I THINK I have an extra corio scaler somewhere. I’m in the process of unpacking after a big cross country move. If I find it (should be sometime this week if so) I’ll update the thread.
Willing to let it go to an RGB’er for far less than eBay prices.
GBSC does 480i as well
You just reminded me that the Retrotink 5X does downscaling too (and rescaling if I’m not wrong), but it’s pretty expensive if downscaling is your only use case
Oh cool! I didn’t realize the Tink5X could. I’d be curious to see someone to a report over in the AV thread if they have one.
Just checked the manual. Looks like it does 720p downscaling too!
I agree the Corio is currently the best for downscaling, but hard to find. It can take anything you throw at it.
I’m lucky I was able to find a complete in box Extron Emotia, and did not pay eBay prices for it.
I love the industrial design of the Corio and Extron models.
Retrotink can downscale too but I heard that option was removed in new firmware updates. Is that true?
Thanks for all for the recommendations. I actually have a Corio and Emotia but it has been years since I messed with it and was primarily using it for my Laptop with an Nvidia 1080 in it. I always had some kind of weird issue when outputting to my consumer CRT via adapters so was hoping for something better, but maybe I’ll give it another go.
Played through micro mages with 4 players one night. Stupid fun game! The developers made a pretty interesting making-of video that has lots of space saving programming tricks. If you’re interested: How we fit an NES game into 40 Kilobytes - YouTube
Evening All,
I picked up a Mcbazel ODV-GBS-C off Amazon and was hoping to easily downscale HD HDMI sources to 240P onto my CRT. I know there are other ways such as EmuDriver, Cordio, etc. but I was looking for an easy solution for my Switch and Steamdeck. Here is how I have it hooked up:
Source > HDFury 2 Adapter (also tried a generic HDMI to VGA off Amazon) > GBS-C VGA Input > GBS-C VGA Output > VGA to Component breakout cable > CRT component inputs.
On the GBS I tried selecting downscale (15khz mode) and setting my Steamdeck to output 640x480p but I can’t get a signal lock (rolling picture in black and white) and on my Switch with the GBS-C in developer mode it says source signal unknown and randomly picks a resolution with nothing on the screen. My question is do I need a transcoder going from the VGA out on the GBS-C before it goes into the CRT or should it be acting as a transcoder? I tried almost every setting I could think of in the GBS menus and simply could not get a picture lock with any source device I tried.
Appreciate any help.
I think the issue might be that GBS-C doesn’t downscale from an RGBHV source (VGA), you need an adapter that takes RGBHV and spits out RGBS. Adapters like the UMSA or Tim Worthington’s. There are a few other options out there too.
GBS does act as a transcoder, I don’t use that feature but did test component out once with downscaling on a PVM
Ty, I have a few devices like an extron I can add to the chain to help with that.
yup this is it. quite annoying tbh
for the Switch (and PS3), I use a cheap HDMI to Component transcoder and put it into the GBSC’s component and it works really well
Interesting, I tried this and couldn’t get a signal. Are you outputting via VGA or does your GBSC have component out?
Dane - Assuming your TV has a scart connector? Mine does not unfortunately.
Dane what is the max resolution the Corio can downscale? Do you set all your sources to 480p?
the GBS has an experimental component out, it’s in the Preferences setting I believe. you can toggle between RGBHV and Component. works pretty well
Thanks, didn’t seem to work on mine when I tried it. Going to spend some more time messing with it this evening.
The Corio can pretty much downscale whatever you throw at it. Some things I’ll set to 480p the PS4 Pro can only go down to 720p so I usually just leave it at 1080p for downscaling.
I spent two hours messing with the GBS-C last night and could get a picture adding in the transcoder, but it would never lock on the sync signal (screen wobble/shake). I am giving up on the control for now and pulled out all my Extron 201/GX gear last night, plan on giving it a go and just hiding all the units underneath my entertainment stand. I will revisit the control another time, doesn’t appear to be “plug and play” as I thought for my use-case.
Yeah, I love the GBSC for a nice cheap no-frills upscaler but just didn’t have any luck for downscaling.
I thought I’d follow up to my post in hopes of helping out others. I finally got the GBS-C working as-intended with my PC and Switch. Here is what I used and how it is setup:
HDMI Source Device (Laptop/Switch in my case) > This HDMI to component converter box plugged into the YPbPr component inputs on the GBS-C. Other side of the GBS-C - VGA out port (using this cable with the component ends plugged directly into my consumer Sony CRT TV. Inside the GBS-C software I enabled Component out over VGA and selected 15khz downscale, everything works perfectly including scaling and re-positioning of the image. The only thing to watch for is the GBS-C must be turned on AFTER the source input or it won’t sync properly. I hope this helps someone out in the near future. 