Those look amazing!
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Upscalers, CRTs, PVMs & RGB: Retro gaming done right!
- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
- Status
theSlacker
Member
Friend of Sonic
Member
Wow those look amazing. Certainly a case to be made for upscaling.
Of course, you are right, why would I risk some of the last CRT monitors on Earth?
i imagine they'd use the dead monitors first.
Friend of Sonic
Member
theSlacker
Member
I know a good way to make some money for all that if you haven't already gone though making all the custom GBAs that you had the parts for. :3
Bog
Junior Ace
Thanks, I'll try that.
Also, my remote seems to have died. New batteries do nothing. I'm guessing there's no cheap way to get a replacement remote?
theSlacker
Member
Start charging more than what the parts cost me?
I'm actually surprised that that isn't the case with the extra work you put into making them and testing the brightness thing.
By the by, are you still making them? Haven't talked to you about it since like August and just assumed I was too low on the list to get one.
It's mostly cos I think they're pretty expensive anyway what with the LCD and ribbon cable cost, plus shipping from NZ. That and I kinda do them for fun.
You're actually coming up soon on the list, and I should have enough parts to make you one. I'm having to return the last batch of ribbon cables so I'm waiting until Chinese New Year is over so I can do that and get them replaced, then I'll be back in action. I'll be in touch via PM when I'm ready to work on them again.
theSlacker
Member
Oh shit, good to hear. Sorry for bringing up the stuff in a random thread, honestly thought you were done making them. Then...yes...you should probably wait a few more people before charging more to cover the costs of a capture card...
wat?
thegirlleastlikelyto
Member
NormalFish
Banned
there are undoubtedly audiophiles who will shake their head at my comment, but I find with older games like this, speaker quality doesn't make a massive difference. Go with what's cheap and what you think looks nice, IMO.
theSlacker
Member
I'm sure they are fine. These are what I use with my current BVM. Well the older version that I had to do the crossover upgrade to to make into those speakers, but same difference. Got to also get your own amp and wiring if you go that route though.
Speedwagon
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Yabuki turned off voice chat in Mario Kart races. True artists of their time.
I picked up a Sony PVM-14M2U today for $50 and it's beautiful. Besides a few scuffs, and dust in the crevices, it almost looks new. Really happy to have it, and I can't wait until I have the cables to hook up my Sega Saturn and SNES.
Huggers
Member
Those will be just fine. I use something very similar with my bvm. Sound great
thegirlleastlikelyto
Member
I can't wait until I have the cables to hook up my Sega Saturn and SNES.
I got my Saturn SCART cable from retro console accessories today, and I can't believe how good it looks. I have my PS2 and SNES/SFC hooked up to the TV, but the Saturn looks fantastically impressive on it.
Speedwagon
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Yabuki turned off voice chat in Mario Kart races. True artists of their time.
That's awesome to hear. Also you have your PS2 hooked up via component? I was just wondering, but would a Wii work?
Huggers
Member
I have a Wii hooked up to a bvm via component. It looks stunning
Speedwagon
Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. Yabuki turned off voice chat in Mario Kart races. True artists of their time.
Just what I wanted to hear. Thank you!
thegirlleastlikelyto
Member
I've got component (via component to BNC) and (currently) SCART for my PS2 - I'm playing low-res games on it now - and I'm trying to decide which looks better (moving everything to SCART is easier also on me as I only have one BNC input). Wii's on component, and I'm still debating on using Any Region to change the display output to European/PAL60 and hook it up via SCART as well.
I'm having some issues too with the Mini into my Bravia (W600 series). Maybe we're having the same problems! And I think the main source of the issues is actually the TV.
When I tried hooking the Framemeister into another TV (an old, cheap Insignia) with overscan off, it looked great. I set the Mini to 720p, and the TV displays 240p content perfectly (filling up exactly 960 pixels vertically).
But with the Bravia, no matter how I set it (+1 or Full Pixel), it won't upscale 720p properly. It REALLY wants to stretch the picture to more than 960 pixels, meaning the scanlines or the spaces in between them become uneven. It's like the TV is convinced that it should upscale and use all its vertical space, no matter what.
If anyone has any suggestions for Bravia settings -- assuming this can be overcome -- I welcome them!
theSlacker
Member
This one instead. Her cables are better then the retro gaming cables cables. The one I linked is the raw/csync version that she makes. I tend to go for raw/csync whenever possible. What version SNES are you using, since if it is a modded mini it would have had to have been wired to output csync iirc. The standard one will not have this problem.
My standard can't do csync, only cvideo.
Huggers
Member
It's just a standard Snes. Not the mini. I need to order from Retro Gaming Cables as it's UK based like myself and I'm impatient. Plus the breakout cable I got from there is great
Okay now I'm confused!
While I found their breakout cable okay, others have had issues with their system cables such as audio buzz and visual anomalies.
theSlacker
Member
Interesting. Are you sure it wasn't the cable in question/your monitor not being able to accept csync? I thought all the US fats could output it without any modding.
I too use the breakout cable from there but the cables made by retro_console_accessories are really good. If she made a breakout cable I would have gotten that from her as well.
I can understand the need based on location, but if you end up disliking the cable from Retro Gaming Cables then keep retro_console_accessories in mind. I just assumed you were US based because of the NTSC console.
What are your current settings?
I use a bravia and I generally keep my mini in meister mode with scanlines on at 720p. All additional processing is turned off the bravia and the brightness, color, etc has been tweeked.
Huggers
Member
Nah the NTSC console is a requirement due to the crazy prices of some PAL games and of course, 60hz. I have a feeling my BVM might not accept CSYNC but I really don't know. I'm well out of my depth with all this tbh. I'll definitely check those cables out in the future. I have heard good things before about them
theSlacker
Member
What is the model of your BVM? From my experience Sony's PVM and BVM lines are not picky with sync unlike some other monitors that I've seen. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but that can be found out with a quick googling.
Huggers
Member
It is a BVM20G1E. I can't seem to find whether it will or not
Most do csync, mine is a late and rare revision that doesn't do it but cvideo at least so I still get RGB.
It was the SNES actually as it's a late and rare model that did only cvideo. When I used a csync cable I got sound but no picture as it's just a black screen. I then got a cvideo cable and it worked perfectly outputting RGB.
theSlacker
Member
Really interesting. Is it a 1chip system? I don't have any of them to test but I could see that making sense since that is basically what the snes mini is. Still seems odd.
I can't say for absolute certain, but I can't see it having problem with csync.
Huggers
Member
I take it the composite + sync cable will definitely work?
baphomet
Member
You shouldn't really be using Meister mode. There are much better settings.
I'm getting a decent ish picture, it definitely does not take up the full vertical height with an inch or two top and bottom however the aspect ratio is 4:3. Mine is a 55 inch W955.
I'm set to 720p @ 50/60hz and the scrolling isnt silky (e.g super mario). I've got it in game mode with reality creation turned off (if I put it on it's like silky smooth).
Just want the best tweaks for scan lines etc.
Edit: I can get scan lines with meister mode but wanted to know how to switch them on in picture mode so that I could adjust them and also what the best settings were for pal. I'm also using retro gaming rgb sync on luma cables. They are fantastic and I have zero hiss in the sound.
Love the snes but completely forgot the amiga has better music in games. Just need a toastrack spectrum now and I'm set. The xrgb is a must for all 3.
theSlacker
Member
Well that's the thing. I'm sure that will work as well, but if that monitor just doesn't accept certain kinds of sync then its just as likely to be that one. In fact I've heard of more things that will only work with raw/csync as apposed to working with composite video as sync when it doesn't work with csync. Like the nec29. There are also certain systems that output a better picture with csync, but as I recall the snes isn't one of them.
I know this must be terrible confusing. Here is a video that may help you with the different terminology. But yeah, I'm pretty sure both of those sync types will work with your monitor, I just can't find any direct info about it.
Really? I was always under the impression meister mode was the best. Can you elaborate?
He's right - everything I have read has said that meister mode isn't the best mode. It's picture mode with manually adjusted scan lines.
Thanks for the tips. Ill look into it later wheni get home.
Feel free to link any info on the best way to manually adjust the scanlines.
Huggers
Member
That's really useful. Thanks for your help man, much appreciated
theSlacker
Member
To make matters more confusing, I decided to double check what I claimed and it seems that SNES may indeed benefit from csync. Just random people's claims so don't know. I only have csync cables for mine so can't test it myself for you.
Huggers
Member
I'm so bad with these things. Am I right in thinking that CSYNC doesn't mean the sync is on the composite cable?
I'm tempted to just get both. For the sake of 10 quid I could test it myself.
theSlacker
Member
The "composite" sync in csync has nothing to do with the composite video cable. It means that the sync is a composite of both the H and V syncs. That is also why it is referred to as "raw" or "pure" sync, since all it is is sync. "Composite video" sync is the common alternative. That is running the sync on the composite video. On some things this can create is various artifacts from the composite video itself messing with things. Think in the video I linked there are some examples. In other things it does nothing at all.
I really wish it didn't have to be this confusing but with the names how they are it is hard to manage that. What I suggest is to just buy the csync version of the cable. If you are going to spend extra on getting two just for testing then it would be better to just spend that on the better cables from retro_console_accessories, or if it doesn't work then buy the other one. There is no downside to getting the csync cable first since if they both work then it will at worst just give the same picture quality as composite video sync.
Huggers
Member
I'm glad you say it's complicated as I am a massive technophobe and definitely struggle to understand it all.
Very true. I'll order one shortly and report back with pics
I cannot disagree with you more. An an early model Genesis headphone jack can drive a subwoofer in the most deeply satisfying way. It has deep bass that can only be described as delicious. IMO, the old consoles have incredible sound capabilities. In fact, I prefer old consoles to emulation solely on the basis of sound. And a great speaker setup could do wonders for your old gaming experience.
I'd go to AVS forums and ask your sound-setup questions there.
- Status