Nintendo Multi Out
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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 | Yes | No | No | ? | Mono |
| AV toploader NES (U) | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? | |
| Super Famicom (J) | Yes (& builtin) | Yes | Yes | Yes (⏦ ?) | ? | Mono, Stereo, Pro Logic (very rare) |
| Super Nintendo (U) | Yes (& builtin) | Yes | Yes | Yes (⏦) | CSync (most models) | |
| Super Nintendo (E) | Yes (& builtin) | Yes (Ω) | Yes (unspecified) | Yes (Ω) | 12V | |
| Super Famicom Jr (J) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| New SNES (U) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Nintendo 64 (NTSC, EP) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No ($) | CSync? | Mono, Stereo, Pro Logic (rare) |
| Nintendo 64 (NTSC, LP); IS-NITRO-DEBUGGER (EP) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | CSync? | |
| Nintendo 64 (PAL, EP) | Yes | Yes (Ω ⏦) | Yes (Ω ⏦) | No | CSync? | |
| Nintendo 64 (PAL, LP) | Yes | Yes (Ω ⏦) | No | No | CSync | |
| Nintendo 64 (French) | Yes | Yes (Ω ⏦) | No | No ($) | CSync? | |
| GameCube (NTSC); IS-NITRO-DEBUGGER (LP) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | No | CSync? | Mono, Stereo, Pro Logic II (uncommon) |
| GameCube (PAL) | Yes | Yes (Ω ⏦) | No | Yes (⏦) | 12V |
- 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.
- 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
| 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.