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Retro AV Club Thread 2: Classic Gaming Done Right!

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As I wait for the preorders to open for the Ultra Hdmi 64 I'm starting to question if it's really worth it, and If I should just stick with s video.

I mean 220$ for the basic mod... is Resident Evil 2 worth it at this price?

Also is there an Hdmi mod for the PS1??? Beeing able to play Silent hill without the sync drop is the reason why I'm eyeing the OSSC more than the Freameister.


I think the level of sharpness you can get from it is definitely why I went with it over RGB. While I love my Framemeister if I can get HDMI directly from my console I'll pay the price for it. Least with the UltraHDMI and HiDefNES it means a zero lag 1080p image. They're pricey but it's worth it to me.

If you can watch BadAssConsoles he does the UltraHDMI install for 160 instead of 220.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
I had this weird dream tonight that my consoles stopped outputting 240p, and instead did 200p which seriously cropped the image at the top and bottom. Am I becoming mad?
 

Khaz

Member
I had this weird dream tonight that my consoles stopped outputting 240p, and instead did 200p which seriously cropped the image at the top and bottom. Am I becoming mad?

You're just dreaming of building an original DOS computer.
Follow your dreams
 

Timu

Member
I just tried 240p on my Wii for the 1st time ever with Castlevania Rondo of Blood...OMG it looks so good going through component on my capture card, I wish I did this earlier. I couldn't stand how the games looked in 480i on my Wii U even when it's set to 480p so I decided to give the 240p trick a shot and it worked brilliantly.

Now to get some King of Fighters on there, I can 1CC most of the ones I played.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
You're just dreaming of building an original DOS computer.
Follow your dreams

Nah why would I be interested in that

It's the actual resolution of DOS when displayed on a VGA monitor, which are 31kHz. It's line doubled from 320x200 (technically 320x400).

Hmm, maybe you are onto something. I do need a good way to play all those old classics, after all.
 

Einhandr

Member
Getting ready to buy a new TV soon, I don't need anything fancy or anything huge. Is the Sony KDLXXW series still held in high regard since Fudoh's reviews in 2013? I was thinking of picking up a KDL48W, but the most important thing to me in a display is the latency. Do these displays still score well in that regard?
 
I just ordered a framemeister. Right now all my consoles are hooked up to SCART -> Bainbridge SCART switch -> PVM (scart to BNC). Now, Ideally I'd like to split the signal to go to both the PVM and the FM. Is this possible? If so, what would I need?
 
I just ordered a framemeister. Right now all my consoles are hooked up to SCART -> Bainbridge SCART switch -> PVM (scart to BNC). Now, Ideally I'd like to split the signal to go to both the PVM and the FM. Is this possible? If so, what would I need?

I think Jeremy Parish does that to record his videos using the RGB Out on his PVM to the framemeister.
 
I just ordered a framemeister. Right now all my consoles are hooked up to SCART -> Bainbridge SCART switch -> PVM (scart to BNC). Now, Ideally I'd like to split the signal to go to both the PVM and the FM. Is this possible? If so, what would I need?

I think Jeremy Parish does that to record his videos using the RGB Out on his PVM to the framemeister.

I'd look into something like this. My PVM has RGB out. I'd look for a BNC to SCART cable and use that for output.
 

ToastyFrog

Inexplicable Treasure Hate
Yeah Jeremy does this, you should page him in the retronauts thread or on twitter.
I read this thread regularly too, as a matter of fact.

I invested a gscartsw (http://www.gretrostuff.com/store/pre-order-gscartsw-v3-4). It does dual video-out, by both SCART and VGA. I have the VGA running to my PVM and SCART running to my Framemeister/HDTV/capture gear. I initially wanted to just do RGB pass through via my PVM, but I found the video signal lost far too much brightness that way. I'm sure there are cheaper switchers with a dual-out feature!
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
I read this thread regularly too, as a matter of fact.

I invested a gscartsw (http://www.gretrostuff.com/store/pre-order-gscartsw-v3-4). It does dual video-out, by both SCART and VGA. I have the VGA running to my PVM and SCART running to my Framemeister/HDTV/capture gear. I initially wanted to just do RGB pass through via my PVM, but I found the video signal lost far too much brightness that way. I'm sure there are cheaper switchers with a dual-out feature!

Haha, I knew you also frequented this thread, just not how often. That Gscart is some amazing stuff.
 

ToastyFrog

Inexplicable Treasure Hate
Haha, I knew you also frequented this thread, just not how often. That Gscart is some amazing stuff.

When I finally committed to buying it, I was like WHY AM I SPENDING THIS MUCH MONEY, but once it arrived I was like HOW DID I EVER LIVE WITHOUT THIS.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
When I finally committed to buying it, I was like WHY AM I SPENDING THIS MUCH MONEY, but once it arrived I was like HOW DID I EVER LIVE WITHOUT THIS.

Haha, I can see that. I own one as well, but only outputs to one screen for now, which is why I told the guy to page you. Its an awesome device just for that too though, with all the inputs, the synch stripper and even the design. Feels so good to have all the consoles hooked up at once (well except one, since I have 9 rgb-based ones).
 
Yeah, the GScart was totally worth it to me. Only slight annoyance I have now is I have the entire setup on a surge protector I have to reach down and flip on and off that is under my tv shelf. Because of where the outlet is I don't have space to put a remote controlled switch on it.
 

Galdelico

Member
I picked this up yesterday for $25!
Not new, but looked very well taken care of with the box, manual, and remote.
Unfortunately, it seems like progressive scan via componenent isn't supported :( The picture just becomes all scrambled and wavy when I tried to enabled it on the GC.

Crappy pictures below. I haven't done any tests or changed much in the settings yet.
They look better than the pictures obviously.

*click to enlarge*


Oh man, it looks amazing. You can proper tell it's perfect by how sharp and straight are the pixels along the borders. So jelly. :D

Also, I'm starting to believe smaller screens like yours (it's a 13" right?) would be much better - for my personal tastes - than bigger monsters.
 

purdobol

Member
I just ordered a framemeister. Right now all my consoles are hooked up to SCART -> Bainbridge SCART switch -> PVM (scart to BNC). Now, Ideally I'd like to split the signal to go to both the PVM and the FM. Is this possible? If so, what would I need?

You can also search for cheap used RGB matrix switcher (AMX, Kramer. Extron). These things are very versatile when it comes to splitting the signal and having mutliple outputs.
https://youtu.be/0FEF5MRNDyI
 

Peltz

Member
I picked this up yesterday for $25!
Not new, but looked very well taken care of with the box, manual, and remote.
Unfortunately, it seems like progressive scan via componenent isn't supported :( The picture just becomes all scrambled and wavy when I tried to enabled it on the GC.

Crappy pictures below. I haven't done any tests or changed much in the settings yet.
They look better than the pictures obviously.

*click to enlarge*





Beautiful. Congrats!

Component 480i still looks nice. That's a great set.

P.S. I'm playing through Paper Mario on N64 and may be picking up the Thousand Year Door next. It's between that and Super Mario RPG for me as far as my next retro purchase (not an easy decision based on their reputations).
 
So I want to put together a Wii setup for the car as we do a lot of long journeys.

I have seen some "Travel Packs" for Wii that comprise of a 7" LCD built into a cradle with a sensor bar LEDS and a car power supply. But from what I've read none of these offer a good resolution (480p would be ideal) and headphone out. My goal is pixel perfect 480p.

I'm thinking I could source a 640x480 or 854x480 LCD panel with HDMI input and use a Wii2HDMI adapter to get 480p out of the Wii.

Or easier an EDTV of 13", 14" or 17" that has component input.

Anybody have any thoughts?
 

Khaz

Member
So I want to put together a Wii setup for the car as we do a lot of long journeys.

I have seen some "Travel Packs" for Wii that comprise of a 7" LCD built into a cradle with a sensor bar LEDS and a car power supply. But from what I've read none of these offer a good resolution (480p would be ideal) and headphone out. My goal is pixel perfect 480p.

I'm thinking I could source a 640x480 or 854x480 LCD panel with HDMI input and use a Wii2HDMI adapter to get 480p out of the Wii.

Or easier an EDTV of 13", 14" or 17" that has component input.

Anybody have any thoughts?

The obvious: what about a WiiU?
 

Peltz

Member
Yeah, good point.

The image in vWii mode is atrocious, but I guess if I was using the gamepad it's... good enough.

Another reason was that I also kind of want to make use of my old Wii.

Wii games look great on the Gamepad. It also has a sensor bar on top of it and headphone out.
 

televator

Member
The game pad still suffers from the same scaling issues as the WiiU to a TV because it is mucking things up at the source even at 480p. Sending an image wirelessly which requires compression to a cheap LCD screen with horrible contrast and gimped color reproduction only makes things worse.

Pixel perfect 480p just ain't coming out of the WiiU and any dinky portable LCD screen that's not 480p certainly won't do it either.

The Wii and GC should display correctly on a cheap native display, but IDK why this would even matter when all other quality has gone out the window for such an application... So yeah, just using a gamepad would be suitable for the situation imo, because all options will be far from ideal anyway.
 

Khaz

Member
Also keep in mind that in a moving car, wiggle controls will most likely be massively fucked with all the vibrations on both your arms and the sensor bar.
 

purdobol

Member
It's been written about many times. Wii output on Wii U just isn't as good as on the original Wii.

I've read quite a few contradicting reports on that matter. And as far as i understand there's no differnece between Wii 480p vs vWii 480p other than:
1. HDMI connection has limited range RGB which may be a problem on some setups. Component has full range RGB on the other hand.
2. Everything that differs from resolution set up in the Wii U option is being scaled/deintelanced to that setting. So for example if Wii U is set to 480p and game is 576i the image is being scaled down and deinterlanced to 480p. Same problem occurs with Wii u virtual console titles. 240p signal being upscaled.
3. Wii does some cropping while Wii U displays full picture. Homebrew has some options in that department but i didn't look to much into it.

There were some hints that with full iosu access forced scaling can be bypassed. So...
Interesting comparison of GC vs Wii vs Wii U
 

Peltz

Member
The game pad still suffers from the same scaling issues as the WiiU to a TV because it is mucking things up at the source even at 480p. Sending an image wirelessly which requires compression to a cheap LCD screen with horrible contrast and gimped color reproduction only makes things worse.

Pixel perfect 480p just ain't coming out of the WiiU and any dinky portable LCD screen that's not 480p certainly won't do it either.

The Wii and GC should display correctly on a cheap native display, but IDK why this would even matter when all other quality has gone out the window for such an application... So yeah, just using a gamepad would be suitable for the situation imo, because all options will be far from ideal anyway.

Unless you're gaming at 480p at native res on a widescreen CRT, you're always dealing with compromises when it comes to Wii's IQ. The way Wii games appear on the Gamepad is more than adequate if you can deal with the small size.
 
even with the issues the Mini has with 480p, the wii looks quite good. Never felt like the image quality was really suffering when playing. Will be interesting to compare once I get an OSSC.
 

Kawika

Member
I think the level of sharpness you can get from it is definitely why I went with it over RGB. While I love my Framemeister if I can get HDMI directly from my console I'll pay the price for it. Least with the UltraHDMI and HiDefNES it means a zero lag 1080p image. They're pricey but it's worth it to me.

If you can watch BadAssConsoles he does the UltraHDMI install for 160 instead of 220.

As much as I love my CRT I really appreciate direct to HDMI. I love my Analogue NT (Hi Def NES) I have a RGB Modded N64 right now but I plan on buying another N64 just for hdmi out, Whenever I get around to it i am going to have my extra gamecube done too. Its not reasonable to expect that our CRTs will work forever and I am trying to get used to the fact that when my pvms die thats it.

Eventually we will get 4K scalers which makes me wonder if the HDMI add ons will start to output 4K as well. I don't want to rely on the quality of my 4K tv's scaler to bring 1080p to 4K. I guess this is part of the hobby.
 

Kawika

Member
I'm hoping my PVMs outlast me.

I don't know how long they are supposed to last, mine look to be pretty good but I know that I won't be replacing them once they do. I am trying to get a good 20" 480p CRT but if I don't I won't sweat it. At least my LCDs know what to do with 480p
 
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