If you know of any other game from the pre-HD era (anything BEFORE GC, DC, PS3, Xbox) that cuts off gameplay in 5x mode, please list that game here. To be clear, I'm talking about GAMEPLAY!!! I'm NOT talking about title screens, or menu's, unless the menu is completely unusable in 5x mode. Also, the specific problem I'm looking for are games that are cut off withOUT adjusting the height. Yes, I realize it's kind of a pain on the OSSC, but it's possible...and it's super easy on the MiSTer, GBS-C, CPSHDMI and pretty much all scalers coming out this year. All comments not related to this will be deleted, just to keep things flowing (sorry). Also, for the millionth time, the ONLY concern is GAMEPLAY, like I demoed with the arcade game towards the end of this video! Example: Cutting into a few pixels of a lifebar - but you can still see your life status - is something I've always run into with CRT's and is NOT an example of gameplay being affected.
As far as gameplay, I think I've only encountered issues with vertical scrollers on the NES that use all 240 lines. Ships could be flying around down there, and you wouldn't know until they clipped the back of your ship. Kid Ikarus is another troublesome game on the vertical stages, where platforms can still be usable below the CRT bezel, only you won't know until you happened to luckily land on one instead of game over.
Many Amiga games made in Europe targeted a 320*256 resolution before overscan and some used the Overscan for a 288 vertical resolution. Lionheart, Turrican 3, Shadow of the Beast 3, SWOS, Cannon Fodder and Flink come to mind
@@jengelenm I've checked and some don't. They use a HUD at the bottom and move it up into the safe area of the screen, and your ship isn't allowed to move down past the HUD.
@@drdroop2163 I want 7x vertical with 8x horizontal. That makes all 256 res modes in those various old consoles have perfect CRT correction, but with the added benefit of perfectly sharp pixels on vertical and hoirzontal.
@@kdkseven Yep. Simply turn off Super GB borders and it will look great. Also set the OSSC to 8:7 in the 256 optimal timing mode (if you use optimal timing). This will force the same aspect ratio as the original handheld.
Great video! Been using 5x mode at 1200p ivia OSSC on my 4k TCL set for a while, and use the TV's built in zoom to fill the screen a bit more. Looks fantastic!
Great video Bro. This is exactly why I buy "PDP" panels ( Public display panels) They are mainly used in commercial premises like theatres, Cinemas, Fast food stores etc. They give the opportunity to scale the image in much finer increments than the standard consumer variants found on the market. It really aggravates Me that modern consumer flat panels sold in most stores never have the opportunity to do this. The pre fixed aspect ratio zooms on them suck PDP panels are awesome as you can tailor the height and width to your exact requirements.
Perfect explanation. On Analogue products I’m still a sucker for 4.5X though thanks to the excellent interpolation built in. No tearing, no shimmer, no info lost. You can crop borders on the fly in any resolution too.
@@emiliofahr504 Lemme jump in here. Not good. Analogue consoles just don't have good scanlines. The OSSC on the other hand has the best scanlines I've seen. Had the OSSC next to my CRT and looked back and forth and I gotta say... the OSSC looked pretty, pretty, prettay good.
I think the most confusing thing about scalers is removing the link in my brain that says 5x240=1200 therefore the scaler will output 1200p. Obviously this is not true, yes for a 240p signal the scaler is going to 1200p in 5x mode, but it's only sending 1080 of the horizontal lines to the display and not a 1200p signal.
Wait.. doesn't it still output 1600x1200 in a 1920x1080 window? (Leaving like 10%.. or 5% up top 5% down below cut off?) Which is typically fine regardless... But in my 5X I still slightly decrease the V scaling the ensure I'm retaining any necessary visual data at the expense of some minor aspect ratio adjustment.)
5x mode is great for NTSC games and resolutions, however for PAL games that take full advantage of 576i then you may get heavy cut off for the top and bottom of the screen. Often there won't be a happy median as a result. As RetroRGB is NTSC focus we wouldn't expect them to cover it, but it does need a mention. It really depends on the game and if it was optimised for PAL or not, as to if you should use 5x mode.
Great explanation! The only thing that stood out as missing to me was no mention of scanlines. The main reason I've stuck with a 3x (720p) scale is because scanlines looked pretty bad at 5x on both the Framemeister and the OSSC (though interestingly, 5x scanlines don't actually look too bad on the MiSTer).
I just got a SuperNt the other day and have been wondering… everyone seems to suggest the 720p setting for use with scan-lines, and it does look better, but are you losing anything by going with 720p vs. 1080p? Or is it all basically a wash?
If you can find a way to mess with the 5x mode's resolution output signal and switch between avi/hdmi/hdmi(yuv) and set with your tv's normal/pc modes while changing aspect ratio, you may find a setting that will 5x scale without the need for cutoff and have scanlines on screen evenly. It's something to do with the tv's scaler that can be fooled, but it takes a lot of fiddling around just to find where it will work.
@@kdkseven You do lose some sharpness by having your TV upscale from 720p rather than 1080p, though both scale evenly to 4K, so it's not a massive difference on my 4K TV. But yeah, I would rather lose a little bit of sharpness over having funky-looking scanlines. (Some people might even prefer that touch of extra softness, though I'm not really that person.)
Never understood this. Scanlines in 1080p 5x look fine to me. They can indeed be uneven if you're not using 5x, or if your TV does not perfectly match the aspect ratio, but otherwise I see no advantages for the 720p mode.
The only resolution I use for the RetroTINK 5X bcuz Over and Under makes the 5X/4X scale more uniform than Fill... then other resolutions above or beyond 4K or 720p didn't convinced me enough, so 1080p for me is the standard for my 5X PRO
Akchually **insert here example so specific about a single game with a single type of tv in a single country** 🤓 lol As usual super educative! Keep it coming man!
@@MichaelM28 All my videos are released early to subscribers before going public. This is both as a courtesy and because I'm lucky enough to have some amazing supporters that sometimes catch mistakes before they go public.
None of this is relevant to me as I'm not the target demographic but I watched the whole thing just because of how informative it was. I actually really enjoyed this video lol
While this information may not be useful to me because I don’t play retro games anymore, the information is very clearly explained, and even someone with a simple brain like mine could understand it. Good video.
OMG RETRO RGB ROBERT! Look man I don't watch your in depth pixel scale technical analysis for technical analysis; I watch it for explosions, loud sounds, and shiny colors!
Great video Bob. So if I'm getting this right, 5x makes a standard 240p image, 5 times bigger. Adjusting it to almost fit on a 1080p display. It doesn't stretch or smooth out the original output image. Taking advantage of a large flat panel with higher pixel rate. Utilising the otherwise black boarders, unused pixels.
I have no idea why, but my screen just will not keep sync at 1080p. (and MiSTer recently started detecting it through EDID) That was annoying. both that I had to swap back to 720p, and I guess I don't get to play at my monitor's native 1080p :(
Recorded this the same day as your part on the MLiG? Anyways, just bought the component adapter you recommended on your website, ordered OEM component cables for the OG Xbox (just the cable form) so I can drop the Pound adapter. It works well for me but I want the best visual I can get without the HDMI mod and assure lag free as well. Can’t wait to test it out! Thanks for what you do!!
One thing to note with the ossc's 5x is that changing the res outputs from avi/hdmi/hdmi(yuv) and between your panel's normal and pc modes will get the up to 1200 lines to even out for scanline use, but it takes a great deal of fiddling till you find it and you may have to jump around on the tv's aspect ratio as well.
Appreciate the overview on 5x. I still prefer 4x for 1080p monitors though. I'd rather not be messing with settings between different games and I've never minded black borders. And since my only TV is 4k I'll be using 3x on that or 9x if something gets released.
Can I ask why you’d stick to 3X? I know that’s a perfect integer of 4K in theory but almost no Tv’s do integer (nearest neighbour) scaling so in my experience the higher the resolution you can feed a 4K tv the sharper the result.
@@jameslarham5936 If I did 4x it would still be upscaling 1080p up to 4k, only give me 8x total, and the image quality isn't any better. 3x 720p upscaled to 4k doesn't look any worse and gives full screen height, at least with the TV I have both have decently crisp pixels.
@@WilhelmDriscoll if it gives the result you want then go for it! Are you using an OSSC? Have you tried 5x with the 1200p setting? Works great on my 4K OLED, fills the screen vertically and is super sharp.
The reason why I typically use 3x instead of 5x is because scanline effects seem to look better on 3x. I’m wondering if this is unique to the Framemeister though as that is what I’m using.
Correct, how scanlines look is the result of the scaler, not the resolution. I didn't mention that, cause the new scalers being released this year should all have much better scanline support.
Yeah I mostly use 1080p 5x myself, but with some of the FirebrandX profiles I found that the 1080p 5x is straight up not recognized by my TV, although 1200p mode works perfect.. it’s strange, can’t think off the top of my head which ones, I’d have to double check but it’s only 1 or 2
My Sony KDL-40w705c (fullhd 2015) works very well with SD (sms and md are really good), long live Scart RGB and Component. On the other hand x2 only with the OSSC unfortunately. It is only with the EDGE DVDO that the x5 passes but with the problems that go with it (Inputlag for example and the upscaling less good than that of my TV, normal because the Edge is old). I would love a LG CX so much :p
@@ismiismael no problem, me too for english xd 240/480p nice, just a ps2 (with or not ossc) is medium. My dreamcast with cheap vgabox (retrobit) is good (i dream for a kuro plus).
I tried 5x on MiSTer and didn't like the cut-off. Playing on a flat panel is different enough for me to not stress over replicating the experience of a CRT on one. It's great to have the option though!
Hey Bob, do you remember when we were in the digital transition and didn't have any reliable scalers around at the time? Trying to convert anything to vga was a nightmare and it seems nobody has ever done a proper overview on that yet. Foduh was just about one of the only few people we had to rely on at the time too, buying and testing all the scalers he somehow managed to get his hands on.
Scan lines are essentially broken on 5x with PS1Digital, Analogue Super Nt, and Analogue Mega Sg. The dark simulated scan lines will bisect scaled raster lines no matter what settings you choose, even 1200p. Obviously, that’s not even possible on a CRT.
I started playing with line5x a few months ago. My 1080p Vizio TV doesn't agree with the 5x signal from my N64 via the OSSC, no matter how hard I tweak the timings, but SNES looks freakin amazing.
I have been experimenting with 1200p on my PS1Digital, and so far I found that it works best for sprite based games. 3D polygonal games still work better on 960p
I've found the 5x scaling on my OSSC stretched the image to fill the 16:9 screen so I've often stuck to 3x scaling instead, which maintains the correct aspect ratio (without having to adjust the TV). If anyone knows how to correct this for 5x on an OSSC, please let me know 👍
I was wondering about lag. Suppose I have a scaler that can output 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1200p, and 1440p, all with zero lag. If I'm using a 4k TV, would this TV introduce different levels of lag, depending on what resolution it is getting from the scaler? Thank you for another very informative video!
In all my testing, there's only been a few milliseconds of difference between resolutions. Never enough to actually affect gameplay. Excellent question though and I should have mentioned it in the video!
I wish 2048x1152 monitors were more common, they'd be great for 5x! A few exist, from Dell, Samsung and Acer ~2009 And 1152 being double 576 makes it even more interesting for me as a PAL gamer who plays mostly ps2 and gamecube- motion adaptive deinterlacing + 2x nearest neighbour might look awesome at 1152p
Very nice, I will try it out. I don't have a UHD TV yet, but I am getting the Panasonic JZ2000 this summer, one of the reasons is, it gets 2ms input lag with VRR (14ms without) But I was thinking, would it be better to do 3x scale on a 720p signal on a UHD screen, since 720p is 3x of 2160p? Instead of doing 4x/5x scale on a 1080p signal, that is 2x of 2160p? Does anyone have any experience with this?
I have a Samsung 1080 HD TV. Everything fits perfectly on my TV. The sides are black. Well I see improvement in the quality of the picture somehow with these devices?
I am having difficulty to set it perfectly. I try to adjust the SAMPLING degrees and no matter the values I still have a partial area from the frame that looks hazzy/soft with trembling pixels. The only thing it changes when I change the sampling degree numbers is the place where this bad portion moves around.
Totally depends on the scaler, which is why I didn't cover them in this video. That would deserve a totally separate video on it's own and I'd want to wait for the new stuff that's coming out this year.
I love my Hi-Def NES-modded Famicom AV. But the lack of 5x vertical scaling is a bummer. This is why I mostly use it on a PC CRT, with unbelievably good results.
Hi RGB. I recently acquired an OSSC and haven’t a clue what I’m doing with it lol. Been playing mainly Saturn and Dreamcast. When I select, say, x5 on the OSSC the image doesn’t shift like you have shown. Is that normal, am I doing something wrong? I’m using a 4K LG TV. Thanks
Haven't watched the video, but HDMI by spec (albeit optionally) supports pixel repetition modes that have a horizontal resolution of 240p/288p or 480i/576i (Video ID codes 10 - 13 and and 25-28, NTSC and PAL respectively), with a a very high horizontal (2880) resolution where the pixel can be repeated 1 - 10 times by the display itself. In case it's unsupported, there's no law that says you can't repeat pixels on the encoder side - the 1440 pixel wide 240/288p modes with fixed 2 pixel repetition should be standard. I don't understand why those modes aren't used by any of the encoders...
If you're someone that links to tinker with settings, a high end 1080p/1440p scaler is a must. I have both the Retrotink 2x Pro and 5x Pro, and the 5x Pro is so so much better in every way. Well worth the money. Plus the 5x recently got some new FW which allows a 4k mode, albeit stuck at either 24/25hz, but that will still work very well on quite a few N64 games. Think Zelda, that game can sometimes dip into the teens for FPS. Outside of that, the 1440p mode on my G1 OLED looks amazing. I've tested it with my Famicom and NES, SNES and super famicom, and all of them look great in the 1440p mode with Gen Frame Lock and VRR. There should be a 4k scaler sometime in the next 1-2 years as well, based on some of the comments I've been reading by some of the developers of various scalers. Although that may depend on how easy it is to get PCBs/FPGA boards. Great video explaining the 5x modes, especially with how re-centering via vertical tinkering can fix most of the screen issues.
Great video and for the most part I agree with you Bob. Most of the 8bit and 16bit games do look better in 5x mode without cutting of important information during gameplay. With PS1 and Saturn games (NTSC) its a mixed bag. My main problem with 5x is the TV compability especially when you are using specific resolution settings for optimal timings (OSSC). For example 320x240p 5x Line does not work for N64 games with my OLED C9 TV which is known for his high compability with different resolutions.
Still don't have a ossc or something similar but wouldn't this be pretty different for pal video? Seems a lot of discussion are happening exclusively around ntsc resolutions (not surprised of course).
It would be nice if they came out with more upscalers that gave the option for composite dithering. I was into those perfect pixels at first, but some games that use composite dithering effects look like crap when you do that.
Hello . I have a question. I bought a 50 "rear projection television but it is a flat screen it receives 480p 720p and 1800i. Well the nintendo looks ok using only rga cables even so it looks a bit pixelated. But when testing the snes with the hdmi pound it looks Just as mediocre as in a 1800p tv. Why? If a nes with rga cables looks ok. Why a snes with an hdmi adapter looks bad. I tried the gamecube and the dreamcast and they look just as blurry but fullscreen. the worst thing is that i buy a rga to hdmi adapter. and the television in 720p does not receive it, it looks distorted and the screen increases too much so that it is out of calibration. What I can do? i am thinking of buying an rga to svideo adapter. What do you recommend me?
Hi, what are the few best Retrotink or Retro Gaming Cables devices to use with the old original Nintendo NES? I am having hard time to find a clear answer. Thank you
The only two situations in which I would not use 5x is with the NES and N64. I have both systems running in composite and S-Video respectively through the Koryuu transcoder. The amplified noise of the NES' composite signal and the blurry anti-aliased picture of the N64 would not make 5x ideal for me. In both cases I would just use 3x and add artificial scanlines and call it a day.
I think that's because of the lack of comb filter. There's some devices coming out this year that'll take care of that for you. I agree though - It might actually be better to set your scaler to 480p and let your TV soft-scale to help hide the interference.
for some reasons, when I tried 5X (with the OSCC) the entire image goes green, I tried to change some settings, but still green, no idea why I guess my TV is now "new" enough
I've seen this issue happen on my capture card. Using high quality, shorter HDMI cables fixed it. Here's the ones I used - They're pretty cheap: www.amazon.com/dp/B00SI1J98W?ref=exp_retrorgb_dp_vv_d
Have you done a comparison or can you do one between MiSTer and original hardware in terms of picture quality? I've noticed that MiSTer oftentimes looks better, but have not seen a real comparison.
Anyone tried 5x with an Optoma HD146X projector? It's $550 and has only about 16ms of input lag - about double that of the average CRT (which is certainly not detectable by humans unless you're Shroud) and it's less than half the price of the Optoma UHD38, which can do 4.2ms up to 1080P (16ms at 4k). Seems like a solid 5x solution would pair nicely with that.
How can I enable 5X scaling on the MiSTer? I'm assuming there's something I need to change in the ini file, but there's no 1920 x 1200 option in video modes. Thanks!
About the comment on using 1200 and 1440p on 4k tvs. I noticed that on my TCL tv, setting a pc to either of those causes the 4k mode to turn on, as opposed to just saying 1440p or whatever. Is that normal behavior?
I would think 6x scale to 1440p on a 1440p monitor would look great with a Retrotink 5x but I haven't seen any videos on this. I would really like to know if that works as nicely as I think it would.
It looks awesome. From a cropping / overscan point of view, there's still unused space at the top and bottom, so I still prefer 1080p5x in most cases. Until a 4K version is eventually released in a few years...then I'll use 10x.
@@RetroRGB Forgive my ignorance. So, if I understand you correctly, you would still recommend 1080p5x on a 4k TV over a 1440p6x on a 4k TV? I'm still learning a lot about this and am unsure if I should just use the higher res or not. Thanks!
Totally depends on the game. Some PS2-era games have black bars on the top and bottom anyway, so "1080p (Over)" mode would be the best choice. Other games are still designed for a lot of overscan, so you won't cut off the hud on the top or bottom, but you *would* loose some of the top and bottom of the screen. So, it's really what looks best for that game on your TV: Gaining more width, while retaining proper aspect ratio at the cost of top & bottom info... ...or just using 1080p Fill and getting the full graphics top to bottom. I'd try it on a per-game basis and see what looks best to your eyes. There's no wrong answer for this one :)
Thanks for your response Bob. But then there wouldn't be problems with scaling from 480i and 480p to 1080 over? For example, pixels not aligned correctly?
Nope. Give it a try and see...I think you'll sometimes be pleasantly surprised with how good it looks. And other times you'll switch back to 1080p (Fill) :)
Thanks Bob Excuse me one last question Do you know why the scanlines look strange when you use 1080 over with 480p and 480i signals? in 1440p they look incredible
On my TV I have to choose between low latency and 1080p 5x. My TV can be super low latency giving as little as 1/2 a frame of lag making it practically like playing on a CRT. The problem is that it really doesn't like even slightly off spec refresh rates for 1080p content with 720 I can play whatever I want and it is far more tollerant but when it goes to 1080 it just doesn't like low latency content from my MiSTer. So I have to choose between ultra low latency MiSTer gaming or 1080p 5x with frame buffering. As an open question if you had to choose between low latency or 1080p 5x modes what would you choose and why?
Great video, but can I ask which capture card you are using to grab this footage? I cannot get any of capture cards (all Elgato) to play nice with my OSSC running at 5X, whereas 3X works without any problems. I tried looking at your RetroRGB Amazon page but didn't see any capture cards listed there. Thanks!
Hi, Bob! I´m from Brazil. I don´t can make my Saturn works in 5x on OSSC for the Capcom´s games. Only in 4x works good. In Line 5x appears a strange and crazy´s green lines on the screen (like a lasers, rsrsr), and the image don´t stay estabilized.. do you help me about that?
It's possible your TV just isn't compatible with 5x mode. Also, I've seen green lines on my capture card before and using a new, shorter HDMI cable seemed to fix it.
Nice. Some related notes: 1. Nearest Neighbour and integer scaling are not synonyms, integer scaling is a special case of Nearest Neighbour. Moreover, using Nearest Neighbour is not the only way to do integer scaling, it’s just a widely available hardware-accelerated way. 2. 4K is much better than FHD in terms of screen-space usage when integer-scaling 224p: with 4K displays, height loss is 2.5 times lower than with FHD displays: 6.7% instead of 17%. On 8K displays, height loss is just 1.5%. In this regard, computers combined with emulators are beyond competition because retro consoles, HDMI game-console mods, and scalers are typically limited to FHD or, rarely (e.g. MiSTer with overclocking), QHD.
If you know of any other game from the pre-HD era (anything BEFORE GC, DC, PS3, Xbox) that cuts off gameplay in 5x mode, please list that game here. To be clear, I'm talking about GAMEPLAY!!! I'm NOT talking about title screens, or menu's, unless the menu is completely unusable in 5x mode. Also, the specific problem I'm looking for are games that are cut off withOUT adjusting the height. Yes, I realize it's kind of a pain on the OSSC, but it's possible...and it's super easy on the MiSTer, GBS-C, CPSHDMI and pretty much all scalers coming out this year.
All comments not related to this will be deleted, just to keep things flowing (sorry). Also, for the millionth time, the ONLY concern is GAMEPLAY, like I demoed with the arcade game towards the end of this video! Example: Cutting into a few pixels of a lifebar - but you can still see your life status - is something I've always run into with CRT's and is NOT an example of gameplay being affected.
As far as gameplay, I think I've only encountered issues with vertical scrollers on the NES that use all 240 lines. Ships could be flying around down there, and you wouldn't know until they clipped the back of your ship. Kid Ikarus is another troublesome game on the vertical stages, where platforms can still be usable below the CRT bezel, only you won't know until you happened to luckily land on one instead of game over.
Wouldn’t all vertical shooters be affected? Since you detect the enemy at a later time...
Many tate games (i.e. donpachi) suffer with any sort of cropping.
Many Amiga games made in Europe targeted a 320*256 resolution before overscan and some used the Overscan for a 288 vertical resolution. Lionheart, Turrican 3, Shadow of the Beast 3, SWOS, Cannon Fodder and Flink come to mind
@@jengelenm I've checked and some don't. They use a HUD at the bottom and move it up into the safe area of the screen, and your ship isn't allowed to move down past the HUD.
Bob has now forced me to start using 5x scale mode.
Just wait till you hear about 6x!
@@drdroop2163 I want 7x vertical with 8x horizontal. That makes all 256 res modes in those various old consoles have perfect CRT correction, but with the added benefit of perfectly sharp pixels on vertical and hoirzontal.
@@RedArremer Would that be good for the Super GameBoy to get the actual GameBoy part of the image to fill the screen as much as possible?
@@kdkseven Yep. Simply turn off Super GB borders and it will look great. Also set the OSSC to 8:7 in the 256 optimal timing mode (if you use optimal timing). This will force the same aspect ratio as the original handheld.
My new device coming out in August will support 10X. All these devices in this video are shitty compared to mine.
Thank you Bob for all the hard work you put into making these videos. Information is POWER! Love the retro community.
Knowledge is power
It grows like a flower
This video could be titled "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Scaling But Were Afraid to Ask".
For real
Great video! Been using 5x mode at 1200p ivia OSSC on my 4k TCL set for a while, and use the TV's built in zoom to fill the screen a bit more. Looks fantastic!
Great video Bro.
This is exactly why I buy "PDP" panels ( Public display panels)
They are mainly used in commercial premises like theatres, Cinemas, Fast food stores etc.
They give the opportunity to scale the image in much finer increments than the standard consumer variants found on the market.
It really aggravates Me that modern consumer flat panels sold in most stores never have the opportunity to do this.
The pre fixed aspect ratio zooms on them suck
PDP panels are awesome as you can tailor the height and width to your exact requirements.
Thank you. I've been advocating this for some time. (also added it to bsnes-hd, just with really bad naming)
Perfect explanation. On Analogue products I’m still a sucker for 4.5X though thanks to the excellent interpolation built in. No tearing, no shimmer, no info lost. You can crop borders on the fly in any resolution too.
How does it look with scanlines?
@@emiliofahr504 Lemme jump in here. Not good. Analogue consoles just don't have good scanlines. The OSSC on the other hand has the best scanlines I've seen. Had the OSSC next to my CRT and looked back and forth and I gotta say... the OSSC looked pretty, pretty, prettay good.
@@cybernitemusic analogue consoles look best with super sharp pixels without scanlines imo. It’s not meant to imitate a crt.
I think the most confusing thing about scalers is removing the link in my brain that says 5x240=1200 therefore the scaler will output 1200p. Obviously this is not true, yes for a 240p signal the scaler is going to 1200p in 5x mode, but it's only sending 1080 of the horizontal lines to the display and not a 1200p signal.
Yeah, I tried to demonstrate that with my MSPaint colored pictures. Hopefully it was a good visual queue.
@@RetroRGB Oh yes, that certainly helped. Not enough love going around for the old MS paint these days. Thanks Bob
Wait.. doesn't it still output 1600x1200 in a 1920x1080 window? (Leaving like 10%.. or 5% up top 5% down below cut off?)
Which is typically fine regardless... But in my 5X I still slightly decrease the V scaling the ensure I'm retaining any necessary visual data at the expense of some minor aspect ratio adjustment.)
5x mode is great for NTSC games and resolutions, however for PAL games that take full advantage of 576i then you may get heavy cut off for the top and bottom of the screen. Often there won't be a happy median as a result. As RetroRGB is NTSC focus we wouldn't expect them to cover it, but it does need a mention. It really depends on the game and if it was optimised for PAL or not, as to if you should use 5x mode.
Thanks for all of your hard work Bob!
Thanks for watching!
@@RetroRGB thanks to your advice, my I ordered my first RetroTink 5x Pro yesterday! Looking forward to checking it out. Keep it up!
Pure quality on this channel! Another banger video!
Thank you!
Great video! Using 5x scale on MiSTer is awesome!
Once again, top notch video Bob👍🏻 a great help to everyone in the community.
Great explanation! The only thing that stood out as missing to me was no mention of scanlines. The main reason I've stuck with a 3x (720p) scale is because scanlines looked pretty bad at 5x on both the Framemeister and the OSSC (though interestingly, 5x scanlines don't actually look too bad on the MiSTer).
I just got a SuperNt the other day and have been wondering… everyone seems to suggest the 720p setting for use with scan-lines, and it does look better, but are you losing anything by going with 720p vs. 1080p? Or is it all basically a wash?
@@kdkseven Scanlines don't look bad at 1080p if you use an integer scale. They only look bad if you try doing non-integer scaling.
If you can find a way to mess with the 5x mode's resolution output signal and switch between avi/hdmi/hdmi(yuv) and set with your tv's normal/pc modes while changing aspect ratio, you may find a setting that will 5x scale without the need for cutoff and have scanlines on screen evenly. It's something to do with the tv's scaler that can be fooled, but it takes a lot of fiddling around just to find where it will work.
@@kdkseven You do lose some sharpness by having your TV upscale from 720p rather than 1080p, though both scale evenly to 4K, so it's not a massive difference on my 4K TV. But yeah, I would rather lose a little bit of sharpness over having funky-looking scanlines. (Some people might even prefer that touch of extra softness, though I'm not really that person.)
Never understood this. Scanlines in 1080p 5x look fine to me. They can indeed be uneven if you're not using 5x, or if your TV does not perfectly match the aspect ratio, but otherwise I see no advantages for the 720p mode.
Thanks so much for all the info you provide. Love it!
The only resolution I use for the RetroTINK 5X bcuz Over and Under makes the 5X/4X scale more uniform than Fill... then other resolutions above or beyond 4K or 720p didn't convinced me enough, so 1080p for me is the standard for my 5X PRO
Just got a Tink 5x and it is incredible!
Akchually **insert here example so specific about a single game with a single type of tv in a single country** 🤓
lol
As usual super educative! Keep it coming man!
Great video as always RGBob 🙂
@@MichaelM28 They have if they pay him on Floatplane.
@@MichaelM28 All my videos are released early to subscribers before going public. This is both as a courtesy and because I'm lucky enough to have some amazing supporters that sometimes catch mistakes before they go public.
@@MichaelM28Patreon, Floatplane, or people who "Join" through RUclips, via the button on the video.
@@MarcusTheDorkus Floatplane sounds made up.
7:55 Cutting the coin counter? What do you mean?
I thought Sonic only had rings...
Another great educational clip. Thank you.
Killer video bob! Thanks for the great breakdown
5x mode is perfect for me. I don't mind if some stuff is cropped off.
Nice new titles. Glad you kept the awesome 8bot version of your guitar piece 👍
Thanks Bob!
Awesome video Bob.
I have a CRT which means I have no reason to watch this but I like the videos anyway. Good content.
None of this is relevant to me as I'm not the target demographic but I watched the whole thing just because of how informative it was. I actually really enjoyed this video lol
Thanks very much!
This video explained so much to me. Thank you so much!
Thanks Bob, great video!
I've been using 5x scaling on my MiSTer for some time now. It looks amazing on my LG OLED.
While this information may not be useful to me because I don’t play retro games anymore, the information is very clearly explained, and even someone with a simple brain like mine could understand it. Good video.
OMG RETRO RGB ROBERT! Look man I don't watch your in depth pixel scale technical analysis for technical analysis; I watch it for explosions, loud sounds, and shiny colors!
Very cool and informative. Thanks for creating this man! Just subbed, and keep up the great content.
Thanks for watching!
@@RetroRGB Anytime, have a great day!
Awesome, thank you Bob!
Thank you very much for your video!!
Just got my SuperNt the other day, so this video was really helpful.
4.5x scale with interpolation is the move with the Super Nt.
Great video Bob. So if I'm getting this right, 5x makes a standard 240p image, 5 times bigger. Adjusting it to almost fit on a 1080p display. It doesn't stretch or smooth out the original output image. Taking advantage of a large flat panel with higher pixel rate. Utilising the otherwise black boarders, unused pixels.
Yup, you nailed it!
I have no idea why, but my screen just will not keep sync at 1080p. (and MiSTer recently started detecting it through EDID) That was annoying. both that I had to swap back to 720p, and I guess I don't get to play at my monitor's native 1080p :(
Recorded this the same day as your part on the MLiG? Anyways, just bought the component adapter you recommended on your website, ordered OEM component cables for the OG Xbox (just the cable form) so I can drop the Pound adapter. It works well for me but I want the best visual I can get without the HDMI mod and assure lag free as well. Can’t wait to test it out! Thanks for what you do!!
I use the 1200p 5x mode myself since my TV completely supports it. It drops the signal only in some fringe cases.
With my tv it is hit or miss depending on the device. LG Oled from a few years ago I think 2017 model.
One thing to note with the ossc's 5x is that changing the res outputs from avi/hdmi/hdmi(yuv) and between your panel's normal and pc modes will get the up to 1200 lines to even out for scanline use, but it takes a great deal of fiddling till you find it and you may have to jump around on the tv's aspect ratio as well.
Appreciate the overview on 5x. I still prefer 4x for 1080p monitors though. I'd rather not be messing with settings between different games and I've never minded black borders. And since my only TV is 4k I'll be using 3x on that or 9x if something gets released.
Can I ask why you’d stick to 3X? I know that’s a perfect integer of 4K in theory but almost no Tv’s do integer (nearest neighbour) scaling so in my experience the higher the resolution you can feed a 4K tv the sharper the result.
@@jameslarham5936 If I did 4x it would still be upscaling 1080p up to 4k, only give me 8x total, and the image quality isn't any better. 3x 720p upscaled to 4k doesn't look any worse and gives full screen height, at least with the TV I have both have decently crisp pixels.
@@WilhelmDriscoll if it gives the result you want then go for it! Are you using an OSSC? Have you tried 5x with the 1200p setting? Works great on my 4K OLED, fills the screen vertically and is super sharp.
I’ve been spoiled with this fantastic functionality on Analogue consoles for the past several years.
Everytime Bob said something about the new scalers releasing this year I can only thing in the RetroTink5x, Im really waiting for this
PixelFX is working on their scaler as well.
There is a retrotink 5x in the works? Awesome
Confirmed now!
Yeah pre orders coming up soon shocked how quickly this is rolling out.
Pre-orders just got announced!
The reason why I typically use 3x instead of 5x is because scanline effects seem to look better on 3x. I’m wondering if this is unique to the Framemeister though as that is what I’m using.
Correct, how scanlines look is the result of the scaler, not the resolution. I didn't mention that, cause the new scalers being released this year should all have much better scanline support.
Yeah I mostly use 1080p 5x myself, but with some of the FirebrandX profiles I found that the 1080p 5x is straight up not recognized by my TV, although 1200p mode works perfect.. it’s strange, can’t think off the top of my head which ones, I’d have to double check but it’s only 1 or 2
Is that on the OSSC?
@@bojangles6444 yeah what else
@@mindscan420 for some reason the 1200p modes don’t seem to run in 1200p on my tv still says 1080. Might be too old of a 4K model.
My Sony KDL-40w705c (fullhd 2015) works very well with SD (sms and md are really good), long live Scart RGB and Component.
On the other hand x2 only with the OSSC unfortunately. It is only with the EDGE DVDO that the x5 passes but with the problems that go with it (Inputlag for example and the upscaling less good than that of my TV, normal because the Edge is old).
I would love a LG CX so much :p
hi
your Sony is good too with 480p game ?
( sorry for my bad english)
@@ismiismael no problem, me too for english xd
240/480p nice, just a ps2 (with or not ossc) is medium. My dreamcast with cheap vgabox (retrobit) is good (i dream for a kuro plus).
I tried 5x on MiSTer and didn't like the cut-off. Playing on a flat panel is different enough for me to not stress over replicating the experience of a CRT on one. It's great to have the option though!
Hey Bob, do you remember when we were in the digital transition and didn't have any reliable scalers around at the time? Trying to convert anything to vga was a nightmare and it seems nobody has ever done a proper overview on that yet.
Foduh was just about one of the only few people we had to rely on at the time too, buying and testing all the scalers he somehow managed to get his hands on.
I struggle getting my Pal Saturn to look good on my OSSC. 720x288 resolution just doesnt scale right on any setting.
Scan lines are essentially broken on 5x with PS1Digital, Analogue Super Nt, and Analogue Mega Sg. The dark simulated scan lines will bisect scaled raster lines no matter what settings you choose, even 1200p. Obviously, that’s not even possible on a CRT.
FINALLY! Thank you!
I started playing with line5x a few months ago. My 1080p Vizio TV doesn't agree with the 5x signal from my N64 via the OSSC, no matter how hard I tweak the timings, but SNES looks freakin amazing.
I have been experimenting with 1200p on my PS1Digital, and so far I found that it works best for sprite based games. 3D polygonal games still work better on 960p
I've found the 5x scaling on my OSSC stretched the image to fill the 16:9 screen so I've often stuck to 3x scaling instead, which maintains the correct aspect ratio (without having to adjust the TV). If anyone knows how to correct this for 5x on an OSSC, please let me know 👍
You should try using FBX's profiles to fix that: www.retrorgb.com/ossc.html
@@RetroRGB Awesome, I'll try them out! Cheers.
Put my mega drive and my SNES into the 5x mode and Its awesome 🤩🤩 thank you for your advise 😜😎
Coming in a little late on this comment, but 5x actually cuts off fewer lines than my consumer CRT does. Neat!
Vertical back porch and sync length work fine for position on the OSSC.
Well explained. Nice video... Keep it up... 👍👍👍
I was wondering about lag. Suppose I have a scaler that can output 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1200p, and 1440p, all with zero lag. If I'm using a 4k TV, would this TV introduce different levels of lag, depending on what resolution it is getting from the scaler? Thank you for another very informative video!
In all my testing, there's only been a few milliseconds of difference between resolutions. Never enough to actually affect gameplay. Excellent question though and I should have mentioned it in the video!
I wish 2048x1152 monitors were more common, they'd be great for 5x! A few exist, from Dell, Samsung and Acer ~2009 And 1152 being double 576 makes it even more interesting for me as a PAL gamer who plays mostly ps2 and gamecube- motion adaptive deinterlacing + 2x nearest neighbour might look awesome at 1152p
Very nice, I will try it out.
I don't have a UHD TV yet, but I am getting the Panasonic JZ2000 this summer, one of the reasons is, it gets 2ms input lag with VRR (14ms without)
But I was thinking, would it be better to do 3x scale on a 720p signal on a UHD screen, since 720p is 3x of 2160p? Instead of doing 4x/5x scale on a 1080p signal, that is 2x of 2160p?
Does anyone have any experience with this?
What scaler is that at 0:32? And what other scalers are coming out this year that Bob mentioned?
Always love ya vids mate!
I have a Samsung 1080 HD TV. Everything fits perfectly on my TV. The sides are black. Well I see improvement in the quality of the picture somehow with these devices?
I am having difficulty to set it perfectly. I try to adjust the SAMPLING degrees and no matter the values I still have a partial area from the frame that looks hazzy/soft with trembling pixels. The only thing it changes when I change the sampling degree numbers is the place where this bad portion moves around.
If you're using the OSSC, I recommend checking out this page and video, as it shows more detail about phase: www.retrorgb.com/ossc.html
I use 3x scaling, but that's because I really like how scanlines look at 720p. How do they look in 5x mode?
Totally depends on the scaler, which is why I didn't cover them in this video. That would deserve a totally separate video on it's own and I'd want to wait for the new stuff that's coming out this year.
@@RetroRGB Thanks for that! Sounds interesting!
I just want you to know you're doing the Lord's work.
Hahaha, thank you :)
What did you mean "Try 1200p or 1440p modes"? (Around the 11:12 mark). Does the OSSC have a 1440p out mode now?
MiSTer and CPSHDMI have 1440p. So do some upcoming scalers. Keep an eye on the website/channel for more info when they're released.
@@RetroRGB Awesome. Can't wait!!
I love my Hi-Def NES-modded Famicom AV. But the lack of 5x vertical scaling is a bummer. This is why I mostly use it on a PC CRT, with unbelievably good results.
Hi RGB. I recently acquired an OSSC and haven’t a clue what I’m doing with it lol. Been playing mainly Saturn and Dreamcast. When I select, say, x5 on the OSSC the image doesn’t shift like you have shown. Is that normal, am I doing something wrong? I’m using a 4K LG TV. Thanks
Haven't watched the video, but HDMI by spec (albeit optionally) supports pixel repetition modes that have a horizontal resolution of 240p/288p or 480i/576i (Video ID codes 10 - 13 and and 25-28, NTSC and PAL respectively), with a a very high horizontal (2880) resolution where the pixel can be repeated 1 - 10 times by the display itself. In case it's unsupported, there's no law that says you can't repeat pixels on the encoder side - the 1440 pixel wide 240/288p modes with fixed 2 pixel repetition should be standard.
I don't understand why those modes aren't used by any of the encoders...
If you're someone that links to tinker with settings, a high end 1080p/1440p scaler is a must. I have both the Retrotink 2x Pro and 5x Pro, and the 5x Pro is so so much better in every way. Well worth the money. Plus the 5x recently got some new FW which allows a 4k mode, albeit stuck at either 24/25hz, but that will still work very well on quite a few N64 games. Think Zelda, that game can sometimes dip into the teens for FPS. Outside of that, the 1440p mode on my G1 OLED looks amazing. I've tested it with my Famicom and NES, SNES and super famicom, and all of them look great in the 1440p mode with Gen Frame Lock and VRR.
There should be a 4k scaler sometime in the next 1-2 years as well, based on some of the comments I've been reading by some of the developers of various scalers. Although that may depend on how easy it is to get PCBs/FPGA boards.
Great video explaining the 5x modes, especially with how re-centering via vertical tinkering can fix most of the screen issues.
Great video and for the most part I agree with you Bob. Most of the 8bit and 16bit games do look better in 5x mode without cutting of important information during gameplay. With PS1 and Saturn games (NTSC) its a mixed bag. My main problem with 5x is the TV compability especially when you are using specific resolution settings for optimal timings (OSSC). For example 320x240p 5x Line does not work for N64 games with my OLED C9 TV which is known for his high compability with different resolutions.
Still don't have a ossc or something similar but wouldn't this be pretty different for pal video? Seems a lot of discussion are happening exclusively around ntsc resolutions (not surprised of course).
I love my OSSC, has made playing Saturn, PS2, and TG-16 super easy.
Any word on the OSSC Pro?
It would be nice if they came out with more upscalers that gave the option for composite dithering. I was into those perfect pixels at first, but some games that use composite dithering effects look like crap when you do that.
I get some green artifacts when I use 5x on 352x240 or 512x240. It could be that my tv doesnt quite support it.
It could also be your HDMI cable, although I've only seen that issue with capture cards.
Hello .
I have a question. I bought a 50 "rear projection television but it is a flat screen it receives 480p 720p and 1800i. Well the nintendo looks ok using only rga cables even so it looks a bit pixelated. But when testing the snes with the hdmi pound it looks Just as mediocre as in a 1800p tv. Why? If a nes with rga cables looks ok. Why a snes with an hdmi adapter looks bad. I tried the gamecube and the dreamcast and they look just as blurry but fullscreen. the worst thing is that i buy a rga to hdmi adapter. and the television in 720p does not receive it, it looks distorted and the screen increases too much so that it is out of calibration. What I can do? i am thinking of buying an rga to svideo adapter. What do you recommend me?
Great new intro Bob😊😎 Question.... What is that red scaler?
Thanks! That's the OSSC with Greg's new case: laserbear.net/shop/ols/products/ossc-case
It's f-ing nice! Thanks for the reply brother... I'm on it!😎
One wonders, the soft scalers on TV's are, soft, not very nice. But, are there any TV brands, which are less bad?
some panasonic tvs can do integer scaling of 1080p to 4k
Hi, what are the few best Retrotink or Retro Gaming Cables devices to use with the old original Nintendo NES? I am having hard time to find a clear answer. Thank you
If I’m trying to livestream a 480i signal in 1080p using an hdmi capture card, do I need a 5x or 2x converter?
The only two situations in which I would not use 5x is with the NES and N64. I have both systems running in composite and S-Video respectively through the Koryuu transcoder. The amplified noise of the NES' composite signal and the blurry anti-aliased picture of the N64 would not make 5x ideal for me. In both cases I would just use 3x and add artificial scanlines and call it a day.
I think that's because of the lack of comb filter. There's some devices coming out this year that'll take care of that for you. I agree though - It might actually be better to set your scaler to 480p and let your TV soft-scale to help hide the interference.
for some reasons, when I tried 5X (with the OSCC) the entire image goes green, I tried to change some settings, but still green, no idea why
I guess my TV is now "new" enough
I've seen this issue happen on my capture card. Using high quality, shorter HDMI cables fixed it. Here's the ones I used - They're pretty cheap: www.amazon.com/dp/B00SI1J98W?ref=exp_retrorgb_dp_vv_d
Have you done a comparison or can you do one between MiSTer and original hardware in terms of picture quality? I've noticed that MiSTer oftentimes looks better, but have not seen a real comparison.
Anyone tried 5x with an Optoma HD146X projector? It's $550 and has only about 16ms of input lag - about double that of the average CRT (which is certainly not detectable by humans unless you're Shroud) and it's less than half the price of the Optoma UHD38, which can do 4.2ms up to 1080P (16ms at 4k). Seems like a solid 5x solution would pair nicely with that.
How can I enable 5X scaling on the MiSTer? I'm assuming there's something I need to change in the ini file, but there's no 1920 x 1200 option in video modes.
Thanks!
www.retrorgb.com/mister-1080p-5x-beta-testing.html
About the comment on using 1200 and 1440p on 4k tvs. I noticed that on my TCL tv, setting a pc to either of those causes the 4k mode to turn on, as opposed to just saying 1440p or whatever. Is that normal behavior?
I would think 6x scale to 1440p on a 1440p monitor would look great with a Retrotink 5x but I haven't seen any videos on this. I would really like to know if that works as nicely as I think it would.
It looks awesome. From a cropping / overscan point of view, there's still unused space at the top and bottom, so I still prefer 1080p5x in most cases. Until a 4K version is eventually released in a few years...then I'll use 10x.
@@RetroRGB Forgive my ignorance. So, if I understand you correctly, you would still recommend 1080p5x on a 4k TV over a 1440p6x on a 4k TV? I'm still learning a lot about this and am unsure if I should just use the higher res or not. Thanks!
Hello Bob
Do you also recommend 5x mode for PS2 gamecube and Wii?
on the Retrotink 5X?
Totally depends on the game. Some PS2-era games have black bars on the top and bottom anyway, so "1080p (Over)" mode would be the best choice. Other games are still designed for a lot of overscan, so you won't cut off the hud on the top or bottom, but you *would* loose some of the top and bottom of the screen. So, it's really what looks best for that game on your TV: Gaining more width, while retaining proper aspect ratio at the cost of top & bottom info...
...or just using 1080p Fill and getting the full graphics top to bottom.
I'd try it on a per-game basis and see what looks best to your eyes. There's no wrong answer for this one :)
Thanks for your response Bob.
But then there wouldn't be problems with scaling from 480i and 480p to 1080 over? For example, pixels not aligned correctly?
Nope. Give it a try and see...I think you'll sometimes be pleasantly surprised with how good it looks. And other times you'll switch back to 1080p (Fill) :)
Thanks Bob
Excuse me one last question
Do you know why the scanlines look strange when you use 1080 over with 480p and 480i signals? in 1440p they look incredible
It's due to integer scaling and how the scalines line up. They should still look great with 240p in 1080p over though.
This is a really good video
On my TV I have to choose between low latency and 1080p 5x. My TV can be super low latency giving as little as 1/2 a frame of lag making it practically like playing on a CRT. The problem is that it really doesn't like even slightly off spec refresh rates for 1080p content with 720 I can play whatever I want and it is far more tollerant but when it goes to 1080 it just doesn't like low latency content from my MiSTer. So I have to choose between ultra low latency MiSTer gaming or 1080p 5x with frame buffering. As an open question if you had to choose between low latency or 1080p 5x modes what would you choose and why?
Great video, but can I ask which capture card you are using to grab this footage? I cannot get any of capture cards (all Elgato) to play nice with my OSSC running at 5X, whereas 3X works without any problems. I tried looking at your RetroRGB Amazon page but didn't see any capture cards listed there. Thanks!
I use a used Datapath, but this video should help: ruclips.net/video/VIg7kNUaOuU/видео.html
5x with OSSC on my LG 4k TV introduced screen tearing, I had to drop down to 3x...
Pretty much all the CPS2 games on PS1 and Saturn cut off text at the top or meters at the bottom, but it's not too horrible.
Hi, Bob! I´m from Brazil. I don´t can make my Saturn works in 5x on OSSC for the Capcom´s games. Only in 4x works good. In Line 5x appears a strange and crazy´s green lines on the screen (like a lasers, rsrsr), and the image don´t stay estabilized.. do you help me about that?
It's possible your TV just isn't compatible with 5x mode. Also, I've seen green lines on my capture card before and using a new, shorter HDMI cable seemed to fix it.
@@RetroRGB Thks Bob for the explanation! I will make this way you said to try solve my problem. Regards!
Nice. Some related notes:
1. Nearest Neighbour and integer scaling are not synonyms, integer scaling is a special case of Nearest Neighbour. Moreover, using Nearest Neighbour is not the only way to do integer scaling, it’s just a widely available hardware-accelerated way.
2. 4K is much better than FHD in terms of screen-space usage when integer-scaling 224p: with 4K displays, height loss is 2.5 times lower than with FHD displays: 6.7% instead of 17%. On 8K displays, height loss is just 1.5%. In this regard, computers combined with emulators are beyond competition because retro consoles, HDMI game-console mods, and scalers are typically limited to FHD or, rarely (e.g. MiSTer with overclocking), QHD.