1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:05,100 - It's retro time! The OSSC, the open-source scan converter. 2 00:00:05,100 --> 00:00:08,120 This is an amazing device that we took a look at a little while ago. 3 00:00:08,120 --> 00:00:11,970 It lets you basically upscale any of your retro consoles, 4 00:00:11,970 --> 00:00:17,140 or even retro computers, with so much control that you can basically guarantee 5 00:00:17,140 --> 00:00:23,843 that you can get a good signal out of it, regardless as to what display you're looking at. 6 00:00:24,810 --> 00:00:30,200 The only problem is this thing gives you a lot of control, for one. 7 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:37,830 That's not necessarily a good thing in all cases. And two, it's lacking some key features. 8 00:00:38,850 --> 00:00:42,500 So first of all, yes, it's got SCART, 9 00:00:42,500 --> 00:00:46,050 that peritel slash European connector 10 00:00:46,050 --> 00:00:49,980 that everybody is so familiar with, and it's got component, 11 00:00:49,980 --> 00:00:53,030 and it's got VGA. But that's all it's got. 12 00:00:53,030 --> 00:00:58,030 You might notice many consoles actually 13 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,140 didn't come with either of those things. 14 00:01:02,140 --> 00:01:07,140 In fact, most of them only came with this. 15 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:12,250 Now you can plug these in, but you're not going to get very far. 16 00:01:12,250 --> 00:01:17,250 So in order to expand this, you need one of these. It's a core you transcoder. 17 00:01:17,250 --> 00:01:22,640 This component here is output that goes into the OSSC and you can then plug 18 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:27,103 in composite and S-Video. So, this is kind of what 19 00:01:28,270 --> 00:01:31,730 your OSSC stack has to look like. 20 00:01:31,730 --> 00:01:36,830 That's fine. I mean, I obviously went and got one. 21 00:01:36,830 --> 00:01:39,683 But there's another way. 22 00:01:41,030 --> 00:01:45,750 Enter the RetroTINK 5X-Pro by Mike Chi. 23 00:01:45,750 --> 00:01:49,970 This thing, it comes in a very unassuming package. 24 00:01:49,970 --> 00:01:55,140 The RetroTINK, for those of you who are not familiar, was a, or is, an upscaler 25 00:01:55,140 --> 00:01:59,560 that basically gives you very little control, 26 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:03,740 but at the same time, provides a pretty good upscaler 27 00:02:03,740 --> 00:02:07,890 for most things you'd want to plug into it. So it's a very set it 28 00:02:07,890 --> 00:02:12,260 and forget it kind of thing. We actually have this here, 29 00:02:12,260 --> 00:02:15,784 it's a RAD2X, sent over by Retro Gaming Cables. 30 00:02:15,784 --> 00:02:18,920 It uses the same technology as the RetroTINK. 31 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:22,703 So what's special about the 5X-Pro? 32 00:02:24,310 --> 00:02:27,790 Let's get into the box and we'll see for ourselves. 33 00:02:27,790 --> 00:02:30,560 All right, we've got, I guess this is a sticker 34 00:02:31,890 --> 00:02:37,460 and this is a postcard with some setup instructions on it. 35 00:02:37,460 --> 00:02:42,950 Yep. The full manual is available online and it is powered off of micro USB. 36 00:02:42,950 --> 00:02:48,340 Cool. So it comes in this nice little bag, 37 00:02:48,340 --> 00:02:52,373 the unit itself. Oh, let's set this aside for now though and continue our exploration. 38 00:02:54,550 --> 00:02:59,090 The controller is interesting. It's actually a standard controller that 39 00:02:59,090 --> 00:03:02,590 I think may be also used for stuff like the Roku. 40 00:03:02,590 --> 00:03:05,810 It reminds me of a Roku controller. - [Brandon] It's very similar to a Roku. 41 00:03:05,810 --> 00:03:09,410 - So let's whack a couple of batteries into that real quick. 42 00:03:09,410 --> 00:03:13,180 It's nice and clicky. The OSSC controller, by comparison, 43 00:03:13,180 --> 00:03:17,120 is significantly more in-depth, let's just say. 44 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:22,540 We'll get back to that later. For now, we've got a nice braided micro USB cable 45 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:28,030 that can be powered directly off of USB, as you probably can tell. 46 00:03:28,030 --> 00:03:33,783 As can these, but these are require two for the price of up-scaling one console. 47 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:41,480 Finally, we've got one of these, it's a SKART to composite slash S-Video adapter. 48 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:47,700 And what's pretty sweet about this is that it's actually got an input and output switcher. 49 00:03:47,700 --> 00:03:51,340 So this can be used as either an input or an output. 50 00:03:51,340 --> 00:03:54,530 It actually supports a mode where you can actually take 51 00:03:54,530 --> 00:03:59,560 a high definition bit of content, say from an Xbox 360 over component 52 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:04,793 and downscale it to 240p. For now, let's get to the main event. 53 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:13,610 And there it is. It's a strange design, actually. 54 00:04:13,610 --> 00:04:19,243 There are no feet here. I thought at first I thought these were like mounting points, but no, 55 00:04:19,243 --> 00:04:26,066 they're just there. So on the back, we've got micro USB for power, 56 00:04:26,066 --> 00:04:30,120 HDMI, left and right audio, component video. 57 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:34,600 The green also acts as a composite in, and S-Video. 58 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,980 And on the side here, we've got a SKART connector, 59 00:04:37,980 --> 00:04:43,210 just like the OSSC. So on the top here, we've got a menu button, nice and clicky, 60 00:04:43,210 --> 00:04:46,980 an option button, nice and clicky, and an input button. 61 00:04:46,980 --> 00:04:50,070 Very straightforward. And all of the inputs are labeled here actually, 62 00:04:50,070 --> 00:04:53,553 just in case you were wondering about that. So. 63 00:04:53,553 --> 00:04:55,027 - [Jono] But what about coaxial? 64 00:04:56,945 --> 00:05:02,380 - Do you want to talk about war crimes? (crew laughing) 65 00:05:02,380 --> 00:05:06,480 Because if you're talking RF, I mean, that was my childhood, 66 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:09,590 but it was a war crime. With everything in the video, like, 67 00:05:09,590 --> 00:05:13,960 smashed into a single wire. It's also got audio. 68 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:19,260 Yeah, it looked real bad. So I was going to take this thing apart. 69 00:05:19,260 --> 00:05:22,450 It just snaps together, but I don't really feel confident 70 00:05:22,450 --> 00:05:27,640 in snapping it apart. 'Cause I don't know where those snaps are and I don't want to actually snap it. 71 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:31,280 So, I guess now would be a good time to turn it on. 72 00:05:31,280 --> 00:05:34,879 But first I need to turn you on to, iFixit and their right to repair movement. 73 00:05:34,879 --> 00:05:39,730 iFixit wants to help you join the right to repair movement. They make step-by-step guides that are easy to follow 74 00:05:39,730 --> 00:05:43,970 and help you replace integrated batteries and just generally repair your devices. 75 00:05:43,970 --> 00:05:48,760 With support for more than 30,000 devices, you can be certain, you'll find something you can give new life. 76 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:52,330 Check out what iFixit can help you repair in the link in the description. 77 00:05:52,330 --> 00:05:56,607 All right, so this cable is pretty short. Do you have that thing? 78 00:05:56,607 --> 00:06:00,383 - [Crew Member] Yup. - Yeah. Hello? No signal. 79 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:07,290 Is it because it's trying to output a high resolution? 80 00:06:07,290 --> 00:06:12,500 So what we just ended up discovering is that it doesn't automatically detect 81 00:06:12,500 --> 00:06:15,750 the display's capabilities, 82 00:06:15,750 --> 00:06:19,830 or at least if it does, it detected the capture box down there, 83 00:06:19,830 --> 00:06:23,400 which is 4K. It doesn't output 4K, 84 00:06:23,400 --> 00:06:26,550 but it can output 1440p, which is amazing, 85 00:06:26,550 --> 00:06:31,030 But this monitor is 1080p, so this monitor just thought there was no input. 86 00:06:31,030 --> 00:06:34,530 So this button up here on the remote, 87 00:06:34,530 --> 00:06:40,340 that is the resolution change button. So I can change that as I see fit. 88 00:06:40,340 --> 00:06:44,420 There we go. Now that we've got the resolution set, we can go through the rest of the settings. 89 00:06:44,420 --> 00:06:48,730 Okay, so this big button is exit OSD. This is scan line strength. 90 00:06:48,730 --> 00:06:54,120 This is interpolation mode, which is just sharp or soft. So this H sampling, horizontal sampling, 91 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:59,120 this is something of the RetroTINK's special sauce. 92 00:06:59,260 --> 00:07:03,580 It is a little bit soft if you look at the hard edges around pixels. 93 00:07:03,580 --> 00:07:07,940 So if we go instead into these modes, 94 00:07:07,940 --> 00:07:15,120 we'll see this Genesis slash Saturn mode, which should be much better, 95 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:19,650 but it's currently blurry. (crew laughing) 96 00:07:19,650 --> 00:07:24,000 There we go. So that currently blurry bit was the automatic algorithm, 97 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,790 trying to figure out what the best settings are for that mode, 98 00:07:27,790 --> 00:07:30,940 and it thought that the blurry mode was good. 99 00:07:30,940 --> 00:07:34,290 But here we can see that the pixels are basically. 100 00:07:34,290 --> 00:07:37,530 It looks like an emulator, it is super sharp. 101 00:07:37,530 --> 00:07:40,550 And in order to get that with the OSSC, 102 00:07:40,550 --> 00:07:43,730 you need to enter in all the timings manually. 103 00:07:43,730 --> 00:07:46,860 Like, I'm talking video nerd stuff, 104 00:07:46,860 --> 00:07:50,350 like, analog timings, like, the front porch and back porch, 105 00:07:50,350 --> 00:07:54,500 and it's a thing, But you don't have to do it here. And in fact, you can't. 106 00:07:54,500 --> 00:08:00,080 Let's keep going through the menu here. So we've got sharp versus soft interpolation. 107 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:03,720 - [Jono] How much of a difference? Like, how much in dollars, for instance? 108 00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:07,584 - This is sold for $300 US. - [Jono] Ugh! 109 00:08:07,584 --> 00:08:10,920 (both laughing) - This is a little cheaper, 110 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:18,530 but not by a whole lot. We go through the list here. We've got Genesis and Saturn, PS1, N64, Neo Geo, 111 00:08:19,100 --> 00:08:23,443 Saturn again for a different resolution, PS1 again for a different resolution, 112 00:08:24,380 --> 00:08:28,080 and this NES slash PC engine slash PS1, 113 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:32,820 again for a different resolution. It's got these built in, whereas the OSSC absolutely does not. 114 00:08:32,820 --> 00:08:36,470 You had to go and look at them. A guy by the name of FirebrandX 115 00:08:36,470 --> 00:08:40,991 has a pretty good repository of those, but you still have to enter it all in manually. 116 00:08:40,991 --> 00:08:45,430 - [Jono] Gimmie the RetroTINK! - Jono wants the RetroTINK. So interpolation, 117 00:08:45,430 --> 00:08:50,840 that mostly matters with this 1080p mode. So the problem with 1080p is 118 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:57,060 that it doesn't divide equally evenly into 240p, so it needs interpolation. 119 00:08:57,060 --> 00:09:00,940 And in this case, what this is doing is the bilinear sharp, 120 00:09:00,940 --> 00:09:05,980 or bicubic sharp, that Taran likes to go on about with scaling retro graphics. 121 00:09:05,980 --> 00:09:11,220 And what that basically does is it scales up to as many multiples as it can 122 00:09:11,220 --> 00:09:14,660 to your monitor's resolution. 123 00:09:14,660 --> 00:09:18,310 And then it uses softer scaling for the rest of the way. 124 00:09:18,310 --> 00:09:22,680 So it looks sharp while still maintaining the right geometry. 125 00:09:22,680 --> 00:09:26,540 It has a slight blur to it compared to a just direct sharp upscale, 126 00:09:26,540 --> 00:09:30,020 which you can get with 1440p or 1200p. 127 00:09:30,020 --> 00:09:34,360 I prefer the sharp, but if you like soft, go you. 128 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:38,880 For now we'll keep it on sharp. There are scan lines for so many different situations. 129 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:43,020 We've got the standard 25% scan lines. 130 00:09:43,020 --> 00:09:47,303 We've got another 50% scan line. You've got a different type of scan line. 131 00:09:48,380 --> 00:09:53,010 Yup, those are scan lines. Then we have a slot mask. 132 00:09:53,010 --> 00:09:56,010 It doesn't quite look right at that 1080p. 133 00:09:56,010 --> 00:09:59,970 And then we have an aperture grill, which looks amazing at 1440p. 134 00:09:59,970 --> 00:10:04,180 It doesn't look quite right here, but I can show you that it can. 135 00:10:04,180 --> 00:10:09,160 But first there's also another PBM mode that kind of widens the color space a little bit 136 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:13,330 and crushes it. And it's got an LCD filter as well, because I don't know. 137 00:10:13,330 --> 00:10:17,180 Oh, right. The LCD filter would be great for a GameCube with a Game Boy player. 138 00:10:17,180 --> 00:10:22,810 We'll come back to that. So this is a 1080p mode that basically just chops off a bit of the screen. 139 00:10:22,810 --> 00:10:25,950 The reason for that is that that bit of the screen is usually, 140 00:10:25,950 --> 00:10:29,110 but not always, the overscan area that may or may not 141 00:10:29,110 --> 00:10:32,150 have actually been shown on an original screen back in the day. 142 00:10:32,150 --> 00:10:35,330 So you're not losing too much by using this mode, 143 00:10:35,330 --> 00:10:42,950 but you do get that perfect scale. 'Cause you can actually get a one-to-one scale up. 144 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:46,110 When you're in this zoomed in mode, 145 00:10:46,110 --> 00:10:51,920 you can actually use the up and down arrows on the remote to shift the screen up and down. 146 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:56,700 If, for example, the gain used a little bit more one 147 00:10:56,700 --> 00:11:01,010 or the other dimension. So when we go through the scan lines now, 148 00:11:01,010 --> 00:11:04,970 the aperture grill looks pretty solid. 149 00:11:04,970 --> 00:11:09,030 In fact, I would actually argue, 150 00:11:09,030 --> 00:11:12,500 you should turn off the sharpening and go for something a little smoother 151 00:11:12,500 --> 00:11:18,720 because that, to my eye, looks pretty close to how old-school graphics looked 152 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:23,570 on an old TV or monitor. It's the same kind of feel, which is interesting. 153 00:11:23,570 --> 00:11:27,570 And it's not something you can get with the OSSC. Now what's this triple buffer thing? 154 00:11:27,570 --> 00:11:31,460 What that does is it means that resolution changes in a game. 155 00:11:31,460 --> 00:11:36,570 Those are instantaneous. That's normally instantaneous on a CRT. 156 00:11:36,570 --> 00:11:41,340 And it's instantaneous here, but on an OSSC, it takes a second, 157 00:11:41,340 --> 00:11:44,790 which could mean the difference between life and death in the game. 158 00:11:44,790 --> 00:11:46,873 If you're like super low on resources. 159 00:11:47,940 --> 00:11:52,320 Now, you can use the OSSC's mode, which is just called, I think, what is it? 160 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:55,740 Frame lock, yeah. So this is very similar to the OSSC. 161 00:11:55,740 --> 00:11:59,470 It is actually looking at exactly what the console is 162 00:11:59,470 --> 00:12:02,790 spitting out line by line. From what I've read, 163 00:12:02,790 --> 00:12:07,020 they claim a quarter of a frame of lag in frame lock mode 164 00:12:07,020 --> 00:12:10,120 and one and a quarter to one and a half, 165 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:15,670 I think in triple buffer mode. But you get that instantaneous mode switch. 166 00:12:15,670 --> 00:12:19,510 Now this option is interesting. It's deinterlacing. 167 00:12:19,510 --> 00:12:23,030 The OSSC just had, I think just the straight up bob. 168 00:12:23,030 --> 00:12:26,650 So it would like flicker a little bit because the lines would be going up and down, 169 00:12:26,650 --> 00:12:30,120 showing each individual field. 170 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:32,690 Whereas motion adaptive interlacing is 171 00:12:33,580 --> 00:12:38,070 almost like running at progressive scan. There are artifacts, 172 00:12:38,070 --> 00:12:42,680 but it is significantly better. And it of course requires that triple buffer. 173 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:46,360 So having that option is actually amazing 174 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:49,470 for people with pre-HD consoles. 175 00:12:49,470 --> 00:12:53,570 So like not 16 bit consoles is like this, but the Dreamcast, 176 00:12:53,570 --> 00:12:57,410 the PlayStation 2, the original Xbox. 177 00:12:57,410 --> 00:13:02,080 This kind of the interlacing makes it so that even if the game doesn't support progressive scan, 178 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:06,150 it'll look pretty much like progressive scan in most scenarios. 179 00:13:06,150 --> 00:13:09,440 Of course, it also has weave, and it has blend, and it has bob. 180 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:13,960 And I'm not sure what linear does, and CRT simulate just kind of, 181 00:13:13,960 --> 00:13:17,520 I don't know what that's all about. Oh yeah, it's got a comb filter 182 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:21,180 as well as a notch filter for your composite input. 183 00:13:21,180 --> 00:13:27,610 It's not something you need to worry about with component or SKART, or even with, I think, S-Video as well, 184 00:13:27,610 --> 00:13:32,270 Colorspace lets you change between full or limited, depending on what your TV supports, 185 00:13:32,270 --> 00:13:36,153 which is nice I guess. Low pass filter. 186 00:13:38,130 --> 00:13:42,030 Depending on your console, you might want to turn this on at different levels. 187 00:13:42,030 --> 00:13:45,030 I feel like mine looks pretty decent with it off. 188 00:13:45,030 --> 00:13:49,410 Pre-emphasis filter is kind of interesting because you can actually make it a little bit sharper. 189 00:13:49,410 --> 00:13:56,200 And depending on how you do it, it kind of works in the scan line's favor. 190 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:00,260 Oh yeah, and it supports a Sinden Lightgun, if you have one of those. 191 00:14:00,260 --> 00:14:03,700 It's got the border built in. This option here is interesting, too. 192 00:14:03,700 --> 00:14:07,380 It's 240p downscale. So this is actually just straight up, 193 00:14:07,380 --> 00:14:11,310 spitting out 240p to the display. 194 00:14:11,310 --> 00:14:15,430 It doesn't look amazing because the display's scaling isn't amazing. 195 00:14:15,430 --> 00:14:21,496 It's better than I thought it would be actually. So let's turn off the scan lines here 196 00:14:21,496 --> 00:14:24,760 and go for sharp pixels. 197 00:14:24,760 --> 00:14:29,430 Let's go ahead and load up Sonic or something. 198 00:14:29,430 --> 00:14:34,190 So you can see here, there's some of the picture 199 00:14:34,190 --> 00:14:37,960 that's kind of missing down there. Oh yeah, and there's the CRAM dots. 200 00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:43,070 That's fun. And there's not really much above that. 201 00:14:43,070 --> 00:14:46,220 That's what that's all about. So, to be clear, 202 00:14:46,220 --> 00:14:49,350 this clarity is definitely achievable 203 00:14:49,350 --> 00:14:53,540 with the OSSC, and in fact I have, but it takes some doing. 204 00:14:53,540 --> 00:14:58,100 This is basically fine out of the box. 205 00:14:58,100 --> 00:15:03,760 And I mean, even if we were to like pause the game here and change this sampling back to the generic, 206 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:07,370 that still looks real good to me. It's a little soft, 207 00:15:07,370 --> 00:15:13,760 but it's actually still really good. So generic 4:3, I think looks pretty good on normal, 208 00:15:13,760 --> 00:15:15,163 like in most circumstances. 209 00:15:17,310 --> 00:15:20,810 And when you combine it with aperture grill scan lines, 210 00:15:20,810 --> 00:15:23,970 it looks pretty amazing. Actually, one thing we can do 211 00:15:23,970 --> 00:15:28,280 before we step away from Sega is we can try out 212 00:15:29,470 --> 00:15:33,880 what this looks like with good old composite video. 213 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:39,270 What's it look like? Oh my God. So here is a situation, I think, 214 00:15:39,270 --> 00:15:43,130 where it might actually be very beneficial 215 00:15:43,130 --> 00:15:47,370 to choose that proper scaling. Oh no, that's just bad. 216 00:15:47,370 --> 00:15:50,440 So yeah, that's what composite video looks like. 217 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:52,340 Some people might actually enjoy that. 218 00:15:53,660 --> 00:15:57,170 I'm not sure that's me. Let's switch over to the Commodore. 219 00:15:57,170 --> 00:16:03,453 This looks pretty decent, but it is, well, it's still a bit blurry, 220 00:16:04,290 --> 00:16:07,952 and unfortunately there's not a whole lot we can do about that. 221 00:16:07,952 --> 00:16:11,360 - [Brandon] Is that Mario? - No, actually, this is not Mario. 222 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:15,110 But it was, you know, pushed against Mario 223 00:16:15,110 --> 00:16:21,030 and I think they got sued over it. Anyway, this is The Great Giana Sisters. 224 00:16:21,030 --> 00:16:26,560 But yeah, there's no way to get a Commodore 64 mode unless they were 225 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:30,450 to make a Commodore 64 mode. That is not quite right. 226 00:16:30,450 --> 00:16:34,310 That's not quite right. Nope. 227 00:16:34,310 --> 00:16:37,330 That's the best you get. But notice how the text up at the top, 228 00:16:37,330 --> 00:16:42,330 especially the copyright 1987, it's soft. 229 00:16:42,610 --> 00:16:46,170 And unfortunately that's just kind of what you have to live with in this case. 230 00:16:46,170 --> 00:16:50,460 And you're kind of hoping that Mike Chi will come along 231 00:16:50,460 --> 00:16:54,810 and make something that'll work with your individual console, 232 00:16:54,810 --> 00:17:02,130 or computer, or what have you. The OSSC here doesn't have that kind of support, 233 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:06,570 but it does have all of the knobs and dials 234 00:17:06,570 --> 00:17:10,120 you need to make your own profiles. 235 00:17:10,120 --> 00:17:13,340 For the people who actually care about visual quality, 236 00:17:13,340 --> 00:17:17,190 and for the people who actually, I mean, 237 00:17:17,190 --> 00:17:22,610 don't want to spend all their time dialing in settings so that they can play their old games. 238 00:17:22,610 --> 00:17:26,393 The RetroTINK 5X-Pro is, 239 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,957 I would hazard to say, almost perfect. 240 00:17:33,860 --> 00:17:40,083 The only thing is if you've got a console or a computer that isn't supported by it directly, 241 00:17:40,990 --> 00:17:45,263 you're going to have a suboptimal experience. At least compared to the OSSC. 242 00:17:46,460 --> 00:17:50,800 It'll just be a lot easier. Just like it's easy for me to say hey, 243 00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:55,380 get subscribed to ShortCircuit and make sure you check out where 244 00:17:55,380 --> 00:17:58,880 to buy these things, all of them, I guess, down below. 245 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:02,600 Oh yeah, if you want to watch the OSSC video, that'll be linked below as well.