GameCube Connections Part I

Without getting overly technical about each type, lets just go through them as simply as possible, shall we?

RF also called Co-Axial, UHF

RF, or Radio Frequency, is where you normally plug your antenna cable into. When you plug the antenna cable into the back of the TV, obviously the big antenna on your roof (or the rabbit ears you put on top of the TV) will pull the signal from the skies and feed your TV programmes into your various channels on the TV. Its essentially the same thing with Gamecube, except the signal is coming from the GC and not from the airwaves. What you get out of using the RF connection on your TV is the worst possible picture quality out of all the available choices. This is because RF can be prone to signal noise. Think back to the time when you had to position your antenna in certain places so that the picture you were watching wasnt one million flies but a TV show, or when turning on a computer near a TV would cause the picture to go all fuzzy. Its the same situation here; the same factors that affect the signal quality could also apply to a GC being played on a TV through RF. That is why, at all costs, you should try to avoid RF.

Composite also AV, RCA

This is, by far, the most common cable youll get in your brand new Gamecube box. So having the necessary inputs on your TV would be a good place to start. Not having them, and youll fall into RF territory, and we certainly feel sorry for anyone who is forced to use RF as their Gamecube connection.

A composite cable is the one with the yellow (video), red/white (left right audio) cable. Composite is good because, unlike RF, theres a much smaller chance that interference in the signal will degrade the picture quality, and it doesnt use standard TV channels like RF. It uses dedicated AV ports on the TV.

Composite works by having a composite of colour and black & white information in the video signal. While Composite provides a decent picture quality when compared to RF, it doesnt provide as sharp a picture as other types of video connection.

S-Video/S-VHS

Available to buy as an optional accessory, the official S-Video cable is nowhere to be seen on retail shelves. However, it is available to buy at Nintendo's online store for the princely sum of US$15.95. So to get S-Video from your Gamecube, youll need to buy Nintendo's official cable, or one of the 3rd party solutions on the market.

S-Video is a video-only connection, meaning that from the cable, only video information is sent and not audio. S-Video sends both colour and brightness in its signal, resulting in a better quality picture than Composite.

Unfortunately, all PAL Gamecubes have had their internals worked on to completely disable S-Video output from them. 3rd party cables only work with NTSC machines. Even the old N64 S-Video cables dont work with PAL Gamecubes, but do work with NTSC machines. Why this is so is completely beyond me, and I myself cannot see any reason why Nintendo would deprive PAL gamers of the opportunity to get better picture quality from their beloved cubes, without resorting to component connections. Having said that, it's done, PAL gamers can't get S-Video so all I can really say on that particular issue is "just deal with it".

SCART RGB also Euroconnector

SCART (Syndicat francais des Constructeurs d'Appareils Radio et Television) is a 21-pin connector that carries both an audio and video signal in its wire. As there are different types of SCART video, this article will only focus on RGB, as that is the best picture quality available from SCART. As the name suggests, SCART RGB separates the Red, Green, and Blue colours in the signal, which in turn produces the sharpest image so far.

European Gamecubes come with an adaptor for the standard AV cable to connect it to a SCART socket at the back of the TV, however, this adaptor will not give you RGB support, it will only allow the standard AV cable to work through the TV SCART socket. The required correct cable to enable proper RGB SCART cube-action is sold separately, and should be available in high street shops as well as online. There are 3rd party as well as official Nintendo RGB SCART cables. Australian/New Zealand PAL gamers get standard composite cables and no SCART adaptor, which is fine since most TVs sold there dont even have SCART sockets.

The audio component (stereo signal) of SCART, however, is not the best out there. As detailed later on in this article, there are better ways to enjoy the sound from the Gamecube.

Component

The Rolls Royce. Whatever you want to call it, Component is the absolute best picture quality youll get out of Gamecube. Provided you have the optional official (or 3rd party) Component video cable to connect the GC to your compatible TV (or projector, etc.)

Component video not only separates the colour information from the black-and-white portions of the picture, but also splits the colour information into two colour signals. From this, you get a better resolution than all other video connections, and better colour definition. This is most frequently labelled Y, Cb, and Cr for video devices like DVD players and the humble Nintendo Gamecube. HDTV's however, can display a wider colour palette range than "standard" TV's, and to differentiate their component connectors, they're frequently labelled Y, Pb, and Pr. In a nutshell, if you have a HDTV, the component inputs should be labelled (Y, Pb, Pr) while non-HDTV should have inputs labelled (Y, Cb, Cr).

When connected to HDTV, and when the game supports it, Gamecube is capable of delivering 480p progressive scan picture quality. With every mode, the video is sent in interlaced mode, meaning for every image being drawn on the TV, the odd lines are being shown in the first pass, then the even lines during the second pass. This means that with every frame, you only see half of the intended image on the screen. With Progressive scan however, you get the full image, every pass, and every frame. The resultant picture is of the highest quality; with little to no flicker, and any artefacts present in other modes eliminated in 480p progressive scan.

Just to repeat, progressive scan is only for the games that have it supported, and only when the Gamecube is connected to a TV with progressive scan capability.

VGA

Obviously this connection uses your standard computer monitor. To connect the Gamecube to a monitor through its VGA port, youll need to use a 3rd party VGA box to convert the video signal from the Gamecube into VGA. The advantage of VGA is super-high resolution, but only if the game supports it. With the Dreamcast, the machine and some games were specifically coded to support VGA. Gamecube, however, doesnt support VGA output, hence the need for the VGA box.

There does exist, however, a 3rd party cable that allows progressive scan capability on your monitor via its VGA port. Whether or not this is superior or inferior to the 3rd party VGA box is unknown at this time. At the very least there are more options for VGA compatibility.

TV System Types

What standards are there? The three major TV systems around the world are PAL, NTSC, and SECAM. One by one, here we go.

PAL - Phase Alternate Line

PAL is the pre-dominant TV system for Europe (such as Britain, Netherlands, Scotland, and Wales), and other countries such as Hong Kong, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Australia.

Normal PAL has a maximum resolution up to 625 lines with a vertical frequency of 50Hz. However, there are differing types of PAL standards such as PAL60 (which uses a vertical frequency of 60Hz instead of 50Hz).

The one black sheep of PAL is PAL-M, used in Brazil. Curiously, it uses NTSCs 525-line resolution and 60hz frequency, but PALs colour palette. Essentially, it means that NTSC games will display on a PAL-M TV but with the possibility of the colours being, to be blunt, all screwed.

There are other forms of PAL, such as PAL-I, PAL-B, PAL-K, and others, but For simplicity well deal with just PAL (as defined above), and PAL60, since the latter letters (B, I, K etc.) have the same 625 lines of resolution and 50hz frequency as normal PAL.

NTSC - National Television Systems Committee

NTSC is the other dominant TV system in the world. Technically, it isnt superior to PAL, however it is more widely used worldwide thanks mainly to its use in the United States and a variety of other countries, such as Canada, Japan, and The Philippines. NTSC has a maximum resolution up to 525 lines with a vertical frequency of 60hz.

With NTSC, theres NTSC 3.58 and NTSC 4.43. To put it simply, true NTSC is 3.58, while 4.43 isnt. If the TV only supports NTSC 4.43 and you try to run a Japanese or American GC (with corresponding game) on the TV, all youll get is NTSCs 60hz frequency, but a black and white picture. This is due to the colour palettes between 3.58 and 4.43 being different. So, you should always hope your TV supports NTSC 3.58, as that will ensure it also works with NTSC 4.43, and PAL60.

There is an extremely rare NTSC50, where the vertical frequency is set at 50hz instead of 60hz but we wont be covering that in this article since NTSC cubes are proper NTSC, and the majority of our readers using NTSC machines will be playing their games in 60hz anyway.

SECAM

SECAM (Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire or Sequential Colour with Memory) is the format chosen in France. It uses the same 625-line resolution and 50hz frequency of PAL, but as the name suggests, it transmits the colour information sequentially. SECAM is the least prevalent TV system in the world; hence the majority of our readers will either have a PAL cube or a NTSC cube.

Sound Options

All this TV talk is all well and good, but what about the sound?

What about the sound you say? Well as with video output, there are various ways to enjoy the audio that the software developers work hard on for you to hear and enjoy. And as they say, a good soundtrack in games can add an atmosphere impossible to imagine. Imagine Resident Evil without the haunting music, or genuinely scary sound effects and you can appreciate the importance of a good soundtrack to the overall quality of any game.

The different sound standards for Gamecube are:

• Mono
  • Put simply, this is single-channel (1.0) audio. That is, all the audio coming out of the Gamecube is output by just the one speaker. So in all games, no matter where the in-game sound is coming from, youll hear it from the same speaker. This has big disadvantages in all game situations. Imagine playing Perfect Dark Zero, and to your right an enemy is making a noise, and on the left is a waterfall. On the mono set-up, all these separate noises would come from the one speaker and you wouldnt know which sound came from where. It can be a big disadvantage in a multiplayer situation, and in every case, you miss out on some excellent sound effects and musical scores.
• Stereo
  • Two-channel (2.0) audio. All the audio out of the Gamecube is output by the left and right speakers. To get stereo sound, the TV needs to be stereo, or the red/white cables must be connected to a stereo receiver along with a left and right speaker. In the above example, you would hear the waterfall from the left speaker, and the noise from the right speaker. A much better result, which would help you to guess which direction the enemy was situated, for instance.
• Dolby Pro-Logic (DPL)
  • Four-Channel (4.0) audio and Five-speaker sound. Things are getting interesting arent they? Well Pro-Logic is a standard invented by Dolby Laboratories to appease cinema-goers and audiophiles who had grown tired of stereo sound and wanted something superior. What Pro-Logic does is takes the stereo signal and creates four discrete channels of sound, front left, right, centre, and a rear channel. That rear channel is shared by the rear left and rear right speaker to create five speaker sound. The result of the Pro-Logic processing is glorious surround sound. Lets expand our PD-0 example and say that theres bullets coming from in front of you, and a noisy tank behind you. Pro-Logic allows you to hear the waterfalls on the left speaker, the bullets from the centre speaker, the enemy on the right, and the shuddering noise of a tank creeping up on you from behind on the rear speakers. A far better audio experience will result using this set-up than the previous two.
• Dolby Pro-Logic II (DPL2)
  • 5.1 audio, Five-channels (front left/centre/right, rear right/left) plus a separate low-frequency channel (subwoofer). This is the newest surround sound processing format that Dolby Labs have designed. As the name suggests, its the natural successor to the old Pro-Logic, and creates a much better representation of 5.1 audio. What DPL2 does is takes the DPL2 soundtrack encoded in the game from the Gamecube and converts it into a believable discrete surround sound experience. Expanding our PD-0 example to its natural (for Gamecube) conclusion, lets have the tank behind you moved to behind and to the left of you, while behind you on the right is (for arguments sake) an innocent bystander with a sledge-hammer hitting a wall, and the ground your standing on is about to crumble. So, in this example you would still hear the waterfalls on the left speaker, the bullets from the centre speaker, the enemy of the right, the tank steaming towards you from the rear left speaker, the man hitting the wall on the rear right speaker, and the sound of the floor crumbling under you would come from the subwoofer. As most rumbles and explosions have low-frequency sound, the addition of the .1 channel adds immeasurably to the surround sound experience. DPL2 really is quite marvellous and is the grand-daddy of sound choice for Gamecube gamers!

To some people, the lack of true discrete 5.1 (or more) channels of audio from the Gamecube is a big disappointment, especially with its availability in Gamecubes two opponents in Playstation2 and Xbox. But with the availability of Pro-Logic II, the GC games 5.1 soundtrack can still be enjoyed, provided you have a receiver or amplifier with the required DPL2 decoding chip.

Case Study One

Q: I live in Canada, and I want to import games from Japan. How can I be sure theyll work on my Gamecube in full colour and full speed (My Cube is modified to play Japanese games too)?

A: As Canada uses NTSC, any official game bought in North America will work, but thats obvious. Its when you import from Japan is where things can get tricky. Technically, theres no difference in a Gamecube bought in Japan or America, apart from the territorial lockout, so all games bought from Japan will work 100% as though it were a Canadian copy of the same game.

Case Study Two

Q: Im in England and the picture on my TV in Rogue Leaders 60hz mode scrolls funny, as in, it flips and the picture is not still, whats going on?

A: It looks as though your TV cant handle the 60hz frequency, as most PAL TVs dont. If your TV is multi-system or NTSC compatible then it should be able to handle 60hz frequency quite well.

Generally, multi-system TVs handle the proper NTSC 3.58, and in turn will run PAL60, while NTSC Compatible normally signifies that the TV can only handle NTSC 4.43 or PAL60. However this rule is not set in stone, so check with your TV manual (or ask the manufacturer) to find out once and for all if your TV will run NTSC 3.58. Incidentally, for those prospective TV buyers, its in your best interests to make sure the TV handles NTSC 3.58, as that will ensure that any 60hz games you throw at it wont break its back. That is, PAL60, NTSC 4.43, Jap/USA NTSC 3.58 games and systems will all work on it.

Either way, the PAL60 signal from Rogue Leader will run 100% full speed and 100% full colour.

Its when you try to use a Jap/USA machine (along with Jap/USA games) on your TV that things might get awry. Your TV will need to be NTSC 3.58 compatible to be sure to get full-colour full-speed from the machine and game(s).

On your current TV, the only way to play Rogue Leader in still picture is at 50hz. As stated above, to get 60hz will require a new TV.

Case Study Three

Q: Money is no object whatsoever, so whats the absolute best I should be going for?

A: The short answer to this is: bigger, faster, stronger, louder!!

The basics you should go for are: Get a Gamecube (duh!), get the games you want (double DUH!), get the biggest screen you can buy, go with Component connection, get a receiver with a Dolby Pro-Logic II decoder chip, and pair that with the best front centre speaker, left and right front speaker, left and right rear speaker, and beefy subwoofer that you can get your hands on.

The absolute best as you describe is up to you to decide what amplifier you want, which speakers sound the best to you, and which big screen looks the best to you. As different screens look better to different people, and different speakers sound better to some people.

Case Study Four

Q: I dont have a VCR and my TV doesnt have any red, white, and yellow inputs, or any other inputs whatsoever (besides my trusty antenna of course!). My Gamecube came with a cable that has red/white/yellow plugs, what can I do? I cant play with it yet!!! Please help me!!!

A: Yikes, your TV having no inputs apart from the aerial jack is certainly extremely old. The only thing you can do is to go and buy the official (or 3rd party) RF Unit, to connect your Gamecube to your TV. Unfortunately, in your situation, youll be getting the worst possible picture and sound quality out of your TV, but hey, on the bright side at least you get to play the games!! Besides, you wont miss what you havent experienced. So, stay away from other peoples Component and Pro-Logic II set-ups and youll be okay!

Case Study Five

Q: This is my set-up: Australian PAL GC, 68cm Panasonic multi-system TV, Pioneer VSX-D409 Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro-Logic, and DTS decoders, plus 5.1 speakers. Can I get 5.1 sound from Gamecube games?

A: Unfortunately not, Im sorry to say. To get proper 5.1 sound from Gamecube, the games need to be coded with Dolby Pro-Logic II (DPL2) in mind (such as Rogue Leader), and your receiver/amplifier must also have a Pro-Logic II decoder to be able to understand the DPL2 sound coming from the Gamecube (and the compatible game). So, the best you can hope for is 5.0 standard Pro-Logic surround sound, which is still nothing to scoff at. Its just that theres something sonically better out there. There might be a way for developers to encode Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1 in the games, but the Gamecubes lack of Digital Out means that the feature would go un-noticed by the receiver. Hence the purchase of a DPL2-equipped receiver is absolutely essential to get 5.1 sound from Gamecube games.