Lost Nintendo History Gives the DS Lite a Missing Feature: A TV-Out Port for Big Screen Gaming
A low-cost open-hardware and a custom ROM unlock a feature of the DS Lite hidden since its launch: TV output capabilities.
A team of Nintendo enthusiast engineers have published a board build and software hack that gives Nintendo's classic DS Lite handheld console something it has never had: video out for an external display.
"During late 2020, we discovered that the Nintendo DS Lite had a leftover feature in its SoC [System on Chip] allowing it to easily have cheap hardware video output," explains Lost Nintendo History's Pedro Javier of the project, which was brought to our attention by Krista Noren on GBAtemp. "With a little circuitry and some software hacks, we were able to restore it and make it usable for anyone. No FPGAs, no bulky or cumbersome hardware."
"This mod is specially useful to revive consoles with only the lower screen, being able to watch the upper screen on your TV. Or to create a GBA [Game Boy Advance] Macro with additional TV output."
Compatible only with the Nintendo DS Lite, the TV-OUT system takes two forms: A custom firmware which re-enables the functionality in the SoC, disabled by Nintendo in the shipping firmware; and a hardware add-on board which takes the video signal from the DS Lite's motherboard and makes it usable with an external display.
"The final, production-ready board contains a DAC (digital to analog converter), which turns the 10 bits digital signal at 16.7 MHz provided by the DS Lite into a proper analog signal," Javier explains. "This signal then goes through an operational amplifier and it’s ready to be delivered to your nearest TV trough composite video."
There are a couple of caveats to modifying a DS Lite this way, however. The biggest is that the current version of the TV-OUT board disables the upper of the DS Lite's two displays; the other is that you can only have either the upper or lower display output to the external monitor at any given time, not both simultaneously. "We are currently considering creating an additional PCB revision which would allow to install the mod on consoles without losing a working upper screen," Javier notes.
More details on the project are available on GitHub, along with schematics and Gerber files for the TV-OUT board itself.