retrotink 2x RetroTink 2X Pro: Fantastic!

[tschak909]

I had spent quite a considerable amount of time looking for a nice HDMI upscaler for my now UAV retrofitted Atari 1200XL. The UAV did wonders for the video output, but it was ultimately let down by HDMI (or built in TV) upscalers which assumed much more on-spec video signals, with chroma and luma tolerances that react well to run of the mill comb filters.

 

I bought the Pro version which, in addition to the CVBS to HDMI upscaling, adds support for S-Video (Y/C), Component (YbPbPr), and a few filter options which allow you to fine tune the input signal, even more.

 

It's this guy:

 

and you can get it here:

https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/retrotink-2x-pro

 

As you can see, it's very cost effective, compared to the Micom XRGB Framemeister, OSSC, and other upscaling solutions.

 

How does it look?

 

When combined with the output from my UAV modified 1200XL, the results are breathtaking.

 

For both S-Video and Composite, the chroma to luma alignment is excellent!

 

S-Video (Y/C)

And with a nice separated chroma/luma signal, the sharpness is striking:

 

close-up, apologies for the moire pattern.

 

 

Output from PLATOTERM, Text is nice and crisp, and since it's not on Y/C, no color fringing!

 

The P/M color overlays in ICE-T look very nice.

 

Crisp rainbow transitions with zero fuzz in Rainbow Walker:

 

for Ninja, the low contrast portions of background to foreground pop very nicely:

 

Even in scenes with quick luma transitions, the upscaler does a good job with the notch filter to not introduce luma combs:

 

COMPOSITE (CVBS)

With composite, the results hold up almost as well, with the major difference being the introduction of unavoidable chroma artifacting, which, because of the well behaved notch filter, keeps luma distortion to a minimum, and makes artifact color look fantastic, as we can see here:

 

With Jawbreaker, maze and dots render well...

 

Let's zoom in on the jawbreaker lives, a nightmare for most composite decoders, note the smoothness:

 

Chicken looks good, too:

 

As does Ae 5200:

 

And to finish, let's go back to the Rainbow Room in Ninja, with the problematic pattern that makes composite decoders cry:

 

Beautiful, 'innit?

 

And it really is a good thing that Mike Chi is a good guy who has a _very_ solid understanding of video signals, he has produced a solid upscaler for a decent price that will get you a superb output, especially if you've gone ahead and placed in a UAV. 

 

-Thom

 

[vattari]

Great photos. I’ve got the original Retrotink 2x and was quite disappointed with it. I’ll try it again to see if some other factor (cables?) was affecting it


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[tschak909]

It must be re-iterated, that I was using a known good video signal (from the UAV in my 1200XL), and I was using a _VERY_ good cable from 8bitclassics:

https://www.8bitclassics.com/product/atari-xlxe-5-pin-din-to-s-video-composite-av-cable/

 

Some Atari systems (e.g. 800XL) have a disconnected chroma signal.

 

-Thom

[Faicuai]

Looks pretty good, so far!!!

 

Would you be so kind  to try feeding it with ACP.XEX and FlickerTerm 80, and post a couple of pics. of those two renderings?

 

THANKS, in advance!

[tschak909]

Don't have either of those.

-Thom

[+Stephen]

9 minutes ago, Faicuai said:

Looks pretty good, so far!!!

 

Would you be so kind  to try feeding it with ACP.XEX and FlickerTerm 80, and post a couple of pics. of those two renderings?

 

THANKS, in advance!

I was going to also ask   Flicker Term is my "go to" test for any upscaler.  I personally have not ran across one that makes the underscore characters look proper (__________), rather than (_-_-_-_-_-_).

[Faicuai]

54 minutes ago, Stephen said:

I was going to also ask   Flicker Term is my "go to" test for any upscaler.  I personally have not ran across one that makes the underscore characters look proper (__________), rather than (_-_-_-_-_-_).

But you will find them if you dig a big deeper:  ;-)

 

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/291924-cheap-video-convertor/?do=findComment&comment=4290834

 

However, I have a hunch that this little upscaler will do really well, overall... I am liking it, so far!

[tschak909]

Where can I get these two programs?

-Thom

 

[+MrFish]

Flickerterm 80.atr

[tschak909]

Perfection. Flicker of course, but the flicker is perfectly stable, Zero jitter.

 

[+Stephen]

That settles it then - awesome little upscaler!

[tschak909]

Yup, and it's a good price.

[tschak909]

I am SO glad that SOMETHING finally displaced the Framemeister, that isn't a mess of a design (OSSC)

 

-Thom

[manterola]

What about scrolling?  like demos with scrolling text, or montezuma revenge in which the character moves fast. In many upscalers we can notice a not so fluid scrolling and problems dealing with the interlacing (or lack of it).. For example, the character of Montezuma looks ok for a lot of frames but every 1 second or so you notice a little hipcup which makes the movement weird and the character itself with horizontal lines... Maybe you can upload a video

I am also in a search for a good budget upscaler. 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by manterola

[tschak909]

Scrolling is fine, rock solid.

-Thom

[griff3125]

10 hours ago, vattari said:

Great photos. I’ve got the original Retrotink 2x and was quite disappointed with it. I’ll try it again to see if some other factor (cables?) was affecting it


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Did you do the latest firmware update for the original 2x? It resolved the reset/syncing issues as it now remembers the settings and addressed some other issues as well. You can do it yourself if you've got the odd cables about or just send it out to Castlemania games, they do it for a very low cost. 

[Faicuai]

13 hours ago, tschak909 said:

 

The P/M color overlays in ICE-T look very nice.

 

 

 

 

I just noticed something odd on Ice-T's vertical range... (everything else looks pristine, though...)

 

Could you please, run ACP.XEX and VLINES (attached) and post a picture of them?

 

THANKS!

 

vlines.com

acp.xex

[Faicuai]

Last but not least:

 

The XEP80 acid test, which will push (to or beyond their limits) almost ALL CRTs and Analog-to-Digital stages of digital video-paths, although it is an optional test (as XEP80 is not exactly a popular or wide-spread solution):

 

 

At a minimum, a full 80x24 characters matrix should be readable / usable, and (optimally) a 80x25 chars. screen (although I have not seen that 25th row in any test, so far).

 

The reason I bring this up is because this little-and-neat converter seems to have analog component-inputs available, and the LUMA port is the IDEAL interface for the XEP80's output.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Faicuai

[tschak909]

 

 

Thus far. this thing has done a fantastic job. Ignore the dithering patterns you're seeing because of moire, they are not present via naked eye.

 

-Thom

[+Stephen]

Uh-oh, the ACP picture should be showing a smooth graduation of 16 luminance values for each of the 16 rows.  Wonder if that can be corrected?

This is a screenshot from my Eclaire board, excuse the crazy saturation.

[Faicuai]

Ok, wait a minute:

 

1. Your vertical range is going from 3 to 234, and it should be 0 to 239 or 1 to 240, depending on scanning shift. A total of 240 lines must be displayed. That means a net loss of vertical resolution, so far.

 

2. That ACP rendering is kind of weird. It should look like this (also showing full 240 vertical lines and *entire* horizontal scan-range, which is well beyond corner markers):

 

 

#1 may be explained by your TV or Monitor... But #2, I have no idea...

Edited April 9, 2020 by Faicuai

[tschak909]

this seems to be something with my 1200XL, as the other converters show similar results.

-Thom

[tschak909]

Interestingly enough, color gradations under BASIC seem correct, luminance cleanly steps across 8 steps.

[tschak909]

it is DEFINITELY not the Retrotink, my 1200XL is generating this. but why?

-Thom

[tschak909]

my green is too blue, and my red is too brown.

-Thom