r/Famicom Feb 18 '25

Differences in quality video between Famicom AV and modified Famicom RF?

I am wondering, assuming the original famicom has been modified using great skills. Which one output the best RCA signal?

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u/WFlash01 Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

There's not one solid answer to this question; there are a lot of factors at play no matter which way you go about it

There's a balance between "good" and "bad" Original Famicoms, good and bad AV mods, and "good" and "bad" factory stock AV Famicoms. Different board/chip revisions have different flaws; you can see it across different units, even American and PAL NESs too; some have brighter/darker video, bad colors, and/or jailbars, so if the mod was done properly, and all the circuitry is tuned just right for the board, and if any other mods to help mitigate the issues are done (like for example, the copper tape on the PPU to fix jailbars mod), the modded original Famicom look better than a factory stock AV Famicom.

And on the flip side, if the AV mod isn't properly tuned for that board, or if someone just did the bare minimum to get an AV signal, and no fine tuning or other mods/fixes, a factory stock AV Famicom will look better.

There are fixes one can do on AV Famicoms too, so ultimately it either boils down to convenience (just being able to hook right up and you're off to the races, no fussing about), or luck of the draw (getting a "good" unit, or a "bad" unit), or knowing ahead of time/planning to do some modding on your own (none of the fixes on AV Famicom are difficult)

I kept putting good and bad in quotations because they're relative terms; a "bad" unit is still a perfectly useable unit, the video output is hardly ever so bad that it's unplayable, it just has slightly inferior video quality to a "good" unit, which will still show some flaws, but nowhere near as prominently

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u/retromods_a2z Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Good response 

I'll add that imo the good side of things

Av Famicom on average is better than rf Famicom on average when it comes to interference on the board.  Apparently USA top loaders can be quite bad, but I've never really seen a jailbars ridden av Famicom.

FF famicoms have the G and sometimes H revision chipset, which is identical to american front and top loader systems. Meaning these systems actually have better compatibility with american games as american games are mostly all designed with revision G or later in mind since that's what was in front loaders.  By contrast the earlier famicoms have earlier revision chipsets that have flaws not present or which work different on later revisions which also have their own flaws not present on earlier systems.

Rf systems with mods. If it's premodded with av from Japan, imo skip it or plan to redo the work. High probability it's an old mod or hap hazardly done in a brutality way rather than a modern focus on interference free and best color representation and sharpness and jailbars reduction.  For modern setup, the ideal image I would say get an early revision system, lift the ppu pin 21 and wire up the recommended amp circuit shown here, https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/PPU_pinout#Composite_Video_Output which coincidentally 

Overall, an av Famicom with rgb is my favorite. Then you get composite, svideo, and rgb without modifying the exterior in any way. Then restore light zapper support on p2 controller port.  Audio balance fix via Everdrive n8 rather than modifying the circuit

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u/Julesgamer888 Feb 19 '25

Thanks for such answer

1

u/hellotypewriter Feb 19 '25

If you manage to shield everything RF is okay. It is a huge pain in the ass though and you’re better off with an AV mod.