I guess the truth can’t hide forever.
As mentioned previously, Mike Chi comes across as a great guy plus he was the one who moved the whole upscaler scene forward, even outdoing the previous masters of affordable scalers, Micomsoft.
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The RetroTink2x is a marvel even today. Plug and play electronics at its finest.
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I’ve been playing around with the RetroTINK5X Pro in the past few days and I’m loving it.
So far - I barely set up my Japanese MegaDrive 2/Mega CD 2 - it appears to be the perfect upgrade and successor to the OSSC, as it improves upon it in every possible key-area I was hoping for.
Looking back to my original post and replying to my own questions will hopefully manifest my current level of satisfaction.
Ease of use
After all the firmware updates (I didn’t follow the entire evolution of the device but I’m aware its firmware has been constantly kept up to date), is it possible to just set up as many dedicated profiles for each console, expecting spot-on results out of the box? Or quibbles like resolution switching, having to fine tune advanced timing/sampling phases, spending ages in the video settings in general are still chores to deal with with the RT5x?
The logic behind the Tink seems to be completely different, compared to what I’ve been used to, with the OSSC. The new device wants to be (at lest, that’s my feeling) a plug and play solution that just works out of the box and - although it’s still possible to tinker around for hours - it was pretty mind blowing to see what it could do, only a couple of minutes in.
More specifically. the triple buffering option that provides a seamless switch through different resolutions is a huge quality of life improvement, to me personally. I’ll take the ‘occasional judder’ that it causes - which is noticeable, especially running a scrolling test with the 240p Suite - any day, as it renders games such as Vampire Killer, Splatterhouse Part 3 and many Mega/SEGA CD titles (that constantly jump from 256p menus or cutscenes to 320p gameplay) finally usable, with no screen-shaking at all.
Profiles are still a thing but I feel almost relieved to see how my general approach is rapidly changing from an ‘optimal timings at all costs’ stance to a more streamlined and CRT-oriented ‘4:3 for the Megadrive, 4:3 for the Saturn…’ philosophy.
Especially since the CRT filters here are truly something else…
CRT shaders
I see a lot of pictures here, in the scanlines thread, which lead me to believe that the Retrotink is quite capable in this regard. Are these post-processing effects/masks usable with all the resolutions (so also with consoles like the PS2, GameCube and the original XBOX)?
I’m still looking for my jaw, here.
As I run my MD (and I plan to do the same with the Saturn) in 720p, I’m in love with the softer look I managed to achieve on my 4K monitor, mixing the pre-emp filter to that beautiful BVM shader. That’s exactly how I always wanted retrogames to look like on a modern display.
I’ll add a few rough pics down below.
Performances with 480i content
I remember a few videos (one from @Yakumo himself) showing the RT5x can handle interlaced sources and get rid of the severe flickering which is otherwise typical with the OSSC bob-deinterlace most prominent feature. Did any of you ever test the real capabilities of the RetroTink and can confirm it prevents - for example - from temporary image retention to happen on IPS screens?
To my endless joy, I can indeed confirm that the 5X motion adaptive deinterlacer fully stabilizes the 480i flicker - I tested it intensively with Sonic The Hedgehog 2 splitscreen mode and also with Virtua Fighter 2 on the SEGA Saturn - preventing from any temporary image retention to happen on my IPS screen. This is, once again, a blessing and yet another massive quality of life improvement.
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those scanlines are a thing of beauty. the 5X looks awesome
Replacement CRT control boards in 2023
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sooo none of this got better - i’m sure she’s swamped, but retro access never got back to me on exchanging the cable, and again i’m well outside the window of alixpress caring - kinda taking this as a loss
really interested in the new one bob from retro RGB is on about
$225 shipped, and they intend to sell an expansion for 8 more scart switches, so they’d be pretty ideal for me - only thing is, i’m really hoping it’d play better with my setup. it says all format scart cables are good, just worried that feeding it from my component to RGB converter might trip it up the way it did my last switch?
might email gamescare and ask their thoughts, wish i could run this by bob himself to know for sure
Are there consumer LED panels that I could run games on similar to “Worlds Largest Pac Man” or “Bust a Move Frenzy”?
I would pay a nice price for a 640x480 LED panel of any size if there was a way to connect VGA or HDMI. Anyone familiar with a similar project? I really dig the look of those arcade games! Built in pixel perfect!
Apologies for the quality of the pics - if you’ve seen these in real life you know what I mean.
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Maybe… Trade Show LED Wall?
I believe a lot of then are Modular, made up of smaller square displays, which is why one often fails or has a different colour tint.
You can see the join half way up the left of the bottom pacman photo. That seems to be 4 joined together. Maybe they have their own electronics for splitting the video input?
They’re sold by pixel pitch targeting proposed viewing distance.
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I’ll try once more this Saturday on my way back. You never know but I’m not holding my breath. Fortunately, most of my 3DS collection was physical. But there were a few digital only games I had. Some DLC too like for smash.
Have you looked into purchasing one of those machines? There are a lot of them around now, maybe an older one would be reasonably priced and you could set it up to use a PC for input?
Retrotink 4K price revealed to be $750. About what I expected. Looking like it’ll be an impressive piece of kit
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I wonder if there is a chance of price drops over the years. Or maybe inflation can deflate it away over a decade…
It does seem like the CRT shaders are finally ‘there’.
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it also had BFI which can solve most of the motion clarity problem. only thing I’m worried about is stock running out or parts becoming unavailable, wick is why I’m thinking of getting it early
It’s a lot of scratch, but it does seem like the one size fits all never need another device option that will be used until I’m in the ground.
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of course it’s possible, but I don’t really see myself needing any more than this any time soon, it covers pretty much every base you can think of
this is without even going into tangential features that I can see myself using the hell out of like being able to upscale and play DVDs and VHS’s (or even 1080p Blu-ray’s)at 120hz, or downscaling and rescaling modern “retro” games, replete with the new amazing CRT masks
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No doubt it’s really powerful retro tech. I can imagine it becoming cheaper over time, especially if Mike has a tough time selling enough of them at the price it’s going for.
There’s probably enough of us weirdos out here though for it to stay up that high. It’s one and a half PS5s!
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I’m still running and mostly happy with the Framemeister, which was expensive but at least the AU dollar strong (parity with the US) when I bought it!
Actually JPY is still about equal with AUD so Japanese stuff is decent now, unfortunately this is in burgerbucks!
Just got my first 4K this year (LG C2) buy dang on the price of the Retrotink 4K. With conversion in my country thats >$1,000 CAD.
I’m not whining but just not in a position to afford that kind of luxury 
I know it will be amazing and Mike is amazing. Maybe when the dollar gets better (wishful thinking) I will jump on it!
I think I might be in the market for the 5x but not the 4k (never at $750!). Loved reading @Galdelico 's post above from August.
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Thank you, I’m glad!
If I can help and give you that final push into the 5X pit, ever since august my love and level of satisfaction with the RT grew to the point I
- upgraded my ‘retro’ display to a 24" 1440p OLED monitor, to enjoy those 720p to the fullest (overkill much, but everything looks sooo much nicer, now)
- cleaned up my RGB jungle with an RGC RetroTink 5X-Pro Manual SCART switch (I didn’t really feel the need of anything more elaborate/expensive than that)
- swapped the standard remote with the newer premium model (I just ordered one, so I cannot offer you a direct feedback yet)
Easily my retro device of the year, even though I’m open to further step up to the 4K, at some point.
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