The sega 32x, s-video modded

[Drakon]

I recently decided to buy a mega everdrive since krikzz finally started making flash carts that use ram chips therefore the thing will basically last forever.  Since the mega everdrive can play 32x roms I bought myself a cheap 32x from ebay (something like 35$ shipped).  I didn't get any cables so I was planning on just wiring the system up myself.  I asked tiido a lot of questions about what's needed to get it running and it's pretty simple.

After cracking the system open and doing my best to understand the hardware I wired up everything by rgb and externally encoded the outputted rgb to s-video.  The picture wasn't bad but it wasn't as good looking as I wanted it to be.  I know from experience that re-encoding the rgb over and over will decrease the quality so I decided to see if it's possible to s-video mod a 32x.  I found this helpful thread here:

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?16590-32X-S-Video-Mod

Pretty cool thread and it pointed me to where to tap s-video from the system.  This thread also mentioned that you need an amp on luma to get a signal.  I had a spare luma amp sitting around that I built years ago for the s-video mod on the cxa1145 that's built into my genesis.  Here's the amp, just one transistor and I put a custom strength resistor to get the brightness just perfect:

http://www.jamma-nation-x.com/jammax/genesismods.html

I can't even remember what strength resistance I'm using I built that thing so long ago.  Anyway wiring up this amp made it work so now I had s-video coming from the 32x.  The chroma line didn't need any parts I could just straight wire it.  However something was causing the luma to be blurry, like composite quality blurry.  After talking to tiido and experimenting a bit I managed to fix the blur.  Here's a before and after screenshot:





yeah uhh....night and day.  For the sake of comparison here's screenshots of the s-video from a cxa1145 and from a cxa2075 circuit.





These are of course from my capture card that picks up EVERYTHING.  For some reason when my cxa2075 circuit is plugged into the system the image flickers....even when I'm getting rgb from the cxa1145.  As soon as I unplug my cxa2075 circuit the flickering goes away...oh well.

On my tv however the 32x'ified picture looks perfect.  The jailbars are 100% gone, and what's left of the rainbow banding is just as strong as it was from my cxa2075 circuit (so weak it's not annoying at all).  Also the colours look better for some strange reason.  Therefore I like how it looks on my tv more than the image from my cxa2075 circuit.  Also to weaken jaiblars on my cxa2075 circuit I had to branch off a long s-video cable to ghetto filter them and it was annoying.  With the 32x I don't need to do any tricks it's just jailbar free....and it plays 32x games!

Here's some pictures of my rig







Why buy expensive cables when I can build one out of old IDE cables  
....now to get my everdrive so I can play 32x games....

[Frank_fjs]

Nice.

I don't use mine very much but there are a handful of good games for the system.

[Drakon]

Nice.

I don't use mine very much but there are a handful of good games for the system.

Yeah I only picked it up because the mega everdrive will support 32x games.  I didn't realize this thing would also filter out video issues which is fantastic.

[Frank_fjs]

Yeah, the video filtering is a nice bonus.

Didn't the original Everdrive support 32X games as well?

[Drakon]

Yeah, the video filtering is a nice bonus.

Didn't the original Everdrive support 32X games as well?

It does.  But the mega everdrive uses a ram chip to store the game the original one uses flash.  Flash chips being constantly re-written will only last for so many years but the ram chip will last longer than me.

[jpx72]

...a very little offtopic: 32X-to-Genesis - these cables were extremely hard to find for a couple of years, now for sale on ebay for a very nice price:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/120749485578

[sconley666]

Great work again Drakon.  That is really a sharp image you got there!  Now here is my question to you good sir,  if the 32X is running as a video filter while running regular MD/Genesis games, then correct me if I am wrong, you would plan on using the 32x at all times right?  So if you were to go ahead and disassemble the 32x and a genesis and put the two together along with the sound/video mods you have been doing to the genesis, then you could in theory make a Sega Neptune and have a really slick system (not that you don't already  )

Either way very nice work.

[Drakon]

Yeah I've had a friend or two suggest the neptune thing.  But I like having something I can plug into any non-modded genesis and get smoking sexy s-video coming out of it.  Also if something ever breaks I can do saucer separation and replace one broken thing instead of having to redo the whole system.



Also the 32x is meant to have its own power supply for a reason, running both systems off of one power brick may night be the best idea.

Anyway....Here's some proof that there's zero video interference from the s-video coming out of my modded 32x:





These pictures don't do it justice at all but it's the best I could manage with my not so great digital camera.

[sconley666]

The pics still look very nice.  Now theoretically you could build a circuit to fix any issue due to using a single power supply though.  If its not something you are interested though, it would be a moot point.


BTW the saucer separation was a cool pic ! lol

Captain's Log Space year XXXX:  Saucer seperation happened today.

[Drakon]

I remember it being "captains log stardate XXXX".  I'm really not interested in wiring them into the same power brick cheap extension cords for the win.  Got some filtered screenshots here:





These screenshots have been filtered to give a more accurate representation of how it looks on my tv.  Except on my tv the brightness / colour is perfect and the picture is sharper.

[Drakon]

Recorded from the 32x:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C34yavsK8gg

[Frank_fjs]

Out of curiosity, you don't have a TV with SCART or Component input?

[Drakon]

Out of curiosity, you don't have a TV with SCART or Component input?

component yes, scart no.  No such thing as a scart tv in the land of canadia.  In fact the only straight rgb tvs we ever got were only found in arcade machines.....or were digital.  And I'm not counting vga that's a different frequency.

[Frank_fjs]

Okay, the reason I ask is that via a CSY-2100 encoder (plenty or re-branded ones available too) you can get the best picture possible with no modding required. The encoder converts from RGB SCART to Component, the Mega Drive natively outputs an RGB signal all you need is a SCART cable for it.

This is a shot taken of my plasma TV via a crappy digital camera. It's of a Master System -> RGB SCART cable -> encoder -> component input:



For reference, here's the Master System on the same TV via the stock composite AV lead:

[Drakon]

Yes....I'm aware of that....I've had a rgb to component encoder for years.  The whole point of this thread is that now there's a nice s-video mod for anyone who'd want to use that..

Some 32x s-video gameplay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ6m5V5X9I0