In Search of Scanlines

[Joe Musashi]

If you feel that classic consoles look sh#?*, er I mean not good on modern TVs, you should have a look at this:

 

http://www.tested.co...crt-retro-games

 

EDIT:

 

I just saw, this is the wrong forum. Could someone move this to 'Classic Gaming General'? Thanks!

Edited August 2, 2013 by Joe Musashi

[+Gemintronic]

That was a good read. I have mixed feelings about classic systems and upscaling. I find that the artifacting in bad TV signals actually adds something to the image.

[Greg2600]

I've personally moved most capable classic systems to RGB SCART, which gets processed by a video processor to HDMI. It has some scanlining, but I leave it off. Yes, I am not a fan of the scanlines.

[+remowilliams]

The last word in hooking up classic systems to modern displays.

 

 

Cheap it's not, unbelievably amazing it is..

[JamesD]

The last word in hooking up classic systems to modern displays.

 

 

 

Cheap it's not, unbelievably amazing it is..

Where can we buy one?

[desiv]

Where can we buy one?

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006H39XJS/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&tag=atariage&creativeASIN=B006H39XJS&linkCode=as2

 

From google search to an Amazon link.

No idea about the product or sellers..

 

desiv

[+remowilliams]

Where can we buy one?

 

I ordered mine from http://www.solarisja...up-scaler-unit/

 

It's so amazing that it allowed me to finally switch out my last actively setup CRT, which was a Sony Wega setup exclusively for retro gaming...

[Thorium]

Actualy the cheap converters do just fine. I have a 30€ HDMI converter and it handles all signals i input fine. I have 12 consoles and computers hooked up by using a LCD TV, a cheap HDMI converter and a composite and RGB switch.

For some games you actualy should use composite to benefit from dithering. For example Pier Solar for Mega Drive looks much better with composite in my opinion. Sure you get artifacts, but you also get smooth shadows and gradients.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Thorium

[carlsson]

How about graphics lag? When you play an action game, it isn't so much fun to see on the screen what the computer thought happened 0.2 seconds ago.

[+remowilliams]

How about graphics lag? When you play an action game, it isn't so much fun to see on the screen what the computer thought happened 0.2 seconds ago.

 

A word about the processing delay: the XRGB-mini is fast, really fast! In fact, it's so fast, that I don't even understand how it works. I haven't measured the actual delay(s) yet, but from a comparison with the XRGB-3's B1 mode, the Mini doesn't "feel" any slower. The delay is supposed to be shown on the full status screen. Depending on the input resolution, the output resolution and the processing mode, the delays shown range from 1.03ms to 9.83ms. Even with proper 480i deinterlacing the delay is shown is with practically no delay. The weird thing about this is that a pixel-adaptive video deinterlacer needs to buffer at least two fields to be able to compute a new frame with information from both fields. Even weirder is that Micomsoft themselves state in the manual, that for timing-critical games the game mode should be used (instead of Standard mode) - though the Standard mode doesn't rate any slower (judging from the info screen). I'll look into this sometime soon, but any way this turns out: the Framemeister is fast enough to support even the most hardcore bullet hell shoot'em ups (or Bemani or whatever is your cup of tea).

[raindog]

I've gone down this rabbit hole... more than once. First you want authentic controllers, but they make USB versions of most of those now.

 

Then emulation isn't good enough anymore, so you pull out the old behemoth or hit ebay.

 

Then you miss the scanlines and color bleeding. (Or, for us children of the late '70s, the fuzzy black and white.)

 

Then you miss the tinny mono sound.

 

Then you miss the woodgrain contact paper on the side of your cheap old TV.

 

Then you miss the controller being too big for your hands.

 

Then you miss the feel of the carpeting under you as you sat crosslegged, miss the sounds and smells of your home as you once knew it.

 

Then you want your parents back.

 

That was where I stopped and went back to Stella.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Just save yourself the frustration and go to Goodwill or the Salvation Army thrift store and buy yourself a cheap secondhand tube TV, since they've long quit selling them in department stores. I've got a low-latency 16:9 1080p LCD computer monitor + HDMI switch for my HD game systems, and a 4:3 CRT SDTV for retro consoles. Both are set up in my bedroom and ready to use anytime I feel like gaming.

Edited August 21, 2013 by stardust4ever