How can I play old console games on a modern TV?
First, some common terminology:
- Composite: The yellow video cable
- Component: The red/blue/green cable
- Coax: The only cable that you can screw in
- HDMI: What everything is these days
Okay, so I've got me some "legacy" gaming systems which we will refer to as "A". This could be a Gamecube, a Playstation, you know, one of the older ones. The important commonality is that they only output via composite.
I've got a modern screen, which we will refer to as "B". It, as I'm sure you're guessing, doesn't take composite inputs. The inputs my TV does take are: HDMI, Component, HDMI, VGA, Coax, and HDMI.
Now, there's all sorts of technical jargon about 'scan lines' and 'resolutions', but all I want to know is this: How can I connect A to B?
My first thought was "no problem, I'll just use the composite ports on my DVD/VCR combo machine and use it to translate!". Yeah, that didn't work. Which I found surprising. I really expected that I could use the coax connection from the VCR to the TV to get the signal from A to B. Didn't work. Turns out, all those composite inputs are routed to the (unused) composite output. So, no signal to screen. Sad panda.
Now, I'm well aware of special A/V cables for certain systems that will give me (for that one platform) a nice digital output that will go into the TV no problem. Those cables are way $$$ and awfully device specific. I'm figuring there should be a box I can pick up for $40 and that'll connect A to B for all of my systems. One at a time, of course. Ideas?
A quick look at your user manual says you already have the composite ports there. You just need to use the green component for video and the red/white for audio. So no need to buy anything
We had this issue when trying to stream old consoles on Twitch because our capture card only works for HDMI. We found that this composite to HDMI upconverter from Amazon worked well (after trying out several that did not). It comes with all the cables that you need, though it requires power to convert from native composite output to HDMI, so you will need to plug it in. It uses USB power, but it comes with an adapter so you can plug it into an outlet.
I would also suggest getting a composite switch box so that you can easily switch between your consoles without needing to go behind your TV and fumble with cables. The output of this box would go into the upconverter so you'd get HDMI output from all of your consoles without needed to worry about what's going on back there.
A quick google search composite to vga returns plenty of options for you,£125 to £13
THere's always this but i think it's gona be pricey for you.