Was this ever released? I know the saturn is capable of support HDTV, it says so on the box, but was such a cable ever released?
Was this ever released? I know the saturn is capable of support HDTV, it says so on the box, but was such a cable ever released?
The Sega Saturn most certainly cannot support HDTV. The hardware simply cannot do it.Originally Posted by Iggy
-hl178
Bottom right.
You can make any attempt you like at a pithy comeback, but it doesn't change the fact that the Sega Saturn cannout output HDTV. Next time you might actually want to listen to those that know what the hardware can do before playing the role of smartass. ;)
-hl718
Last edited by hl718; 03-14-2006 at 11:46 PM.
hl718, I was not attempting to be a smartass, so simmer it down. Can you blame me for expecting that seeing the Sega Saturn box said it was capable of outputting HDTV and I figured that it must be able to out HDTV?
Anyways, Phinn, on http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/...pic.php?t=4355
the bottom post says:
"My RGB cable arrived and as expected the Saturn treats everything as either 240p or 480i... no 480p. Looks fantastic nonetheless."
So it appears that 480i is the best you can get out of the saturn as far as I can see.
I was under the impression that the Saturn DID have an (unused) HDTV output mode.
The documentation is confusing though. Take a look at the VDP1 developer documentation which is filled with references to HDTV.
http://koti.kapsi.fi/~antime/sega/fi...-R3-061694.pdf
Strangely, it makes reference to this "HDTV" mode having a max resolution of 352x240. Eh?
Strange because that isnt even EDTV:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhance...ion_television
I remember the Saturn "High Resolution" being 704x480, no? (yeah, it's "wide" if compared to N64 and PS)
Also, why people bother when someone says that 640x480 is HD?
How old are you? If you don't remember, several sizes were called HD before the existence of 1080p. Almost everyone here should have lived before the whole "FullHD" thing.
When I'm talking about N64 it's totally right to say that HD is 640x480. The Expansion Pak provides "HD mode" in some games. It's obvious that it's not related to 50 inch displays.
The strange thing is a "human being", being unable to identify the difference and brag about this. And worse, applying 2011 concepts in a 1994 thing. That's stange, and not very smart. IMHO.
Wasn't Bomberman capable of running in high def?
I want to agree to auction guidelines too...
I thought Sega's version of HDTV were just the AV cables which it released afterwards
The Saturn was capable of Enhanced Definition or 480p. This can be lumped in with HD, but it's not really.
See this thread:
http://www.assemblergames.com/forums...ead.php?t=8280
As for a cable, I've done some Googling, but I'm still uncertain. Is a RGB scart cable capable of carrying 480p?
This thread claims that 480p isn't actually possible on a Saturn.
http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/...pic.php?t=4355
Anyone shed some more light on the matter?
I've never heard of Saturn's being able to output 480p. Seems highly unlikely to me.
I suspect that the Saturn is only HDTV compatible insofar as hi-def TVs support standard inputs as well. So, the Master System is HDTV compatible, too.
...word is bondage...
I'm starting to think the Saturn HD claim comes from the ability of the Saturn's MPEG adaptor to display still images at 720x576/704x480 as per the VCD standard.
Yakumo, you seem to be knowledgable on this subject - can you help?
The saturn can and does display games in any of the following resolutions *
320 X 224
640 X 224
704 X 480
It can also interlace the picture to add that extra sharpness. Some games have a real RGB on or off mode as well such as Vampire Savior or Donpachi. The saturn can't do real HD but still looks shit hot running in one of it's higher resolutions. This is one thing that stands the system out above the PlayStation, Neo Geo and N64.
Yakumo
TWITTER @RetroCoreYakumo
true, true! :) add to that a rgb scart cable for the best results and really enjoy the treat for your eyes!
I'll create a monument to non-existance! Kefka, FFVI
"there is no dark side of the Moon really... as a matter of fact it's all dark" (words hidden in pink floyd's "Eclipse" song )
Those are internal resolutions. People often mix that up when talking about video games. In all cases, the output to your TV is 480 lines of resolution (or 575 for PAL) once it goes through the video encoder, that's true for all video game systems from a Pong machine through to the Xbox360 (when it's displayed on a normal TV) no matter what the possible resolutions listed in the technical specifications are. I have no idea what the 240p in the link Iggy posted means. Sounds like a made up thing to me.
I don't think interlacing could be said to add sharpness to a picture. In fact, if anything it reduces the usable resolution because attempting to use all 240 lines during every refresh causes flicker and other visual distortions.It can also interlace the picture to add that extra sharpness. Some games have a real RGB on or off mode as well such as Vampire Savior or Donpachi.
I'm also not sure what you mean by RGB on or off. All Saturn games work in RGB, the Dreamcast is the only system I know of where some games don't support RGB. The Saturn certainly looks good in RGB, but all systems do (in fact, I'd say the Genesis looks comparitively even better, but that's because it had a shitty video encoder, so composite looks horrible; the Saturn has a very good video encoder, so composite or s-video look pretty good even when compared to RGB). The 32X sometimes looks shitty in RGB because developers were counting on a somewhat blurred image for some of their little graphical tricks. Same goes for some Saturn games, actually.
I don't know about the Playstation, but the N64 is in fact capable of 640x480 (which would look pretty much exactly like 704x480...horizontal resolution is completely theoretical on analog displays anyway), but that was only used for pre-rendered videos. I expect that the same is true of the highest resolution for the Saturn, too.The saturn can't do real HD but still looks shit hot running in one of it's higher resolutions. This is one thing that stands the system out above the PlayStation, Neo Geo and N64.
The Saturn is a great system, but there's nothing special about its resolution capabilities or video outputs.
...word is bondage...
Last edited by Sweater Fish Deluxe; 03-15-2006 at 03:14 PM.
There's supposedly some games on saturn that have parts in hi-res for menus, bonus pictures or even part of the game... i'll try to dig something out.------------------------------------------------------------------
5.2 Can the Saturn really display a 704x480 or 720x576 resolution?
------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes. The VDP2 can produce a maximum displayable resolution of 704x480,
with a 24-bit color depth. Only a couple of Saturn games used this
mode in-game however.
US Sega Saturn manuals related a max spec of 720x576. This may be
in reference to the PAL resolution, or it could simply be an error.
digging... digging...
SOUKYUGURENTAI supposedly have some sprite from mini bosses in hi-res...
but i'm not so sure about it..
i had some listing of saturn games (a short one, something like 3-4) that used somewhere hi-res.. to bad i can't find it anymore :(
I'll create a monument to non-existance! Kefka, FFVI
"there is no dark side of the Moon really... as a matter of fact it's all dark" (words hidden in pink floyd's "Eclipse" song )
not real HD, but nice resolution
These are more like analog rgb resolutions if I remember right.
I was always under the impression that the internals supported HD resolutions, even though no software supported it nor were there cables made.
Yeah, menus and pre-rendered stuff, I wouldn't surprised at all. In fact i would think that more than 3 or 4 games used the higher resolution for that.
In game, though, I don't know. If the highest resolution was used in game, it probably would have been for a background layer. Like possibly Virtua Fighter 3 would have used that mode for the backgrounds. The guy in that link that Iggy posted seems to imply that Virtua Fighter 2 uses 704x480 in the backgrounds. I haven't heard that before, but I suppose it's possible. VF2 on the Saturn is really nice looking and obviously extremely well coded (almost entirely in assembly from what I've heard).
...word is bondage...
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