nesdev.org

Is anyone here familiar with the RetroTINK-2X? Looks like a great alternative to the ridiculously expensive Framemeister, but can anyone confirm it works as expected? I also wonder how it'd work with PAL-M signals.

This product only line-doubles to ED (480p or 576p). It doesn't upscale to HD (720p or 1080p), making it less than ideal if your TV has lag on upscaling from ED to HD. I'm also curious as to exactly what its "Video sync recovery and regeneration for non-standard sources (e.g., SNES)" does.

I presume that means it generates a new Sync signal when it sees a Sync signal from the console, just in case the TV can't understand the Sync signal from the console.

I like the idea of the RetroTINK-2X, but seeing that the device handles composite and S-Video then the lack of any means of adjusting colour (and tint for you NTSC folks) kind of dulls the appeal of it to me... that and the creator's attitude towards some things.

As in, during a YT interview he was asked why the RT-2X didn't have RGB input. His answers were along the lines of "The chip I chose doesn't support RGB" (Fair enough) and "It would have been trivial to add a RGB>Component transcoder in effort and cost... but America didn't get RGB, so I couldn't be bothered."

In fact, looking back at the creator's YT vids on the RT-2X, the smoothing filter was originally going to be permanently on ("I kinda like it.").

Also, the RT-2X's 4:2:2 colour downsampling may also put some people off. It's not a big issue with the Comp/S-vid inputs but is apparently noticeable on component with some images.

I'm holding my breath until somebody tests the thing with a PAL C64

Until then, the Extron DVS 204 I recently got is serving as a useable stopgap. We need to get some reverse engineering type people on it, the main components are two FPGAs that have dedicated config eeproms...

It seems a pretty smart move to make a unit that does a few particular jobs well at an affordable price, in contrast to a big monster unit where you pay a lot but end up using only the few features that happens to go well with your particular situation. There's probably room for more niche boxes like this on the market, with varying limited feature sets.

That said,the ""It would have been trivial to add a RGB>Component transcoder in effort and cost... but America didn't get RGB, so I couldn't be bothered."" part combined that he could indeed be bothered with having a vendor in europe is a bit contradictory...

I sent an email asking about PAL-M and got a reply saying that the decoder he used does support PAL-M, so it should work, but he hasn't tested it since he doesn't own any PAL-M consoles. Sounds like good news to me!

Lack of RGB isn't a big deal for me personally... My only experience with RGB has been really frustrating actually, I bought a bunch of cables and a moderately expensive RGB to HDMI converter and the result was worse than composite connected directly to my TV.

I don't mind the 480p signal, in fact I think it's cool that the device doesn't have to do any complicated scaling/stretching that could compromise the picture, but now I am worried that there might be any lag if the TV decides to do any upscaling, even though it's an HDMI input.

Hojo_Norem wrote:I'm holding my breath until somebody tests the thing with a PAL C64

The amount of fights I've had with them

Hi, How can I lock your TV to PAL mode, it seems to think I have a SECAM device.

There is no way to change it, our software detects every format perfectly. Please Adjust your device out of SECAM mode.

Hi, its a Commodore 128D PAL, from 1985, there is not a single SECAM version in the world. It works fine on every other PAL TV I have owned since 1985.

There must be an fault with you Commodore 128D PAL, I advise you send it off for repairs.
TICKET CLOSED

tokumaru wrote:I don't mind the 480p signal, in fact I think it's cool that the device doesn't have to do any complicated scaling/stretching that could compromise the picture, but now I am worried that there might be any lag if the TV decides to do any upscaling, even though it's an HDMI input.

Unless your TV has a panel that is 480P then it is going to have to scale the image up, on an LCD you can't magically draw wider and taller pixels.
So 480 -> 720 panel means it needs to times each pixel by 1.5 which doesn't really work. So you get 1 high, then 2 high, then 1 high etc
480 ->1080 is yeah yuck,x2.25 so you get 2,2,2,3 best to x2 and then centre the 960 in the 1080.
Now a 1440P screen 480x3 and done

PAL is even worse...

Going by that logic, any full HD TV would have trouble displaying 720p images, which doesn't seem to be the case...

It depends on what you consider acceptable. Often cropped and usually very blurry result that I normally see is not something I consider exactly optimal.

There's also OSSC: https://www.videogameperfection.com/pro ... converter/ (Disclaimer: I'm not sure if this is the definitive source for them.)

I don't have experience with it myself though.

Composite video and S-Video are NOT supported and require an adapter/transcoder

What? That's a bigger omission than not supporting RGB... if you're not in Europe at least...

Metal Jesus Rocks has done a video on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybgW8pXcgew

Yeah, the retro-gamer YouTubers seem to be loving it.