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 (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 |
- 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 front loader NES have RF and composite out of the box via conventional RCA connectors.
- The French NES uses an exclusive cable (vaguely resembling the Multi Out but actually the Disk System RAM Adapter'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.)
- The Sharp Twin Famicom provides AV out via conventional RCA connectors. It does not have internal RF, but an external modulator was made available which uses the video out RCA jack and an 8-pin DIN connector which provides audio and 5V in.
- Most models of the top loader NES are also RF only, and many of those have fairly poor video quality due to poor PCB routing.
- The DOL-001 GameCube additionally has a proprietary digital video connector for an external alternative DAC.
- The Wii did away with the legacy connector by switching to a new one. This still did not address the fragmentation it caused.
- The Wii U continued to use the same as the Wii, adding HD options.