GBS 82XX - Upscale, deinterlace and now downsample

Video Games
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Thanks both. It was missing a reply to the earlier post. :crazy_face:

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Iā€™m ā€œthe guyā€ selling the modified GBS8200 boards on Tindie. Just wanted to drop a note that I have the clockgens in stock and have updated the store page. =]

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Very cool! Welcome! Have you had a chance to mess around much with downscaling options? Iā€™m curious about how it works.

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Hello, does the modified GBS8200 RGB to VGA converter board come with GBS Control custom firmware for 240p?

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It does have the ESP board with custom firmware.

Hmm the price was $75 when he added the clock-gen board but now itā€™s $85.

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Could be he wasnā€™t making any money on them as is. Itā€™s tough with niche stuff like this.

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I bought one of these awhile ago from @Chipnetics and finally had time to dink around with it. Iā€™m only interested in downscaling (Iā€™m a goof who wants to play and watch everything on a 480i CRT) and once I found a useful HDMI to component adapter it works very simply and exactly how I was hoping!

Simply a matter of setting the input device to output 480p and clicking a few things in a web interface. Slick and easy.

I bought mine before the added clock mod, but I donā€™t think that will matter in my setup. I should add he was a pleasure to deal with.

Also for reference, I was looking for advice on what HDMI to component adapter to buy that would work and couldnā€™t find many recommendations, so here is a link to the one I am using that works no hassle - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085C93GJD

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Thanks for the kind words @bobble !

For those interested, I have more stock in again (https://www.tindie.com/products/21151/). Usually sell out pretty fast; I get new boards about every 3 weeksā€¦ unfortunately incoming gbs8200 boards from China are taking very long to arrive. =[

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Actually just placed an order for one. Really excited to use this mainly for the Cave games on the 360. Also MvC2 at 240p probably looks amazing.

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Hi everyone - Iā€™m the dude who currently sells the pre-assembled GBS8200 units on Tindie that has been mentioned in this thread from time to time.

I wanted to drop a link to a Kickstarter that hopefully many of you will find of interest and perhaps support. It is for an autosensing 4-port switch (SCART & DSUB) combined with the GBS8200 and GBS Control firmware. It also will support automatic loading of saved system profiles. One of the stretch goals will be adding the circuitry to stack 8,12, 16, etc. mammoth switches (even mixing SCART with DSUB)!

Let me know if you have any questions! There is a product video demonstration in the Kickstarter as well as these are functioning units. Thanks a lot! :D

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Looks cool but Iā€™m intrigued what is driving the cost this high? The GBS is $20 and this is $170ā€“$310.

Iā€™m 100% VGA and currently use a combination of:

  1. GBSC (as scaler and deinterlacer)
  2. KVM (as VGA/Audio switch)
  3. Extron DVS 304 (as input selector; and most importantly for output sync consolidation so my VGA display only needs one global sync setting)

So I need to understand the reason that this is over 5x the combined cost of GBSC+KVM and over 3x the cost of GBSC+KVM+DVS.

Iā€™ve read the Kickstarter but am still unsure exactly what this is or what I need. So, I think itā€™s too confusing as it is.

Some other thoughts:

  • does output from each dsub require custom sync at display? (see my Extron note above)
  • is Rama cool with this? given his firmware is essential to your product.
  • what lag, if any, does this introduce? video proof would be good.
  • Type-A-only PSU is a turnoff for many international buyers. Iā€™m in the UK.
  • international shipping and import duty would need to be covered for me to entertain a purchase.
  • are these renders? I didnā€™t think Kickstarter allowed renders.
  • cost breakdown?

That said, good luck with the Kickstarter!

ps: for Wii 480p I have used a lag-free HDMI adapter plus HDMI to VGA adapter. Currently I use Component to VGA.

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Looks like the GBS-C AIO is also up for pre-order now.

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Hi Matt, thanks for the wishesā€¦ few replies below, for what itā€™s worth:

Hope this helps!

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Thanks for the compressive answers!

  1. Some clarification: 480p out of a DC is different spec than 480p out of a Wii, in terms of sync and position. So passing these through unmodified means that after every input select I would also need to go into my TV menu and do an ā€œadjustā€ so that it displays the image correctly.

    So I use an Extron to take care of that automatically: the single output always has the same sync and position regardless of the properties of the input signals. I never have to touch my display menu!

    Does your device take care of that in any way?

  2. Thatā€™s great and very generous of you. :+1:

  3. Nice!

  4. Right. My point is that theyā€™re not international plugs. Do they offer a PSU with world attachments?

  5. Import duty would add a significant amount to the total. 25%? Most fulfillment companies can take care of this as part of their package. Kickstarter have a guide on it, too.

  6. Amazing photography!

  7. Thanks so much for that. It appears that premium/expensive techniques have been chosen for production.

Cheers

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Fwiw in all my years of importing Iā€™ve never once had this happen - I always have to pay the import duties myself.

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I was referring to Kickstarters specifically. Not general importing. Fulfillment companies all offer the option of taking care of import duty, going so far as recommending it as best practice. eg. Fulfillrite

Interestingly these days eBay automatically add import duty for most international purchases.

I was stung too many times with import duty so I made the decision to only back those that included import duty. Happy side-effect was that I cooled off a bit on Kickstarters.

ps: Playdate hardware will apparently include import duty after the paid developer preview units were all met with considerable import duty.

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Yes Iā€™ve backed many Kickstarters and itā€™s been the same case for that, well in NZ anyway. Having said that, I havenā€™t backed any since our laws changed to charge duties on all purchases, not just those above a certain dollar amount, so Iā€™m not sure how that would be calculated these days.

I imagine at 15% itā€™d be a pretty big cost hit for someone making a product though.

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Our laws in the UK just changed to charge duty on pretty much all foreign purchases. RIP import gaming.

Itā€™s part of the fullfilment deal. It comes out as less per item than if every individual paid it.

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Ugh, sorry for your loss. It sucks. I have only bought 1-2 things since then. It works out better for us if youā€™re buying more expensive stuff (they used to charge an extra fee for that and now they donā€™t) but 15% on everything really adds up quickly. RIP.

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@matt Kickstarter doesnā€™t do any fulfillment, they are really just an escrow/middleman. All shipping is done by myself. The volume isnā€™t there to offer incoterms dpp (duty paid by shipper), the financial risk exposure would be immense with various countries having varying fee schedules. Companies that pay duty on their end are really burying the cost in the product itself or have government sway (i.e. Amazon) . Thereā€™s no avoiding paying your local government unfortunatelyā€¦ Much as I wish there was. :slight_smile:

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