Nintendo Multi Out

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Revision as of 21:20, 19 February 2023 by Black Majic (talk | contribs) (add pinout category)
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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

Exclamation-triangle-fill.svgDraft - 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.