On modretro, I have been looking at screens, and I've been informed that composite is horrible. can someone give me an Idea on what composite looks like, compared to something such as VGA, or component video.
VGA. Component screens are far and few between so your best bet is to use a GCVideo or UltraVGA if you're doing Nintendo stuff to get VGA output.
Composite is stuck at around 240i while VGA is capable of outputting 480p on most consoles we mod here. Look up the resolution differences and you'll get an idea of the picture quality.
VGA. Component screens are far and few between so your best bet is to use a GCVideo or UltraVGA if you're doing Nintendo stuff to get VGA output.
Composite is stuck at around 240i while VGA is capable of outputting 480p on most consoles we mod here. Look up the resolution differences and you'll get an idea of the picture quality.
That little letter may not seem like a big deal, but the visual difference between interlaced (i) and progressive (p) is huge, especially with movement, and especially on LCD screens.
Nintendo 64
640x480
Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness
Hybrid Heaven
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
Perfect Dark
Resident Evil 2
Star Wars Episode I - Battle for Naboo
Star Wars Episode I - Racer
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense
World Driver Championship
Widescreen
Banjo-Tooie
Donkey Kong 64
GoldenEye 007
Jet Force Gemini
Mickey's Speedway USA
Perfect Dark
One of my favorites isn't even on this list; Pokemon Stadium 2 runs at "...640x474, as do menus. The actual battles run at 320x237."
So for the N64, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet to say that 240p is what's you're gonna be getting out of composite (which is what Noah most likely meant.) I would assume similar rules apply for older consoles as well. Once you get into GC/Wii, shit gets even more fun(and we aren't even gonna talk about RGB vs YCbCr.) If you wanna do a fun experiment, boot up Swiss on the GC and look at all the different video modes you can force. The jist of all this is that you can't really say a signal type is a resolution, or even "most likely" unless you're also specifying a console. It's usually easier to list what it's not, lel.
Here's the thing about advanced video discussions that I've learned in the last year or so: don't bother with them. Not only is the information a pain in the ass to wrap your head around, but old stuff is the wild west of signal standardization because everything went into a CRT, which doesn't give a shit to begin with. Plus, once you understand all of it, there's almost nothing you can do with the information unless you're developing some kind of video solution yourself.
As for what looks better, an argument can be made that 480i looks better on a CRT, 480p looks better on a digital monitor. It's not really something you can understand until you see it for yourself. For portables, you're not gonna be dicking with CRT's unless you're hella hardcore, so shoot for 480p, as that's the minimum resolution for most VGA ebay monitors. It's that or composite.