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Composite to HDMI converter...


homerj

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On another thread in Classic Gaming, someone bought one of these converters. He didn't seem very impressed with results, but also had a different issue you may or may not have with it.

 

Post was by "keepdreamin" on the "Sega Saturn to HDMI" thread.

 


Unfortunately, the blue Portta component -> HDMI converter was a bust. :sad:

I plugged it up to the Saturn via HD retrovision cables and turned on the saturn. My TV was blank and the "picture" LED on the converter was off. On a hunch I hooked up scart and fired up the Framemeister so I could boot Virtua Fighter 2 (480i gameplay). Switched back over to the HD retrovision cables and Portta converter, sure enough it was working. The picture quality is quite good, however knowing the character select menu is in 240P, I soft reset to the menu, sure enough the picture dropped out at the character select screen. Selected a character blindly and the picture came back for the gameplay.

Just to be sure it wasn't some weird compatibility issue with the HD retrovision cables, I hooked up my saturn via component using my universal RGB scart to component box. Same story, the Portta converter doesn't like 240P. So, for classic games it's pretty much a useless device. It might be good for an original XBOX or Wii, as long as you weren't running anything in 240P. I'm not sure if the older revisions of the Portta blue were working with 240P? But this new one certainly doesn't.

Edited by KeeperofLindblum
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On another thread in Classic Gaming, someone bought one of these converters. He didn't seem very impressed with results, but also had a different issue you may or may not have with it.

 

Post was by "keepdreamin" on the "Sega Saturn to HDMI" thread.

 

 

Actually, other than not accepting 240P, that converter does a pretty good job. It would be perfect for someone with an original xbox who never intended on running anything below 480i.

 

But regarding composite, that's going to look like garbage on a HDTV regardless of what device you have. Even the Framemeister can't do much with it, other than treat 240P correctly and drop on some scanlines.

Edited by keepdreamin
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The box said "Portta" but the unit itself had no name, logo, etc.

 

 

Like this?

Port -ta

https://www.port-ta.com/us/

Component to HDMI 1.3

https://www.port-ta.com/us/catalog/product/view/id/38/s/component-rgb-plus-r-l-to-hdmi-converter-support-1080p-for-dvd-ps3-not-for-windows-10/category/45/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VJ9RP6/ref=twister_B01L2EYRL0?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

Same unit but with a 720p upscaler built in.

https://www.port-ta.com/us/catalog/product/view/id/38/s/component-rgb-plus-r-l-to-hdmi-converter-support-1080p-for-dvd-ps3-not-for-windows-10/category/45/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ATNIFPA/ref=twister_B01L2EYRL0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

 

I've seen these allover amazon, most of the bad reviews are 1)people that don't know these adapters are one way only, 2)their TV doesn't support it. 3)quality of the unit may be a problem.

For under $25 these are actually pretty impressive - pro grade versions would run into the hundreds or thousands.

 

It's a cheap, mass produced, Chinese knock off, what should a person really expect?

 

A lot the reviews say it worked great with the PS2 and original XBOX. So $25, its worth at least trying. and Amazon has a pretty liberal return policy anyways.icon_wink.gif

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Hey buddy, if you don't mind I'm still looking for that component to HDMI converter you mentioned in the other thread before bailing. You have a link?

 

I did not "bail" I advised I was done talking about it and thought that was pretty clear? Besides you misunderstood me. What I was trying to convey in that thread, is that based on a similar discussion at Sega-16, we were stating that the cheap composite/s-video to HDMI converters, like the one I linked above add about 2 to 4 frames of lag to the video. It was then discussed that the framemeister and OSSC apparently still add roughly 20ms (just over 1 frame) of lag to a straight CRT. Still much less than most consumer grade TVs.

 

The point was that several times I've seen mentioned that a converter from your source to the TV will add lag and the amount of lag you have will obvioulsy be a combination of the lag from the converter plus whatever lag your TV might also introduce. So the thinking here was that using a Framemeister/OSSC will still introduce some lag regardless. In my case from what I've measured between my TV and CRT it is roughly a 4 - 8frames difference using my composite/-s-video to hdmi converter. When I use a SCART to component and then to TV it is still 2 - 4 frames. And I get the same results using the HD retrovision cables. 2 - 4 frames of lag between input to shown response on the display.

 

You were stating the OSSC and Framemeister do not introduce lag, but there is simply no truth to that. Anything that is converting a analog source to a digital source will introduce some lag in there. Hell...even the HI-Def NES still has some tiny bit of lag.

 

I don't know what else to state other than I personally haven't seen the need for a framemesiter of OSSC since the cheap converters I'm using in conjunction with the powered AV switchers seems to only add about 2 to 4 frames more lag as opposed to without. After 6 years of this setup, I've more than gotten used to it.

 

So back on this topic is the device I linked to above from Monoprice similar to what the OP saw?

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You were stating the OSSC and Framemeister do not introduce lag, but there is simply no truth to thar

Yeah, I didn't say that. I said the Framemeister had 20 ms of lag and the OSSC has "essentially none", which is true. My issue was about your statement regarding a component to HDMI converter you knew of that was as fast as those devices. Not that they had no lag at all

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Back to the OPs original question. Depending on the type of device it actually is, I can only speak on using something to that I linked to. I've got one of the monoprice converters and it has served me quite well for over 4 years. It does introduce some lag, but from my testing it is only about 2 - 4 frames on average. Over time (Short time at that...) I've compensated for it quite nicely and using the manual lag test in the 240p suite I'm only off by maybe 1 to 2 frames. That isn't going to be noticed by most people, especially the casual gamers.

 

There are some things to look into with these cheap converters to be aware of. One is that my particular model doesn't offer a 4:3 or 16:9 option. Everything it converts it will upscale to 720p or 1080p depending on how I select it. And in addition to that, it will always convert over a stretched 16:9 image through the HDMI out. Because of this, I had to make sure that my TV itself would allow me to switch to 4:3 or 'Normal' etc.. on digital video sources. My previous HDTV (Insignia) brand, did not allow for this on component or HDMI inputs. But my newer TV does. Also it can be sorta a hassle when you want to view something through composite if you only have the S-video out cable connected all the time. Because the composite video will have bars on it or extra dithering patterns. This could also be because of my JVC AV switcher which is supposed to do automatic separation for composite sources to s-video. So I have to push the little button on the converter to switch from s-video to composite to make sure I don't get these video anomalies.

 

But that is a minor thing in the grand scheme of it all for the convenience of having everything connected up in this manner.

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The biggest issue with cheap converters is almost all of them treat a 240P signal as 480i

 

Which means any quickly flashing sprites that were seen as a rudimentary transparency on a CRT with be an interlaced mess. Moving items will also blur as the scaler handles the image.

This is true for pretty much anything I have playing through my converter. Even without, some TVs don't handle this properly either. Luckily..mine seems to handle 240p just fine, but it does treat that signal as 480i according to the TV info when I pop it up on the screen. But luckily the flashing sprite issue isn't an issue through component for me. But SNES and SMS 240p doesn't work at all on my TV. Even when I use the MegaED x7 and play SMS games, they will frequently blink out and take about 5 - 10 seconds before a picture shows up on my TV. So something with the way the SMS did 240p as opposed to the Genesis apparently.

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