Console RF versus composite output to RF modulator

Andromeda Stardust · March 30, 2015

I've been mulling over this lately. My bedroom CRT has a composite jack but I lost the remote which is required to access the composite "GAME" input. I've since found the remote but I have also found the RF modulator gives a very good picture.

Most of my consoles have both RF and composite options. NES, SNES, Genesis come stock with both. TG-16 is RF only but you can tap the expansion port for stereo AV, something I haven't gotten around to yet. N64 and Game cube have the RF dongle that plugs in the AV multi-output.

My 4-switch Atari 2600 is RF only and my 7800 is AV only.

All my consoles I either use direct connect RF using an RCA-to-RF on the console side with a real Coax TV cable (I've quit using the RF auto switches which are compatible with NES, Genesis, SNES, TG-16 but not Atari) or route the A/V into the external RF modulator. I prefer to route the audio to my stereo when possible because it sounds 100% better than the TV. Direct connect definitely yields a much cleaner picture than the autoswitches ever did. I think it's safe to connect non-Atari consoles this way as the TV set will just ignore the +5V bias.

I have in the garage a very nice and big Zenith CRT set with woodgrain panel. Only problem is there is no composite jack so it's RF only. But it has the nicest display out of all our CRTs. It's too big for my bedroom setup but it will become the center of my gameroom when I move out of my mom's in the next couple years.

Which brings me to my point: If a game console has outputs for both composite and RF, and the TV only accepts RF, will using an external modulator yield a better picture than the one built into the console? I know it's subjective but there's virtually no bleed with this external RCA brand RF modulator at all. Atari systems are known for having bad modulators, but Nintendo, Sega, et al seem to be pretty good.

What will yield a better picture? Pros for using an external modulator is once I get my future game room setup, I will be able to use an RCA switchbox to route all my systems into one modulator. Autoswitches get very fugly when daisy chained and will degrade the signal a small amount for every one in the chain.

Another thing, and I'm not sure if it's a typo, but my RCA switchbox faceplate claims to be rated up to 50Mhz. Maybe this is a typo and really meant 5Mhz, but it's an 8-input selector and one of the cleanest designs I have ever seen. RF channel 3 and 4 are only a small distance above 50Mhz (2 is even closer) and I'm wondering as an experiment if my RCA switchbox could switch a VHF signal without massive degradation. Somehow I doubt it.

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TLDR - do external RF modulators yield higher output quality than the internal RF within the console, assuming the console has an option for AV output? Also will the S-Video port on the RF modulator yield a better RF picture than the composite?

Edited March 30, 2015 by stardust4ever