Nintendo Multi Out

Most Nintendo home consoles released between the SNES and the GameCube use the same video output connector (under a variety of names such as AV Out, Multi Out, Analog AV Out), however its capabilities vary widely across consoles, regions, and specific models.

Compatibility

Draft - to be completed and most likely corrected

	RF mod.	CVBS	S-Video	RGB	Aux signal	Sound
AV Famicom (J)	Yes (with HVC-103 modulator)	Yes	No	No	No	Mono
AV toploader NES (U)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes	No	No	No
Super Famicom (J)	Yes (built-in)	Yes	Yes	Yes (⏦)	CSync (most models)	Mono, Stereo, Pro Logic (very rare)
Super Nintendo (U)	Yes (built-in)	Yes	Yes	Yes (⏦)	CSync (most models)
Super Nintendo (E)	Yes (built-in)	Yes (Ω)	Yes (unspecified)	Yes (Ω)	12V
Super Famicom Jr (J)	Yes (with HVC-103 modulator)	Yes	No	No	No
New SNES (U)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes	No	No	No
Nintendo 64 (NTSC, EP)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes	Yes	No ($)	CSync?	Mono, Stereo, Pro Logic (rare)
Nintendo 64 (NTSC, LP); IS-NITRO-DEBUGGER (EP)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes	Yes	No	CSync?
Nintendo 64 (PAL, EP)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes (Ω ⏦)	Yes (Ω ⏦)	No	CSync?
Nintendo 64 (PAL, LP)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes (Ω ⏦)	No	No	CSync
Nintendo 64 (French)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes (Ω ⏦)	No	No ($)	CSync?
GameCube (NTSC); IS-NITRO-DEBUGGER (LP)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes	Yes	No	CSync?	Mono, Stereo, Pro Logic II (uncommon)
GameCube (PAL)	Yes (with NUS-003 modulator)	Yes (Ω ⏦)	No	Yes (⏦)	12V

The PAL composite cable is different from the NTSC one

• Dark green means a plain cable, i.e ideally shielded wiring with suitable connectors and nothing more, is suitable.
• Light green means additional components are expected in the cable for best quality/performance:
  • ⏦ means AC coupling, achieved with a 220 µF capacitor in series (positive side towards console), except for S-video chroma where it is 68 nF.
  • Ω means external termination, achieved with a 75 Ω resistor in parallel (to ground).
• Orange means: not out of the box, but installable without proprietary parts.
  • This may mean anything from plain wiring to a preamplifier (marked with '$'); refer to the appropriate console's section (SNES, N64) for further information, including the definitions of early and late production.
• Red means really unavailable, but for all of these cases, workarounds happen to exist (given sufficiently large amounts of time and/or money). This typically means a third party DAC or replacement with a different region's.

Nominal Pinout

Socket (console side)

Plug (cable side)

Pin #	Description
1	Red
2	Green
3	CSync or +12 V (see above)
4	Blue
5	GND
6	GND
7	S-Video Y (Luminance)
8	S-Video C (Chrominance)
9	Composite Video
10	+5 V DC
11	Left Audio
12	Right Audio

Non-Multi Out video connectors

• The Famicom is RF only; it can have a composite output added.
• Most models of the frontloader NES have RF and composite out of the box.
  • The French NES uses an exclusive cable (vaguely resembling the Multi Out but actually the Disk System's connector) to provide RGB (decoded from the native format: composite. Providing RGB in any form must have been considered better value than inventing and manufacturing a SECAM PPU, a concept most other home computer and console brands agreed with.)
• Most models of the toploader NES are also RF only, and a subset of those are poor at that.
• The DOL-001 and 002 GameCubes additionally have a proprietary digital video connector for an external alternative DAC.
• The Wii did away with the legacy by switching to a new connector. This still did not address the fragmentation it caused.
• The Wii U continued to use the same, adding HD options.