Best Setup for playing on a 46" DLP HDTV

[TheLionzHeart1]

Ok what I'm trying to do is get the best setup for playing zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) on my HDTV. What I've done so far is just connect it via S Video.

Question is would a HDMI cable be better than an S Video Cable? And also what are the best settings to put into zsnes (btw i'm too stupid to learn the name of the emulator) to get the best frame rates? Thanks!

[odditude]

As for the connection, knowing what hardware you have and what connections are available will help us provide a good recommendation.

For ZSNES settings, it would help if you told us what OS you're running, at the very least.

Personally, I have my box hooked up to a 37" 720p/1080i (natively 1366x768) LCD TV via VGA, and for ZSNES (Windows) I use 1024x768 with the NTSC filter.

[TheLionzHeart1]

Ok this is my current setup:

ZSNES 1.51 running on a

HP Pavilion DV6500T
Has SVideo, VGA, and HDMI outputs
Using Windows Vista Home Premium

My HDTV is a 46" that supports SVideo, VGA, and HDMI connections.

[sweener2001]

the name of your computer is not the hardware.

they mean stuff like processor, RAM, video card, OS

[TheLionzHeart1]

2GHz Dual Core

2GB RAM

128mb Nvidia 8400M GS

Max Screen resolution 1280x800

That enough specs?

[odditude]

Either VGA or HDMI will give you infinitely better quality than S-Video. As for which will be better on your TV, that depends on the TV itself. Check your TV's manual for the native resolution, and set Windows to that. Your ideal full-screen resolution for ZSNES will likely be the same or slightly lower. Choice of filters depends on personal preference; again, I like the NTSC filter for that old-school look that I grew up with playing my SNES on a crappy old tube TV and (before that) an older Commodore monitor.

[BFeely]

VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort - High quality.
S-Video - Low quality.
Composite, RF - Very low quality.

[Gil_Hamilton]

VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort - High quality.
S-Video - Low quality.
Composite, RF - Very low quality.

C'mon... composite may be bad, but it's nowhere NEAR RF.


Digital ports(HDMI, DVI, etc): Bestest. At least, if you're feeding the set it's native resolution.


RGB or component video: best. True RGB connections(like VGA) have an edge over component's s-video-on-crack approach, but... meh.
Both are pretty darn good, and you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference without a really good display. Or tell the difference between either of these and a digital connection.

This is the lowest we're really concerned about for this thread. But for completeness' sake...


S-video: Good. Qualtiy-wise, there's not near as large a difference between s-video and component/ RGB/digital as their is between the lesser standards.
BUT.... s-video(and anything below it) only supports "standard NTSC" and below. No progressive scan, and no HD resolutions. That's what really lowers this one, and why it's not suitable for this task. Your computer does better image scaling than your TV, so don't use s-video.


Composite: Bad. There's a large degree of interference inherent in mashing all the video signals down one wire, and it creates an inherently poor picture.
BUT...
PS1 games look BEST on this, because they almost all assume the composite blur is there to hide color dithering and checkerboard transparencies.
Some Genesis games use quirks of composite to generate transparencies, too(the waterfalls in Sonic the Hedgehog are a good example, as they're in stage 1 on a very common game).


RF modulation: Evil. Take composite, mix a mono audio signal in with it, modulate it to TV frequencies and power levels, and send it out. Aside from all the atrocities you've already inflicted on your signal, this one is insanely vulnerable to interference from outside sources.
There's no excuse to use this if you have any other option.

[grinvader]

There's no excuse to use this if you have any other option.

Side note: enough duct tape is a decent other option.

[Gil_Hamilton]

There's no excuse to use this if you have any other option.

Side note: enough duct tape is a decent other option.

Heh.

About the only RF-only system that can't be conveniently modded for composite, s-video, or RGB is the NES2. And the clear answer to that is "get a toaster or an AV Famicom."