WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:05.100 - It's retro time! The OSSC, the open-source scan converter. 00:00:05.100 --> 00:00:08.120 This is an amazing device that we took a look at a little while ago. 00:00:08.120 --> 00:00:11.970 It lets you basically upscale any of your retro consoles, 00:00:11.970 --> 00:00:17.140 or even retro computers, with so much control that you can basically guarantee 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. 00:00:24.810 --> 00:00:30.200 The only problem is this thing gives you a lot of control, for one. 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. 00:00:38.850 --> 00:00:42.500 So first of all, yes, it's got SCART, 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:46.050 that peritel slash European connector 00:00:46.050 --> 00:00:49.980 that everybody is so familiar with, and it's got component, 00:00:49.980 --> 00:00:53.030 and it's got VGA. But that's all it's got. 00:00:53.030 --> 00:00:58.030 You might notice many consoles actually 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:02.140 didn't come with either of those things. 00:01:02.140 --> 00:01:07.140 In fact, most of them only came with this. 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:12.250 Now you can plug these in, but you're not going to get very far. 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. 00:01:17.250 --> 00:01:22.640 This component here is output that goes into the OSSC and you can then plug 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:27.103 in composite and S-Video. So, this is kind of what 00:01:28.270 --> 00:01:31.730 your OSSC stack has to look like. 00:01:31.730 --> 00:01:36.830 That's fine. I mean, I obviously went and got one. 00:01:36.830 --> 00:01:39.683 But there's another way. 00:01:41.030 --> 00:01:45.750 Enter the RetroTINK 5X-Pro by Mike Chi. 00:01:45.750 --> 00:01:49.970 This thing, it comes in a very unassuming package. 00:01:49.970 --> 00:01:55.140 The RetroTINK, for those of you who are not familiar, was a, or is, an upscaler 00:01:55.140 --> 00:01:59.560 that basically gives you very little control, 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:03.740 but at the same time, provides a pretty good upscaler 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 00:02:07.890 --> 00:02:12.260 and forget it kind of thing. We actually have this here, 00:02:12.260 --> 00:02:15.784 it's a RAD2X, sent over by Retro Gaming Cables. 00:02:15.784 --> 00:02:18.920 It uses the same technology as the RetroTINK. 00:02:18.920 --> 00:02:22.703 So what's special about the 5X-Pro? 00:02:24.310 --> 00:02:27.790 Let's get into the box and we'll see for ourselves. 00:02:27.790 --> 00:02:30.560 All right, we've got, I guess this is a sticker 00:02:31.890 --> 00:02:37.460 and this is a postcard with some setup instructions on it. 00:02:37.460 --> 00:02:42.950 Yep. The full manual is available online and it is powered off of micro USB. 00:02:42.950 --> 00:02:48.340 Cool. So it comes in this nice little bag, 00:02:48.340 --> 00:02:52.373 the unit itself. Oh, let's set this aside for now though and continue our exploration. 00:02:54.550 --> 00:02:59.090 The controller is interesting. It's actually a standard controller that 00:02:59.090 --> 00:03:02.590 I think may be also used for stuff like the Roku. 00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:05.810 It reminds me of a Roku controller. - [Brandon] It's very similar to a Roku. 00:03:05.810 --> 00:03:09.410 - So let's whack a couple of batteries into that real quick. 00:03:09.410 --> 00:03:13.180 It's nice and clicky. The OSSC controller, by comparison, 00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:17.120 is significantly more in-depth, let's just say. 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 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:28.030 that can be powered directly off of USB, as you probably can tell. 00:03:28.030 --> 00:03:33.783 As can these, but these are require two for the price of up-scaling one console. 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. 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. 00:03:47.700 --> 00:03:51.340 So this can be used as either an input or an output. 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:54.530 It actually supports a mode where you can actually take 00:03:54.530 --> 00:03:59.560 a high definition bit of content, say from an Xbox 360 over component 00:03:59.560 --> 00:04:04.793 and downscale it to 240p. For now, let's get to the main event. 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:13.610 And there it is. It's a strange design, actually. 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, 00:04:19.243 --> 00:04:26.066 they're just there. So on the back, we've got micro USB for power, 00:04:26.066 --> 00:04:30.120 HDMI, left and right audio, component video. 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:34.600 The green also acts as a composite in, and S-Video. 00:04:34.600 --> 00:04:37.980 And on the side here, we've got a SKART connector, 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, 00:04:43.210 --> 00:04:46.980 an option button, nice and clicky, and an input button. 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:50.070 Very straightforward. And all of the inputs are labeled here actually, 00:04:50.070 --> 00:04:53.553 just in case you were wondering about that. So. 00:04:53.553 --> 00:04:55.027 - [Jono] But what about coaxial? 00:04:56.945 --> 00:05:02.380 - Do you want to talk about war crimes? (crew laughing) 00:05:02.380 --> 00:05:06.480 Because if you're talking RF, I mean, that was my childhood, 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:09.590 but it was a war crime. With everything in the video, like, 00:05:09.590 --> 00:05:13.960 smashed into a single wire. It's also got audio. 00:05:13.960 --> 00:05:19.260 Yeah, it looked real bad. So I was going to take this thing apart. 00:05:19.260 --> 00:05:22.450 It just snaps together, but I don't really feel confident 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. 00:05:27.640 --> 00:05:31.280 So, I guess now would be a good time to turn it on. 00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:34.879 But first I need to turn you on to, iFixit and their right to repair movement. 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 00:05:39.730 --> 00:05:43.970 and help you replace integrated batteries and just generally repair your devices. 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. 00:05:48.760 --> 00:05:52.330 Check out what iFixit can help you repair in the link in the description. 00:05:52.330 --> 00:05:56.607 All right, so this cable is pretty short. Do you have that thing? 00:05:56.607 --> 00:06:00.383 - [Crew Member] Yup. - Yeah. Hello? No signal. 00:06:03.560 --> 00:06:07.290 Is it because it's trying to output a high resolution? 00:06:07.290 --> 00:06:12.500 So what we just ended up discovering is that it doesn't automatically detect 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:15.750 the display's capabilities, 00:06:15.750 --> 00:06:19.830 or at least if it does, it detected the capture box down there, 00:06:19.830 --> 00:06:23.400 which is 4K. It doesn't output 4K, 00:06:23.400 --> 00:06:26.550 but it can output 1440p, which is amazing, 00:06:26.550 --> 00:06:31.030 But this monitor is 1080p, so this monitor just thought there was no input. 00:06:31.030 --> 00:06:34.530 So this button up here on the remote, 00:06:34.530 --> 00:06:40.340 that is the resolution change button. So I can change that as I see fit. 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. 00:06:44.420 --> 00:06:48.730 Okay, so this big button is exit OSD. This is scan line strength. 00:06:48.730 --> 00:06:54.120 This is interpolation mode, which is just sharp or soft. So this H sampling, horizontal sampling, 00:06:54.120 --> 00:06:59.120 this is something of the RetroTINK's special sauce. 00:06:59.260 --> 00:07:03.580 It is a little bit soft if you look at the hard edges around pixels. 00:07:03.580 --> 00:07:07.940 So if we go instead into these modes, 00:07:07.940 --> 00:07:15.120 we'll see this Genesis slash Saturn mode, which should be much better, 00:07:15.120 --> 00:07:19.650 but it's currently blurry. (crew laughing) 00:07:19.650 --> 00:07:24.000 There we go. So that currently blurry bit was the automatic algorithm, 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.790 trying to figure out what the best settings are for that mode, 00:07:27.790 --> 00:07:30.940 and it thought that the blurry mode was good. 00:07:30.940 --> 00:07:34.290 But here we can see that the pixels are basically. 00:07:34.290 --> 00:07:37.530 It looks like an emulator, it is super sharp. 00:07:37.530 --> 00:07:40.550 And in order to get that with the OSSC, 00:07:40.550 --> 00:07:43.730 you need to enter in all the timings manually. 00:07:43.730 --> 00:07:46.860 Like, I'm talking video nerd stuff, 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:50.350 like, analog timings, like, the front porch and back porch, 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. 00:07:54.500 --> 00:08:00.080 Let's keep going through the menu here. So we've got sharp versus soft interpolation. 00:08:00.080 --> 00:08:03.720 - [Jono] How much of a difference? Like, how much in dollars, for instance? 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:07.584 - This is sold for $300 US. - [Jono] Ugh! 00:08:07.584 --> 00:08:10.920 (both laughing) - This is a little cheaper, 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, 00:08:19.100 --> 00:08:23.443 Saturn again for a different resolution, PS1 again for a different resolution, 00:08:24.380 --> 00:08:28.080 and this NES slash PC engine slash PS1, 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. 00:08:32.820 --> 00:08:36.470 You had to go and look at them. A guy by the name of FirebrandX 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. 00:08:40.991 --> 00:08:45.430 - [Jono] Gimmie the RetroTINK! - Jono wants the RetroTINK. So interpolation, 00:08:45.430 --> 00:08:50.840 that mostly matters with this 1080p mode. So the problem with 1080p is 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:57.060 that it doesn't divide equally evenly into 240p, so it needs interpolation. 00:08:57.060 --> 00:09:00.940 And in this case, what this is doing is the bilinear sharp, 00:09:00.940 --> 00:09:05.980 or bicubic sharp, that Taran likes to go on about with scaling retro graphics. 00:09:05.980 --> 00:09:11.220 And what that basically does is it scales up to as many multiples as it can 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:14.660 to your monitor's resolution. 00:09:14.660 --> 00:09:18.310 And then it uses softer scaling for the rest of the way. 00:09:18.310 --> 00:09:22.680 So it looks sharp while still maintaining the right geometry. 00:09:22.680 --> 00:09:26.540 It has a slight blur to it compared to a just direct sharp upscale, 00:09:26.540 --> 00:09:30.020 which you can get with 1440p or 1200p. 00:09:30.020 --> 00:09:34.360 I prefer the sharp, but if you like soft, go you. 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. 00:09:38.880 --> 00:09:43.020 We've got the standard 25% scan lines. 00:09:43.020 --> 00:09:47.303 We've got another 50% scan line. You've got a different type of scan line. 00:09:48.380 --> 00:09:53.010 Yup, those are scan lines. Then we have a slot mask. 00:09:53.010 --> 00:09:56.010 It doesn't quite look right at that 1080p. 00:09:56.010 --> 00:09:59.970 And then we have an aperture grill, which looks amazing at 1440p. 00:09:59.970 --> 00:10:04.180 It doesn't look quite right here, but I can show you that it can. 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 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. 00:10:13.330 --> 00:10:17.180 Oh, right. The LCD filter would be great for a GameCube with a Game Boy player. 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. 00:10:22.810 --> 00:10:25.950 The reason for that is that that bit of the screen is usually, 00:10:25.950 --> 00:10:29.110 but not always, the overscan area that may or may not 00:10:29.110 --> 00:10:32.150 have actually been shown on an original screen back in the day. 00:10:32.150 --> 00:10:35.330 So you're not losing too much by using this mode, 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. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:46.110 When you're in this zoomed in mode, 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. 00:10:51.920 --> 00:10:56.700 If, for example, the gain used a little bit more one 00:10:56.700 --> 00:11:01.010 or the other dimension. So when we go through the scan lines now, 00:11:01.010 --> 00:11:04.970 the aperture grill looks pretty solid. 00:11:04.970 --> 00:11:09.030 In fact, I would actually argue, 00:11:09.030 --> 00:11:12.500 you should turn off the sharpening and go for something a little smoother 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:18.720 because that, to my eye, looks pretty close to how old-school graphics looked 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:23.570 on an old TV or monitor. It's the same kind of feel, which is interesting. 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? 00:11:27.570 --> 00:11:31.460 What that does is it means that resolution changes in a game. 00:11:31.460 --> 00:11:36.570 Those are instantaneous. That's normally instantaneous on a CRT. 00:11:36.570 --> 00:11:41.340 And it's instantaneous here, but on an OSSC, it takes a second, 00:11:41.340 --> 00:11:44.790 which could mean the difference between life and death in the game. 00:11:44.790 --> 00:11:46.873 If you're like super low on resources. 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? 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:55.740 Frame lock, yeah. So this is very similar to the OSSC. 00:11:55.740 --> 00:11:59.470 It is actually looking at exactly what the console is 00:11:59.470 --> 00:12:02.790 spitting out line by line. From what I've read, 00:12:02.790 --> 00:12:07.020 they claim a quarter of a frame of lag in frame lock mode 00:12:07.020 --> 00:12:10.120 and one and a quarter to one and a half, 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:15.670 I think in triple buffer mode. But you get that instantaneous mode switch. 00:12:15.670 --> 00:12:19.510 Now this option is interesting. It's deinterlacing. 00:12:19.510 --> 00:12:23.030 The OSSC just had, I think just the straight up bob. 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, 00:12:26.650 --> 00:12:30.120 showing each individual field. 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:32.690 Whereas motion adaptive interlacing is 00:12:33.580 --> 00:12:38.070 almost like running at progressive scan. There are artifacts, 00:12:38.070 --> 00:12:42.680 but it is significantly better. And it of course requires that triple buffer. 00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:46.360 So having that option is actually amazing 00:12:46.360 --> 00:12:49.470 for people with pre-HD consoles. 00:12:49.470 --> 00:12:53.570 So like not 16 bit consoles is like this, but the Dreamcast, 00:12:53.570 --> 00:12:57.410 the PlayStation 2, the original Xbox. 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, 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:06.150 it'll look pretty much like progressive scan in most scenarios. 00:13:06.150 --> 00:13:09.440 Of course, it also has weave, and it has blend, and it has bob. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:13.960 And I'm not sure what linear does, and CRT simulate just kind of, 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 00:13:17.520 --> 00:13:21.180 as well as a notch filter for your composite input. 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, 00:13:27.610 --> 00:13:32.270 Colorspace lets you change between full or limited, depending on what your TV supports, 00:13:32.270 --> 00:13:36.153 which is nice I guess. Low pass filter. 00:13:38.130 --> 00:13:42.030 Depending on your console, you might want to turn this on at different levels. 00:13:42.030 --> 00:13:45.030 I feel like mine looks pretty decent with it off. 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. 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. 00:13:56.200 --> 00:14:00.260 Oh yeah, and it supports a Sinden Lightgun, if you have one of those. 00:14:00.260 --> 00:14:03.700 It's got the border built in. This option here is interesting, too. 00:14:03.700 --> 00:14:07.380 It's 240p downscale. So this is actually just straight up, 00:14:07.380 --> 00:14:11.310 spitting out 240p to the display. 00:14:11.310 --> 00:14:15.430 It doesn't look amazing because the display's scaling isn't amazing. 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 00:14:21.496 --> 00:14:24.760 and go for sharp pixels. 00:14:24.760 --> 00:14:29.430 Let's go ahead and load up Sonic or something. 00:14:29.430 --> 00:14:34.190 So you can see here, there's some of the picture 00:14:34.190 --> 00:14:37.960 that's kind of missing down there. Oh yeah, and there's the CRAM dots. 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:43.070 That's fun. And there's not really much above that. 00:14:43.070 --> 00:14:46.220 That's what that's all about. So, to be clear, 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:49.350 this clarity is definitely achievable 00:14:49.350 --> 00:14:53.540 with the OSSC, and in fact I have, but it takes some doing. 00:14:53.540 --> 00:14:58.100 This is basically fine out of the box. 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, 00:15:03.760 --> 00:15:07.370 that still looks real good to me. It's a little soft, 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, 00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:15.163 like in most circumstances. 00:15:17.310 --> 00:15:20.810 And when you combine it with aperture grill scan lines, 00:15:20.810 --> 00:15:23.970 it looks pretty amazing. Actually, one thing we can do 00:15:23.970 --> 00:15:28.280 before we step away from Sega is we can try out 00:15:29.470 --> 00:15:33.880 what this looks like with good old composite video. 00:15:33.880 --> 00:15:39.270 What's it look like? Oh my God. So here is a situation, I think, 00:15:39.270 --> 00:15:43.130 where it might actually be very beneficial 00:15:43.130 --> 00:15:47.370 to choose that proper scaling. Oh no, that's just bad. 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:50.440 So yeah, that's what composite video looks like. 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:52.340 Some people might actually enjoy that. 00:15:53.660 --> 00:15:57.170 I'm not sure that's me. Let's switch over to the Commodore. 00:15:57.170 --> 00:16:03.453 This looks pretty decent, but it is, well, it's still a bit blurry, 00:16:04.290 --> 00:16:07.952 and unfortunately there's not a whole lot we can do about that. 00:16:07.952 --> 00:16:11.360 - [Brandon] Is that Mario? - No, actually, this is not Mario. 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:15.110 But it was, you know, pushed against Mario 00:16:15.110 --> 00:16:21.030 and I think they got sued over it. Anyway, this is The Great Giana Sisters. 00:16:21.030 --> 00:16:26.560 But yeah, there's no way to get a Commodore 64 mode unless they were 00:16:26.560 --> 00:16:30.450 to make a Commodore 64 mode. That is not quite right. 00:16:30.450 --> 00:16:34.310 That's not quite right. Nope. 00:16:34.310 --> 00:16:37.330 That's the best you get. But notice how the text up at the top, 00:16:37.330 --> 00:16:42.330 especially the copyright 1987, it's soft. 00:16:42.610 --> 00:16:46.170 And unfortunately that's just kind of what you have to live with in this case. 00:16:46.170 --> 00:16:50.460 And you're kind of hoping that Mike Chi will come along 00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:54.810 and make something that'll work with your individual console, 00:16:54.810 --> 00:17:02.130 or computer, or what have you. The OSSC here doesn't have that kind of support, 00:17:02.760 --> 00:17:06.570 but it does have all of the knobs and dials 00:17:06.570 --> 00:17:10.120 you need to make your own profiles. 00:17:10.120 --> 00:17:13.340 For the people who actually care about visual quality, 00:17:13.340 --> 00:17:17.190 and for the people who actually, I mean, 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. 00:17:22.610 --> 00:17:26.393 The RetroTINK 5X-Pro is, 00:17:27.400 --> 00:17:30.957 I would hazard to say, almost perfect. 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, 00:17:40.990 --> 00:17:45.263 you're going to have a suboptimal experience. At least compared to the OSSC. 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, 00:17:50.800 --> 00:17:55.380 get subscribed to ShortCircuit and make sure you check out where 00:17:55.380 --> 00:17:58.880 to buy these things, all of them, I guess, down below. 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.