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First of all, I know very well that modern TVs are neither made for, nor good at, displaying old video game consoles' video signals. With that said, I'm trying to test the controllers of an N64 where I've just put new analogue sticks into its controllers, so I need to see some kind of video to check if they work correctly. I currently have no CRT TV here.

But there is no video. I only hear audio.

The TV has no SCART connector, so I had to unplug the N64's output cable's yellow, white and red cables from the SCART connector which they are normally connected to and then plug those cables into the TV's connectors on the back side individually. But it just says "invalid signal" or something along those lines. I think it's expecting/supporting only "component" cables, but these are the most basic cables... "composite video", I think it's called.

So is that it? I just cannot technically display the video output of a N64 on this modern TV? I'd have to buy some converter hardware or something just for this?

I did try to look in all kinds of settings on the TV but found no "pretend the component video connector is a composite one mode" or similar. But it seems strange to me that it would not support this, even if poorly.

Is there a way which I'm missing?

For your convenience, this is the product webpage with specs: https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs/lg-43UK6200PLA And here is a direct link to a photo of its back side: https://www.lg.com/uk/images/tvs/MD06014117/gallery/large05.jpg

I don't think I've ever had any kind of hardware in my life which actually had "component" cables.

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    The N64 is notorious for its crappy connectors and boot failures. First check with another TV set.
    – Janka
    May 5, 2021 at 20:57
  • Items in my house with component video out: Blu-Ray player, cable-TV box, A-V receiver. All of which are now using HDMI instead :-)
    – another-dave
    May 5, 2021 at 22:11
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    Have you tried cycling among the display's inputs? It might consider "component" and "composite" to be different inputs even though they share a set of RCA jacks. If you tell it to expect component input while feeding it composite video, it'll be confused because it isn't getting the Pb and Pr signals.
    – Warren Young
    May 5, 2021 at 23:01
  • Which of the three video connectors did you connect the yellow plug into?
    – jcaron
    May 6, 2021 at 8:44
  • "I don't think I've ever had any kind of hardware in my life which actually had "component" cables." You seem to be in the UK. In PAL areas analogue component video used RGB over a SCART connector. YPrPb component video using 3 RCA phono connectors is more common in NTSC areas, such as the US, where they didn't use SCART connectors. Another-dave's answer should sort you out. Plug your yellow plug into the Video/Y socket (typically multi-coloured) and select composite input on your TV.
    – Graham Nye
    May 6, 2021 at 23:05

3 Answers 3

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The spec you posted says the TV has composite in (i.e., your yellow connector from the Nintendo).

The manual at that web site shows composite video going to the leftmost phono socket, labelled Video/Y. That is, one socket does double-duty for component and composite.

The relevant part of the diagram is here.

AV connections

As to whether it'll work with your Nintendo, user Logarr has said:

Any display device that accepts composite video, whether through a double duty green component video port or a dedicated yellow composite port will support the N64. The range of resolutions supported by those ports is an established standard, and the N64 falls within that range.

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    Any display device that accepts composite video, whether through a double duty green component video port or a dedicated yellow composite port will support the N64. The range of resolutions supported by those ports is an established standard, and the N64 falls within that range.
    – Logarr
    May 6, 2021 at 14:12
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The manual for the TV only lists 480i/p and higher resolutions as explicitly supported over component (which likely translates to support over composite as well). Most Nintendo 64 games ran at 240p, and as such might not be compatible with your TV.

You will likely need to use a separate upscaler to bring the signal to one of the supported resolutions. Those can be had for relatively cheap, although beware of simple HDMI "converters" which may end up just outputting 240p over HDMI.

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    There wasn't an actual "240p" signal type in the analog era; it was 480i with a slightly tweaked timing so that every field would be a "top" field. Analog TVs weren't complicated enough to ever do the wrong thing. Digital TVs, which have to sample the analog signal, may or may not get terribly messed up depending on how they generate their timing.
    – hobbs
    May 6, 2021 at 14:07
  • Don't think it has anything to do with the timing, but with signals in the vertical blanking interval. And yes, I doubt that the TV would go to the trouble of supporting composite video but not support 240p, even if it's not listed in the manual.
    – Muzer
    May 6, 2021 at 14:52
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    @Muzer I've mostly seen TVs be fussy about 240p over HDMI (my own one will happily take 240p from my PS2 over component, but not with a HDMI converter) rather than analog inputs, but it's still possible that the manufacturer checks what signal it's getting and rejects anything it doesn't explicitly support.
    – Maciej Stachowski
    May 6, 2021 at 22:16
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My previous TV had 1 combo component/composite input (basically, if you wanted composite (RCA, the yellow/white/red), you'd plug in white and red to white and red and yellow (video) went into the green/yellow plug; for composite, you'd do red/white audio and red/green/blue video. My newest TV is like the one you show, e.g. component only. So, AFAIK, yes, if you want to hook up a composite only input to your TV, you will need an adapter. I don't know about the N-64, but my PS-2 did support an alternate cable that did component out (and there was at least one baseball game that would support hitting a special code to switch to higher resolution to take advantage of)

(Edit: not a recommendation, but https://www.amazon.com/Nintendo64-Converter-Cable-Restore-Screen/dp/B07VB8HD8X/ would seem to meet your needs (and skip the whole composite/component issue unless you have too many other things that also want HDMI)

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