Wonderweasel82, could you post what the exact model number of your TV is, so we'll have a record for people to avoid this TV.

He did post the model, it's Vizio E320-B0E

Just avoid Vizio in general as most likely they all use the same scaler.

Yup, mkiker got it.

I fix LED/LCD and Plasma Panels for a hobby. I have done 3 Vizio panels 1 plasma and 2 LCD and none of them had any issues like this and I test all inputs. I test the Coaxil input with a NES since I dont have cable and they all have played just fine.  Honestly it sounds like a mainboard issue since its a newer LED TV I would call Vizio and talk to them about it something is not right with your panel. 

you'd have to test the composite input with a NES to be sure that the TV accepts 240p via composite. It's not unheard of for newer tv's to have issues with classic game consoles. I belong to an Atari forum and the 2600 is even further out of spec than later consoles forcing people to use CRTs or upscalers to get a decent picture.

The OP was not having an issue with the caox input. It is on the composite input.  are the ones you fixed older, or the newer style where they combined composite/component inputs into 1 (like the OP's TV)?  I'm thinking its an issue they caused when they moved to this setup.

I think you sort of missed the point of what I said. I only had a nes to test coaxial here since I don't have cable to make sure the rf connection was indeed working, I understand the op is not having an issue with rf connection.

I have 3 2013 panels here, a 55" LED 3D Samsung, 51" Sammy plasma and a 60" LG. All 3 of these panels have 4 hdmi and only 1 shared connection for Componate and composite signals.

I have ran, n64,SNES and a toaster NES to these units and have not seen any unsupported video mode problems. A little background on vizio they are are made by LG they have mostly LG parts in them some of the older stuff was made by both LG and Samsung.

To me it seems like the video controller is broken and is having issues detecting a Componate or composite connection and since he did a firmware update and not thing are really not working and acting wonky, vizio is a decent budget brand and also have a high failure rate right out of the box.

Op have you tried a standard DVD player with Componate and composite connections yet?

Also try just putting only the yellow input into the green no audio hooked into it and see what happens.

The cool thing about your panel op is your mainboard is only 35-25 bucks super cheap!

yes, but you dont have a Vizio set up that way. it could be a couple of different things. the op seems to be ok just running his consoles through rf so not sure if hes interested in testing further. he was able to get some games to work through composite on the n64 so the port does sort of work at least. Maybe if he called Vizio customer service, he could get a better answer and possibly get the tv repaired if its supposed to be working.

A google search shows that other people have had the same issue like in this thread:

http://www.nintendolife.com/forum...
"tried that, and the message on my TV said "Mode Not Supported"."

To me the issue is clear, his scaler does not accept non-spec 240p signals. If a 64 game running in "HD" which at the time meant NTSC SD works but games running at the default 240p don't then it's pretty simple.

Now if it's a hardware fault, we can't say for sure. If it is though it's a darn specific one.

Just to clarify, the OP can play 480 content, just nothing below that.

This is actually similar to a problem in the Atari forum. People were using cheap converter boxes to hook the Atari's up but new ones no longer accept the signal since it's out of spec and low power. this has led to a run on old VCRs in some circles as even if the tape portion doesn't work many of them will accept the RF and output it either via coax or component in a form TVs are happier with.

If N64 240p doesn't work, then his HDTV flat out doesn't accept 240p. That stinks for retro-gaming as even the PS2 has a few games that fully or partly make use of 240p resolution.

Other than a new TV, the only other workarounds are running the consoles through RF (bleh!) or through an external video processor like a Framemeister.

Op said N64 was working and now acting up on SWSOTE, So yes hardware failure obscure like this can happen. For example, I had a Vizio GVL47 that I got it was a 1080p 1920x1080 panel. I plugged in my bluray player and started up my test disc, and the second the 1920x1080 content hit the picture became solorized, pixilated and distorted.  I figured the HDMI ports were shot so I took it to 1080i and hooked up the Componate cables and got a crystal clear picture no issues and it wasnt till then that I thought eh might as well try this via digial so I hooked the HDMI back up and tried 1080i all the way down to 420p and the picture was flawless. Ended up being the HDMI controller for 1920x1080 signals was shot it was a very well known issue with this panel and other Vizio/LG shared mainboards.  I am trying to locate a true service manal for the ops Panel as the pack in manual is worthless as a wooden crowbar and mentions nothing about unsupported mode troubleshooting.

Heya.. I think I know what you need to do, that unsupported mode sounds kinda familiar to me. Do you have game mode setting on your tv? Try messing with that setting, I think it needs to be on.

Game mode shuts down processes in the Panel to help reduce input lag. Its worth a shot but I dont know if it will help.

Well I had some similar kind of error I dont remember what it said exactly, but my brother came over and turned the game mode setting and it worked great after that.

Hi everyone--

Well I tried a few more of the suggested tests on my TV: I tried running the SNES with only the yellow video cable connected, and got the unsupported mode error. I also tried the 64, and all of the games showed up (except Shadows of the Empire, which gave me the unsupported mode error again.) I also hooked up a standalone DVD player with composite cables, and it displayed just fine. I then hooked up my standalone blu-ray player with both component and composite cables, and it displayed just fine. I'm really thinking this TV just wants nothing to do with anything below 480i lol.

It would be interesting to see what the compatability of A/V modded Ataris is. Atari signal (2600/5200/7800) is way more messed up than NES/SNES/Genny.

It seems that only the newer TVs with the Component/Composite shared inputs are affected by classic consoles. The timings are near perfect on NES/SNES/Genesis. Instead of alternating 262 and 263 scanlines, the console sends 262 scanlines every frame. For PAL, this figure is 312. All other timings are perfect NTSC spec I believe. By deleting that one scanline it goes from 480i @59.94i to 240p @60.10p

I had a 2600 app that changes the scanline count to detect the rolling tolerance of CRTs. On my 2006 Sanyo HDTV using RF, it properly displayed every scanline count the program could display, I believe the selectable range was from 128 to 383 scanlines. On the low end, the Sanyo displayed multiple screens; on the high end, it just cropped the bottom off.

Well, I have an Atari 7800, but it doesn't have the A/V mod. I've hooked it up to my Vizio through the coaxial using a phono-to-f adapter.

Wierd that everything works with RF but not composite. You can try demodulating the 7800 using a VCR. The Atari consoles in particular have inaccurate timings in the H-scan as well as scanline count. For instance, the exact number of NTSC colorburst cycles per H-scan is off by like one cycle on Atari consoles. The NES and SNES I believe have the correct number of colorbusrt cycles on the h-scan, but the scanline count on most retro consoles is 262+262 (240p @60.0988Hz) instead of 262+263 (480i @59.94Hz). For Atari 2600 games the number of scanlines is adjustable by software, so PAL games played on an NTSC 2600 will roll the picture on many tube TVs. Some 3rd party games had wildly varying scanline counts. Either way it seems that all or most of the newer HDTVs with integrated component/composite input have issues with 240p signal, whereas the older HDTVs with discrete analog inputs did not. Part of the problem is virtually all sets are either manufactured in the far east or use chipsets off the same assembly line, regardless of country of manufacture (meaning where they are assembled, not where the raw parts come from). In essence we've got a situation similar to the clone hardware problem with all brands of clones using the same chips. You could easily have a dozen different brands of HDTV getting their analog decoder chip from the same factory. Literally none of the currently available HDTVs use discrete analog inputs anymore. Your Visio likely used a separate discrete decoder for the RF that is more tolerant of the 240p signals than the composite/component integrated chip that all sets now use. And it gets worse. Many manufacturers still have an F-jack on the backs of HDTVs, but more and more often the RF tuners are digital only and many sets no longer have analog RF capabilities.

I think you're right, and I'm going to call vizio tomorrow to 100% confirm that the integrated input just doesn't like the old consoles, and that it's not a hardware defect.

I am curious to see what happens with my Atari hooked up through a VCR that's hooked up through the RCA cables. I'll try that tonight and post the results.

All of your consoles will probably work if you run them through the vcr first I think. Test the NES, SNES, and Shadows of the Empire also if you can. I was not thinking of the VCR idea as hardly anyone has one of those laying around anymore.

Stardust and I are from the Atari world. We know what that it takes some strange engineering sometimes to get older consoles to work.

Trust me on this, save your old VCRs even if the tape portion no longer works. We'll need them eventually.

Well, I have a DVD/VHS combo and a standalone VHS. Is there a difference in the video output between the two?

Shouldn't be as long as you are connecting it with composite cables.  DVD combo may have component out too for 480p from the DVD player. 

I own ever atari console/computer made the us outside of the Falcon computer and I have never needed a VCR to play any of them on any LED/LCD Plasma TV using RCA or RF with a F-Type Coaxial dongle.  Works everytime, mind you I only can hook one up at a time that way but I do have a RF Splitter box that I can add up to 5 on.

Never had any issues other then the picture looking dim and such but thats normal operation due to resoluton..

My apologies, everyone; I've had a bit of a family emergency to deal with, and I haven't gotten around to testing the Atari through the VCR. I'll try to get it done tonight.