Retro AV |OT| RGB, CRTs, Upscalers, and more

CastleMania Games has the Retrovision HD cables in stock for anyone else who was waiting for them to appear again.

https://castlemaniagames.com/shop?olsPage=t%2Fhd-retrovision

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I have one. I was in the first batch. It’s awesome. Highly recommended. Video via composite taken on my iPhone 8.

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Wow, nice vid, that’s way better than expected. I hope to get that someday.

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I love it. It’s a very solid device. I need to throw more things at it. Holidays really got in the way. I hope to make some more silly videos in 2019 specifically with the TINK.

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Yeah, you should. This would come in handy for the PS2 and 480i games as I would prefer something like this to use component on(as I can only use svideo to deinterlace 480i games).

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I ordered the Retrovision Genesis cable today along with the Neo Geo converter. I’ll definitely be doing something with those when they arrive. I really goofed last week. Best Buy had the Elgato HD60 S on sale for $129.99 and I wanted to get that so I could stream retro with the TINK via HDMI. I think that would be a unique way to show retro on a stream and definitely more fun with original hardware running the games than through emulation as I assume most people do for their videos.

That’s part or why I have just used my phone so far. It seems more genuine. I’m an analog guy in a digital world…

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Do you not have a OSSC or Framemeister? (I have both) I was wondering who the tink was for in our circle. I figured you had a full rgb set up with the awesome Neo Geo collection you have.

I always fight with my nature to play games on my 4K tvs or my analogue monitors. I think with the new LG announcement, I am finally going to have a fixed pixel tv that is on almost equal footing to my analog setup (and pc setup) in terms of input lag and blacks. I really don’t know how long I am going to be able to hold back on buying a 2019 OLED.

That TV sounds beastly. I’ve been waiting for this HDMI spec for a long time. Just wish Nvidia weren’t such snobs with their vrr tech and Sony would wake the fuck up to it.

It’ll be nice to finally get 720p integered from my FM, AVS, and (maybe) OSSC

When I stream or record footage for videos I want to make (what it’s only been like 4 or 5 years now that I’ve been saying I’m going to start a youtube channel, and post videos on the regular) I use the Elgato HD60 with original hardware through my Framemeister. Looks and works great, I have no complaints with it. The only thing to note with the HD60 S vs the HD60 is that the S uses USB 3.0 and it has to be a USB 3.0 port controlled by either the Intel or AMD controller on your motherboard. If it uses a Marvel or another brand USB 3.0 controller it doesn’t work for some reason. I had this problem with the Avermedia capture device I first bought (my capture PC didn’t have any USB 3.0 ports actually controlled by the Intel USB controller). So it just wouldn’t work. Granted that was 2 - 3 years ago and might not be the case any more, but it is worth mentioning.

I do not have an OSSC or a Framemeister. Both devices, besides being pricey, just seemed like a lot of hassle for someone that has a really nice late Sony Trinitron to play on. The amount of time I see folks spending on tweaking things with those devices pretty much turned me off. I want to play games, not tinker with them to make them look like the TV I have upstairs anyway.

The RetroTINK2x is perfect for me, because it is immediate. You plug it in, plug in your console, and the games appear, with no lag, no tweaking, nothing but the actual game you want to play looking good. Could it look better? Sure. When the component cables arrive, it’ll be a major step up from the composite I used above. As my tag says, I was an S-Video guy back when that was “new”. It was great! I really appreciated that upgrade, but that’s as good as it got for me back then, so just being able to play all my old consoles on an HDTV without worrying about lag or sound problems (both of which I have experienced first hand) via a $100 device at the push of a button is awesome.

I think I’m skipping the Mega Sg because while it will allow for more tweaking and some neat additions, it’s tough to justify it in the face of buying something that works for all my old consoles. I’ll order the Saturn adapter for the Retrovision cable when it’s back in stock. I spaced on that the other day. I do have S-Video for that though. :slight_smile:

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I plan on buying the Mega SG. I honestly view Analogue consoles as semi official hardware. I would buy just about anything from them.

As far as you other point. I spend more time on PQ than gaming. That is true, but once things get set up I really feel like I enjoy it more. I have always wanted the best picture possible. This is why I actually own GameCube component cables from that era. The person on the phone actually talked a bit of shit when I ordered them. Not everyone has a fancy tv they said. I said, its just a regular CRT with component, its not fancy, its just new.

The 2019 OLEDs are my end game. Years of wanting a new tv that checks the retro and modern boxes is finally here. I might have to get a tate mount like @Socksfelloff got.

That must be the reason they didn’t sell many, the sales guy they had shamed people into not buying them so they could hoard them all!

That man? Jeff Bezos.

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I recently joined the OSSC family and just spent the afternoon trying to get 480p x2 mode working with my Dreamcast via VGA. Starting to get that sinking feeling that my TV just isn’t going to cooperate with it - a Panasonic 1080p plasma (TC-P50G10). I’ve followed the suggestions mentioned at the end of this article, but it didn’t make a difference and I still get a blank screen. Any other tips or things I should try before I thrown in the towel?

480p pass-through looks decent, and with scanlines enabled I think it’s an overall improvement from plugging directly into the VGA port on the TV, but I was really hoping to take advantage of the line doubling.

For reference, here’s what I’ve been able to get so far:

(Any way to remove those black bars on the side completely? I’ve tweaked the advanced timing settings like crazy, but can’t seem to do any better than that.)

I would like to share my stupidity with you guys. I have used a Sony CRT since 2006 and have been gaming on it often. It hasn’t been repaired or anything. Picture quality is great too. Problem is the picture setting that I have been using is inferior. The setting is vivid which I thought was just making the screen brighter. I don’t know. Setting the TV to vivid just made the colors pop out. So 13 years I have been playing on that setting. Then just last night while playing around the settings of my TV, I found that in standard setting, colors are neutral. I always thought vivid has neutral colors too but lo and behold, I was wrong. Standard has the better colors. MGS3 in vivid setting is closer to a greenish filter while in standard, it was a mix of green and brown. Yes, the picture isn’t as bright but the colors are significantly superior in standard. I have tried multple 480i consoles and all the games I’ve tested so far have looked better in standard setting, Gamecube especially. Man… in vivid Gamecube games are grainy but in standard, grain is barely noticeable. REmake absolutely looks stunning with the pre-rendered background looking a sharper and even HD looking.

TL;DR: I set my TV in the inferior setting for 13 years and setting it right breathes new life to my games.

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Well, better late than never!

(the grain on vivid seems that it read also applying some sharpening?)

Might make sense whilst you’re changing to see if there is a game mode (switch it on!) or any other settings you’re not sure about?

If you post exact TV model we can happily advise

I only got vivd, standard, and custom. No game mode. CRT is just a Sony Wega SW212N60. I’ve had it for more than a decade and have been serving me well. Do you guys know anyway calibration stuff that I can follow? Like a DVD or something?

Well, here is your manual. https://www.sony-asia.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/2671/26710441M.pdf

Looks like a good TV!

Getting the “best” picture is a very deep and expensive rabbit hole. I’d encourage you to just have fun after a small trip down the hole. There are many meanings of “best” - such as the absolute technical peak, or simply the one that you enjoy the most. There’s no problem if they are different.

Your TV supports labelling an input as “GAME” (page 15) which I’d encourage. Sometimes the TV switches off some other things (such as setting neutral colour and turning off sharpness) when you activate that label on an input.

You might also want to set Colour Temperature to “Neutral” (page 10) and set “Intelligent Picture” to “off” (page 11).

You might want to make sure you’re using optimal cables. The best connection your TV supports is Component (page 7, sometimes labeled Y/CB/CR, Y/PB/PR, Y/Cb/Cr or Y/B-Y/R-Y). This connection is much much better than the only other alternative (Composite) on your TV.

You can get calibration DVD and software to run on specific consoles/computers/devices, but best only do this if you’re running everything over component.

Let us know how you get on!

And here’s a nice followup video:

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Thanks. Yup, I’ve got the color temperature set to neutral. That was automatically selected when I chose standard. Intelligent Picture Plus is also off. The only thing I haven’t done is the label. I’ll do that as soon as I get home and see if it changes anything. I’m actually excited. Hahahaha! My 480i consoles are connected to component via a Monoprice component switcher. So far it’s been good.

I’m currently subscribed to MLiG and have seen that video. I hope they make a video about adjusting geometry like what they said but it’s been a long time since then.

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It happens. Having a too-bright screen with the contrast settings dialed way to high is a common thing among everyone I know.

Neutrality is pleasant on the eyes but also lets the image simply come through naturally and hides the Tv’s capabilities to some extent. Vivid is more like “look how much contrast I can have!” so most people feel tempted to use it even though it’s uglier in most contexts.

If it makes you feel any better, the brightness setting on my PVM was set too high until recently.