Anyone doing this? What do I need to know before attempting this? I think it would be great to be able to play some of the Arcade Archives games on my retro setup. The biggest issue I assume would be the aspect ratio.
Switch’s minimum resolution is 480p. You’ll need a HD CRT and HDMI to RGB/Component converter. Or a VGA CRT with HDMI to VGA converter. I honestly don’t think it’s worth it except to say you tried it out. You’re not getting any real benefit by going this route except low input lag.
Actually there’s one way to get an authentic looking image for classic games and that is by adding an Extron Emotia ($$$) to the chain and converting down to 240p.
HDMI to SDI could also be an option on certain PVMs/BVMs. I know the 20L5 can take it on the PVM side. Not sure about others.
On BVMs, this would likely be an input card.
I could see the value in doing this. There’s something magical about playing Splatoon on Wii U on a lag-free display in native res. I occasionally do it on my 20L5. On Switch however, you’d be playing at a lower-than native res in most games.
You would lose information that way, discarding every odd lines. I don’t think it would look very good.
HDMI to SCART converters are cheap on eBay if you wanted to try this.
I tried using my hdmi-vga adapter with my switch to run it through my ossc and it did not like 480p or 1080p for some reason. 720 worked but the output and scanlines were not desirable to say the least.
Thanks, all. Sounds like it’s not much worth it for me. I did watch some vids of people experimenting with it. Kinda cool seeing Sonic Mania on a CRT…
Discarding every other line is fine if it’s a native 240p game that appears as line doubled when Switch is set to 480p. People who only have access to non-15KHz VGA monitors already do this in some way to achieve 240p… Emotia or simple scanline filters that black out every other line. My HD CRT is 240p capable but I tried it myself by running games at 480p and then blacking out every other line. Looks exactly like 240p.
The Konami Rebirth games on Wii are 480p, but the art is in fact line doubled. They would look great through an Emotia on a CRT, or alternatively on OSSC with scanlines on.