Thanks for tuning in! JVC made amazing pro monitors. My friends have several and they exceed Sony’s monitors in contrast and blacks. For the GBS, it won’t output S-Video or composite unless you transcode externally. I’ve seen RGB and YPbPr to S-video/composite converters on Aliexpress unless I’ve misread your comment. For consumer HD CRT’s that only take 15KHz and then upscale, they definitely add lag and you’ve gotta hope for a VGA/component/HDMI input that accepts 480p and higher, otherwise they’re not ideal for 15KHz gaming. It’s not only the lag but the mishandling of 240p as 480i during the upscale and if you could input externally upscaled 240p, it should look much better than what the TV can do. Checkout DJcalle’s Loewe VGA input card video where he does this with a GBS and ads scanlines. It looks very convincing in person and you only lose a bit of brightness. Bob from RetroRGB also made a video on upscaling 240p to a PC monitor and saw similar results. Some prefer to have 2 CRT’s if the setup has enough space - 1 for 15KHz, and a PC monitor or HD CRT for HD content. An L5 PVM isa nice all in one CRT and it won’t add any lag, as it’ll display exactly what it’s fed as long as the signal is in the realm of what it can handle. I’ve personally never ‘scrubbed’ a CRT chassis with any product although I’ve seen many videos of cleaning with soap and water, provided it’s throughly dried. I can only assume contact cleaner is ok for mildly dirty components but wouldn’t use it prior to dusting it off. I’ve always used compressed air and a paint brush but it’ll never be as clean as using a liquid solution, but good enough for me. I’ve used 99% alcohol on a discharged tube/anode cap before applying di-electric grease to the cap. That’s to help with insulating and isolating the cap from dust and dirt to prevent high voltage arching. I would only recommend if you know all the safety precautions

Thanks so much, it’s great to know someone with the same interests can take something from the series, and I know you’re paying attention with the pineapple reference! 240p downscaling is fascinating! I’ve got a few more episodes to work through and a DVDO just might be one of them😉

@@MarcoRetro316 you should try something like Kramer VP-724xl. it is dirty cheap and allows to downscale to 480i/576i and probably even 240p/288p if you know how to play with custom resolutions. also allows aspect ratio conversion and all kind of scaling shenanigans. the only downside is that you need external conversion/downscaling for DVI input. something like Kramer VP-747 or Extron IN1606/1608 for HDMI-to-DVI conversion with downscaling to 720p (the max input HDTV resolution supported by 724xl)

Thanks! The GBS-C’s 480p downscaling had been widely covered so this was another fun venture to ‘unlock’ 720p and 1080p downscaling

Thank you so much! I’m planning to feature the Dexx scaler as it hasn’t been as widely covered as the Tink 5x. My gut tells me it’s going to be next to identical in scaling algorithms. Bob from a retro RGB showed the Tink5x downscaling fairly well. It essentially line drops 720p and 480p to 240p, which is why it’s so fast at downscaling. It can make 3D games look very ‘lossy’ but will sharpen 2D art nicely. That’s where downscaling to 480i should bridge the gap. I’m hoping the Dexx ticks all the boxes.

Wow, what a wholesome comment, thank you!

Amen!

Same happened to me! I had a good run with it during the video though

Merci for the compliment 😃 Great minds think alike, I mentioned something similar in the conclusion of episode 3 using an Extron VSC 500 although the VSC will output 480i and not 480p like the DSC. Although I haven’t tested lag and scaling algorithms/artefacts, the DSC is a great recommendation to pair with the GBS! Your English is excellent btw

Thanks and your comments are always much appreciated. I also have no idea why those consoles don’t output 480p. I started with the smaller 3DO FZ10, they’re cool but the ODE mod was more involved and my CD drive works. This was well before the plug and XPort therefore I found a non-working FZ1 model for a reasonable price and installed the Mnemo ODE. I prefer the form factor for stacking other things on top like the step down transformer. I had to add the aspect ratio police, but I won’t ride that gag too much. Thanks again paisano, will chat again soon!

@@MarcoRetro316 No problem! Ah, you have the Mnemo stuff too! I have his Dreamcast ODE, love it. I was ready to pull the trigger on the 3DO ODE one time, but he went through that awkward bitcoin only period (why?), so I was out. He has since reverted to normal money, I see. For the voltage thing, I'm on the same situation, and I usually go with the PICO, RePSU and all that as to not deal with transformers (mine has one input and sometimes I use that for my Japanese CRTs). I looked it up, and was delighted to know they do exist for most of the 3DO models, so something to consider, if using the step down is ever a problem. I was excited about the XPort, but the price, ouch. I might go with Mnemo's. I did order the FM Towns Marty one, and will get the CD-i and PC-FX ones from the XPort folks though.

@@crt_rex yep unfortunately the XPort was well above what I’d put aside when I planned to buy it. I ordered the Mnemo ODE juust when the world locked down in early 2020. It took nearly 6 months to receive it and no ragrets. I have few Japanese 100v systems and transcoders that I run off the transformer so I haven’t gone the DC PSU route. But I have done the pico PSU mod on the FZ10 3DO so I can use it out of the setup with a 12V power supply. I’ve never played CD-I or FM Towns but would like to try emulation to at least try the CD-I

@@MarcoRetro316 Same here. It's like the Satiator, I used to support him on Patreon and was excited about the product, but then when it came out, the price was just not for me. And by then, other stuff had come out, so I went with the Fenrir. If you're happy with the transformer, there's no reason to go the PICO route. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you that the CD-i and the Towns Marty are must haves, they are not. So yeah, emulation is the way to go, it's what I did before having one. Even the Hyperscan is getting emulated these days, lol. My interest in the FM Towns Marty is Splatterhouse, but I bet I'll find a game or two that might be good. I don't even have the system yet, because without an ODE, I wouldn't go for it, because the games are very expensive.

I think you’re correct!

Unfortunately there is no consolized 3DS unless you have the super rare devkit :-(

Dam. Flickering in all scenarios or only when downscaling RGBHV?

Meh wallet 🫠 I’m looking forward to what the pixel FX Morph can do too. I’ve got a Dexx that I still need to work through and at least 2 more downscalers. Lots on the horizon for us downscaling aficionados

@@MarcoRetro316 God I love CRT's. Let's go bro!

I didn’t experience any screen jumps from the GBS. There’s a lot of variables and I’m not sure if it got ironed out in software or there’s something different in the install, power supply, length of cables etc. I plan to do another episode to focus on the GBS’ 480p downscaling so I’ll again see if anything shows

@@MarcoRetro316 planning to buy a GBS-C to downscale content to 240p but was hesitant to buy because of that bug. Looking forward to the next video!

@tranceenergy3121 hopefully it works out for you. The next video will be on the DVDO but the one after that will feature the GBS and another downscaler

Thanks! And yep, those converters are great cheap devices for converting video content to interlaced, and they could even just be outputting composite through scart. 240p really only existed for gaming so we get pretty excited when a downscaler can output 240p.

@@MarcoRetro316 Is there any optimal way to output 240p from an HDMI signal to SCART ? i've found some solutions like the OSSC or the GBS-C but apparently they are an "opposite" solution (as inputing SCART and outputing HDMI...) Thanks !

@@laouredimarouane4926 this downscaling series is all about outputting 240p from HDMI so there’s plenty of options, it’s just a matter of what hardware you can get your hands on and your budget. The GBS-C can downscale 480p but the OSSC is purely a passthrough and upscaler and won’t downscale. For the GBS-C, inputting 480p HDMI can go either of 2 ways: 1) A simple HDMI to VGA digital to analog converter. These don’t scale, just convert. Then combine HV sync to C-Sync using something like an HD152scart passive sync combiner 2) Convert HDMI to component, again via a lagless DAC transcoder To output RGB via scart, you need a VGA to scart cable/converter again like the HD152scart. A passive device like this may not supply voltage to the blanking RGB switching pin. There’s USB-powered sync combiners on eBay that’ll send 5v to scart pin 16 if you’re using a consumer TV. Overall the best ‘plug and play’ option I’d say is the RetroTink5x. You still need to do the HDMI to VGA to Scart via a sync combiner (or HDMI to component) on the input, and then the same thing on the output. It’s reported to be low lag, sharp scaling algorithms by line dropping, and can output 240p and 480i. It’ll be a few months but I’ll cover this method in the future

@@MarcoRetro316 Thank you so much for your input ! eagerly waiting for it !

A device like this scaler sounds like what you’re after - up and downscales to 480p. Shame about the screen tearing but not so obvious in 3D games. 720p console resolution was a huge benefit to the GBS-C downscaling and no picture controls were needed. I can see this being a viable solution for some with the hardware and on a budget

Are you connected to the GBS web interface by wifi? On the interface there’s a 240p downscale option but the input has to be 480p and either RGBs or component. I’m assuming you’re outputting Component from the GBS to the Trinitron? If so then you also need to select ypbpr output on the web interface

Yeah, so VGA output on PC. Input to the Trinitron is component. I was trying to connect to the WiFi but I wasn't having luck navigating much on my phone. I think the connection wasn't very stable, I'm going to put the GBS on my at home connection.

No. I built mine from scratch so it only has the DB15 VGA output port

I’m always happy to help out here in the comments as it’ll likely help others. So with downscaling and the GBS, most of the time you need to input RGBs or component, don’t bother with direct RGBHV. Therefore if you are using an HDMI to VGA converter then you need to combine HV sync prior to inputting to the GBS. They only accept 480p or 480i for downscaling and I haven’t tested if it accepts 50Hz but it’ll definitely take 60Hz. The UI and Wifi can be very inconsistent. As for the output side, just make sure it’s set to either RGB or Component, whichever your CRT takes. There’s so many variants of Aliexpress units and I’ve seen some several switches to toggle sync on the input and output so just make sure they’re all set correctly. Not even sure if they combine HV sync on the output but that’s another factor to consider

@@MarcoRetro316 Awesome! I'm allready halfway down the rabbithole in terms of adding a sync-combiner to the vga in, so I'll finish that first. (The goal was something that wouldnt be a mess of wires, so I went with a tendak adapter). I will look into modding the sync combiner onto the pcb-somehow. This port is pretty useless without it, so why not. I'll likely get a hdmi-component adapter that downscales 1080/720 to 480p later anyways, that seems massively helpful! Also experiencing issues with the web-interface, and apparently it can be fixed by changing your routers wi-fi channel, but guess who has a router where this cannot be changed.. 😆 Will hook up another access-point at some point, should solve that issue. I also seem to have some issues on the output-front. The aliexpress-gbsc has a saturn-style port with rgbs, which would save me having to make another sync-combiner, I can just use a saturn rgb-cable from retrogamingcables, or so I thought. When using the component-input and a working 480p-source, the gbsc locks on to the signals and enables downscale-mode, but I still dont get any output, which is peculiar... Since I cannot find any documentation for this aliexpress gbsc, things get pretty tricky at this point, but I think it should be solveable. I suspect the saturn-out just isnt wired the same as a saturn-rgb cable, which is stupid, but I guess thats completely possible. My plan is to use a multimeter to measure the voltage on these pins, but think I might need some pointers first in order to draw the right conclusions. I can also try inspecting the pcb and see if I can identify and trace where things go, but not sure what the easiest approach might be there...

@espset1234 hmm so some things to inspect that come to mind are the blanking voltage on the Saturn port and your scart cable. Make sure the GBS outputs blanking voltage and that the cable is wired for pin 16 to send that into your TV. If using a pro monitor then no need to worry about blanking voltage at all. You’d also want to see which pin it’s sending sync to on the Saturn port and make sure it corresponds to your cable. I reconfigured my ESP board to send its own wifi rather than connect to my home router as I get a weak signal. I also input combined sync to the sync header pin on the GBS board but I didn’t trace that to see if it actually connects to the H-sync of the VGA input. That could be another hurdle as I’m not sure C-sync can input through the VGA H-sync pin. But seeing the GBS locks on when you input 480p component I suspect it could be sync or blanking with the port or cable.

@@MarcoRetro316 I saw a reddit-post with the same issue, where it was suggested that inputting c-sync on H should work, as well as the same info on a twitter thread confirming that, so it *should* work. Probably worth inspecting the pcb to verify, at least if it doesnt work. I will gamble and try to add the sync combiner to the pcb-lines directly, so I will get to verify this as I go anyways

​@espset1234 I use a vga to component break out cable to get 240p downscale out of the gbs control. ( no need to tick the component option in the web ui) I have the same one you mention with the saturn port. The saturn doesn't do component out just RGBS.

@@Dirty2D the RetroTink 4K does exactly that

You legend thank you! I got a Mister Laggy towards the end of the series for future 1080p lag testing

@@MarcoRetro316 Glad I could help! Mister Laggy looks like an awesome (and cheap) solution, looking forward to your upcoming videos!

Specifically for the GBS or downscaling altogether? The OSSC Pro and DExx have this exact option and it works fantastic

​@@MarcoRetro316 No, not for the gbs. I mean just doing it in general. Also, are there any relatively affordable ways to do it? That sort of thing.

@surfingthechaos in general, then checkout the videos I made on the DExx and OSSC Pro. The DExx received more updates since the video, which brings the lag under 2 frames (except 1080p>480i). If you already have a MiSTer FPGA then this is the best affordable option as the DExx needs to plug into the DE-10 Nano FPGA board. If you don’t have a MiSTer then the OSSC Pro is a better scaler, but it’s not cheap. If you need something on a budget, you could piggy back downscale the GBS like I did in this video, and try and find a cheap Extron scaler that can downscale to 480p with HV size dials. You have to be patient and opportunistic to find them cheap though. You’d be creating your own letterboxed 16:9 that way but those scalers usually have presets so you’d only have to meticulously get it right the first time then save it. Honestly though if aspect ratio is your highest priority, my recommendation is still the OSSC Pro

So you could theoretically have a device in between the console and GBS with edid emulation to spoof a 480p display?