Hooking up N64 to home theater system (1 Viewer)

[Gary Shipley]

Now that I have my theater finished,I'd like to be able to hook up a Nintendo 64 or Playstation and enjoy gaming on the 106" screen. My problem is, I can't seem to figure out how to get it to work using a projector instead of a television. I can get sound when I plug into the aux inputs on the front of my receiver,but no picture no matter how I try. What do I need to do?

 

[LaMarcus]

Well depending upon what kind of receiver you have, you most likely have to turn your receiver to the input that you have the game system on.

For instance:
video cable out from the receiver to the PJ
Video/Audio in on the receiver from the gaming system.
Switch to the input that has your gaming system, that should be all you have to do.

 

[Carl Johnson]

What kind of cable(s) are you using to get picture and sound from the N64 to the receiver?

 

[Mark Shannon]

Chances are you wont be too happy with playing N64 on a 106" screen. It will probably be way too blocky, etc.

 

[David Galindo]

I think Gamecube cables work with the N64, so go for some component cables. Games like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark are 16:9 compatible.

 

[Gary Shipley]

Hi Carl. As of right now I'm not getting sound and picture going from the game unit to the receiver. Only sound. I plan on getting either a PS2 or XBox in the near future and wanted to be able to use them in the theater. Since I only have the N64 at this time, I wanted to try hooking it up to see how it would be done. I was'nt really sure about the picture quality.

 

[Jeff_A_G]

My solution:
Use your reciever for audio only and get a video switcher for video. I did this and now you can have any audio source you want out of the reciever with any video sorce you want on the display. This will solve problems with audio and no video, and allow you to listen to cd's while playing games if you wish to. Also, gamecube component cables will not work with n64. They are made to go in the digital output of the gamecube and aren't the same size as the regular connector.

 

[Carl Johnson]

We need to know what kind of cable you currently have running from the N64 to your receiver in order to properly diagnose the problem.

 

[LaMarcus]

Carl, I'm curious as to what difference it would make as to what kind of cables he's using? As long as he has them going into the correct input/outputs does it matter? I'm really wondering if his receiver does audio AND video switching.

 

[Carl Johnson]

If I don't know what's hooked up then I can't tell how to fix it. It's not safe to assume that everything is going to the correct input/outputs. It could be that all we're getting is audio because that's all that has been connected. Either there is a missing or damaged cable, a cable is plugged into the wrong port or we need to do some tweaking of the audio/video switching. Just trying to eliminate one of the three

 

[Nathan A]

And Perfect Dark has a choppy "hi-res" mode if you have the RAM pack! Actually, I don't remember it being too bad.

 

[Gary Shipley]

Thanks for all the replys. Heres whats going on. The cables from the N64 are just your basic rca plugs(red,white, and yellow). These are plugged in to the audio/video in(also red,white and yellow) ,into what is called Video1 on my Kenwood 4080 receiver. There is a audio/video out right above that to run to the tv or in my case, the projector. The problem is, I already have my dvd player going to the component inputs on the pj. All I have left available is an s-video input on the pj. There is an s-video out on the receiver, and I tried that, but that does not work. Like I said, I get sound, but no picture. I know there is nothing wrong with the s-video cable because I can use it on a second dvd player I have and it works fine. The cables on the N64 are also ok because if I plug the unit directly into my tv upstairs, everthing works.

 

[Nathan A]

Do you have an RCA video out from the receiver to the projector? If not, then your receiver may not upconvert RCA to either component or s-video, in which case you'll need to get a s-video cable for the N64 so that you can run s-video from N64 to receiver, and s-video from receiver to projector. Or run RCA from N64 to receiver to projector, if possible. Hope that helps.

And if you manage to get it working w/o the s-video cable, I'd highly recommend you get one anyway. It should be a noticable improvement over RCA, and you can probably get one pretty cheap at Wal-Mart or a used game shop. Remember, any N64 or Gamecube s-video cable should work.

 

[Gary Shipley]

Thanks Nathan. I'll give it a shot! Its no fun playing on a 20" tv screen when theres the possibility of playing on a 106" screen with some serious surround sound! Thanks again.

 

[DaveF]

Have you tried other troubleshooting steps:

- Is the projector set to the correct video input?
- Does it work if you connect the N64 directly to the projector?
- Have you tried using the receiver's s-video out to the TV?

 

[Steve Y]

To be redundant: make sure the inputs going into the receiver (from the N64) match the output from the receiver to the projector. When you have multiple inputs (s-video, component, RCA) going into your receiver, they're often hitting a video "dead-end" unless you have a matching output going into your monitor/projector.

Also make sure you have the s-video (to your projector) coming out of the right port on the receiver (the "master output" port). Some receivers have so many input/output jacks that it's easy to mistake one for another. This is also assuming the port isn't faulty.

It makes for some cable spaghetti, but the switching capabilities on the receiver make that worthwhile. At one point I had three consoles, a DVD player and a CD player all accessible (both audio and video) through a single dial.

My receiver doesn't support component input or output, so I have to push component straight through my TV. Kind of a pain.

Gamecube A/V cables work with the N64 just fine. They use the same connection. I bought some about a year ago and have been "enjoying" s-video on my N64 ever since.

 

[Gary Shipley]

The problem has been solved thanks to Nathan A from Dallas. I purchased a power cord with rca and s-video connection,plugging that in to the video3 input on the receiver and running my other svideo cable from the svideo out on the receiver to the projector. I then selected video on my remote and BAM! I had sound and picture! Perfect Dark and Star Wars:Rogue Squadron are the best looking so far. Golden Eye and The World Is Not Enough,unfortunately,don't look very good. But thats ok, the 2 that do look good will keep me busy until I upgrade. And speaking of upgrading, I'm considering either a PS2 or XBOX, but not sure of which way to go. I'd like to hear some suggestions as to what some of you think would be the better way to go. Thanks to everyone again for all your help.

 

[Nathan A]

Good to hear!

Yep, Perfect Dark should hold you over for a while. If you haven't already, try the King of the Hill mode with a stationary hill and a bunch of meatsims. Throw the turret guns up on the walls for help!

 

[Jeff_A_G]

man, you do not want to start the ps2 vs xbox debate. It will go on for ever, get very ugly, and leave you just as confused as you were when you started. Personally, I prefer the gamecube. If you have an hd projector and some component cables for it, the picture can't be matched by ps2 or xbox. Downside is, the component cables are a pain to get a hold of, and are usually $40 or more even for used ones. But then again, Gamecube brand new from best buy/ circuit city is only $100 and comes with Mario Party 7, which sells for $50 seperatly. I'd suggest looking into what games you are going to want, and see what systems offer those games. With xbox 360 out, and ps3 and revolution not far behind, all three systems will be getting pretty cheap to pick up used. Also, stopping by stores like games stop/eb-games/funcoland and all those types of stores, you will often get people working there who will gladly pop in a games (one of there used ones of coarse) into a system for you to take a look at. May be an easy way to see what systems you perfer, and what games you like on them. Hope this lengthy thread helps you some