Scale from 480p HDMI input

Hi,
hope my question isn’t silly, but I’m wondering if there were external scaler for HDMI input. I have a Wii Dual, but I’m wondering if my TV is doing a really good job at scaling 480p to 1080p (mostly because scaling options are cryptic on my Philips TV).
Is there any good external scaler that can handle HDMI input and scale it, kinda like an OSSC, to fixed 2x/3x/etc. ?

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I am super fussy about 480p so I removed the need for any scaling by using a 480p LCD TV (20" Philips, over VGA). Details in another thread.

That’s the reason I didn’t get WiiDual in the end, because I don’t have a 480p HDMI capable set (actually I do have one, but it messes with the image - the only truly unmodified image is over VGA).

I’d wonder how good or bad your scaling is before trying to beat it?

There are Panasonic 4K TVs that do quad upscaling of 1080p but I’m not sure how they handle 480p.

Sorry to not really answer your question!

And welcome!

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Welcome! I’d agree with Matt to maybe try and suss just how bad it is first before spending a ton on a scaler, but I’m sure we have the expertise here to help you with that.

Are you using a 4K TV or 1080p?

Either way I suppose some good scaling to 1080p will be best as a decent 4K will integer scale 1080p.

This topic on shmups

https://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=66204#p1402636

Says:

  • Extron DSC 301 HD
  • Extron DSC HD-HD
  • forthcoming OSSC Pro

You could show us some pictures of the image you’re getting. Maybe some offscreen closeups on text, polygonal models, etc.

Good 480p to 1080p scaling is sort of really hard to get. I never found an option that I liked, but I didn’t try the extrons mentioned above.

But another thing, you could just output using Component instead of HDMI, then scale it using an OSSC. That would likely provide the best options without having to spring for an OSSC Pro.

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Thanks @matt, this is exactly what I was thinking about. Right now I only have 1080p, so I can’t tell about 4k (yet). Also I don’t have an OSSC to compare with, but I ordered one for all my other consoles, so I should update this post with comparisons.

@Peltz you’re right, I should have posted pictures. It took me some time but here they are.

Before scaling:


After scaling I get some sort of halo around the letters:

It is even more visible there:

Also when I check gamecube games, they seem very clean in comparison:

The 240p test pattern for color seem catastrophic:

And what made me think it was not so good was the fact that the main menu seems not that clean.
Before scaling:


After scaling:

Yikes!!!

What’s your setup for the “before scaling” vs “after scaling” pictures?

Also, it sounds like you could be seeing the Wii blur filter being applied too. It makes most Wii systems look bad under an upscale. But some later Wii systems have a cleaner output since their firmware is fixed to not produce the issue.

There’s a hack to remove it somewhere on the site (I think @matt ) was the first to mention it.

I’m not sure if the Wii Dual mod is supposed to fix this… it make be an additional fix worth exploring.

This reminds me of how the Framemeister handled 480p (ie not well and it introduced similar artifacts). My HDTV’s native scaling was even better than it before I switched to a CRT setup.

Before scaling is when I configure my tv not to touch the image size, and after scaling is the “fit the screen” option (other options do not seem to keep correct ratios, or do crop the image).

Wii games are not that impressive, whereas gamecube, as long as I don’t use the PAL 480i crappy version, are a big step up. To the point I find gamecube games much nicer on the wii than the wii games.

Of course there are some games that run poorly (like mario party 8, which looks awful no matter what).

Since the 480p upscaler are so pricy (especially for a test), I’ll wait on my OSSC to compare against component upscaling then.