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Retro AV Club Thread 2: Classic Gaming Done Right!

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Yeah I know about this switch and have been told things like its terrible to its great. Just ordered one, worth a go for the price.



How do I get in touch with this gcom guy, I would love to order one. Looks like the switch I've been looking for all my life.

You just have to wait for him to open up pre-orders. Though you can watch his thread over at the shmups forum to see when he's planning to open up pre-orders.
 

Maxpacker

Member
Yeah I know about this switch and have been told things like its terrible to its great. Just ordered one, worth a go for the price.

I've had this switch for several years and it works great without any problems or quality loss (that I can notice anway). It is in no way an automatic switch though.
 

Ruprit

Member
I have been sitting here on the HD Retrovision site wondering if i should order these cables even though i have scart cables already. I really like being able to adjust the chroma settings on my PVM/BVM and for some reason, I think I have a better shot at getting the SNES to work on my OSSC over scart. But since I am thinking about ordering the SNES maybe I should get the genesis too. This is going to add a kink to my set up as I have the gscartsw and gcompsw.

Decisions decisions.

I just got the HD Retrovision cables and have them connected to a gcompsw which is then connected to my OSSC and I love it.

So after talk of improperly made cables and how they could potentially harm your consoles on the past few episodes of the Retro Roundtable and RetroRGB I decided to give HD Retrovision cables a shot. Like RetroRGB described, the picture is indistinguishable from RGB Scart. What is improved is the separate audio that I can use to connect directly to my pre-amp. No sign of buzz or audio interference noise that I had hints of with even the PackaPunch and coax cables from the UK and US sellers. That was always a big deal for me and not hear that makes playing these games that much more enjoyable.

Sexy Parodius > HD Retrovision Saturn Adapter > gcompsw > OSSC (line 2x, 50% scanlines) > Dell U2715H
parodius_1j7sl7.png
 
Well I just found something unexpected.
I got a Razer Ripsaw a couple months ago, and while I haven't been super happy with its recording abilities (it struggles to maintain 60fps even when just using the preview and not recording), I just found that it's passthrough can covert 240p over component to 240p over HDMI. Not only that, but my TV seems to support the 240p signal, which shocks me, because it hates 240p over component.

ZebdsUz.jpg


It seems to handle the 240p to 480i switches in some games without any dropouts, and as far as I can tell it's not trying to deinterlace the signal. It doesn't look as good as my Framemeister, but this just became a very viable solution for games that jump between 240 and 480.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
*sigh*

Anyone have an idea of when retrogamingcables plans to have the SNES packapunch cable back in stock? Didn't realize it was out. That's annoying.
 
Well I just found something unexpected.
I got a Razer Ripsaw a couple months ago, and while I haven't been super happy with its recording abilities (it struggles to maintain 60fps even when just using the preview and not recording), I just found that it's passthrough can covert 240p over component to 240p over HDMI. Not only that, but my TV seems to support the 240p signal, which shocks me, because it hates 240p over component.

ZebdsUz.jpg


It seems to handle the 240p to 480i switches in some games without any dropouts, and as far as I can tell it's not trying to deinterlace the signal. It doesn't look as good as my Framemeister, but this just became a very viable solution for games that jump between 240 and 480.
LG? I had the same sort of thing in use for 240p for a long time. The result is pretty good.

I found a lot of TVs handle 240p hdmi very well but for some reason my new samsung hates it! Treats it like 480i, it looks so bad.

AFAIK the original elgato HD (non-60) can do the same trick if anyone has that.
 
*sigh*

Anyone have an idea of when retrogamingcables plans to have the SNES packapunch cable back in stock? Didn't realize it was out. That's annoying.

Ask them on twitter or facebook they're usually pretty quick to reply. They just had a kind of pre-order thing hmmm maybe a month or so back for a new set of SNES Packapunch cables. I was able to snag one.
 

Brhoom

Banned
Playing RE2 on the N64 on a CRT and I'm not enjoying it. My TV changes brightness depending on resolution, not by much, but it's noticable when some games switch, like RE2 and Dino Crisis, but it's not noticable on Silent Hill thank God.

Does every CRT do that?
 
LG? I had the same sort of thing in use for 240p for a long time. The result is pretty good.

I found a lot of TVs handle 240p hdmi very well but for some reason my new samsung hates it! Treats it like 480i, it looks so bad.

AFAIK the original elgato HD (non-60) can do the same trick if anyone has that.

Yep, it's an older LG TV from 2010. I assume it can handle lower resolutions over HDMI for some sort of PC compatibility.
 

bodine1231

Member
I'm soooo friggin close to pulling the trigger on an RGB Modded Duo R ($450) on eBay. It'll basically be "free" because I made out like a bandit on the Gamestop buy2get1 bonanza but its still alot of money. Even though I have the OSSC on pre order I'd like to use the funds for the Framemeister to just "have one" so I dont know.

Ever since my PVM died I've been emailing local video editing companies (close to 30) and asking if they had any old monitors they wanted to get rid of. Well my persistance paid off,I'm picking up a PVM 2030 tomorrow that the owner recapped last year! I had to pay alot for it because he was still using it off and on ($275),but again its Gamestop money and I'd kick myself for passing it up. I also heard back from another company and the guy said "I may have a couple in the warehouse" and that he's gonna check for me and give me a call Monday,so give me your prayers on that one,lol.
 

Brhoom

Banned
I'm soooo friggin close to pulling the trigger on an RGB modded Duo R ($450) on eBay. It'll basically be "free" because I made out like a bandit on the Gamestop buy2get1 bonanza but its still alot of money. Even though I have the OSSC on pre order I'd like to use the funds for the Framemeister to just "have one" so I dont know.

Ever since my PVM died I've been emailing local video editing companies (close to 30) and asking if they had any old monitors they wanted to get rid of. Well my persistance paid off,I'm picking up a PVM 2030 tomorrow that the owner recapped last year! I had to pay alot for it because he was still using it off and on ($275),but again its Gamestop money and I'd kick myself for passing it up. I also heard back from another company and the guy said "he may have a couple in the warehouse" and that he's gonna check for me and give me a call Monday,so give me your prayers on that one,lol.

Why does everyone want an Duo R? Is it really wroth it?

If you want it just because you want to play a couple of games I'd say don't do it.

Buy a Switch.
 
Why does everyone want an Duo R? Is it really wroth it?

If you want it just because you want to play a couple of games I'd say don't do it.

Buy a Switch.

Duo R is nice because it has both PC Engine + CD games with a low failure rate. If you want to get a PC Engine system it's hard to go wrong with it.

PC Engine also has more games than Nintendo Switch. :)

TBH I haven't gotten a ton of use out of mine since I got it but I just wanted to buy in before the price went up any more. There's a lot of neat stuff on PCE, like it was the #1 platform in Japan for a while in the golden years of 2D games, for a longtime beyond that it was the hardcore system of choice, and really acted as a nice bridge between Famicom and Super Famicom plus was the first CD based console so there are a lot of really cool games resulting from that.
 

Yes Boss!

Member
Why does everyone want an Duo R? Is it really wroth it?

If you want it just because you want to play a couple of games I'd say don't do it.

Buy a Switch.

Switch has nothing to do with a PCE. What kinda lame shit recommendation is this? Maybe if you recommended a Wii or something it would be a bit better. Switch has absolutely zero crossover with a Duo other then a tenuous port of one of the better games in the system.

Sometimes retro gamers are bizarre.
 

bodine1231

Member
Why does everyone want an Duo R? Is it really wroth it?

If you want it just because you want to play a couple of games I'd say don't do it.

Buy a Switch.

Its the best shmup console ever made that has my favorite shmups (Lords of Thunder,Blazing Lazers,Soldier Blade,etc.) and I already have a Switch. Whats holding me back is basically the price and that the Wii emulates that system fantastically so I'd feel like I wouldn't be gaining anything by buying it.
 

Brhoom

Banned
Duo R is nice because it has both PC Engine + CD games with a low failure rate. If you want to get a PC Engine system it's hard to go wrong with it.

PC Engine also has more games than Nintendo Switch. :)

TBH I haven't gotten a ton of use out of mine since I got it but I just wanted to buy in before the price went up any more. There's a lot of neat stuff on PCE, like it was the #1 platform in Japan for a while in the golden years 2D games, for a longtime beyond that it was the hardcore system of choice, and really acted as a nice bridge between Famicom and Super Famicom plus was the first CD based console so there are a lot of really cool games resulting from that.

Cool, will check it's library to see if that are hidden gems I like.

Switch has nothing to do with a PCE. What kinda lame shit recommendation is this? Maybe if you recommended a Wii or something it would be a bit better. Switch has absolutely zero crossover with a Duo other then a tenuous port of one of the better games in the system.

Sometimes retro gamers are bizarre.

I just said a Switch based on the price range, since I didn't see any appeal in paying 450$ for a retro gaming console when the system isn't talked about having that much of critically aclaimed games.
 
I'm looking for a 4:3 lcd tv for my snes,genesis,psx...

Any recommendation?

Gotta ask why. Any LCD old enough to be 4:3 is going to have a total dog shit image when fed a retro console input source of any kind.

I'm soooo friggin close to pulling the trigger on an RGB Modded Duo R ($450) on eBay. It'll basically be "free" because I made out like a bandit on the Gamestop buy2get1 bonanza but its still alot of money. Even though I have the OSSC on pre order I'd like to use the funds for the Framemeister to just "have one" so I dont know.

Ever since my PVM died I've been emailing local video editing companies (close to 30) and asking if they had any old monitors they wanted to get rid of. Well my persistance paid off,I'm picking up a PVM 2030 tomorrow that the owner recapped last year! I had to pay alot for it because he was still using it off and on ($275),but again its Gamestop money and I'd kick myself for passing it up. I also heard back from another company and the guy said "I may have a couple in the warehouse" and that he's gonna check for me and give me a call Monday,so give me your prayers on that one,lol.

Good work. Persistence!
 

Peagles

Member
...I might be interested in buying some of those if you make more...

have you done scart cables before? Do you just buy scart-scart cables and disect them? Is there a good supply store for console connectors? I wouldn't mind making a PS2 cable with a better audio out cable than my current.

pre-ordered!

Shit well I promise if I get good enough I'll serve gaf first, but I'd want to be really sure.

I have a bunch of good quality SCART cables I got on clearance for dissecting. Short of ordering cheap console cables and just using the ends, I'm not sure how'd I'd get those parts.

Workbench setup is unfortunately last on our unpacking list, but once it's set up it's gonna be awesome to just pop into the garage to work whenever I get a spare half an hour here and there, I'm sure I can make progress quickly once that happens.



Also, a few years back I got a 4:3 LCD (640x480) for a few bucks and had high hopes but nope, it's terrible.
 

EmiPrime

Member
$450 is way too much for a modded Duo. Also don't get too hung up on whether it's a Duo, Duo R or Duo RX, it's all the same if it has been properly recapped and restored. The skill of the modder is far more relevant and ideally they will provide photos of their work.
 

BTails

Member
Ugh, don't games with multiple resolutions just grind your gears, especially on a modern fixed resolution display?!?

I just started Shadow of Destiny on PS2 tonight, and while I'm totally loving it so far, it suffers from the "Gameplay in 240p / Menus in 480i" curse. In my experience, 240p tends to be pretty rare on the PS2, but man, it's annoying!!
 

bodine1231

Member
$450 is way too much for a modded Duo. Also don't get too hung up on whether it's a Duo, Duo R or Duo RX, it's all the same if it has been properly recapped and restored. The skill of the modder is far more relevant and ideally they will provide photos of their work.

I ended up going with a well reviewed guy on the pcenginefx forums. He's charging $375 for the Duo R (I like the white console best) and he's doing a complete restore, RGB,recapped,jailbar fixed,etc.the works. Got pics of his work as well so I jumped on it.
 

IrishNinja

Member
gonna ask here too: any good way to clean SCART cables? i'm losing colors/audio at the wrong angles

I ended up going with a well reviewed guy on the pcenginefx forums. He's charging $375 for the Duo R (I like the white console best) and he's doing a complete restore, RGB,recapped,jailbar fixed,etc.the works. Got pics of his work as well so I jumped on it.

still high but at least it's someone on PCFX, they're good dudes. congrats man
 

D.Lo

Member
$450 is way too much for a modded Duo. Also don't get too hung up on whether it's a Duo, Duo R or Duo RX, it's all the same if it has been properly recapped and restored. The skill of the modder is far more relevant and ideally they will provide photos of their work.
I prefer the look of the Duo but the giant power supply is a serious ass pain, whereas Duo R/RX can use a Mega Drive II power.
 

EmiPrime

Member
I ended up going with a well reviewed guy on the pcenginefx forums. He's charging $375 for the Duo R (I like the white console best) and he's doing a complete restore, RGB,recapped,jailbar fixed,etc.the works. Got pics of his work as well so I jumped on it.

Still a bit pricey but it will be worth it. Enjoy and get an Everdrive if you haven't already!

I prefer the look of the Duo but the giant power supply is a serious ass pain, whereas Duo R/RX can use a Mega Drive II power.

I use a generic PSU for my Duo that's half the size of a MD1 PSU.
 

Kawika

Member
I just got the HD Retrovision cables and have them connected to a gcompsw which is then connected to my OSSC and I love it.

So after talk of improperly made cables and how they could potentially harm your consoles on the past few episodes of the Retro Roundtable and RetroRGB I decided to give HD Retrovision cables a shot. Like RetroRGB described, the picture is indistinguishable from RGB Scart. What is improved is the separate audio that I can use to connect directly to my pre-amp. No sign of buzz or audio interference noise that I had hints of with even the PackaPunch and coax cables from the UK and US sellers. That was always a big deal for me and not hear that makes playing these games that much more enjoyable.

Sexy Parodius > HD Retrovision Saturn Adapter > gcompsw > OSSC (line 2x, 50% scanlines) > Dell U2715H
parodius_1j7sl7.png

That looks great! I have the TN version Gsync Dell Monitor S2716DGR but my last OSSC didn't work on it. So hopefully the new firmware will fix that for this or my Sony 800D.


I use this cable to go to my framemeister but I use the d-sub output to go to my BVM. There is some noise but I think it might be the XRGB or my TV because I connected my SNES directly to my framemeister and got the same noise.

I remember it came recommended by Bob from RetroRGB, during one of his podcasts. I got one too and so far it's doing its job pretty well.

I have no complaints about it. For the price it seems pretty good and the My Life in Gaming guys like it too. So that is two +1s for this cable.
 

Rirse

Neo Member
Since Gamecube cables are so expensive, how much of a difference do Gameboy/GBA games with the Gameboy Interface look with S-Video compare to Component/RGB? I tried ordering a Pal Gamecube, but the seller cancelled without warning.
 

bodine1231

Member
Still a bit pricey but it will be worth it. Enjoy and get an Everdrive if you haven't already!



I use a generic PSU for my Duo that's half the size of a MD1 PSU.

Turbo Everdrive 2.5 on the way!

I received my cables from HD Retrovision for the Genesis/Saturn and SNES. I do notice an improvement over S-video in terms sharpness and color separation on the Saturn and Genesis. The brightness switch adds some punch to the picture without washing it out, especially on the Saturn. I'm pretty impressed by the crispness of the picture for these two consoles. The cables are worth it over S-video if you dont have RGB.

The SNES was harder to tell the difference,but thats because I'm using a stock 2-chip so it'll be blurry no matter what. I'm getting my modded mini sometime next week so we'll see. Again the brightness switch helped to lighten up the dark areas without having to turn up the brightness and wash everything out.

I'll probably end up selling both though because I ordered them to use on my regular CRT,but since then I've manage to secure TWO PVM's so I really have no need for them now.
 

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Since Gamecube cables are so expensive, how much of a difference do Gameboy/GBA games with the Gameboy Interface look with S-Video compare to Component/RGB? I tried ordering a Pal Gamecube, but the seller cancelled without warning.

Probably not the answer you were looking for, but don't fucking bother with the GC Gameboy Player. Shit's ghetto.
 

televator

Member
Since Gamecube cables are so expensive, how much of a difference do Gameboy/GBA games with the Gameboy Interface look with S-Video compare to Component/RGB? I tried ordering a Pal Gamecube, but the seller cancelled without warning.

Probably not the answer you were looking for, but don't fucking bother with the GC Gameboy Player. Shit's ghetto.

The fuck? Don't listen to him. The NGC does have some inherent color space conversion artifacts, but its relatively great picture overall. S video obviously will degrade the picture but its not a bad option.
 

Rirse

Neo Member
The fuck? Don't listen to him. The NGC does have some inherent color space conversion artifacts, but its relatively great picture overall. S video obviously will degrade the picture but its not a bad option.

He probably referring to the base disc that came with it, which does look pretty bad compared to the Super Gameboy. Still wish I could just went with my original plan of using a Pal Gamecube with my HD Retrovision cables, but don't want to try again with another Amazon.uk seller and have them chicken out of the shipping.
 
Since Gamecube cables are so expensive, how much of a difference do Gameboy/GBA games with the Gameboy Interface look with S-Video compare to Component/RGB? I tried ordering a Pal Gamecube, but the seller cancelled without warning.

I compared s-video vs component on GC w/ GBP + GBI with my old setup switching back and forth and honestly they're really close. S-video has limited chroma bandwidth and you end up with some slightly off colors but since it's 240p anyway it's pretty minor. The trade off is full luma resolution, like in terms of crispness it's the same as component. You can really tell the difference with say solid red text against a plain background but unless you were comparing directly I don't think you'd even notice.
 
I compared s-video vs component on GC w/ GBP + GBI with my old setup switching back and forth and honestly they're really close. S-video has limited chroma bandwidth and you end up with some slightly off colors but since it's 240p anyway it's pretty minor. The trade off is full luma resolution, like in terms of crispness it's the same as component. You can really tell the difference with say solid red text against a plain background but unless you were comparing directly I don't think you'd even notice.


This is the case on my crt but on the framemeister and OSSC component looks FAR, FAR superior to svideo. I think any imperfections show up through scalers because svideo on both of these look HORRID in comparison to component yes horrid. But on my PVM svideo doesn't look too bad.
 

Rirse

Neo Member
I compared s-video vs component on GC w/ GBP + GBI with my old setup switching back and forth and honestly they're really close. S-video has limited chroma bandwidth and you end up with some slightly off colors but since it's 240p anyway it's pretty minor. The trade off is full luma resolution, like in terms of crispness it's the same as component. You can really tell the difference with say solid red text against a plain background but unless you were comparing directly I don't think you'd even notice.

This is the case on my crt but on the framemeister and OSSC component looks FAR, FAR superior to svideo. I think any imperfections show up through scalers because svideo on both of these look HORRID in comparison to component yes horrid. But on my PVM svideo doesn't look too bad.

That good to hear. I am using a CRT with component so this would be fine. If I ever have to get a Framemeister then I would look into a Pal Gamecube then.
 
This is the case on my crt but on the framemeister and OSSC component looks FAR, FAR superior to svideo. I think any imperfections show up through scalers because svideo on both of these look HORRID in comparison to component yes horrid. But on my PVM svideo doesn't look too bad.

I was comparing on a framemeister. I don't know where you get horrid from.
 
This is the case on my crt but on the framemeister and OSSC component looks FAR, FAR superior to svideo. I think any imperfections show up through scalers because svideo on both of these look HORRID in comparison to component yes horrid. But on my PVM svideo doesn't look too bad.


How exactly are you displaying svideo on your ossc?
 
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