Tagged: composite video

Decoding PAL Video from a Nintendo with An Airspy SDR Part 2

Oona combines composite output for color images.
Oona combines composite output for color images.

Last week we posted about Oona Räisänen's ([Windytan] and @windyoona) project to capture live video from her 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) using an Airspy SDR. In order to avoid expensive Video Capture cards which didn't work on her Mac, she used an Airspy SDR to decode the PAL composite video output of the NES. Last week she had black and white video working.

This week she has full color working, and has on her blog posted a write up about her project with the Airspy and her experiences with trying to find a suitable capture solution. She also goes into some detail about the CPU performance considerations of this solution, noting that there are some performance bottlenecks. She's also uploaded a video showing the results in action.

MacBook decodes PAL video via SDR