Sega Genesis With HDMI Output! (Model 1) 

For everyone wanting RGB to HDMI for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, we hear you loud and clear and that was our intention in the first place. I have the parts on order. Also news stories will be up today.

No this video isn't click bait. This is an ACTUAL Sega Geneis (Mega Drive) with a built in HDMI port. Watch the full video to find out the details.

I know the video isn't working yet. It's a RU-vid thing.

a pointless mod. tvs have inbuilt upscalers and all your doing is sending a composit signal through an hdmi cable. it doesn't improve the signal at all. its like sipping a drink or using a straw.its still the same drink

If it isn't working on YT click here: www.dailymotion.com/video/x1d85fg_sega-genesis-with-hdmi-output-model-1_videogames

The Genesis already has rgb output, hdmi output should use rgb, the image will be much more clear and defined. As from water to wine.

A really cool mod sould be taking the signal before the RAMDAC. Now the console is converting Digital->Analog->Digital. But taking it before the RAMDAC you will nead a PLD with HDMI output and some programming skills.

My 2nd grade teacher had a super nintendo for us to play after lunch. Good memories.

Granted, Rich did say that this was a 'test unit' and that he'll see about getting RGB/S-Video, but really, to use composite at all is just..... ....YUCK. Considering the fact that the Sega Genesis is capable of running S-Video or even RGB, the idea of converting its native composite to HDMI rather than a higher quality signal is momentously stupid. Setting aside the fact that the Sega Genesis/Megadrive has poor composite video to begin with, composite signals look AWFUL on HDTVs. All this is doing is converting a composite signal into an HDMI signal, _NOT_ magically creating an HD signal. Upres composite is STILL composite. The RGB signals of the Genesis can even be converted into component signals, meaning they will run at 240p native.....which is a HELL OF A LOT HIGHER RESOLUTION THAN COMPOSITE UPSCALED TO HDMI! If Rich actually knew what he was doing he would have instead modded the system for native 240p component, and then installed a component to HDMI converter. The result would've been about 100 times better. I have a Component modded VA3 model 1 Sega Genesis myself, and I don't even use it on an HDTV, but a CRT that maximizes the vivid look of 240p consoles. Anyone who wants to buy an HDMI Genesis, at least research before you buy from this guy. His mod here isn't as good as it seems. If he changes the design to be based on RGB or component, then you're getting somewhere. But everyone and their mother knows how awful the composite video is on the Genesis to begin with, and then you want to display it through HDMI?! Baffling.

ofc u could show that there's no input lag - just put the gamepad into view and rapidly and loudly press specific buttons to show that the corresponding action on screen happens immediately.

This is lame. What I'd *really* like to see is somebody bypass the composite video processor (don't know the technical name for this) altogether, so that you can have true 1080p output from a console, not upscaled composite 480i.

You really want to use RGB video to convert to HDMI. Using composite upscaled is kind of a waste of the work involved, when you can get a much better picture through the RGB signal that comes out of the Genesis.

Seems like a lot of work when you can just buy the converter box or use an older tv. There are no shortage of older tvs, you can find them in yard sales and pawn shops pretty much everywhere. I'm not hating but why do people feel they need this? To see the pixels in higher definition? Maybe there is something I am missing but from my standpoint and level of understanding this seems rather pointless.

To clarify, The Axe-wielder is known as Gillius Thunderhead, he's in Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. The Swordsman is called Ax Battler, and the lady is called Tyris Flare.

But does it have Blast Processing?

While I think this is good, why do you stretch the game image on the screen? This is a 4:3 aspect ratio console. Letting the TV stretch the image to 16:9 makes it look like ass to me. You really should be pillar boxing this.

You should do Gamecubes with the Component AV output to Hdmi

Jesus, what a terrible scaler...

Dude you gotta go from RGB to HDMI, not composite AV to HDMI >_

looking at that genesis damn near brought me to tears, just reminds me of a time long gone.... forever

I like your videos but you are acting like you invented putting an hdmi out on a 16 but or 32 bit system. It's been done. If your subscribers haven't seen it before oh well, but it's been done.

you can get an adapter to convert scart to HDMI for optimum resolution through the other port in the back with the star pattern that no one uses

I'm worried S Video on a crt will still look better...

Rich -- do you have a link to that converter that you showed? I'd be interested in taking a look at it.

Uhm, I stick with my RGB-output...

I dunno. Why not just use the converter? What is the advantages of doing this mod over just using the converter? Just to have not the converter box hanging out? I'll live with that.

Looks much better on a CRT TV. The way it was supposed to be :-D

May I ask, what kind of feedback are you getting for the HDMI mod? The thing is, as a retro fan, I find I prefer composite or scart as it feels more authentic, it's kind of the point!

Horrible idea, wrong aspect ratio, horrible pixel bleeding and ghosting that for me is painful to look at. You should have made a passthrough with the original resolution (RGB signal) to HDMI not an upscaler. I wont even start talking about the lag those cheap HDMI upscaler have... Yikes! But hey its your project, if you are happy with it, good for you, this is just my personal opinion.

The nostalgia when you put sonic on made my day.

Avg. genesis price about $30 HDMI to AV converter = $30 Labor = lets just say $5 to $10 Shipping for all item from and to = depends on location so ??? Price = $65+ (and thats with some of the best prices possible)

Rich has single handedly brought SEGA back into the console business... I wished.

On the black circle on the Genesis: "High Definition Graphics" Rich took that to heart...

I have one of those ETEKCITY RCA to HDMI adapters, and it works great on my TV but my AverMedia LGP does NOT record video coming out of it. Video will loop through the LGP to the TV, but it doesn't capture any of the video coming from the adapter. I think it's an issue with the refresh rate of the adapter, it changes it to something weird (like 59 hz or something). Have you gotten your capture card to actually record any video coming from this thing?

I like how he is acting like he is breaking new ground.This is nothing new. a quick google search and you can find videos with same mod but with rgb. He probably is following a youtube how to video. He is doing this b/c of the new hd emulator coming out.

This video triggers me to no end, I respect this for not being clickbait. But at the same time you went about getting hdmi from composite instead of RGB. Composite isn't the worst especially with the cheap scaler, but at the same time its cheap scaler that will just amplify a subpar signal to a more passable one for you're tv. You should have gone all out and might as well tried to get RGB to make the picture actually look better. this is an old video so I pray you're using something better, with that said I'm just a simple pleb with an SD CRT using composite anyway. I just hope what you have works well for you and continue to make content the people here like, have a good one Rich. -Signed Concerned Citizen

Select 240p and then back to 360p

Super happy that you're gonna be covering retro games (specifically genesis) games, Rich. Can't wait til you start sellin these damn things

One thing that would be interesting is to see how you implemented the solution, crack it open and show us please =-)

Looks great rich! Can't wait to see more of these!

You should put hdmi in ps1, ps2, and xbox as well.

I wonder how well this would work with the Dreamcast.

Golden Axe's "elf dude" is actually a dwarf and his name is Gillius Thunderhead. The barbarian's name is Axe Battler.

So you take a sub-par upscaler unit, and its a revolutionary hack? I think you've made a lot of great videos but this is just stupid. RGB-scartcable to Framemeister would be the way to go.

Does this make the graphics upscale to a higher resolution and improve the graphics? or does it merely stretch the image?

You should do a PS2 with HDMI output

You and your pops might have some real potential for something in the retro-gaming community. HDMI in a Genesis is a mind-blowing concept.

I kinda would like to try this on an N64.

Amazing job on this. I still own the old systems and that is exactly how I remember the Genesis in terms of graphics and speed. No trickery folks, he actually made it work.

This project is pointless.

I think the warranty is void... Hahaha awesome job dude. You have been talking about this for a number of weeks now and it's good to see it come to fruition.

If you can do this with an SNES... name your price.

Rich, you and your Father-In-Law NEED to also add a scanline-generator into this whole updated HD mix. Trust me, scanlines clean up the 16bit image on HDTVs, and make the games look properly retro and not so pixelated. Maybe look into stripping a SLG-3000 PCB and installing it between the RGB and the HDMI connector. Your Genny would be the ultimate, if it had both HDMI and scanlines!

That is so cool

just watched it on DM and i am BLOWN AWAY. i'm gonna have to go to GameOver and buy one of their sega genesis' and send it to you. and my snes when you've completed that one as well. keep up the good work GO REVIEW TECH USA!!!

Shut up and take my money !

Well done rich. You made the genesis prove its motto: " high definition graphics" keep it up.

Wow! Almost looks as good as my Genesis emulator on my big screen TV. without the pixel filters though so the original not quite as good. Total waste of time and money. a SCART/RGB will do what you need for a 320 x 224p game. Using a HDMi cable will gain you nothing but spent money and spent time doing it. You will get no more clarity from a 320 x 224p game. How good an old console will look is entirely reliant on the TV itself, not the video cables you are using. Most people who ask this question have old ass HDTVs with terrible upscalers and support for SD content. If you have a shitty LCD TV you will get a shitty upscaled picture compared to a better TV no matter what cable you use.

That needs to become a meme... "I'm gonna play as the elf dude. I think his name is Ax Battler."

This thing is useless when I can just run an emulator on pc.

Did you look into using RGB instead, it would yield a even better signal and in theory could be converted to HDMI even easier

Now this is a true next gen experience. These 3-10MB games blow those next gen blu-rays outta the water. 90's for life!

I would totally buy one of those, but I couldn't justify the purchase with the RetroN 5 coming out soon

I feel like the picture has some ghosting in it, or is this caused by the camera you're using + high brightness ?

Thats what I call blast processing. Great work Rich, impressive.

Been waiting for this video!!! Thought it would takes weeks!

I will send you my model 1 for sure,when your ready to go into production! One question,will having the Sega CD hooked up to it raise flags with power issues? The reason I ask is that while the Sega CD has its own power brick,it also is connected to the genesis,also what about the 32X?

I want one!! Awesome job Rich looking forward to being one of your first customers!

I'd like to see a virtual boy with HDMI... it would be interesting to see how that looks.

Got to say that has to be one of the best console mods I've ever seen :) would this work on a Mega Drive? or are the Genesis and Mega Drive wired differently due to the different regions?

What's going on the the aspect ratio? The original games had an AR of 4:3, are you cropping or zooming to archive 16:9 AR on the flat screen tv?

The only thing that sucks about this is that the image is stretched out from 4:3 to 16:9. I love playing on original hardware, and I hate seeing the original image stretched out wide like that. I record a lot of game play footage of Genesis games for Let's Play videos, and I always put a border around the original 4:3 footage so that the entire RU-vid screen is filled, and the original image isn't stretched to hell.

Retro reviews? I can't wait.

Dang. It works. Nice job with the console, can't wait to see how it does when it is finished.

I can't quite tell from the video - are the pixels sharp? Or are they deformed like when you hook the genesis go through the HDTV composite ports?

the warrior was called axe battler the dwarf was called gilius thunderhead and the one i played as the amazon tyrus flare :D

when a system has momo sound and you put that on 2 speakers it doesnt become sterio, its just mono but over 2 speakers, when the guy stands on the right side hes voice will be heard over both speakers, its still mono if it was sterio you would hear him talk louder on the right (speaker) side off the screen.

Word of advise, if your going to sell these, get Sega's ok go ahead first company's can be extremely touchy about things like this.

Having a video RCA output to HDMI output, won't it simply give you more or less the same quality than pluggin in using the rca input on your TV.. the device he has may upscale it a little but you can't really get more than where you are getting the video source. If you are able instead to tap on the RGB video output that the Sega Genesis has, that would clearly give you the highest possible video quality that the console can provide.

Awesome job there. Quite excited to see this working out so well so far. I may just have an N64 and GCN ready to go in the future for this. Anyway, I just have 1 question. I have bought one of 'em composite to HDMI converter boxes in the past (specifically so I can play my N64 and GCN again), but I found that using it only stretched the picture so much that the games looked very pixelated, at least on the N64 (haven't tried with my GCN yet). My question then is, did you have he same problem with your composite to HDMI converter that you have there when you used it with your consoles, or did the piece give a nice clean not so pixelated image? I'm just wondering if what converter one buys may or may not matter in terms of quality output.

Great video miss my megadrive

Video isn't working and there's no resolution to change to

Doing this for PS2 would be awesome!

Despite the fact that this footage is being recorded on a camera, it still looks great. Though hopefully you'll show us captured footage at some point, I'd love to see how good it truly looks.

Can you use a hdmi converter for an xbox one if your tv doesn't have an hdmi port?

It's only as good as it's weakest link, which would be the composite video.

What got my attention was that Rich forgot to mention that the Wii U also has an hdmi port.

I think the Dwarf is Gullius Thunderhead.

Just an FYI the Genesis model 1 can output an RGB signal with no mods using a SCART cable, so rather than running a composite or s-video to HDMI why not do component to HDMI, just a thought.

And I thought there was nothing more I could do to my Mega Drive, this is really cool :D

This is pretty goddamn awesome. I just realized, having a Gamecube with an HDMI port would be fucking astounding. Won't lie, I'd trade a whole kingdom for one.

Unfortunately you're not stuck with "permanent" composite output...right?

I honestly want to see this more direct, not just a recording of a TV.

I'm really looking forward to your retro reviews, but I don't get the point of this mod. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to just use the converter after a switchbox, or build it into a switchbox, especially if you have more than one console? Maybe it's just me, but I like to keep my consoles original when there is a way around that. Besides that... old consoles are best played on a CRT TV period.

Sweet, Rich! Question, though: Is there a way to force the aspect ration to 4:3 instead of 16:9? A lot of TVs don't have a native option to switch aspect ration when using HDMI. It's not that big of a deal on the Genesis (since the native ratio is a bit wider, I think), but it's going to make SNES games look kind of weird.

Ax Battler is the barbarian (even though he uses a sword), the dwarf is Gilius Thunderhead.

great job rich, put me as one of the people looking to see you make this work fully to maybe get a hold of one of them…great job!!!

Hi, any diagram or hardware specs to try by myself, this could be adapt to sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn or any other console?

So the Genesis finally lives up to the "HIGH DEFINITION GRAPHICS" tag emblazened on the top ring of the console. Great job.

The Sega Genesis along with the Super Nintendo natively supports a European video input called SCART, I recommend looking into it.