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New Gamecube HDMI adapter


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I tried it out last night. I tried out two games. Fzero looks fantastic but Mario Sunshine didn't look right(I was in 480P mode). I tried messing around with the OSD but both remotes I tried didn't work.

Define 'didn't look right'. I'm curious as to how this compares to regular old Component.

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Are you sure that you booted up Super Mario Sunshine in progressive scan? You have to hold B on bootup, or it won't do it. (Not doubting just double checking)

 

I can take a look at my HDMI Gamecube's output when I get home and see what I have for settings. (I've mostly used it to play Super Mario Sunshine.)

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Are you sure that you booted up Super Mario Sunshine in progressive scan? You have to hold B on bootup, or it won't do it. (Not doubting just double checking)

 

I can take a look at my HDMI Gamecube's output when I get home and see what I have for settings. (I've mostly used it to play Super Mario Sunshine.)

 

I selected that I wanted 480P but it's possible I pressed a wrong button or something. I'll have to try it again.

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I didn't check my email so deep into Skyrim last night that when I checked it this morning I had a nearly 12 hour old mail -- paid for the device this morning. I doubt I'll get luck enough to see it by Wednesday unless it goes out Monday since it ships priority mail. I'll have to set some Switch time aside to fire up my Cube and have a little fun with it.

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I selected that I wanted 480P but it's possible I pressed a wrong button or something. I'll have to try it again.

 

How are you booting the game? Are you "backup loading" via SWISS or using a real disc? SWISS can force it to 480p, and that's what I'm using.

 

I loaded up Super Mario Sunshine on my Vizio 4k TV, and the color seems fine. I haven't done much adjustment other than setting Game Mode on the TV, turning sharpness down, and turning the scanlines off of GCVideo. (If I have scanlines enabled, it's hella darker.)

 

I can take a couple pictures if you'd like an idea of what mine looks like.

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I selected that I wanted 480P but it's possible I pressed a wrong button or something. I'll have to try it again.

I've found the only way to get the games to boot in 480p is to hold B the entire boot jingle and hit A at the prompt. Wii kind of automatically did this for me when the component cables were hooked up so initialy I didn't realize you had to hold down button.

 

Graphics are gorgeous although the main benefit IMO is going lag free on HDTV and not having composite artifacts. I've played Super Mario Sunshine for a few hours and started a new profile, deleting the old one I haven't touched in almost 10 years. One thing I noticed right off the bat is that any defects normally masked by CRTs become evident here. The cutscenes in Super Mario Sunshine look like they were done in motion Jpeg, though I could be wrong. The gameplay looks slightly better than the cutscenes for this reason! You can see slightly more alias (although the Game Cube has always had a much much better anti-alias compared to the PS2). Thousand Year Door's handling of 2D sprites that wowed me back in 2004 still does today. I started a brand new save file in 2016 and saved right before the cannon that blasts too the moon. I had initially planned to stock up on items in Rougeport but I neglected this chore flying to the moon. I'm wearing defense and offense plus badges along with fireproof and spikeproof jump shoes, with additional BP added to happy flowers and hearts. I've got all the best stuff and if I collect the feeling fine badge at the Xnaut base I'll be nearly invincible for the underground. I rarely ever need to use the Star Power restores.

 

I still need to boot the Game Boy Player and see what the games look like. I think GBA games would look great in scanline mode. I need to experiment with setting up the remote function.

 

Define 'didn't look right'. I'm curious as to how this compares to regular old Component.

Colors looked dull and the picture quality looked a little blurry

Not at all. Super Mario Sunshine is gorgeous! Just the cutscenes are a little grainy now that it's not masked by composite artifacts.

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I've found the only way to get the games to boot in 480p is to hold B the entire boot jingle and hit A at the prompt. Wii kind of automatically did this for me when the component cables were hooked up so initialy I didn't realize you had to hold down button.

 

I can confirm from my testing earlier that if you force 480p via SWISS. It'll automatically bring up the Progressive Scan option.

 

Otherwise you are 100% correct on this.

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Mine arrived too, and bonus I scored this brand new Sony universal remote for $2.50 at the goodwill over 6mo ago and it worked with it! I don't really understand some of the settings in there though. Force 16:9, is that really a thing?

 

I will say I first fired up the GBPlayer with Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure and it was pretty sharp, far sharper than default but a little less than I expected... but that's Gameboy. So then I went for Star Fox Assault and now that one, jaw dropper with 480p mode enabled. That sucker is crisp, clear, even due to the lack of AA sparkles a little on those very sharp edges. The clarity on the hair on that pack of furries even pops out behind that old vaseline sheen of the old RCA cable I just retired.

 

Worth every bloody penny to me. NO lag, bulletproof HDMI setup as Component/Composite are being retired on TVs now too. I don't quite follow but does this output at 720p or a solid non-resampled(which makes lag) 480p image over the HDMI? Either way, beautiful.

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I put a little more time with the system trying other GB games, initially I didn't remember it ran in 480p with holding B so that was a sharper jump from my other comments.

 

Sonic Mega Collection doesn't do anything but 480i, so it's lesser quality obviously as you have that interlace level of detail. It's slightly soft I suppose but a damn huge improvement over the former options (component/composite/s-video) as I've seen them all in the day. I think the best personal connection I'd have was with the Wii and running Twilight Princess in the early days when I went between the component and composite swap out. It went from like smooth(fuzzy) to just soft yet oddly very crisp in comparison. That's how Sonic is, it's very sharp but still smooth compared to progressive scan.

 

Was there anyone who ever dug much into the menu settings on that, or know how to get into the debug features or the rest? I don't get what all the little options do, and by going towards that PAL level of higher resolution than the 480 NTSC limit does that look even nicer or have some potential drawbacks?

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I'm just holding B whenever it boots and see how it goes from there. I didn't know the GBP did 480p at first and that was a nice boost. It's so sharp it's like watching it on a real gba with a huge ass screen when played in standard display mode as blown up softens it in stretch.

The shrink mode is native pixels. The zoomed in mode is stretched/scaled. You might notice some minor scaling artifacts on the HDMI output using stretch mode, that weren't visible before over composite. I haven't plugged in my GBP disc but I plan on it soon.

 

If your screen is 40" or more, I see no reason to blow it up further.

Edited by Kosmic Stardust
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I'm not that big, lower/middle 30s. I don't need something that big in my personal room. The big screen is in the mid 40s though but it's a Samsung with a wretched setup internally that lags up anything pre-HDMI horribly.

Weird, I have a 40" Samsung that's never given me any noticeable lag even if i don't bother with stuff like putting it in game mode. I do leave most of the weird "features" off, though.

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Well the model I have is fantastic for HD whatever, but when it goes into the old school stuff it's beyond awful. I didn't even notice it originally and at one rate I ended up selling off a game I thought I'd love because I blamed Nintendo for making a crap emulator with their Super Mario Allstars Wii anniversary disc package. I'd see on screen something, hit jump appropriately, and it would be like a 1/4 or 1/2 second later enough I'd eat a goomba in the face or fall into a hole. It was only a year or two after I got it back on a used pick up through NintendoAge as someone was done with it, and at that time the Wii was on a different TV and it worked 100%. That's when I realized that 44"~ Samsung was a POS for non-HDMI stuff so I took everything but the PS3 off it. Ever since any tv I've picked up I've used displaylag.com and other sources second to that to find one that won't run like hot garbage for old gaming.

 

Today I found Rebel Strike for $8 so I grabbed it. I've been curious to see how stunning that one would be on the GC HDMI.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I tried it out last night. I tried out two games. Fzero looks fantastic but Mario Sunshine didn't look right(I was in 480P mode). I tried messing around with the OSD but both remotes I tried didn't work.

 

Okay I realize it's been some time, but I think I might know what you had wrong possibly?

 

I happened to plug my HDMI modded GameCube into an older HDTV (an old 42" Vizio with older HDMI ports). When I initially loaded it up... Super Mario Sunshine looked blocky as crap. I was thinking I had somehow damaged it moving it around, but then I found out what was wrong... For me, I had to disable the "Enhanced DVI mode" option in the GCVideo options. I'm not sure why or any of the details on this, so please don't ask me. However, turning "Enhanced DVI" off made it look remarkably better. I didn't test this with a lot of games, but it was a dramatic difference for Super Mario Sunshine.

 

For my GameCube, I get to it with a button combination, but I believe those of you using the adapter have to access it via a remote. Might check and see if it's on. If you turn it off and it improves... then huzzah!

 

Only problem with this is that "Enhanced DVI mode" is also the only way to get audio over HDMI. If you disable it, you'll have to plug in a regular Nintendo A/V cable to get audio out of it.

 

Hopefully this helps someone out who might be experiencing this issue.

Edited by KeeperofLindblum
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Okay I realize it's been some time, but I think I might know what you had wrong possibly?

 

I happened to plug my HDMI modded GameCube into an older HDTV (an old 42" Vizio with older HDMI ports). When I initially loaded it up... Super Mario Sunshine looked blocky as crap. I was thinking I had somehow damaged it moving it around, but then I found out what was wrong... For me, I had to disable the "Enhanced DVI mode" option in the GCVideo options. I'm not sure why or any of the details on this, so please don't ask me. However, turning "Enhanced DVI" off made it look remarkably better. I didn't test this with a lot of games, but it was a dramatic difference for Super Mario Sunshine.

 

For my GameCube, I get to it with a button combination, but I believe those of you using the adapter have to access it via a remote. Might check and see if it's on. If you turn it off and it improves... then huzzah!

 

Only problem with this is that "Enhanced DVI mode" is also the only way to get audio over HDMI. If you disable it, you'll have to plug in a regular Nintendo A/V cable to get audio out of it.

 

Hopefully this helps someone out who might be experiencing this issue.

Thanks for saying something. I still haven't hooked the GC back up since I tested it. When I have time I really need to try this again. What I really need though is a super nice smaller flat panel to pull double duty for a GC screen and monitor for my laptop. Right now I have to lug everything into the living room and it's kind of a pita.

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I did a fast google on "Enhanced DVI mode"

 

Got this: https://github.com/ikorb/gcvideo/tree/master/HDL/gcvideo_dvi

 

It said this much maybe it relates since it's using public sources of info here:

The third option enables enhanced DVI mode. Since this mode may not be acceptable to all displays, it is disabled by default. If it is on, GCVideo transmits additional data to the display to signal the current video mode. Enabling this option may increase compatibility with some displays, especially in non-linedoubled 480i/576i modes.

 

When enhanced DVI mode is enabled, the Display as 16:9 option becomes available. If it is turned on, GCVideo tells the monitor that it should display the image in widescreen format (16:9 aspect ratio), if it is off then the display is told that standard format (4:3 aspect ratio) is preferred.

 

Perhaps causing some conversion issue with your TV causing it to go blocky since it's doing something the TV maybe would rather not do that is less optimal. So by shutting it off, things look nicer as you're not telling it to do something it doesn't go nicely with so well.

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What I really need though is a super nice smaller flat panel to pull double duty for a GC screen and monitor for my laptop. Right now I have to lug everything into the living room and it's kind of a pita.

 

Well I don't know about super nice, but I can tell you I picked up a BenQ GL2460 (cheap and only 10ms lag) and it's got a quite nice display and working happily with the ZXP :)

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