UPDATE: I talked to Mike Chi through the customer support on the site. He said that it’s most likely due to my monitor being set to “Full Color” instead of “Limited”. I guess most monitors/tv’s handle this automatically, but mine doesn’t seem to. And I don’t have access to that option in my menus. Turning off “Game Mode” helps, but doesn’t completely solve my issue. So it’s due to my display, specifically.
Hey Everyone,
Brand new here, so sorry if I’ve put this in the wrong section, but I’ve been looking for help with my RetroTink setup…
I’m using my PS2 to play PS1 games. I have 2 different cables, one being the official PS2/PS3 component cable, and another being an s-video cable that I bought in like 2010 that has a connector for 5 or 6 consoles. (Playstation, xbox, gamecube, wii, etc.)
At first I was worried that because the s-video cable was probably a cheap multi-console hack, that was the reason for the bad image quality. So I went and found my component cable, and tried that, but I get the same image result.
The image doesn’t seem to be using blacks properly, they all turn grey, and there is a lot of noise on screen. It’s pretty distracting.
I have also tested the retroTink with my gamecube (and the s-video cable mentioned above) and I get the same issue.
Does anyone have any ideas on what could be happening? Is it an issue with my display? Do I have a faulty RetroTink? Have all the crisp beautiful videos showing the upscaling been filthy lies?! (I’m just playing)
Uh, my Retrotink 2x is fine, I’m not sure what’s going on with yours. And yeah I use svideo and for PS2 the Monster Component cable as well. Heck I even like how N64 looks through svideo with it. Oh wow at that pic!
Sorry I can’t help you personally, but if you have a twitter account I frequently see the creator replying to questions or issues. You could reach out to him.
I don’t have twitter, but it may be worth creating one.
I tried to go through the support on the website, but I didn’t buy my retroTink through the website. I bought it from another seller. According to their terms, that voids me getting support through the official site.
Yeah, that may be what I need to do. I can’t find any confirmation emails about buying it though, and I can’t remember what site I bought it from… I have the RetroTink in my posession but have no idea how it got there. lol
OH DUH! I almost never use Paypal, so I didn’t even think of that. It’s totally on there, AND I bought it from the official site. So I’m gonna try and get a replacement.
(I’m bumping this thread because I had a similar issue to OP and this is one of the first google result for “retrotink 2x bad component image”. Who knows, this might help them!)
The TL:DR: Be sure the comb switch on the side of the device is set to AUTO and not RETRO.
The long story: Yesterday I got the HD Retrovision component cables to connect my PS2 to my retrotink 2x pro, but the picture looked really bad. Very blurry and noisy, basically the same as that gif up above. Infact, s-video mode looked noticeably sharper than component when switching inputs, like component mode was outputting the same picture as composite! So when I did a google search and found this thread, I figured it might be the colour bandwith issue suggested above since OP had a Samsung monitor and I am playing on a Samsung 4K TV-
-Except that didn’t make much sense. Previously I had the PS2 connection with a RAD2X, a device that uses the same technology as the retrotink but wired to output RGB instead of whatever output you throw at it, and with how reputable the HD Retrovision cables are, I judged an issue with the connecting material was unlikely. So I looked some more and found this page
Right Side Switches
These switches are hard to reach, but you won’t need them that often.
Comb filtering: adjusts the chroma/luma separation for composite and for consoles like NES the Retro option is better
Auto: automatic adjustment of filtering for more recent consoles
Retro: minimises ringing, makes picture quality a bit better for composite connections from older retro consoles (like NES)
I figured “well I’m not using composite here” so I fliped the switch to auto and you know what, it immediately fixed my problem. It immediately looked as good as the RAD2X did. I hope this helps some people!
