2-port video cable and graphic dimness.

[kensu]

When I first took my 5200 out of the box, I was miffed when I followed the video output back to its origin and found it was somewhere inside the case!

Just what's at the end of that cord? Is it soldered directly to the motherboard? I saw a picture of a 4-port motherboard on a forum post about someone doing an A/V mod and there was something that looked like an RCA jack on the motherboard; is that what this is?

 

I found that my 7800 got a better picture with a shielded cable, and was rather disappointed that I couldn't use it with my 5200. (though I actually haven't noticed that much interference, just the "power hum" I got with the 7800 as well)

Also, are the graphics supposed to be dim? I checked out the arcade version of Berzerk on mame, and the graphics for the humanoid and robots are REALLY bright. Did they just use a dimmer pallette with the 5200 version? (I noticed something similar with the arcade version of Galaxian, which seems slow as molasses compared to the 5200 version; but maybe MAME's analog joystick support may be to blame for that.)

[shadow460]

The cables on the 4 port are soldered to the board. I believe the RCA jack is there in case the cable gets cut. If that happens, the RCA jack can be used to attach the replacement cable.

I have a 4 port motherboard sitting two feet away, but I'm just too lazy to pick it up and follow out the traces. Wait a minute... *looks at motherboard* yep, that's what the RCA jack is for.