Video Connections in Japan

We know (probably from personal experience) that here in America most from the Saturn and Genesis era hooked up their consoles to the TV via composite. The highest-end TVs had s-video in the early '90s, so the Saturn had that as an option. Most used composite.

My understanding is everyone in Europe used RGB through SCART which is obviously superior to composite.

What was the situation in Japan however? Did they use composite or RGB or something else for their new Saturn?

Some early Saturn games (such as NiGHTS from 1996) had anamorphic 16:9 as an option. I don't think a TV that could decode the signal was even available in the US at that time.

I'm pretty sure most people in the US and Europe were still using RF in the 90s. I don't think RGB SCART enabled TVs were super common or cheap back then. Even composite wasn't on most low end TVs that kids were given for gaming (like me). I think people today overestimate how concerned people were with image quality back then. It's easy to hand wring about picture sharpness and color resolution now as adults, but the typical gamer (especially kids) just wanted to play the games. At my house growing up, we had our SNES and PSX hooked up via RF from the 90s-2010.

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Originally Posted by Blades

Some early Saturn games (such as NiGHTS from 1996) had anamorphic 16:9 as an option. I don't think a TV that could decode the signal was even available in the US at that time.

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Those games don't really need a special TV to decode the signal. All they do is render everything narrower so that when it's stretched on a widescreen TV it looks correct and shows a little more. It will still display fine on a 4:3 TV, everything will just look a bit squished.

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Originally Posted by Blades

What was the situation in Japan however? Did they use composite or RGB or something else for their new Saturn?

Some early Saturn games (such as NiGHTS from 1996) had anamorphic 16:9 as an option. I don't think a TV that could decode the signal was even available in the US at that time.

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Japan was similar to NA. People generally used composite. There was more access earlier to 16:9 TVs which is why several games have the anamorphic 16:9 option.

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Those games don't really need a special TV to decode the signal. All they do is render everything narrower so that when it's stretched on a widescreen TV it looks correct and shows a little more. It will still display fine on a 4:3 TV, everything will just look a bit squished.

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Yes, but who had a widescreen TV capable of stretching the image in 1996? I can't think of one even available for sale in the US. All widescreen video releases on LD were letterboxed, not anamorphic. Only the highest-end 20" Sony starting in 1992 even had s-video (KV-20EXR20).

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SCART or RGB21 – Common on European and Japanese displays, almost unheard of on American sets, SCART is possibly the most confusing connector in the history of consumer electronics. Firstly, you need to get your head around the fact that these connectors can carry both the composite and S-video standards discussed above. Some SCART sockets (but not all) can also carry RGB.
RGB is the absolute best signal you can get from your Saturn and is what you should aim to use if you want the best picture quality. Finally, to confuse matters further, there’s another type of cable that uses exactly the same connector as SCART, but that is wired up in a completely different way. This is usually called RGB21. If your TV was made anywhere in Europe it will have SCART sockets, you’re only likely to encounter RGB21 sockets or cables on Japanese imports. For instance, the XRGB series of video processors (which we’ll get to later) have RGB21 connectors.

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From here. If RGB21 sockets existed in Japanese sets, did video games like the Saturn or Playstation have the ability to take advantage of them?

Kids didn't care but I'm sure the developers did. I'm interested if there was a difference in mindset between American development (certainly focused on composite as confirmed in multiple interviews, for example 32X Doom) and Japanese or European.

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Originally Posted by Gryson

Japan was similar to NA. People generally used composite. There was more access earlier to 16:9 TVs which is why several games have the anamorphic 16:9 option.

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Can you elaborate on this? What kind of TVs were they; rear projection, CRT?

i remember no one knowing what the hell i was talking about when asking at kaybees or Toys r Us about the composite cables for my genesis and then later snes.

RGB21 is certainly not uncommon in Japan. If it was I doubt Nintendo would have taken the time to make and sell RGB cables for the SNES.

Also, Japan had MUSE in the '80s, which was widescreen and high definition.

How would I even find the information I'm looking for?

1990's Sony KW-3600HD had HD MUSE support, and was also widescreen. It had component input and probably RGB21 input. We didn't have an equivalent in the US until 1997 with component as far as I can tell. My guess is most people used composite but you could connect your Saturn via RGB21 to a TV like this (and even in widescreen mode, as with NiGHTS).

https://a7burq.by3301.livefilestore....&cropmode=none

Here is a good info page.

And the back panel of a 1992 Japanese KW-3200HD confirming component (not RGB) support.

https://a7bvrq.by3301.livefilestore....&cropmode=none

And a '94 KW-3210HD confirming NO RGB21 support on Sony's highest-end HD set.

https://arbprq.by3301.livefilestore....&cropmode=none

I don't recall ever seeing any consumer TVs with RGB21 support during my time in Japan. I think it was generally limited to high-end monitors and TVs. You can get a sense of what kind of TV supported RGB21 here:

https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/closeds...h/rgb21/23632/

I think it was also used more often in the 80s for MSX2/PC-88/other home PC hookups.

Just how many things could that KW-3200HD take? o_O

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Originally Posted by zetastrike

I'm pretty sure most people in the US and Europe were still using RF in the 90s. I don't think RGB SCART enabled TVs were super common or cheap back then. Even composite wasn't on most low end TVs that kids were given for gaming (like me). I think people today overestimate how concerned people were with image quality back then. It's easy to hand wring about picture sharpness and color resolution now as adults, but the typical gamer (especially kids) just wanted to play the games. At my house growing up, we had our SNES and PSX hooked up via RF from the 90s-2010.

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People also overestimate how widespread adoption of technology is. Just because something existed back then doesn't mean everybody immediately jumped on it, not just because it's expensive, but because 1) people still take a while before ditching their current stuff (i.e. it's usually horribly old when they do) and 2) even when it becomes cheaper, lower end stuff will still lag behind and not include the newer stuff for a while, just to cheap out (and many people will inevitably buy it even if it's a horrible deal).

And that's not even mentioning that technology becoming widespread depends on the region too...

I fell in love with the Mega Drive through RF slowed down PAL stretched games in MONO !


So no, we didn't care/know about image/sound quality back then. That should put our quest for the best image/sound quality in perspective. As you know, only French were forced to use RGB from the beginning, due to their weirdo SECAM video signal.

I think s-video was more widely used in Japan, because the Playstation, Saturn, and N64 all had their official s-video cables widely available in stores, which wasn't the case in North America. I've never seen English packaging for the Saturn s-video cable.