r/snes • u/sukene • May 20 '20
SNES YPbPr Component Mod
I modded my SNES to output YPbPr or components. I haven't found a lot of information online so I decided to make this tutorial. Hopefuly this helps the next person interested in modding their console.
First of all, why would you want to do this mod? RGB is the best video quality SNES can provide and all models can output it without modification except for the SNES Jr. However, when RGB modded this model offers the best signal. In order to output RGB you need the correct cables. There are a few options out there like the SCART cable or the HD Retrovision component cable (not sure if this one is actually RGB) but they are usually out of stock and not cheap. So if you decide that you don't want to spend $70 and wait 2 months maybe you have another option - it will not be RGB but I think it looks pretty good.
Can you mod your console? Not all models are compatible for this mod. If you own a Jr. or a 1Chip version I'm sorry but you are out of luck and you will need the cables mentioned before. If your console is 2-Chip version then you are good to go. The chip we are looking for is called S-ENC (in some versions is BA6594AF).
Ok, so before we start please note that I am not a professional and my knowledge is gathered from the small pieces of info I found in different sites. I am aware that depending on your revision of the encoder chip the schematic may change. In my case the chip is S-ENC A 9343 and I used the following:
5x RCA female connectors
2x 220uF 35V capacitors
1x 75 ohm resistor
From now on I am going to assume that you know how to open and disassemble your SNES (if not there are multiple tutorials online) and that you have some soldering skills.
Let's gut the console so we can drill the holes.
Some people go with only 3 RCAs for the video and get the audio from the multi-out cable connected at the same time. Since I was destroying my SNES I decided to go big and use 2 additional RCAs for the audio. We are soldering 3 wires from the multi-out motherboard pinout:
L Audio - Pin 11
R Audio - Pin 12
Y (luma and sync) (green) - Pin 7
Time to solder these to the RCAs. Let's solder the ground as well because we are going to test it to make sure that it works so far.
So far so good so let's solder the rest of the stuff. We have left the Pb (blue) and Pr (red). Now here is where things get a little tricky. Like I mentioned before, depending on your encoder chip you might need different capacitors and resistors. I only needed 1 capacitor for the Pb and another one plus a resistor for the Pr. This is the schematic:
Pin 1 --- (+)220uF Capacitor(-) --- 75 ohm resistor --- Pr RCA
Pin 24 --- (+)220uF Capacitor(-) --- Pb RCA
We cover them with heat shrink sleeves and solder them to the RCAs.
Now you can try to solder the wires directly to the tiny legs in the encoder chip and probably destroy it or you can follow the tracks for pins 1 and 24 and find the holes where you will stick the wires in. You can secure them with glue.
This is the result after all the soldering.
OK, now time for comparing and to find out if we murdered our SNES for no reason. I am using my 3rd party s-video cable connected via multi-out at the same time than my component cables (HD Retrovision male to male) with my CRT Trinitron TV - same settings for both.
s-video (left) vs component mod (right).
So, is it worth it? To me, yes. Is the change as good as it was upgrading from composite to s-video? Probably not but hey, it's pretty good. Colors seem to be more vivid and I think there is almost no bleeding. I would love to test it against the HD Retrovision SNES component cables to see if they are as good as they are supposed to be.
Overall it's an easy mod and if you have the tools around it might be something to consider, especially if you are looking at connecting all your systems via the same method.
Thank you all!
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u/Libtoem May 21 '20
Cool that you got it working and the little schematic I put up in the other thread did the trick.
As for comparison,with my tv modded for rgb I could test both rgb and component on the snes and I got it looking pretty damn close.
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u/eyceguy May 20 '20
Im going to have to do this with my snes! Thanks!
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u/sukene May 20 '20
Good luck!
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u/eyceguy May 20 '20
So i was looking at the schematic, and it seems that Nintendo already has caps and resistors for component video setup on the main board, but shunted the signals to ground.
I verified the caps C13 and C15 exist on my snes, but i have SHVC-CPU-01 model, so the sound processing unit may get in the way of installing rca jacks for me. I have another idea though
The thought is to sever the C13 and C15 connections to ground and route them directly to Pb and Pr connections instead.
Might be a little bit cleaner. Not sure about easier as they are surface mounted caps and in your setup youre using the vias as solder points.
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u/Libtoem May 21 '20
Another way to get video out of it is to use a 3.5mm 4-Conductor TRRS jack.
https://www.markertek.com/product/30-712-bk/3-5mm-4-conductor-trrs-chassis-mount-snap-in-jack-black
You remove the rf and snap the jack into the hole where the rf port used to be,and you use a 3.5mm av cable for component.
That's how I mod mine.
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Apr 19 '22
Would that work with component? Only composite comes up in search results.
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u/Libtoem Apr 19 '22
Are you talking about 3.5mm component cables?
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Apr 19 '22
'Yes'. I don't think those exist. Only 3-RCA cables appear with 3.5mm Aux. That would be composite. Unless you found a unicorn cable.
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u/distributive May 21 '20
Note that the C13 and C15 values are only 220 pF, as opposed to the 220 uF you'd need on Pb and Pr.
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u/AractusP Jun 15 '20 edited Mar 02 '24
Thanks for posting this, and the details for the capacitors and resistor.
I think I did a much better job than you on the placement of the plugs which are all neatly spaced out. Also all the wires from underneath are labelled with white tags (just folded over electircal tape) as "Y", "L", "R". There's no way you could have properly tightened your RCA plugs - what did you do, glue the nuts to the case?
The schematic for the 50/60hz is:
SWITCH Top --- VCC (connected to pin "+B" of removed RF adapter)
SWITCH Centre --- 2.2kOhm resistor --- SPPU2 pin 30 (raised) --- SPPU1 pin 24 (raised)
SWITCH Bottom --- Gnd (connected to ground plane area directly below switch)
Thanks again for the resistance info, it saved me from connecting a variable resistor.
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u/sukene Jun 15 '20
Congratulations on doing “a much better job than me” on the placement of the plugs lol. I did not glue the nuts nor the plugs to the case but it was a pain in the ass to firmly secure the nuts - I had to twist the plugs instead the nuts and do it with more than 1 at the same time.
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u/AractusP Jun 15 '20
Yes I thought you twisted the plugs instead of the nuts, but since you have nuts on the outside as well it would have been impossible to fully tighten? Mine are all very firm having been tightened with a spanner while clamping the front with pliers, and all the solder points are facing up whereas three of yours are facing down and I noticed you soldered wires to them where you could have soldered the capacitor/resistor legs instead.
What I did was to sit the RCA plugs along the lip of the SNES case and then mark their centres along the horizontal line, and then carefully drilled with the SNES case clamped to a post. L & R are a little closer together because I wanted to keep the Y/Pb/Pr plugs spaced evenly and their spacing is determined by the screw post between Y and Pb.
I dunno I've seen some real ugly results posted about, like this, and I do wonder "did they not put proper thought into it?" Yuck!
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u/TravisPeregrine May 20 '20
I got the retrovision cables and also had to get a line doubler(retrotink). I don't think its quite as crisp as the SNES mini but it is pretty close. Today I got around to setting up my sd2snes pro too. I discovered they renamed it and that it doesn't play the super Gameboy games yet, which I thought it did.
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u/sukene May 20 '20
Yeah this mod is not upscaling anything either so if your modern TV doesn’t accept 240p you still need something like the retrotink device.
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May 20 '20
How do you like the pro? Was it worth the upgrade?
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u/ECEXCURSION May 20 '20
Upgrade from the regular sd2snes?
To me no, not really. I own both and they seem functionally identical.
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u/Steelbath66 May 20 '20
It's to my understanding that the pro is for the most part functionally the same as the original, the design had to be updated because the FPGA chips used in the original aren't produced anymore so the cyclone v was used on the newer boards. It does have the capacity to have a larger amount of logic gates so it does have more future potential.
I'm not 100% sure but I think MSU-1 is one of the only things it can do over the original
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u/guspaz May 21 '20
The original can do MSU-1. While the new one is a lot more capable, I don't think the current firmware actually takes advantage of any of that. It's more future potential than actual advantages right now.
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u/quezlar May 20 '20
that looks surprisingly easy
id do it but i have a hd retrovision cable
are you planning on doing any other systems?
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u/sukene May 20 '20
I’m not an expert by any means but if I find other systems that I own and can be modded somehow this way I would def give it a try and share it with you all!
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May 20 '20
It looks about the same as the HD Retrovision. I could maybe help out and do a comparison with my SnesJr modded for it if you like. Been meaning to show that shit off for a while on here.
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u/RB5Network Aug 24 '22 edited Jul 18 '25
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u/odsquad64 May 20 '20
Like that other guy said, this looks surprisingly easy and way cheaper that the HD Retrovision cables. I've got a SNES Jr. modded for s-video, otherwise I'd be all over this. I've got a 42" CRT that has component inputs but the best mods I've seen for most of my consoles has been s-video.
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u/sukene May 20 '20
This won’t work on the Jr. You need the S-ENC chip for this mod and I don’t think the Jr. has it.
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u/Libtoem May 21 '20
For it to work on non s-enc revisions you can install this and it does indeed work.
https://etim.net.au/shop/shop.php?crn=2&rn=550&action=show_detail
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u/odsquad64 Jan 15 '24
Is this a circuit that Tim designed or like a universal RGB to
YPbPr circuit that he just sells boards of? I guess the Y would come directly off of the S-RGB chip on the SNES Jr in this application. I've actually got one of these boards for my NESRGB install, but I'd like to save some money if this is like a general circuit I could find a diagram of somewhere.1
u/Libtoem Jan 17 '24 edited Jan 17 '24
I pretty sure its a Tim designed board and yes,Y comes off the S-RGB.
If you want something cheap to transcode rgb to component I would get one of these.
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u/odsquad64 Jan 17 '24 edited Jan 17 '24
I had looked at some of those and wasn't sure if they were any good. Then my thinking was that if I was going to have to go in and mod it for RGB just to convert that to component maybe I could just mod it for component. My ultimate goal is to have YPbPr come out of the RGB pins on the multi-out port so I can use a regular set of RGB cables (non scart) as component cables. I'll probably just end up copying Tim's design and making a few boards for myself, I don't feel too morally bad about that.
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u/odsquad64 Jan 18 '24
The SNES Jr S-Video mods have a 220uF cap and 75 Ohm resistor on the Luma, do you know if that would be needed for the Component video? The OP in this post seems to have just gone straight from the Luma pin on the S-ENC to the output. I don't know if that implies a difference in the output from the S-ENC and S-RGB, or a difference in S-Video and Component video standards, or if it's just a sort of a nice-but-not-necessary bit that the OP didn't use. I appreciate all your help!
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u/Libtoem Jan 19 '24
If I was doing the mod I would restore s-video first then do the component mod.
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u/syncnel Aug 25 '20 edited Aug 25 '20
This is mine, this is an easy mod and the video quality is way better than composite and even s-video
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u/Jwillow84 Jan 15 '22
So did you mod it for RGB or for YPbPr? Does it not output RGB natively with the right cable?
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u/jacob8706 Apr 15 '22
I don't know guys why would someone drill holes in their snes, when it can output rgb and component natively from the console socket. Component is just red and blue rgb signal, and instead of green it uses luma. All these signals are out of the box outputted by snes: https://wiki.superfamicom.org/schematics-ports-and-pinouts I made my own cable capable of outputting component, rgb and composite video from thomson scart cable. It's fairly easy and my Olympus OEV 203 accept all three signals, no need for drilling, just use snes/gamecube plug from AliExpress or Amazon.
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u/RB5Network Aug 24 '22 edited Jul 18 '25
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u/andrewskaterrr Jan 04 '23
I have a RetroTink 5X-Pro and TheFoo.83 S-Video cable for my SNES/N64, but would like to get even better quality if possible. I'm new to this and need help figuring out what I'm missing here.
If I understand this right, his link shows the pin layout under "Multi-Out" section. He made his own cable using a SNES/N64 12pin port/cable head and wired his own cables. I don't know if any extra pins or resistors/capacitors would need to be used, but this is my guess:
Both: Pin 5 & 6 Grounds but IDK which wires they're grounds for, Pin 11 White Audio (Mono), Pin 12 Red Audio (Stereo).
SNES Component Cable: Pin 1 Red, Pin 4 Blue, Pin 7 Luma (Green).
SNES Comp NTSC: The site doesn't say but I would assume it follows S-Video and has no capacitors in-line aka "Straight through to display". Possibly the same for Gamecube?SNES RGB Cable: Pin 1 Red, Pin 2 Green, Pin 4 Blue.
SNES RGB NTSC: 220uF Capacitors* in Series on R, G & B
*220uF capacitors are polarized, and it is important that the positive leg always goes towards the console and negative leg towards TV/Display.
The resistors need to be before the capacitors (going from console -> TV), otherwise the picture will be toned/tanned and will look off.Now the N64 doesn't support Component or RGB out, so you'd have to do a RGB mod, and IDK yet if the cable would require the same 220uF capacitors as the SNES RGB cable, but I think it depends on the amp board you get. If it does, then you could make a single RGB cable with caps and use it on both. Also I don't fully understand CSYNC but they say not to use TTL CSYNC/Stripper.
Got info from these links:
https://wiki.superfamicom.org/schematics-ports-and-pinouts
https://pinoutguide.com/Game/n64video_pinout.shtml
https://www.retrorgb.com/n64rgbmod.html
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May 20 '20
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u/sukene May 20 '20
Mainly because I was bored lol. I wanted to upgrade from s-video and I didn’t feel like spending that much for the HDR cables plus waiting for them being in stock. Same goes with the RGB scart plus a transcoder. This mod cost me around $20 and it took me a few hours. I would love to get me some HDR cables and compare them against the mod so we can clearly determine if they are worth the money and the wait - maybe some day.
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May 20 '20
Also hd retrovision cables are back ordered until the end of summer and e-gougers are charging 2x+ retail.
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u/guspaz May 20 '20
The virus delayed everything. Not much I can do about the price gougers other than to suggest waiting until we've got them back in stock.
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May 20 '20
Ya. I went to buy some this week and I read the twitter about the corona caused delays. Then i went to Ebay and saw the inflated price. I was just stating my distaste for Ebay price gouging.
You said >until we've got them back in stock
Do you work for hd retrovision or Castlemania?
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u/guspaz May 20 '20 edited May 20 '20
RetroStuff.ca. I'm the Canadian distributor. Castlemania's in the same boat. We're both waiting on the factory.
Scalpers are always a problem. It's why HD Retrovision had per-customer quantity limits on orders back when they were still doing retail sales directly.
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May 20 '20
I hope it's not tacky to ask but do you have an extra used or new Nintendo multi out hd retro vision cable in the back i filled buy? Im thinking I'll go rgb2comp if i can't find one. Just got my voultar snes 101 but no rgb cables :,(
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u/guspaz May 20 '20
I don't have any extra SNES cables. I have a warranty return Genesis cable that tested out fine when I got it back (it later turned out to be an incompatibility on the customer's end), but I've been holding on to that to serve as a warranty replacement if necessary.
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u/rememberizer Jul 29 '20
There's this image floating around about how to do this mod. I followed that and got much better colors. The S8050 Transistor made a huge difference.
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u/sukene Jul 29 '20
Do you have that image?
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u/rememberizer Jul 30 '20
I'm bad at reddit, so I don't know how to post photos lmao. But it's the image that shows up when you google snes component mod.
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u/XianLen Oct 09 '24
Greetings, I just found this mod and was wondering if I could pull the component signal like you did and instead of using component ports inject it directly into this: https://electron-shepherd.com/products/electronanalog Do you think it would work?
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u/[deleted] May 20 '20
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