Composite 240p Performance, Disabling Vertical Edge Enhancement

by Eli Krause

I. For composite decoding this set uses a Toshiba TC90A53N, a 3-line digital comb filter. One beneficial feature of this comb filter is its "1-line color dot interference reducer circuit". Depending on the console/revision, dot artifacting ranges from slight to moderate, and blending effects may be broken. Using an external notch filter to decode composite instead and sending that to the s-video or component input would blend all dithering patterns and remove nearly all dot artifacts (guide here).

TC90A53N

II. Vertical edge enhancement artificially alters the color/intensity of scanlines at vertical edge transitions for composite and RF sources, to where it visibly no longer matches the original presentation. To reduce this effect to its minimum, the high signal sent to pin 17 of the comb filter must be brought low which can be achieved by removing the resistor leading to that pin.

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