of not finding quality connectors. They may actually have to manufacture the connectors themselves, which would take awhile. As for connecting the Dreamcast via Component, I may wait awhile on that. To my knowledge, VGA is going to provide the sharpest picture. I'm willing to wait and see what other people have to say after the cable comes out though.

In any case, once I get all these cables, I plan to get a GSCART switch to hook them all up. Good times! :-)
I chose JP-21 simple cause when I ordered my Framemeister, it only shipped with a JP-21 adaptor. Now it can ship with a SCART adaptor instead, but I don't see the need to buy another adaptor. The picture quality should be the same, just the internal wiring is different.
Have you heard about the OSSC? https://www.videogameperfection.com/pro ... converter/ I posed this in another thread you started, but it has since been improved with HDMI out and 3.5 mm audio in. It claims to have zero lag, and also is pricey but not as much as the Framemeister. I don't own one, but I've been thinking of buying one when reviews of the new 1.6 version come out. Be warned, some TVs seem to have problems with it, but one can return it for a near total refund (minus shipping.)

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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by AlexHiro4 »

Shinto-Cetra wrote: Have you heard about the OSSC? https://www.videogameperfection.com/pro ... converter/ I posed this in another thread you started, but it has since been improved with HDMI out and 3.5 mm audio in. It claims to have zero lag, and also is pricey but not as much as the Framemeister. I don't own one, but I've been thinking of buying one when reviews of the new 1.6 version come out. Be warned, some TVs seem to have problems with it, but one can return it for a near total refund (minus shipping.)
Yep! I've definitely heard about the OSSC. I watch the Youtube channel "My Life in Gaming" religiously, so I hear about a ton of these retro gaming products. If I remember correctly, the reason for there being no lag is because it's actually a "line doubler" not and "upscaler", correct? I might consider purchasing one sometime in the future, but truthfully....using a CRT for my oldest retro systems just feels more authentic and enjoyable. In fact, I'd LOVE to get a PVM with a sizeable enough monitor someday and replace my CRT with that. They just happen to be really pricey.

Who knows? Since retro gaming is so popular these days, we may see TV companies produce a modern line of CRTs with a better selection of input connections (JP-21, SCART, multiple component connections, etc...). You never know. I mean, record players DID make a comeback in recent times as well....
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by Shinto-Cetra »

AlexHiro4 wrote:
Shinto-Cetra wrote: Have you heard about the OSSC? https://www.videogameperfection.com/pro ... converter/ I posed this in another thread you started, but it has since been improved with HDMI out and 3.5 mm audio in. It claims to have zero lag, and also is pricey but not as much as the Framemeister. I don't own one, but I've been thinking of buying one when reviews of the new 1.6 version come out. Be warned, some TVs seem to have problems with it, but one can return it for a near total refund (minus shipping.)
Yep! I've definitely heard about the OSSC. I watch the Youtube channel "My Life in Gaming" religiously, so I hear about a ton of these retro gaming products. If I remember correctly, the reason for there being no lag is because it's actually a "line doubler" not and "upscaler", correct? I might consider purchasing one sometime in the future, but truthfully....using a CRT for my oldest retro systems just feels more authentic and enjoyable. In fact, I'd LOVE to get a PVM with a sizeable enough monitor someday and replace my CRT with that. They just happen to be really pricey.

Who knows? Since retro gaming is so popular these days, we may see TV companies produce a modern line of CRTs with a better selection of input connections (JP-21, SCART, multiple component connections, etc...). You never know. I mean, record players DID make a comeback in recent times as well....
It is a "line multiplier" so it can double, triple, quadruple, even quintuple lines from a 240p source (480i has more restrictions.) Another thing I like about it is not only is it smaller than Framemeister, but you don't need a dongle to connect RGB to 8-pin like the Framemeister. Not a big deal, but it is more compact. I'm hopefully gonna get one by this winter. That would be awesome if CRTs made a comeback like record players. And I follow "My life in Gaming" too.

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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by Zero »

I don't have any really expensive stuff for my retro gaming.

32" Sony Vega Trinitron

SNES/N64/GameCube: Game3Gear S-Video
Sega Saturn: Sega Brand S-Video
Sega Dreamcast: InterAct S-Video
PlayStation 1/2: Sony Brand Component
Wii: Monster Component
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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by Shinto-Cetra »

Update on the OSSC: I've heard a lot of complaints about crackling audio, so I'm waiting to buy it if I do at all. Also I got a D-Terminal cable for my Gamecube, which is basically Japanese Component, but somewhat less expensive than the actual GC component cables.

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Re: What gaming cables do you use?

Post by AlexHiro4 »

I have an update on the systems I'm using on my CRT. I finally acquired the HD Retrovision cables I wanted this past Friday, and I already acquired the gcompsw component switch (by SuperG on the "shmups" forums) a couple of months ago. Truthfully, I'm kicking myself for not ordering two of those component switches when I had the chance because they are sold out now and won't restock for a few months. Anyway, I moved the gcompsw to my CRT and I now have the SNES, Sega Genesis, PS1 (via adapter), and Sega Saturn (via adapter) plugged in with HD Retrovision Component Cables. The pictures are crisp and the colors are vivid. It's the best looking CRT picture I've ever seen with systems this old.

Also, this isn't quite as big a deal, but I had a high quality custom-made composite cable for the NES and Sega Plug-and-Play made by gamesnow on Ebay that I'm using for those two systems. What's cool about it is that it only has one audio input to plug into the system (just like these systems were designed), but it splits into two audio inputs for the TV. This creates sort of a "simulated stereo, so to speak. Anyway, for composite, the picture is actually pretty darn good.

Anyway, below is a link to a picture of the CRT systems setup. Notice the component switch beside the Sega Saturn and all the component cables hooked up to it. Good stuff!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SbQC9 ... L9MBUK1MU1
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