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Marseille mCable HDMI Cable with inline anti-aliasing

gingerbeardman

gingerbeardman

Member
Turrican3 said:
Isn't the amazon.fr cable a bit... cheap? Are we sure it's the exact same cable?
Click to expand...
Same as what? we know it uses a Marseille chipset.

we don't have any concrete info on which cable uses which version of the chipset, or what the real differences are between chipsets.

I've contacted Marseille to try to clarify.
 
T

Turrican3

Member
gingerbeardman said:
Same as what? we know it uses a Marseille chipset.

we don't have any concrete info on which cable uses which version of the chipset, or what the real differences are between chipsets.
Click to expand...
What I meant is exactly that: since we do not know the actual chip used, no comparisons can be made between the cables.

However... I see the mCable datasheet sports a picture with a 1224A chip and the parent page even shows a 1226
Considering the huge difference in price I believe it's safe to assume the cheaper one that can be found on Amazon (there are variations as well from other manufacturers, with the ~35/40€ tag) is not the same used in mCable.

EDIT by the way I didn't know about all of this before, the doubts I had (and still have!) were genuine... I just googled a bit and made a couple of educated guesses
 
Xcell Miguel

Xcell Miguel

Gold Member
Turrican3 said:
That's nice to hear!

Are you going (assuming it is technically feasible and/or you have the needed equipment) to test the amount of lag introduced too?
Click to expand...

I don't have the needed equipment (gamepad with LED on button press), I have a GoPro capable of 240 FPS videos but it may be hard to see on which frame the button was pressed.

What I can do is plug my Switch's HDMI out to a splitter, then plug the Marseille cable on one output and an normal cable on the other, then plug both on my 4 HDMI input selector and switch sources to see if I can feel some lag or not.
 
Keihart

Keihart

Member
OmegaDL50 said:
While this seems interesting. Most console ports usually have some form of built-in AA. There are some exceptions I suppose.

HDMI itself isn't doing anything particularly special. Since it's a digital signal, it's either on / off. The Cable either works or it doesn't. With that said, this means the AA function exists solely inside the ASIC chip.

Also apparently the Cable itself does not work unless the source actually has power via the USB. So this brings up some very pointed questions. Also let's assume the ASIC must use a one-size-fits-all approach since it's being powered by the TV's USB this means it's AA is applied at all times. This means it has no way to determine what content is being viewed on screen (remember HDMI is digital, there is no logic outside of the ASIC itself)

This means this Cable is only good on a game by game basis, which diminishes its value somewhat. For example playing game with already an decent built-in AA solution would not make sense to use this because you would be applying AA on top of AA which potentially reduces the image quality.

I think I'll leave the rest for someone like Durante to provide better input. So far I'm not entirely convinced.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but...Yakuza 5 could look better now....or Demon's Souls, i'm actually thinking a lot of the PS3's library could benefit from this.
 
J

JP

Member
I'd love to get a proper Digital Foundry write up of these cables and other ones out there. I'd only really consider using it for the Switch to deal with the issues of aliasing.
 
O

Okada

Member
I'll put some comparisons on here in a bit but I got the Phillips cable today and it actually seems to add more aliasing. It's as if it's just sharpening the picture.

Edit - Quick Zelda comparison from my phone.

Standard HDMI
igDRiet.jpg
Click to expand...

Phillips 4K Upscaling HDMI
mJ6zlIH.jpg
Click to expand...

LG OLED C6 same settings on both.
 
Jigolo

Jigolo

Member
JDM said:
I'll put some comparisons on here in a bit but I got the Phillips cable today and it actually seems to add more aliasing. It's as if it's just sharpening the picture.

Edit - Quick Zelda comparison from my phone.

Standard HDMI


Phillips 4K Upscaling HDMI


LG OLED C6 same settings on both.
Click to expand...
Looks noticeably worse to my eye.

Someone should test Mario on the mCable tomorrow
 
gingerbeardman

gingerbeardman

Member
JDM said:
I'll put some comparisons on here in a bit but I got the Phillips cable today and it actually seems to add more aliasing. It's as if it's just sharpening the picture.

Edit - Quick Zelda comparison from my phone.

Standard HDMI


Phillips 4K Upscaling HDMI


LG OLED C6 same settings on both.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's not good. Definitely setup correctly?
 
gingerbeardman

gingerbeardman

Member
Here we go! Official reply from Marseille via Twitter DM. I guess it's to be expected.

Thank you for your inquiry. The chip used in the product you mentioned is VTV1222 and the chip used in mCable is VTV1224. There are huge functional differences between these two generations of processors. VTV1222 is designed to mainly to upscale and enhance blu-ray contents to 4K. It does not enhance broadcast news, sports, TV series, streaming movies or DVDs. Therefore comparing to VTV1224 which handles all these content, VTV1222’s scope is very limited. Moreover, in VTV1224, we refined image improvement features, removed software bugs and especially extended greatly its compatibility to work with a wide range of different devices. Last but not least, products based on VTV1222 are not designed by Marseille Inc. The processor is integrated by other manufacturers which Marseille Inc. do not have control over their quality or the features provided.
Click to expand...
 
Peterthumpa

Peterthumpa

Member
Jigolo said:
Looks noticeably worse to my eye.

Someone should test Mario on the mCable tomorrow
Click to expand...
I took some pics, will post soon. Strangely, Odyssey seems to get smaller benefits than other comparisons here. Probably due to the dynamic res in place. The game is clearly more aliased in big, open areas, while inside smaller places like the Odyssey, the IQ is much improved.
 
O

Okada

Member
gingerbeardman said:
Yeah that's not good. Definitely setup correctly?
Click to expand...

It's a professionally calibrated panel so I'm not sure what could be set up wrong to be honest. I was just hot swapping the cables.

I guess the chip inside the Phillips cable is doing something different to the gaming mCable.
 
M

mcfrank

Member
Seems to be a smaller improvement on Mario Odyssey compared to Mario Kart. I wonder if that is due to the lower resolution.
 
gingerbeardman

gingerbeardman

Member
JDM said:
It's a professionally calibrated panel so I'm not sure what could be set up wrong to be honest. I was just hot swapping the cables.

I guess the chip inside the Phillips cable is doing something different to the gaming mCable.
Click to expand...
Most likely.

What I meant is for the cable to work optimally you need to make sure the resolutions on either end are set correctly.
 
M

Mokujin

Member
I'm sure Odyssey direct feed captures will look better seeing how other nintendo games really benefit from this. That cable looks like a great great pair for docked switch gaming, unfortunately the price tag is a big no no for me.

But very cool nonetheless, hope we get something similar at a better price in the future.
 
A

AbandonedTrolley

Member
Mokujin said:
I'm sure Odyssey direct feed captures will look better seeing how other nintendo games really benefit from this. That cable looks like a great great pair for docked switch gaming, unfortunately the price tag is a big no no for me.

But very cool nonetheless, hope we get something similar at a better price in the future.
Click to expand...

I guess the only way you would get a direct feed image is to run the cable in to the capture card as obviously the magic is happening inside the cable. Has anyone tried this at all?
 
A

Afrikan

Member
For those who are doing the comparisons on this page? Did yall set sharpness on the TV settings to Zero?

I thought I read that is one of the first things you're supposed to do. Maybe I'm misremembering.
 
radewagon

radewagon

Member
Afrikan said:
For those who are doing the comparisons on this page? Did yall set sharpness on the TV settings to Zero?

I thought I read that is one of the first things you're supposed to do. Maybe I'm misremembering.
Click to expand...

I set the sharpness using Disney's Wow Calibration disc. For the mCable, I set the sharpness to 10 and for HDMI I set the sharpness to 20.
 
Xcell Miguel

Xcell Miguel

Gold Member
Got my 40€ SagemCom cable, but I'm at work.

I'll do some tests tonight on Switch and maybe Xbox One if I can find some aliased games in my library (Halo 3 BC ?).
 
M

McGruber21

Member
Would this work with the Wii2HDMI converter I use to play Wii games? I honestly can barely tell the difference in the OPs screenshots, but I know the jaggies are crazy on a lot of Wii titles.
 
K

kinggroin

Banned
Afrikan said:
For those who are doing the comparisons on this page? Did yall set sharpness on the TV settings to Zero?

I thought I read that is one of the first things you're supposed to do. Maybe I'm misremembering.
Click to expand...

Not every TV biases the sharpness setting the same. Sometimes it even varies in the same set from picture mode to picture mode or even between inputs!

0 is not universal


Instead, aim for the inage ideal. Adjust sharpness so that you remove ringing.
 
Xcell Miguel

Xcell Miguel

Gold Member
Well the 40€ SagemCom one is not the "gaming" one too, it does not do AA, only sharpening and contrast :(

Going to send it back to Amazon France.
 
radewagon

radewagon

Member
Testing PSVita TV and PSP tomorrow. Any title recommendations? I don't have the largest library, but I'll see what I can do.

UPDATE: No takers. Took pictures of some random games. The PSP games were fed to the TV through the PSVitaTV. It was set to 480p because setting it to Auto or 720p produced poor results. The native Vita games were output using Auto (which is 720p).


PSP Game: HDMI


PSP Game: mCable


PSP Game: HDMI


PSP Game: mCable


PSP Game: HDMI


PSP Game: mCable


Vita Game: HDMI


Vita Game: mCable


Vita Game: HDMI


Vita Game: mCable

Thoughts? Honestly, I'm not terribly impressed. These games just weren't meant to be blown up to TV size. The mCable's anti-aliasing solution seems to really want to smear the image. The overall effect is quite unpleasant. The aliasing on these portable titles is pretty bad, but it's preferable to the loss in overall image quality that the mCable introduces.

Oh well, it's not like the PSVita TV had decent software support anyway. Can't even use Uncharted on it.
 
M

mikezilla2

Member
Wolfgunblood Garopa said:
Now I'm thinking I should put the idea of getting an m cable on the shelf until there is a revision with flashable firmware and toggle features. I suppose it would have to take off for them to add significant features like that, and for the same price as well.
Click to expand...

you Could just get a proper Scaler but those Cost an arm and a Leg
 
Clockwork

Clockwork

Member
Shifty. said:
I'm seeing some pretty decent results on the Switch.

Without cable:


With cable:


It looks like it might be doing something strange with the colours, maybe some sort of sharpening effect, but it's worth it for the IQ improvements.
Click to expand...

I'm confused by these. What is with the scanlines?
 
hououinkyouma00

hououinkyouma00

Member
Disappointed by the VitaTV/PStv shots. Was hoping it would be an improvement. Thanks for the shots though.

Can you do some more Persona shots? Maybe Persona 3 Portable and Golden?
 
radewagon

radewagon

Member
hououinkyouma00 said:
Disappointed by the VitaTV/PStv shots. Was hoping it would be an improvement. Thanks for the shots though.

Can you do some more Persona shots? Maybe Persona 3 Portable and Golden?
Click to expand...

Sorry... I'm the only Vita owner who doesn't own Persona. Seems like something that could snowball given my need to collect stuff.
 
f@luS

f@luS

More than a member.
Just got mine. Will test and compare to the Philips one

Just tried a bit

Something is strange. Game is clearer and cleaner but I feel something is off with colors It’s a bit brighter as if it wasn’t hdmi limited on both tv and switch but one full other limited. Which isn’t the case

On fifa it’s a big improvement. On mario i don’t think it’s the same

Édit :
Normal


Mcable (brighter )



Normal


Mcable
 
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