I’d like to apologize as I could have elaborated in the video. CRT filters don’t look anywhere near as good in direct capture as they do in person. The nature of a CRT filter makes the picture unfriendly to direct capture. Even with basic scanlines you’re going to get artifacts if the window doesn’t match the capture footage. You can see with the CRT filters you’ll get artifacts in any view that’s not fullscreen. Maybe even a rainbow effect which would also be the cause of the weird colors some have scene. As well as possibly the HDR capture converted in SDR. The direct capture is only ever going to be an approximation of what the filters actually look like in person. I know that doesn’t help sell the value of the Tink4K much but I stress that these filters look extremely good in person and the colors look completely normal. I should have mentioned more clearly that even if the CRT filter doesn’t look too good in person you can tweak and adjust so many settings until it looks good to you. Or experiment with the countless amounts of profiles. Hope that cleared some things up!
Have a question about crt filters on 5x. Since youtube compression won't allow to see them in high quality, how good they are in person in terms of mimicking an actual crt TV? Maybe you have raw video that you can share with a link or something? :) RT 4k may be out of budget as import taxes would make it cost way over 1k$ for me so considering 5x as a cheaper alternative. A big fan of authentic look too so don't want to be disappointed if I order one. Thank you! PS: if it matters, will be playing NES and SNES mainly
@@andriizahorui8332The 5X filters look very exceptional if you can use the option 1440p mode. Otherwise playing games at 1080p (Over) would be your best bet as that’s at least 1200p of resolution. From normal playing distance the filters are quite convincing. I think some of my older videos may have some off camera footage but I’m not sure. If budget is a concern then I’d suggest simple PC emulation. Like play through Retroarch and some of the CRT filters you can use with that as that’s the next best alternative imo
@@andriizahorui8332 I still have my old SD CRT, but I get an even better picture on my modern TV thanks to CRT shaders, because I can recreate PVM phosphor masks that look much better than slot masks on my CRT. I have never seen 480i/480p PS2 games look this good, because SD CRT blurs the image way too much. You can google "sony megatron color video monitor" to see comparisons between real CRT's and the best CRT shaders. It's impossible to tell which is real CRT and which recreated. I no longer feel the need to own a CRT, that's how good CRT shaders can look. But remember that there's a big difference between SDR and HDR CRT shaders. SDR CRT shaders must use bloom, change colors and gamma to some degree to compensate for the loss of brightness because phosphor mask dims everything. Only 4K HDR TVs allow you to have a mask with 100% opacity and this will give you an extremely faithful CRT look.
On my 4k monitor, the CRT simulation just has a sort of pale, and salmon-colored tint to it, but you get the idea from your captures. Linus Tech Tips covers this device too. I'm interested in it for use as a TBC device for digitizing VHS tapes, but I also have a few vintage gaming systems that I'd like to try as well.
@@randytate need to put your screen in PC mode if you haven’t already and turn off any AI, pseudo sharpening, and any other crap that alters the image being fed to it.
An LG C3 will not beat a Sony WEGA Trinitron CRT in terms of Colour, shadow detail(You need a professional calibration, $400-$500 later to get rid of the out of box black crush.) or motion clarity. The TINK4K's internal Black frame insertion can cut down 50% of OLED motion blur, which is really good and gives you 'clean' plasma-tier motion clarity, but you're still dealing with WOLED colours which are straight up inferior to both plasma & CRT. You need a Samsung S90D 'QD'-OLED to get CRT & plasma colour. A 42" QD-OLED + RetroTINK4K would be the ultimate modern Sony Wega replacement. But Samsung's QD-OLED's aren't available just yet at 42". Maybe in spring 2025! On the flip side, your LG C3 will best a Sony Wega in terms of Black levels, brightness & Whites, so there's that, and the fact that it's slim, light, new & readily available. Plus, I think the 50% Tink4K BFI motion blur reduction is good enough for 8-16 bit games, but it's not a great solution. Since it increases input lag and causes Flicker on Whites.
@@NintenPizza my last three CRTs were Trinitrons actually with my best one being a G520 computer monitor that I put A LOT of hours into calibrating myself which along with an FW900 I saw (never owned one sadly) is the closest I’ve seen a screen get to my LG C3. Furthermore I run my Retrotink 4K at max resolution which means I’m not using it’s built in BFI and am instead using the C3’s “OLED Motion” BFI. I also used a combination of recommended settings from RTings as well as disabling AI and all the pseudo sharpening to get the best possible picture. Also, OLED blur is practically non-existent even with BFI disabled on this screen, the little it has isn’t much different than my consumer grade Trinitrons were actually. Furthermore NOTHING can match OLED color capabilities or contrast levels. Using my TV as the only light source can easily cause the room to go pitch black or blinding white, it’s especially crazy when watching concerts with my Govee lights running.
Thank you for helping me overcome my preemptive buyer's remorse. I have wanted a CRT for ages, but simply do not want to have such a heavy and fragile device in my home. I'm excited for my Tink 4k to arrive so I can turn any display into a retro gaming center. Thank you for covering some good points about it!
One of my favorite uses for the RT4K is when using my PS3's Blu-ray player function. I enjoy watching modern "vintage style" movies through it while applying a CRT mask, pre-scaling, and horizontal blur to make it feel like I'm watching a VHS. 📼😎
This is exactly the reason I've been considering getting a RetroTink 4K. Being able to put CRT filters on any content lower than 1080p, including video not just games. Excellent video 👏
Since I got my RT4k a few months ago, I don't think I've touched a console made after 2006. Yeah $750 is steep and a total luxury, but the 77" OLED I'm playing on with 5.4.2 sound wasn't exactly cheap either, might as well make the most of it. I'm one of those psychos with 4 CRTs already, but this was my DREAM SETUP in like 1989 (unimaginable, really). I am still CRT for life because I love light gun games but I have no regrets about the Tink4k.
Heck yeah brother. I understand for most $750 just ain't worth it which is fine! But I see it as, well sure it's that expensive but I can pass any console with composite/s-video/scart/hdmi through it from 240p to 1080p and slap convincing CRT filters on any game I please. Even with a PVM I feel you're limited on what you can connect to it. At least my OLED is 65in which is hella nice.
I really think Mike screwed up not making the device hdmi 2.1, I know I know it'd be more expensive. But is 750 vs 1000 dollars that big of a difference for someone who can afford to blow 750 on something like this? Especially given that it borderline requires a TV at least as expensive and honestly retro consoles and games aren't far from that price either.... BFI is so variable TV to TV it's really only worth using on a handful of TVs, mainly the previous gens of LG C series OLEDs. Making the device 2.1 capable means they could've just handled the BFI in box and we would've had the perfect no compromises scaler that can do basically flawless crt picture AND motion clarity. The whole reason we got scalers is because manufacturers can't be trusted to do it properly themselves, why we turn around and rely on them for good BFI is just puzzling to me.
@@HindsightWithHustle Yeah, okay, but he's still right. Actually all of his footage is pretty bad, the colors are washed out and the scanlines don't look at all like a CRT that's working properly to me lol
@@Jonnicomthe scan lines wouldn’t really appear on RUclips due to compression. I love the way MLiG records their scan line footage with a camera pointing at the monitor.
Could be. I tried messing with it and it didn't seem to help brightness. I have an LG C2 and I believe I have the necessary settings to achieve maximum brightness. Admittedly I'm not too practiced in messing with TV video settings. Cranking the nits on the Tink itself was the only practical solution I could find. I do experience video sync drops for brief moments but that goes away after a bit and doesn't happen all the time. It works, and gets me brightness very comparable to a real CRT, but if that doesn't seem right then I'm open to other possible solutions. It very well could be another thing that's contributing to the weird colors in my direct capture that everyone's noticed.
And input lag, since there isn't any with CRT. Tink4K's internal BFI reduces 50% of OLED motion blur, while reinforcing HDR brightness into SDR to make up for the 50% of brightness loss coming from BFI, but that's still 50% more motion blur than a CRT. :P Still makes a huge difference, vs 100% blur. When it comes to latency, at 60fps, OLED's can't get any lower than 10ms, and with TINK4K, unless I'm mistaken you'll be getting around 20-21ms once you turn on it's BFI...Not great. 2 - 2.5ms - (Just by using Tink4K + Frame Lock.) 10ms - (From you OLED TV's game mode at 60fps.) 8ms - (Tink4K Black frame insertion.) Is that even correct. I can't get a solid answer on this?
⬆️ Is correct and people overthink this latency thing. The average human reaction time is 240~250ms, so all this seek for 0ms of latency is basically a myth.
@@JS2123-m9x OLED's suffer from motion blur. It's totally noticeable. CRT, is motion blur-free. The image just is just as clear as it is still when you're turning the in-game camera left and right. There's zero difference. This is why Black frame insertion is crucial for OLED. cutting down 50% of OLED motion blur makes a huge difference. It's still no CRT, but it makes games look playable.
@@portalfreak7628 Compresion artifacts. CRT filters don’t play well with direct capture as compression can mess with the colors. Best you can do is watch in full screen. The filters give off a rainbow effect if the screen size doesn’t match the playback resolution which may mess with the colors. Only way to truly see how the filters look is by seeing them in person unfortunately. I wish I could show them more accurately but It’s almost impossible for me.
@@Mr.Welbig i wondered if uploading the vid in youtube's HDR mode could have mitigated this🤔. i know its a thing cause Digital Foundry has release HDR vids and just put the disclaimer at the beginning of their vid
@@remylegato Hmmmmm. I'll have to give it a try. I'll admit with all the profiles the Tink has I kinda immediately settled on like, 2 mask types and called it good as they looked great enough to my eye.
@@Mr.Welbig There's two big problems; the crt filter causing compression artifacts as you mentioned, but the biggest problem resulting in the odd hue is HDR. There's a clip in this video where you are demonstrating enabling HDR, and while the capture is in SDR it looks "fine" (It only has the compression issue), but as soon as HDR is enabled, then your editing software and youtube has to convert HDR content to SDR, and that almost always results in a really odd pinkish hue. This is largely fixed by capturing and editing the video in HDR, and uploading the video to youtube *as* an HDR video, but people watching the video on non-HDR displays will have similar color issues still. So, for capture for youtube videos, *maybe* the mono mask will help as well, but if you're uploading an SDR video, you should have SDR disabled on the tink, and unfortunately eat the loss in brightness, or upload in HDR, and then folks with HDR displays can watch it relatively normally, but those without just miss out.
I should add that *usually* uploading content as HDR / mastering it in software as HDR does a better job of color mapping HDR -> SDR for non HDR-havers, to the point it's not "just" pink, but lighter colors will tend towards reddish pink in my experience.
I think with how hit and miss video scalers have been, the space and money I’d need to secure and place a high quality crt, and the amount of retro consoles I play regularly, I think while $750 is a little crazy, I would definitely be getting what I’m paying for with this. Good review.
CRT's aren't really expensive if you're looking locally and in person. You'll eventually encounter one with enough patience and it shouldn't take you back more than $50 for something nice
While I have and prefer my CRTs, this device is necessary for long term preservation via emulation. Very well spoken and encompassing coverage on your part
The price certainly is steep, but I also have a legit CRT (had it for 10ish years after getting it from a thrift store. Not specifically for retro gaming, but because I had no other TV at the time, or any recent console). Also, for me, it's not so much the look moreso the input lag. I don't mind messing with CRT filters, though. Granted I play on whatever TV I feel like.
I really want one to watch laserdiscs properly on my main modern display and sound system. it would be nice not to have to lug a crt in with my sound system and it would be cheaper that making my crt room sound system comparable. also to back up my laserdiscs for archival purposes, the tink 4k having a perfect deinterlacer and the addition of the optical in would make capturing much much easier i think.
Interested in the next video, I use retro arch because I stopped keeping track of what the best PC emulators are, would be interesting to learn how to get the best CRT filters on PC
Could you speak a bit more to "cranking the nits" to offset the brightness loss when using bfi? It seems like any time I try to do that on my CX the colors end up washed out and whites look too bright compared to the rest of the image. I've tried tweaking my TV's color to compensate but haven't been able to find settings I'm happy with so I just never use bfi :(
I may have experienced the same washed out colors you did. For me it simply came down to the type of CRT filter I was using. I experimented with several of the CRT profiles until I found a few that looked good enough to me without brightness correction. I should have explained a bit more but you can further tweak the brightness simply by decreasing the strength of the filter in the menu. If none of the filters look good then maybe boosting the saturation within the filter menu? Otherwise I'm afraid I wouldn't really know. Even in my setup apparently I shouldn't jack the nits up because the real issue is my TV Tone mapping settings but I haven't had any success with those settings. I'm working with a C2 and i'm not sure if the settings differ much between displays.
I’ve used Mike Chi’s other product: the Retrotink 2X Pro, and it does everything it advertises extremely well. If some of you want some of the features for cheaper give the 2X Pro a look.
I think this is a great alternative since someday the surviving CRTs will die. With the technicians who fix them lack the tools or stopped performing such repairs since lack of viability they aren't coming back. I even read that TV manufacturers don't even have the ability to make them anymore even if they wanted to. Apparently they threw out all their tools and blueprints lol. They would need to reverse engineer the technology to create more. With such a niche market thw price of a new CRT would be upwards of thousands of dollars. So with that in mind the retrotink in a bargain. People don't remember that TVs before LCD were a small fortune. Having a large TV back then was a big deal. Thousands of dollars. 90's dollars were more valuable too.
About 4 years ago I got a kv36fs300 for free (well the ordeal of getting it lol) but anyway the guy I got it from told me it was the first TV he bought for himself after moving out on his own, and it was almost 2k after tax when he got it. Good day for me that day lol. And I have several others, but eventually I'll get a scaler for the inevitable time when they're all dead.
@@RemoWilliams1227 36?! I didn't even know they made them that big. That's huge as hell. I use a 27 inch which I think is plenty big. I only use it for retro gaming. The games I use it for are only 240p so bigger TVs don't do it much benefit in my case. Same resolution at a bigger size doesn't make it look any better.
The only thing stopping companies from making them today is supplies and shipping. I believe it's possible to re-invent the same tech for today's market/standards. My wish: original LOW resolution modern CRT, frosted glass screen, same tech redesigned into a flatter screen maybe 6" thick instead of 2 feet thick. I KNOW people would buy if it was an option right now. I have a hard time believing we can't make flatter/lighter CRT tech nowadays
Another great video as always! Not sure if its just for me, but for some reason whenever you show the Tink's scanline footage you captured, it all has this heavy pink tint to it all. Just when its the scanlines, all other footage is fine.
It's just the nature of the capturing filters unfortunately. If you mess with the video size in a window you might see this rainbow effect that may be the cause of it. The best way to mitigate it is by watching in fullscreen. I captured in 4K to avoid compression artifacts but even that's not good enough. The filters and colors look totally normal and fine in person. I wish I could show what the filters truly look like in person but that's almost impossible.
I'm one of those guys that has five different CRTs just for different retro consoles. Let me tell you how much I love the retrotink 4k. I play everything through it on my OLED now and all of the big CRT TVs now sit in storage. The space savings alone is worth it but the 750 I spent on it is nothing compared to the money I've spent on CRTs.
Sounds similar! I missed the restock of the 4k a couple of weeks ago so I'm still waiting. Keep watching these videos to see if getting one is worth it and comments like yours make it sounds like it is. 😅
Is the M-classic compatible with the retrotink 4k and is it worth combining the two? Also is hdr gaming for retro games worth it or does sdr look better? Only thing I’m missing is a Oled I noticed that when I see a video about the retrotink 4k it’s shown on an Oled display 😫 I have a led display I’m missing out lol
Can it work with the tink? Yes. But what I suggest personally is throwing that piece of garbage out a window. HDR is to get the brightness back from applying scanlines and masks. If you aren't using those features, then don't apply HDR. It's NOT HDR rendering. It does not magically remaster games to HDR assets. You don't need an OLED to make it look good. It certainly helps though.
I love Mike Chi and have no doubt the RT4K is best in class. I'll be on board when sample-and-hold motion clarity can get on par with a CRT. Until then I'm praying for my tubes.
Mike said it might have to wait until 8K to completely recreate every visual function of a CRT. It also might take 240hz with BFI to even match what 60fps looks like on a CRT. By all means authentic CRTs still can't be touched, but I personally can't recommend spending the cost on admittedly aging hardware unless you're fully on board with it.
@@Mr.Welbig I've heard numbers way higher than 240 Hz, closer to 1000 Hz (IIRC Digital Foundry). I've tried BFI on my 240 Hz display with software emulation and while it looks really good (and really dark due to three black frames per drawn) it's still a different league than a CRT. But there is no doubt in my mind that we will get there though and the RT4K looks amazing already. We're like 90% there which is more than good enough to switch in my opinion.
@@Mr.Welbig I would think that given how popular CRT's are getting as a ''retro'' thing to have, more manufactures would pop-up to make honest to god CRT's, sure they'll be expensive but I would be stoked to see new CRT's being made.
@@ewoutverheij4745I’ve hoped for the same thing, but I think what’s preventing that is that the equipment for making CRTs just doesn’t exist anymore (not to mention the talent with specified engineering knowledge of CRTs are likely all retired or elsewhere)
@@ewoutverheij4745 It's not an easy thing to have manufacturers "pop-up". As others have said, the people and equipment to produce them are largely gone. It would take a lot of startup capital and investors to produce modern CRTs into a viable and realistic business venture. It's easy to say "Why don't we have manufacturers for this retro stuff" if people love it? As you guys find out, the answer isn't so simple. It costs an equivalent amount, if not more to reproduce or update older tech. It's not dissimilar to manufacturing an old-fashioned home or classic cars in the modern age. In other words, don't count on that anytime soon.
Hmm, but what about using this on a non-HDR, non-4K TV? I have a regular early-2010s 1080p TV from Sony which I want to use for PS2, what do you think, will Tink help with that?
If you don't have a 4k tv of any kind then I would not recommend this product at all. The best device for your situation would probably be the Retrotink5X. That's the premium scaler for 1080p screens. It's $320 which is a lot so if that's too much there may be other options you can consider like the OSSC which is the best budget scaler I've used.
@@Mr.Welbig eh, I'm just one of those weirdos who are willing to overpay hundreds of $ for even the most marginal of improvements, so I'm trying to understand if things like settings profiles are enough of a QOL upgrade to actually use Retrotink4K on a regular 1080p TV hehe.
Any idea how much lag you're dealing with total when using TINK4K's Black frame insertion for 60fps video games with a QD-OLED/OLED TV? I've heard that just by using the Tink4K + Frame Lock, you're getting about 2.5ms of lag, then 10ms of lag coming your OLED TV's game mode and then another 8.3ms from TINK4K's BFI?...That's about 21ms of lag unless I'm mistaken.
Which OLED did you get? Apparently the LG C1 (or at least the 2021 series of OLEDs) was the last one of their OLEDs to support 120Hz BFI which looks less flickery than standard implementations of BFI. Motion clarity buffs seem to swear by this. I’m wondering if I should go out and buy a brand new OLED or if I should go hunting for a C1. I’m just worried about the condition of a used OLED that I don’t know the history of (burn-in, etc.)
Yeah the Tink4K is pretty sick. It's a must if you value having a decent IQ at all even on current games let alone older ones that truly benefit from it. It's genuinely an incredible product for the high price. I really just needed a quality way to use my old systems that don't use HDMI but this thing goes so hard that I genuinely get overwhelmed and feel stupid when I open the menu and start messing with settings.
But can it use composite blending in old games? Simulate it? Otherwise, you would see the dithering and wouldn't get the benefit of composite blending for colors.
I believe using a composite connection alone will give you optimal blending with the CRT filters. For higher quality signals there's a horizontal blur setting you can mess with which is what I use. You can adjust it until you see dither patterns disappear. Worked great to make waterfalls in Sonic transparent.
I had the OSSC but ended up tweaking to no end the settings for scanlines and not playing the games. I have 2 CRTs but they tend to give a headache after an hour (and the geometry problems are getting more noticeable with the years). I order the RT4K a few weeks ago, can´t wait to get it and mess around with the scanlines features (hopefully I´ll ply the games this time lol).
Odd question but do you think a mini led with lots of dimming zones would also be fine with the tink? this is my fave tink4k video btw since you're the first that isn't absolutely destroying the image with emulation look-tier 'crisp' rgb..
I hear good things about mini LED. Unfortunately I can't speak much as I've never used one. If it can get bright as shit with a bunch of filters slapped on and with BFI engaged then I think it'd work pretty great. Even standard LCD is fine with "fake" HDR and if you don't mind not having BFI.
@@Mr.Welbig was more so curious about scanlines effectiveness! i worry theyd ve like grey yaknow but i guess thats fine, yah alot of mini led have bfi as options so i might look there cus im terrified of burn in.
@@niamhrz Oh for sure I getcha. As long as the tv is 4K then it'll look great. If it helps I don't take any precautions with my OLED. There's already a auto dimming feature in case i'm AFK. I've had it for over a year now and there's no visible burn in whatsoever. But I understand the concern and will concede mini LED could be even better.
@@Mr.Welbig dopeeee yah i saw that about oled but i see the burnin on my phone and im like yikesies cus its not supposed to be there too, ahahaha. i fall asleep lots so thats why i guess.
If I had to guess it would be the HDR video being converted into SDR for capture. In person the colors looked perfectly normal. It also could be RUclips compression messing with the overall picture. It's unfortunately near impossible to accurately capture filters like this. It's only an approximation of what it'll look like, but it needs to be seen in person to really see what these filters look like.
I'm guessing it's the way your capture card tone maps HDR but I found all of your 4k captures in this video extremely washed out as far as the colors go. Not just washed out but also oddly wrong colors. Watching 27 inch 1080p monitor.
You've probably read the comments already regarding the colors, so I'm most likely just beating a dead horse, but there has to be some way to convert HDR to SDR decently? I've never worked with HDR footage (and my screen is also SDR) so maybe it's not that simple, but for future reviews I think I'd be good to try to find a way to improve the footage. It's a great video review held back a bit by not adequately showing one of the devices main selling points. Maybe you're just ahead of the curve, and we scrubs just need to get HDR screens. Either way, apart from the aforementioned, great review!
I have worked with HDR footage before but for me in my case atm it results in too high a file size for me, and it's incredibly laggy to work with in editing so I opt out. I am planning on getting a new PC hopefully hear soon so I may be able to circumvent that, hopefully. At most all I need is for the footage to be is a rough approximation of what I see in person. The best way to see that in this case is to watch in fullscreen. But I assure the colors and brightness look very natural in person.
@@BahumutTH Unfortunately no. Light guns are very tricky to adapt to LCDs. There is the Sindin light gun which works but I’m unfamiliar with the setup. There’s also EmuVR which has light gun support via playing in a vr space with virtual CRTs I think a method similar to what Nintendo did with Duck Hunt on Wii U could work well but that’d require a sensor bar and IR controllers
I would love the 4K for the VGA alone but being in the land of Canada it would be well over $1000 for it. I do love my 5x though but I do want to get the Retrotink RGB2COMP adapter so I can play light gun games through SCART.
@VilifiedOne I mean that's great but I wanna keep everything together in one device. But I can just get the GVA to SCART adapter and see if that works too.
Hopefully the Next TINK Scaler will support BFI at 4K instead of being capped at 1080p like the current Tink4K. Currently, the TINK4K can reduce OLED motion blur with video games running at 60fps by 50%. Hopefully the next version can do it by 75% or more when QD-OLED's become even brighter.
I've heard sketchy things regarding the Morph. Not to dis on it or show bias but from how it performs (I read it has overheating issues) and the features it seemingly lacks like Triple Buffer, analog input, and added input lag, I ultimately thought the purchase would have been unwise. As expensive as the Tink is, I feel I've gotten my moneys worth with how it's been for me.
@@Mr.WelbigThe heating issues were overstated and happened on unstable firmware. I have owned mine for a month and have had zero issues or noticed any input lag. There is triple buffering. The analog bridge module is arriving at the end of this year and adds another $100, so the total cost would be $375. But right now im happy with $275 i spent since my devices have HDMI.
@@BoxedWater123 I’m aware. I plan on going further into it in my next video. What I love about the Tink is the versatility of it. I feel I can plug any game system to it to slap crt filters to any game I own. Whereas I can’t play every game through Retroarch (to my understanding)
@@Mr.Welbig Retroarch emulates most of the retro consoles and doesn't cost $700. Although its true it doesn't play every game, you could use the shaders made for Retroarch on a program like reshade. I just feel like its important to mention it considering its one of the pillars of the CRT shader community.
@@BoxedWater123 Sure. But I still ultimately don't like using Retroarch and I'd rather not instal/use reshade in every game. All this is exclusive to PC as well where many games aren't going to be available on.
The amount of time I spent tweaking retroarch on a crt you could just buy this and skip all of it. Plus shaders add input lag which feels like it defeated the point of the crt anyway. But you still need to use some shaders when using emulators on a crt
finally caved and bought one of the cheep AV converters the other day. The video signal is so messy, but it beats playing games on my shitty LCD, so it's still an upgrade for me.
You are absolutely correct about everything you said, but I'm saving this to show people why they shouldn't use crt effects through direct capture on streaming media. Sorry not sorry but it's free engagement, right? 😂😩😬
Oh go for it as I think it’s important for people to see that you can’t even trust a basic video of good crt filters. They have to be seen in person. Just like how real CRTs have to be scene in person.
At that price range might as well buy a gaming pc and play at 4k 170hz OLED monitor 170fps with mods and .... Great video and I get the point but I love playing pc games on a CRT so Im a true CRT 4 life🎉
750 is on crack though, considering the manufacturing costs. He should just ramp up the production to produce more of them, to sell them at a cheaper price. Ill wait for that, or perhaps the eventual chinese knockoff.
This stuff is impressive, but having to switch profiles for every console I have plugged into the same tv takes away from the experience. I'd rather just have one setting that works pretty well for all consoles....or just keep my CRT's.
As nice as those CRT filters are there's no way I would use them on an OLED screen. Give it a few years and ALL of your content is going to come with a baked in scaline effect.
I'm still not a fan of crt filters. While it might look closer to a crt, it isn't anywhere near as bright and it changes the color tone. IMO, either play on a crt or deal with the clean pixel look of a modern display. I still haven't seen a crt filter I'd actually use, and that includes the tink 4k. The image just looks waaaaay too washed out. I get the nostalgia, I've been collecting retro games for over 20 years, but I'm not into downgrading image quality.
No, having scanlines on new games isnt going to look like an HD CRT image. HD CRT's do not have visible scanlines. So, what you are doing there isn't accurate to any thing that exists really, just kind of a weird amalgamation lol. I mean , it looks cool, and if you like it, have fun with it , that's why the Tink 4k is so cool .
Even with my Morph 4k and LG CX OLED BFI king combo (only rolling scan consumer OLED) I'm still playing retro games on my CRT's. My PVM's massacre it and even my consumer sets beat it pretty easy. No input lag, real scanlines, real aperture grille/shadow mask, perfect motion clarity and support for real light guns/3d glasses.
Don't get me wrong I still believe nothing can beat the real thing. But god damn if the Tink4k is such a good substitute that I'd be perfectly happy with it, and to show others what the CRT experience could really be like.
TVS RGB LUZ Limpar rápido AV bonitos muito jogos bem até 🎉❤ CRT OFF 👀🤩👌 TVS LED HDR UHD LCD SDR Composite feios pior não gosto fraco composite AV ou HDMI ruim fraco só Retro Tink 4k CRT 🎉❤ AV ou HDMI 😂 $750 Porblema difícil mil poxa triste R$7.500.00 mil não quero 😢 Retro Scaler 2x On limpar Bem top🎉🎉❤❤❤❤❤ 🤩👏🙌 lojas amém manaus R$299.00 bem quero gosto feliz 🎉
@@dwightdixon8508 Alas those types of games are probably gonna be the last to get fully preserved. I’m aware of the Sindin light gun that works on lcds and EmuVR has light gun support via playing in VR on a virtual CRT. I think a method similar to how what Nintendo did with Duck Hunt on Wii U could work but that would require a sensor bar and IR controllers.
I just want to play Switch 2D games with CRT shader options. Because I can't stand all those so called 'Pixel Art' crap that is another term of 'I am a lazy developer, and this is a new good thing' bullshit.
I believe merely compression artifacts from the direct capture. An unfortunate side effect of trying to show CRT filters. The best solution is to watch in fullscreen at 4k. If you play with the window size you might see a rainbow effect from the simulated CRT filter which I think is causing the color tint that many people have commented on.
The colours look completely washed out and nowhere nearer close to what a crt looks like? What's going on there? If that's the best it can look for $700 I think I'll pass. Looks awful.
If I had to guess it would be the HDR video being converted into SDR for capture. In person the colors looked perfectly normal. It also could be RUclips compression messing with the overall picture. It's unfortunately near impossible to accurately capture filters like this. It's only an approximation of what it'll look like, but it needs to be seen in person to really see what these filters look like.
@@Mr.Welbig have you watched the video back via RUclips to clarify as it truly looks awful. Castlevania, Mario and Metroid all have a yellow tinge to them.
@@daveishereuk I have. I know what you mean. Filters just don't play well in direct capture. Watching in full screen might be the best way to mitigate it. I would capture off screen like I do with the real CRTs but I'd rather not most of the video be captured that way and I don't exactly have decent camera equipment.
I’d like to apologize as I could have elaborated in the video. CRT filters don’t look anywhere near as good in direct capture as they do in person. The nature of a CRT filter makes the picture unfriendly to direct capture. Even with basic scanlines you’re going to get artifacts if the window doesn’t match the capture footage. You can see with the CRT filters you’ll get artifacts in any view that’s not fullscreen. Maybe even a rainbow effect which would also be the cause of the weird colors some have scene. As well as possibly the HDR capture converted in SDR. The direct capture is only ever going to be an approximation of what the filters actually look like in person. I know that doesn’t help sell the value of the Tink4K much but I stress that these filters look extremely good in person and the colors look completely normal. I should have mentioned more clearly that even if the CRT filter doesn’t look too good in person you can tweak and adjust so many settings until it looks good to you. Or experiment with the countless amounts of profiles.
Hope that cleared some things up!
Have a question about crt filters on 5x. Since youtube compression won't allow to see them in high quality, how good they are in person in terms of mimicking an actual crt TV? Maybe you have raw video that you can share with a link or something? :) RT 4k may be out of budget as import taxes would make it cost way over 1k$ for me so considering 5x as a cheaper alternative. A big fan of authentic look too so don't want to be disappointed if I order one. Thank you! PS: if it matters, will be playing NES and SNES mainly
@@andriizahorui8332The 5X filters look very exceptional if you can use the option 1440p mode. Otherwise playing games at 1080p (Over) would be your best bet as that’s at least 1200p of resolution. From normal playing distance the filters are quite convincing. I think some of my older videos may have some off camera footage but I’m not sure. If budget is a concern then I’d suggest simple PC emulation. Like play through Retroarch and some of the CRT filters you can use with that as that’s the next best alternative imo
@@andriizahorui8332 I still have my old SD CRT, but I get an even better picture on my modern TV thanks to CRT shaders, because I can recreate PVM phosphor masks that look much better than slot masks on my CRT. I have never seen 480i/480p PS2 games look this good, because SD CRT blurs the image way too much.
You can google "sony megatron color video monitor" to see comparisons between real CRT's and the best CRT shaders. It's impossible to tell which is real CRT and which recreated.
I no longer feel the need to own a CRT, that's how good CRT shaders can look. But remember that there's a big difference between SDR and HDR CRT shaders. SDR CRT shaders must use bloom, change colors and gamma to some degree to compensate for the loss of brightness because phosphor mask dims everything. Only 4K HDR TVs allow you to have a mask with 100% opacity and this will give you an extremely faithful CRT look.
On my 4k monitor, the CRT simulation just has a sort of pale, and salmon-colored tint to it, but you get the idea from your captures. Linus Tech Tips covers this device too. I'm interested in it for use as a TBC device for digitizing VHS tapes, but I also have a few vintage gaming systems that I'd like to try as well.
@@randytate need to put your screen in PC mode if you haven’t already and turn off any AI, pseudo sharpening, and any other crap that alters the image being fed to it.
Bought one of these, dialed it in on an LG C3, and the picture actually beats that of my old Trintrons. Worth every penny.
I still have CRTs in use and I love them but man the small imperfections like geometry can drive me a little nuts.
An LG C3 will not beat a Sony WEGA Trinitron CRT in terms of Colour, shadow detail(You need a professional calibration, $400-$500 later to get rid of the out of box black crush.) or motion clarity. The TINK4K's internal Black frame insertion can cut down 50% of OLED motion blur, which is really good and gives you 'clean' plasma-tier motion clarity, but you're still dealing with WOLED colours which are straight up inferior to both plasma & CRT. You need a Samsung S90D 'QD'-OLED to get CRT & plasma colour.
A 42" QD-OLED + RetroTINK4K would be the ultimate modern Sony Wega replacement. But Samsung's QD-OLED's aren't available just yet at 42". Maybe in spring 2025! On the flip side, your LG C3 will best a Sony Wega in terms of Black levels, brightness & Whites, so there's that, and the fact that it's slim, light, new & readily available. Plus, I think the 50% Tink4K BFI motion blur reduction is good enough for 8-16 bit games, but it's not a great solution. Since it increases input lag and causes Flicker on Whites.
@@NintenPizza my last three CRTs were Trinitrons actually with my best one being a G520 computer monitor that I put A LOT of hours into calibrating myself which along with an FW900 I saw (never owned one sadly) is the closest I’ve seen a screen get to my LG C3. Furthermore I run my Retrotink 4K at max resolution which means I’m not using it’s built in BFI and am instead using the C3’s “OLED Motion” BFI. I also used a combination of recommended settings from RTings as well as disabling AI and all the pseudo sharpening to get the best possible picture. Also, OLED blur is practically non-existent even with BFI disabled on this screen, the little it has isn’t much different than my consumer grade Trinitrons were actually. Furthermore NOTHING can match OLED color capabilities or contrast levels. Using my TV as the only light source can easily cause the room to go pitch black or blinding white, it’s especially crazy when watching concerts with my Govee lights running.
Thank you for helping me overcome my preemptive buyer's remorse. I have wanted a CRT for ages, but simply do not want to have such a heavy and fragile device in my home. I'm excited for my Tink 4k to arrive so I can turn any display into a retro gaming center. Thank you for covering some good points about it!
One of my favorite uses for the RT4K is when using my PS3's Blu-ray player function. I enjoy watching modern "vintage style" movies through it while applying a CRT mask, pre-scaling, and horizontal blur to make it feel like I'm watching a VHS. 📼😎
I could also see it for something like that, as well. Or, maybe, making the 1080p blu rays look a bit better on a modern display.
This is exactly the reason I've been considering getting a RetroTink 4K. Being able to put CRT filters on any content lower than 1080p, including video not just games. Excellent video 👏
Since I got my RT4k a few months ago, I don't think I've touched a console made after 2006. Yeah $750 is steep and a total luxury, but the 77" OLED I'm playing on with 5.4.2 sound wasn't exactly cheap either, might as well make the most of it. I'm one of those psychos with 4 CRTs already, but this was my DREAM SETUP in like 1989 (unimaginable, really). I am still CRT for life because I love light gun games but I have no regrets about the Tink4k.
Heck yeah brother. I understand for most $750 just ain't worth it which is fine!
But I see it as, well sure it's that expensive but I can pass any console with composite/s-video/scart/hdmi through it from 240p to 1080p and slap convincing CRT filters on any game I please.
Even with a PVM I feel you're limited on what you can connect to it. At least my OLED is 65in which is hella nice.
I don’t think it is luxury when you are comparing to modern gaming prices, mico transactions, and DLCs
"one of those psychos with 4 CRTs already" thats cute
This is literally my exact use case, can't wait to have the money to get mine
I really think Mike screwed up not making the device hdmi 2.1, I know I know it'd be more expensive. But is 750 vs 1000 dollars that big of a difference for someone who can afford to blow 750 on something like this? Especially given that it borderline requires a TV at least as expensive and honestly retro consoles and games aren't far from that price either....
BFI is so variable TV to TV it's really only worth using on a handful of TVs, mainly the previous gens of LG C series OLEDs. Making the device 2.1 capable means they could've just handled the BFI in box and we would've had the perfect no compromises scaler that can do basically flawless crt picture AND motion clarity.
The whole reason we got scalers is because manufacturers can't be trusted to do it properly themselves, why we turn around and rely on them for good BFI is just puzzling to me.
Great video, i hope someday i can get my hands on an Retrotink4k or even the 5x would be great already!
Your color profile is off, everything that uses a CRT filter in your video has a red hue.
I actually like the way it looks tbh. I thought it was a preset
@@HindsightWithHustle Yeah, okay, but he's still right. Actually all of his footage is pretty bad, the colors are washed out and the scanlines don't look at all like a CRT that's working properly to me lol
Read the pinned comment
@@Jonnicomthe scan lines wouldn’t really appear on RUclips due to compression. I love the way MLiG records their scan line footage with a camera pointing at the monitor.
That's what crts in poor health look like though lol
8:29 Your problem is probably the Tone-Mapping setting of your TV.
Could be. I tried messing with it and it didn't seem to help brightness. I have an LG C2 and I believe I have the necessary settings to achieve maximum brightness. Admittedly I'm not too practiced in messing with TV video settings. Cranking the nits on the Tink itself was the only practical solution I could find. I do experience video sync drops for brief moments but that goes away after a bit and doesn't happen all the time. It works, and gets me brightness very comparable to a real CRT, but if that doesn't seem right then I'm open to other possible solutions. It very well could be another thing that's contributing to the weird colors in my direct capture that everyone's noticed.
The only thing holding me back is motion clarity. CRT is still king in this category.
And input lag, since there isn't any with CRT. Tink4K's internal BFI reduces 50% of OLED motion blur, while reinforcing HDR brightness into SDR to make up for the 50% of brightness loss coming from BFI, but that's still 50% more motion blur than a CRT. :P Still makes a huge difference, vs 100% blur. When it comes to latency, at 60fps, OLED's can't get any lower than 10ms, and with TINK4K, unless I'm mistaken you'll be getting around 20-21ms once you turn on it's BFI...Not great.
2 - 2.5ms - (Just by using Tink4K + Frame Lock.)
10ms - (From you OLED TV's game mode at 60fps.)
8ms - (Tink4K Black frame insertion.)
Is that even correct. I can't get a solid answer on this?
@@NintenPizza According to research, the shortest latency a human brain can reliably detect is around 13 milliseconds (ms)
⬆️ Is correct and people overthink this latency thing.
The average human reaction time is 240~250ms, so all this seek for 0ms of latency is basically a myth.
@@JS2123-m9x OLED's suffer from motion blur. It's totally noticeable. CRT, is motion blur-free. The image just is just as clear as it is still when you're turning the in-game camera left and right. There's zero difference.
This is why Black frame insertion is crucial for OLED. cutting down 50% of OLED motion blur makes a huge difference. It's still no CRT, but it makes games look playable.
@@robertl8069 and a frame is 16ms...
Amazing stuff as always. Out of curiosity tho, why is there a pink hue over the RetroTink footage?
@@portalfreak7628 Compresion artifacts. CRT filters don’t play well with direct capture as compression can mess with the colors. Best you can do is watch in full screen. The filters give off a rainbow effect if the screen size doesn’t match the playback resolution which may mess with the colors. Only way to truly see how the filters look is by seeing them in person unfortunately. I wish I could show them more accurately but It’s almost impossible for me.
@@Mr.Welbig i wondered if uploading the vid in youtube's HDR mode could have mitigated this🤔. i know its a thing cause Digital Foundry has release HDR vids and just put the disclaimer at the beginning of their vid
@@remylegato Hmmmmm. I'll have to give it a try. I'll admit with all the profiles the Tink has I kinda immediately settled on like, 2 mask types and called it good as they looked great enough to my eye.
@@Mr.Welbig There's two big problems; the crt filter causing compression artifacts as you mentioned, but the biggest problem resulting in the odd hue is HDR. There's a clip in this video where you are demonstrating enabling HDR, and while the capture is in SDR it looks "fine" (It only has the compression issue), but as soon as HDR is enabled, then your editing software and youtube has to convert HDR content to SDR, and that almost always results in a really odd pinkish hue.
This is largely fixed by capturing and editing the video in HDR, and uploading the video to youtube *as* an HDR video, but people watching the video on non-HDR displays will have similar color issues still.
So, for capture for youtube videos, *maybe* the mono mask will help as well, but if you're uploading an SDR video, you should have SDR disabled on the tink, and unfortunately eat the loss in brightness, or upload in HDR, and then folks with HDR displays can watch it relatively normally, but those without just miss out.
I should add that *usually* uploading content as HDR / mastering it in software as HDR does a better job of color mapping HDR -> SDR for non HDR-havers, to the point it's not "just" pink, but lighter colors will tend towards reddish pink in my experience.
I think with how hit and miss video scalers have been, the space and money I’d need to secure and place a high quality crt, and the amount of retro consoles I play regularly, I think while $750 is a little crazy, I would definitely be getting what I’m paying for with this. Good review.
CRT's aren't really expensive if you're looking locally and in person. You'll eventually encounter one with enough patience and it shouldn't take you back more than $50 for something nice
Great video! I never thought i needed a retrotink but this video has convinced me otherwise
While I have and prefer my CRTs, this device is necessary for long term preservation via emulation. Very well spoken and encompassing coverage on your part
The price certainly is steep, but I also have a legit CRT (had it for 10ish years after getting it from a thrift store. Not specifically for retro gaming, but because I had no other TV at the time, or any recent console).
Also, for me, it's not so much the look moreso the input lag. I don't mind messing with CRT filters, though. Granted I play on whatever TV I feel like.
For super Mario all stars what filter did you use on the tink?
I really want one to watch laserdiscs properly on my main modern display and sound system. it would be nice not to have to lug a crt in with my sound system and it would be cheaper that making my crt room sound system comparable. also to back up my laserdiscs for archival purposes, the tink 4k having a perfect deinterlacer and the addition of the optical in would make capturing much much easier i think.
This thing and a 4:3 tube curved oled tv would be awesome.
Interested in the next video, I use retro arch because I stopped keeping track of what the best PC emulators are, would be interesting to learn how to get the best CRT filters on PC
Could you speak a bit more to "cranking the nits" to offset the brightness loss when using bfi? It seems like any time I try to do that on my CX the colors end up washed out and whites look too bright compared to the rest of the image. I've tried tweaking my TV's color to compensate but haven't been able to find settings I'm happy with so I just never use bfi :(
I may have experienced the same washed out colors you did. For me it simply came down to the type of CRT filter I was using. I experimented with several of the CRT profiles until I found a few that looked good enough to me without brightness correction. I should have explained a bit more but you can further tweak the brightness simply by decreasing the strength of the filter in the menu.
If none of the filters look good then maybe boosting the saturation within the filter menu? Otherwise I'm afraid I wouldn't really know. Even in my setup apparently I shouldn't jack the nits up because the real issue is my TV Tone mapping settings but I haven't had any success with those settings. I'm working with a C2 and i'm not sure if the settings differ much between displays.
@@Mr.Welbig Appreciate the response man 👍
I’ve used Mike Chi’s other product: the Retrotink 2X Pro, and it does everything it advertises extremely well. If some of you want some of the features for cheaper give the 2X Pro a look.
I think this is a great alternative since someday the surviving CRTs will die. With the technicians who fix them lack the tools or stopped performing such repairs since lack of viability they aren't coming back. I even read that TV manufacturers don't even have the ability to make them anymore even if they wanted to. Apparently they threw out all their tools and blueprints lol. They would need to reverse engineer the technology to create more. With such a niche market thw price of a new CRT would be upwards of thousands of dollars. So with that in mind the retrotink in a bargain. People don't remember that TVs before LCD were a small fortune. Having a large TV back then was a big deal. Thousands of dollars. 90's dollars were more valuable too.
About 4 years ago I got a kv36fs300 for free (well the ordeal of getting it lol) but anyway the guy I got it from told me it was the first TV he bought for himself after moving out on his own, and it was almost 2k after tax when he got it. Good day for me that day lol. And I have several others, but eventually I'll get a scaler for the inevitable time when they're all dead.
@@RemoWilliams1227 36?! I didn't even know they made them that big. That's huge as hell. I use a 27 inch which I think is plenty big. I only use it for retro gaming. The games I use it for are only 240p so bigger TVs don't do it much benefit in my case. Same resolution at a bigger size doesn't make it look any better.
The only thing stopping companies from making them today is supplies and shipping. I believe it's possible to re-invent the same tech for today's market/standards.
My wish: original LOW resolution modern CRT, frosted glass screen, same tech redesigned into a flatter screen maybe 6" thick instead of 2 feet thick.
I KNOW people would buy if it was an option right now. I have a hard time believing we can't make flatter/lighter CRT tech nowadays
Another great video as always! Not sure if its just for me, but for some reason whenever you show the Tink's scanline footage you captured, it all has this heavy pink tint to it all. Just when its the scanlines, all other footage is fine.
It's just the nature of the capturing filters unfortunately. If you mess with the video size in a window you might see this rainbow effect that may be the cause of it. The best way to mitigate it is by watching in fullscreen. I captured in 4K to avoid compression artifacts but even that's not good enough. The filters and colors look totally normal and fine in person. I wish I could show what the filters truly look like in person but that's almost impossible.
I'm one of those guys that has five different CRTs just for different retro consoles. Let me tell you how much I love the retrotink 4k. I play everything through it on my OLED now and all of the big CRT TVs now sit in storage. The space savings alone is worth it but the 750 I spent on it is nothing compared to the money I've spent on CRTs.
Sounds similar! I missed the restock of the 4k a couple of weeks ago so I'm still waiting. Keep watching these videos to see if getting one is worth it and comments like yours make it sounds like it is. 😅
i really do want one, but i need a new tv first. im still in 1080p for monitor and tv. keeps the pc upgrades nice and cheap
I grew up with one of those HD crts, and my dad still uses it haha
I respect it but also the cost is just too high for me on this device.
Look into the Morph 4k, it's a lot cheaper and with a couple of firmware updates will probably be within 95% of the Retrotink 4k.
Is the M-classic compatible with the retrotink 4k and is it worth combining the two?
Also is hdr gaming for retro games worth it or does sdr look better?
Only thing I’m missing is a Oled I noticed that when I see a video about the retrotink 4k it’s shown on an Oled display 😫 I have a led display I’m missing out lol
Can it work with the tink? Yes. But what I suggest personally is throwing that piece of garbage out a window.
HDR is to get the brightness back from applying scanlines and masks. If you aren't using those features, then don't apply HDR. It's NOT HDR rendering. It does not magically remaster games to HDR assets.
You don't need an OLED to make it look good. It certainly helps though.
@@dvsaleios lol
I love Mike Chi and have no doubt the RT4K is best in class. I'll be on board when sample-and-hold motion clarity can get on par with a CRT. Until then I'm praying for my tubes.
Mike said it might have to wait until 8K to completely recreate every visual function of a CRT. It also might take 240hz with BFI to even match what 60fps looks like on a CRT.
By all means authentic CRTs still can't be touched, but I personally can't recommend spending the cost on admittedly aging hardware unless you're fully on board with it.
@@Mr.Welbig I've heard numbers way higher than 240 Hz, closer to 1000 Hz (IIRC Digital Foundry). I've tried BFI on my 240 Hz display with software emulation and while it looks really good (and really dark due to three black frames per drawn) it's still a different league than a CRT. But there is no doubt in my mind that we will get there though and the RT4K looks amazing already. We're like 90% there which is more than good enough to switch in my opinion.
@@Mr.Welbig I would think that given how popular CRT's are getting as a ''retro'' thing to have, more manufactures would pop-up to make honest to god CRT's, sure they'll be expensive but I would be stoked to see new CRT's being made.
@@ewoutverheij4745I’ve hoped for the same thing, but I think what’s preventing that is that the equipment for making CRTs just doesn’t exist anymore (not to mention the talent with specified engineering knowledge of CRTs are likely all retired or elsewhere)
@@ewoutverheij4745 It's not an easy thing to have manufacturers "pop-up". As others have said, the people and equipment to produce them are largely gone. It would take a lot of startup capital and investors to produce modern CRTs into a viable and realistic business venture.
It's easy to say "Why don't we have manufacturers for this retro stuff" if people love it? As you guys find out, the answer isn't so simple.
It costs an equivalent amount, if not more to reproduce or update older tech. It's not dissimilar to manufacturing an old-fashioned home or classic cars in the modern age.
In other words, don't count on that anytime soon.
Hmm, but what about using this on a non-HDR, non-4K TV? I have a regular early-2010s 1080p TV from Sony which I want to use for PS2, what do you think, will Tink help with that?
If you don't have a 4k tv of any kind then I would not recommend this product at all. The best device for your situation would probably be the Retrotink5X. That's the premium scaler for 1080p screens. It's $320 which is a lot so if that's too much there may be other options you can consider like the OSSC which is the best budget scaler I've used.
@@Mr.Welbig eh, I'm just one of those weirdos who are willing to overpay hundreds of $ for even the most marginal of improvements, so I'm trying to understand if things like settings profiles are enough of a QOL upgrade to actually use Retrotink4K on a regular 1080p TV hehe.
Is that pink tint noticable on your TV?
Any idea how much lag you're dealing with total when using TINK4K's Black frame insertion for 60fps video games with a QD-OLED/OLED TV? I've heard that just by using the Tink4K + Frame Lock, you're getting about 2.5ms of lag, then 10ms of lag coming your OLED TV's game mode and then another 8.3ms from TINK4K's BFI?...That's about 21ms of lag unless I'm mistaken.
Only thing we're missing is a 4:3 aspect ratio modern TV to avoid black bars.
Which OLED did you get? Apparently the LG C1 (or at least the 2021 series of OLEDs) was the last one of their OLEDs to support 120Hz BFI which looks less flickery than standard implementations of BFI. Motion clarity buffs seem to swear by this. I’m wondering if I should go out and buy a brand new OLED or if I should go hunting for a C1. I’m just worried about the condition of a used OLED that I don’t know the history of (burn-in, etc.)
he said he got the C2
Honestly CRT filter without the high pitched CRT whine is pretty dope.
Yeah the Tink4K is pretty sick. It's a must if you value having a decent IQ at all even on current games let alone older ones that truly benefit from it. It's genuinely an incredible product for the high price.
I really just needed a quality way to use my old systems that don't use HDMI but this thing goes so hard that I genuinely get overwhelmed and feel stupid when I open the menu and start messing with settings.
But can it use composite blending in old games? Simulate it? Otherwise, you would see the dithering and wouldn't get the benefit of composite blending for colors.
I believe using a composite connection alone will give you optimal blending with the CRT filters. For higher quality signals there's a horizontal blur setting you can mess with which is what I use. You can adjust it until you see dither patterns disappear. Worked great to make waterfalls in Sonic transparent.
I had the OSSC but ended up tweaking to no end the settings for scanlines and not playing the games. I have 2 CRTs but they tend to give a headache after an hour (and the geometry problems are getting more noticeable with the years). I order the RT4K a few weeks ago, can´t wait to get it and mess around with the scanlines features (hopefully I´ll ply the games this time lol).
why do the colors look muted regarding your gameplay on the retrotink 4k? 🤷♂🤷♂
Just got mines ordered ahh Man being single isn't too bad!
Do we think devices like this will become cheaper over time?
Odd question but do you think a mini led with lots of dimming zones would also be fine with the tink? this is my fave tink4k video btw since you're the first that isn't absolutely destroying the image with emulation look-tier 'crisp' rgb..
I hear good things about mini LED. Unfortunately I can't speak much as I've never used one. If it can get bright as shit with a bunch of filters slapped on and with BFI engaged then I think it'd work pretty great. Even standard LCD is fine with "fake" HDR and if you don't mind not having BFI.
@@Mr.Welbig was more so curious about scanlines effectiveness! i worry theyd ve like grey yaknow but i guess thats fine, yah alot of mini led have bfi as options so i might look there cus im terrified of burn in.
@@niamhrz Oh for sure I getcha. As long as the tv is 4K then it'll look great. If it helps I don't take any precautions with my OLED. There's already a auto dimming feature in case i'm AFK. I've had it for over a year now and there's no visible burn in whatsoever. But I understand the concern and will concede mini LED could be even better.
@@Mr.Welbig dopeeee yah i saw that about oled but i see the burnin on my phone and im like yikesies cus its not supposed to be there too, ahahaha. i fall asleep lots so thats why i guess.
Why do the colors on the retro tink crt filter look wrong, but the real crt has normal colors?
If I had to guess it would be the HDR video being converted into SDR for capture. In person the colors looked perfectly normal. It also could be RUclips compression messing with the overall picture. It's unfortunately near impossible to accurately capture filters like this. It's only an approximation of what it'll look like, but it needs to be seen in person to really see what these filters look like.
Thank you, it was really confusing me.
@@LiftMasterDC-6 I can concur, I've had experience recording HDR content, and then uploading it to see the colors mess up on YT.
Different tv's, different filters.
Even I tried making some a few years ago and it's actually fun what you can come up with.
I'm guessing it's the way your capture card tone maps HDR but I found all of your 4k captures in this video extremely washed out as far as the colors go. Not just washed out but also oddly wrong colors. Watching 27 inch 1080p monitor.
You've probably read the comments already regarding the colors, so I'm most likely just beating a dead horse, but there has to be some way to convert HDR to SDR decently?
I've never worked with HDR footage (and my screen is also SDR) so maybe it's not that simple, but for future reviews I think I'd be good to try to find a way to improve the footage. It's a great video review held back a bit by not adequately showing one of the devices main selling points.
Maybe you're just ahead of the curve, and we scrubs just need to get HDR screens. Either way, apart from the aforementioned, great review!
I have worked with HDR footage before but for me in my case atm it results in too high a file size for me, and it's incredibly laggy to work with in editing so I opt out. I am planning on getting a new PC hopefully hear soon so I may be able to circumvent that, hopefully. At most all I need is for the footage to be is a rough approximation of what I see in person. The best way to see that in this case is to watch in fullscreen. But I assure the colors and brightness look very natural in person.
That monochrome crt filter you're using looks nothing like the CRTs of my childhood
Question is though will this work with light gun games, if not then I'm still keeping a crt
@@BahumutTH Unfortunately no. Light guns are very tricky to adapt to LCDs. There is the Sindin light gun which works but I’m unfamiliar with the setup. There’s also EmuVR which has light gun support via playing in a vr space with virtual CRTs
I think a method similar to what Nintendo did with Duck Hunt on Wii U could work well but that’d require a sensor bar and IR controllers
I would love the 4K for the VGA alone but being in the land of Canada it would be well over $1000 for it. I do love my 5x though but I do want to get the Retrotink RGB2COMP adapter so I can play light gun games through SCART.
@VilifiedOne I mean that's great but I wanna keep everything together in one device. But I can just get the GVA to SCART adapter and see if that works too.
I couldn't resist I impulse bought the RT 4K. I can't wait to fire up some dreamcast
Wait for the RetroTink8K.
Hopefully the Next TINK Scaler will support BFI at 4K instead of being capped at 1080p like the current Tink4K. Currently, the TINK4K can reduce OLED motion blur with video games running at 60fps by 50%. Hopefully the next version can do it by 75% or more when QD-OLED's become even brighter.
Greaaaaatttt vid, I'm debating between this and a really good pvm.... but then again why not both 😅
Why does everything look pink??
Why did you pick it over the morph 4k?
I've heard sketchy things regarding the Morph. Not to dis on it or show bias but from how it performs (I read it has overheating issues) and the features it seemingly lacks like Triple Buffer, analog input, and added input lag, I ultimately thought the purchase would have been unwise. As expensive as the Tink is, I feel I've gotten my moneys worth with how it's been for me.
@@Mr.WelbigThe heating issues were overstated and happened on unstable firmware. I have owned mine for a month and have had zero issues or noticed any input lag. There is triple buffering. The analog bridge module is arriving at the end of this year and adds another $100, so the total cost would be $375. But right now im happy with $275 i spent since my devices have HDMI.
I may have missed it, but you didn't seem to mention that emulators like Retroarch have had great shaders for a long time now.
@@BoxedWater123 I’m aware. I plan on going further into it in my next video. What I love about the Tink is the versatility of it. I feel I can plug any game system to it to slap crt filters to any game I own. Whereas I can’t play every game through Retroarch (to my understanding)
@@Mr.Welbig Retroarch emulates most of the retro consoles and doesn't cost $700. Although its true it doesn't play every game, you could use the shaders made for Retroarch on a program like reshade. I just feel like its important to mention it considering its one of the pillars of the CRT shader community.
@@BoxedWater123 Sure. But I still ultimately don't like using Retroarch and I'd rather not instal/use reshade in every game. All this is exclusive to PC as well where many games aren't going to be available on.
@@Mr.Welbig Fair enough, just feel like it was important to mention
I can’t get over the back bars. If there was a 4:3 oled I’d be in
The amount of time I spent tweaking retroarch on a crt you could just buy this and skip all of it. Plus shaders add input lag which feels like it defeated the point of the crt anyway. But you still need to use some shaders when using emulators on a crt
you sound like a cross between the Act Man and AVGN . which is not a bad thing , actually have an entertaining voice.
finally caved and bought one of the cheep AV converters the other day. The video signal is so messy, but it beats playing games on my shitty LCD, so it's still an upgrade for me.
You are absolutely correct about everything you said, but I'm saving this to show people why they shouldn't use crt effects through direct capture on streaming media.
Sorry not sorry but it's free engagement, right? 😂😩😬
Oh go for it as I think it’s important for people to see that you can’t even trust a basic video of good crt filters. They have to be seen in person. Just like how real CRTs have to be scene in person.
I don't know if it's the screen I'm watching this on or what, but almost all of these filters look really dark purple.
At that price range might as well buy a gaming pc and play at 4k 170hz OLED monitor 170fps with mods and .... Great video and I get the point but I love playing pc games on a CRT so Im a true CRT 4 life🎉
750 is on crack though, considering the manufacturing costs. He should just ramp up the production to produce more of them, to sell them at a cheaper price. Ill wait for that, or perhaps the eventual chinese knockoff.
I know the pink hue footage is not intentional, but it kinda looks cool tbh
Okay but WTH is up with the color in this video for all the filtered games???
RUclips compression does not play well with direct capture of crt effects
This stuff is impressive, but having to switch profiles for every console I have plugged into the same tv takes away from the experience. I'd rather just have one setting that works pretty well for all consoles....or just keep my CRT's.
“P.S. I’m going to shit on retroarch” DONT HOLD BACK!!
this is why i have a gaming PC...
750 for what looks like 3d printed case seems kinda steep ngl
As nice as those CRT filters are there's no way I would use them on an OLED screen. Give it a few years and ALL of your content is going to come with a baked in scaline effect.
I'm still not a fan of crt filters. While it might look closer to a crt, it isn't anywhere near as bright and it changes the color tone. IMO, either play on a crt or deal with the clean pixel look of a modern display. I still haven't seen a crt filter I'd actually use, and that includes the tink 4k. The image just looks waaaaay too washed out. I get the nostalgia, I've been collecting retro games for over 20 years, but I'm not into downgrading image quality.
I think those crt shaders that he shows are meant to be used with an HDR Oled. That's why they look washed up in sdr.
No, having scanlines on new games isnt going to look like an HD CRT image. HD CRT's do not have visible scanlines. So, what you are doing there isn't accurate to any thing that exists really, just kind of a weird amalgamation lol. I mean , it looks cool, and if you like it, have fun with it , that's why the Tink 4k is so cool .
Even with my Morph 4k and LG CX OLED BFI king combo (only rolling scan consumer OLED) I'm still playing retro games on my CRT's. My PVM's massacre it and even my consumer sets beat it pretty easy. No input lag, real scanlines, real aperture grille/shadow mask, perfect motion clarity and support for real light guns/3d glasses.
Don't get me wrong I still believe nothing can beat the real thing. But god damn if the Tink4k is such a good substitute that I'd be perfectly happy with it, and to show others what the CRT experience could really be like.
Just found your channel.
TVS RGB LUZ Limpar rápido AV bonitos muito jogos bem até 🎉❤ CRT OFF 👀🤩👌
TVS LED HDR UHD LCD SDR Composite feios pior não gosto fraco composite AV ou HDMI ruim fraco só
Retro Tink 4k CRT 🎉❤ AV ou HDMI 😂
$750 Porblema difícil mil poxa triste
R$7.500.00 mil não quero 😢
Retro Scaler 2x On limpar Bem top🎉🎉❤❤❤❤❤ 🤩👏🙌 lojas amém manaus
R$299.00 bem quero gosto feliz 🎉
RetroTink 4K is great but still no simple way of playing light gun games on LCD
@@dwightdixon8508 Alas those types of games are probably gonna be the last to get fully preserved. I’m aware of the Sindin light gun that works on lcds and EmuVR has light gun support via playing in VR on a virtual CRT. I think a method similar to how what Nintendo did with Duck Hunt on Wii U could work but that would require a sensor bar and IR controllers.
Those filters are hurting my eyes!!!!
So... it will make your flat screen do various resolutions at various frequencies as well zero input lag? Yeah... no. 😂
I just want to play Switch 2D games with CRT shader options. Because I can't stand all those so called 'Pixel Art' crap that is another term of 'I am a lazy developer, and this is a new good thing' bullshit.
Why are most of you capture in a reddish tint
I believe merely compression artifacts from the direct capture. An unfortunate side effect of trying to show CRT filters. The best solution is to watch in fullscreen at 4k. If you play with the window size you might see a rainbow effect from the simulated CRT filter which I think is causing the color tint that many people have commented on.
can't wait for the RetroArch hate!!
>I'm going to shit on RetroArch
Oh you have no idea how hyped I am
I have both CRTs, and my Retrotink 4K that is shipping to me soon.
You what? Don't you dare.
these things are getting More And More Stupider ,700 bucks wtf...Basement,Get Old Tv And Call It A day
ps5, 4k.... XD, ps5 cant do stable 4k, most of the time are just upscaling XD
The colours look completely washed out and nowhere nearer close to what a crt looks like? What's going on there? If that's the best it can look for $700 I think I'll pass. Looks awful.
If I had to guess it would be the HDR video being converted into SDR for capture. In person the colors looked perfectly normal. It also could be RUclips compression messing with the overall picture. It's unfortunately near impossible to accurately capture filters like this. It's only an approximation of what it'll look like, but it needs to be seen in person to really see what these filters look like.
@@Mr.Welbig have you watched the video back via RUclips to clarify as it truly looks awful. Castlevania, Mario and Metroid all have a yellow tinge to them.
@@daveishereuk I have. I know what you mean. Filters just don't play well in direct capture. Watching in full screen might be the best way to mitigate it. I would capture off screen like I do with the real CRTs but I'd rather not most of the video be captured that way and I don't exactly have decent camera equipment.
looks horrible, especially the contrast of the colors. just play on retroarch with the duimon mega bezel graphics shaders and you're good to go
The look of it is not the fault of the machine, it's the weirdness dealing with converting HDR footage to SDR.
give me yo 5x