General upscaler thread

[Steven Pendleton]

Well, if you're using something that outputs anything other than 256, there's no way to adjust it at all. Anything that uses 320 will give you that emulator-looking square pixels aspect ratio. While it's not technically correct, there are people that seem to like this look and it was used on the Genesis/MD Mini for 320 games. You may also find that some line modes might give you a 16:9 aspect and fill the screen. I get this on 2X and 4X. 3X gives me the more correct ratios and 5X doesn't work because of monitor incompatibility. If you want to adjust the aspect ratio without changing display settings, make the chain longer by connecting the OSSC to the Framemeister. I've seen a few people say that OSSC + Framemeister together is superior to either one alone.

 

I should also mention that I've recently started using 4X and adjusting to 4:3 with my monitor's built-in 4:3 setting. I haven't compared side by side with my Trinitron, but it looks pretty accurate to me. The interlace switch is very fast on the OSSC. In fact, my monitor isn't fast enough to keep up with it and I lose sync if I switch back and forth between interlaced and progressive too fast. In that case, I have to power cycle the OSSC to get it to display again.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[cybercylon]

7 hours ago, newtmonkey said:

Thanks @Austin!

 

It should arrive tomorrow and I've got nothing scheduled so I'll at least be able to get it up and running with the generic settings.  I don't much care for the ultra-sharp pixels look, so I might not even bother with setting up profiles, timings, etc.

 

I'm excited to see how it handles the 240p/480i switch.  Even if it's not quite as fast as the RetroTINK, if it's a noticeable improvement over the Framemeister I should be able to deal with it. 

 

I wonder if I could connect the Retrotink to the OSSC, and just use the RT as a cheap comb filter and adjust the aspect ratio with the OSSC?  I tried this with the RT and FM, but the FM flipped out haha.

 

I have been meaning to do this myself as I have both, but 50 million other things keep cropping up and my focus on getting back into better physical shape takes up a lot of my spare time (but well worth it).

 

One thing I do like about the FM is that while one has to do some adjustment, it works more out of the box. The OSSC may need more fiddling, but it can depend on your TV. If I recall, I didn't have to do too much with the PSX. Either one of these solutions seems fine, but I did not do a through comparison. I could have tested the resolution switching with Chrono Cross, but you will get to it sooner than I will.

 

As for daisy chaining these devices, I've sometimes attached the OSSC to my FM. I've gotten 4x line double to work with my Elgato HD60 which normally craps out at 2x or 3x. I had a TV where only 2x worked, but I could go up to 5x if I sent the signal through the FM first. You can accomplish the same thing with the HDMI in and out on an Xbox One.

 

I also used to use the FM HDMI to scale up the image from my HDMI modded GameCube on my older TV. It really looked great; I felt that F-Zero GX could almost pass for an early PS3 game at a glance. I don't do this anymore though since my Bravia upscales the image very nicely from the GameCube.

6 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

As far as I know, you can't change the aspect ratio with the OSSC aside from setting 256 to 8:7 or a 4:3 mode that is slightly too wide to actually be 4:3. You'd have to do it with your display.

Ahh... that explains why I have always thought the OSSC output from my TG16 always looked a bit too wide.

 

I just saw your post above about chaining the OSSC and FM together. Next time I have my TG16 out, I'll see how it goes, though the slightly wide look doesn't bug me too much.

Edited February 27, 2021 by cybercylon
more info

[newtmonkey]

Real quick OSSC impressions:

 

+ Really excellent video quality with no fuss.  If your TV is calibrated properly, it's plug and play.  It's nice that you don't have to fuss around with brightness/saturation/etc. settings for component video, like on the FM.

 

+ REALLY quick 240p/480i switching, roughly the same as with the RetroTINK, maybe even a hair faster in some games.

 

+ The "hybrid scanlines" option looks great, gives games a really nice contrasty CRT look.  I liked this option on the Analogue consoles, and I like it here.  I'm still playing around with these, but so far I like LINE3X with 75% scanline, 68% hybrid for 240p games.

 

+ DC VGA line doubled looks simply amazing.  The latest FM even has a VESA option to enable the correct aspect ratio.  I'll probably use the OSSC for 480p DC from now on.

 

+ This thing is so much fun to play with, even more fun than the FM.  You could spend hours and hours trying different settings, tweaking the image just right.

 

+ No added lag is great.  This is really the perfect upscaler for the PSP Go running PSX games, since you want 1) quick 240p/480i switching and 2) minimal added lag, since the DS3 over BT adds about a frame of lag.  You can even add a custom horizontal crop to get rid of the annoying vertical garbage line on the far right side of the image!  The Retrotink works great too, but you are stuck with a 640x480 image that cannot be tweaked in any way.

 

+/- Aspect ratio options are limited and I found that screwing around with the timings caused sync problems.  The FM "just works" with regard to setting the right aspect ratio.  Having said that, my TV does have some custom zoom functions for signals > 720p, which gives the OSSC more flexibility.  I can set the OSSC to line3x (720p) and then adjust the horizontal zoom using my TV to get a nice 4:3 aspect ratio.**

 

- FM is still the king of deinterlacing, nothing comes close imo.

 

- Normal usage doesn't seem to have been considered whatsoever in the design.  Say what you will about the design quirks of the FM and RT (FM: needs a bulky adapter to use RGB; RT: SVideo input on side), but the OSSC is simply bizarre.  The ports for the two cables you'd likely never need to access (power and HDMI out) are located on the left and right sides, while the inputs you'd most likely need to access (SCART and component) are on the back!  Oh, and the audio input for component is on the side, next to the HDMI out port... and it's also a 3.5mm stereo jack rather than RCA, so you will definitely need to get an adapter.

 

-----

 

I'll probably be using my upscalers like so:

 

- Framemeister: All 240p and 480i consoles that have "no-mod" RGB cable options

- OSSC: PSP Go PSX games (PSP games too, I guess), Dreamcast @480p

- Retrotink: Composite-only consoles (the comb filter makes a huge difference), N64 (it just looks great on the RT for some reason)

 

-----

 

** I am somewhat convinced that my aspect ratio issues with PSX are because I'm using a PSP GO (in interlaced mode i.e. 240p for PSX games) over component cables.  Talk of aspect ratio online focuses on the proper aspect ratio for SNES and Genesis games, but hardly ever on PSX games, which makes sense I guess since most PSX games run natively at a full 320x240 (allegedly), which is a perfect 4:3 aspect ratio. I'm wondering now if the PSP is outputting some weirdo resolution with a non 4:3 aspect ratio.  I've also noticed that PSX games are completely off-center vertically, and it varies from game to game: for example, Biohazard 1-3 have a sizeable black bar on the top, while Chrono Cross has the black bar on the bottom.

 

Anyway, all I know is this.  Stretching the image horizontally approximately 7% gets me from slightly narrow to an almost perfect 4:3 AR.  Pretty weird!

Edited February 28, 2021 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Actually, there's something definitely weird about PSP PSX video output.  The "black bars" I mentioned above are actually part of the image being cropped... this also occurs with the RT AND FM, actually.  For an example, check the status screen in Legend of Dragoon.  The image should have the same "parchment" pattern on the top and bottom, but the top is cropped by around 8 pixels on the OSSC, FM, and RT.  Very strange!

 

I am wondering now if this is an inherent issue with PSX games when playing on PSP, or if it's a weird side effect of running PSX games converted to "EBOOT" format for PSP (hacked).

 

Having said that, the aspect ratio is still a bit narrow even if you take the cropped 8 rows of pixels or so into consideration.

 

Anyway, it's "only" 8 pixels on the top of bottom, depending on the game, which falls within the overscan area assumed for CRTs... I wouldn't even have realized it if I hadn't spent all day obsessing over it.  But still, maybe it's time to give up on using the PSP GO as a "psx mini console" and just go get a PSX and install the xstation or psio or something.  Pretty annoying!

Edited February 28, 2021 by newtmonkey

[Steven Pendleton]

OSSC is also super light, and with stuff plugged into it, it's not uncommon to see the damn thing leaning backwards or suspended in midair from the weight of the cables.

[cybercylon]

I saw a post on retrorgb that there are cases now for the OSSC to make it look a little nicer. Wonder if it is worth getting one; not sure if it adds any weight to make it more stable because you are right... I've had one find itself in strange positions when I've had stuff plugged into it.

[+-^CrossBow^-]

I have my OSSC velcro'd to the side of the display case where I have all of my systems. Been there now for like 2 years or something and hadn't moved so should be good.

 

[newtmonkey]

I ordered one of the cases (the cheaper one by Retro Frog).  I'll post my thoughts once I get it.

[newtmonkey]

Well, I got annoyed with the quirks of the PSP GO as a "mini PS console"* and I went and got my PSONE from storage to see how it looks upscaled.  WOW.  I might have to just go back to using the PSONE.  Video output looks absolutely pristine compared to the PSP GO output, really night and day.  Too bad there's not an ODE solution for the PSONE... I have a pretty large PSX game collection, and it would be annoying to go back to using actual discs... but wow does an actual PSX look good upscaled through the OSSC!  If I have time this weekend, I might do some comparison pictures of the PSP GO and PSONE running the same games, with the same settings on the OSSC.

 

I might look into getting one of those new SD card-based PSX memory cards; the biggest issue with the PSX (other than having to rely on an aging optical drive) is the very very limited capacity of the memory cards, and how annoying it is to back saves up to anything other than other memory cards.

 

---

* 1) Forced to use Dual Shock 3 over BT with around 1 frame of lag; better hope you have a DS3 in good condition...

   2) Really soft video output

   3) Bizarre 10 pixels cropped from top of image... I obsessively watched videos on Youtube just to see if I was crazy, and every single video showed this cropping, but no one mentioned it as an issue, really weird.

   4) Garbage line of pixels on right side of screen

Edited March 1, 2021 by newtmonkey

[Steven Pendleton]

On 2/28/2021 at 12:16 AM, cybercylon said:

I just saw your post above about chaining the OSSC and FM together. Next time I have my TG16 out, I'll see how it goes, though the slightly wide look doesn't bug me too much.

Yeah, 256 games are either too wide or too narrow. I'm guessing that the OSSC can only do integer scales on both axes, which would explain it. Since 2X and 4X both give me a 16:9 image for some reason in 320 games, I can fix it with my monitor's preset 4:3 mode, but I can't manually adjust the picture and  it does not let me change some sources to 4:3 at all. It's been a while since I've played a 256 game, so I might set up my SuperGrafx to test to see what happens, especially since I'm curious to see what it does with the PC Engine games that use resolutions other than the standard 256x240 (or is it 256x239?), like Dracula X and the various versions of R-Type.

 

I only recently started using the 4X mode, so I still have yet to go through and reconfigure everything for that mode. Maybe 2/3 of my profiles are still in 3X, I think.

Edited March 2, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[newtmonkey]

I've been spending some enjoyable nights trying out and tweaking the OSSC, really having a blast with this little device.  I think I've finally settled on a set of settings I'll be using from now on, so I thought I'd jot them down here, along with some thoughts.

 

Output resolution

I found the OSSC to spit out razor sharp image quality even at line-double (2X) mode.  I found that my TV, for whatever reason, cuts off several lines of pixels on the top and bottom when using 2X mode on the OSSC, no matter what I tried (this does not happen with the RetroTINK or FM at 480p).  That's fine; the 3X mode works great and I had settled on using that... however... I ended up going with 5X mode even though I typically dislike the ultra-sharp pixels look.  More on that later!  Anyway, I settled on the following for 240p:

 

Settings:

Line5X mode, generic 4:3

5X format: 1600x1200

480i passthrough (to prevent possible image retention)

 

I was surprised to find that this resolution results in a perfect 4:3 aspect ratio, no tweaking required.  Nice!

 

Scanlines

I found some very interesting custom scanline settings for the OSSC that work only at 5X mode... this is why I decided to go from 3X to 5X as mentioned above.  I dialed these in and really liked what I saw.  I got these settings from a post on the shmups.system11 board, but tweaked them slightly.  The user who posted the settings had tweaked the scanlines looking back and forth between his OSSC and a Sony Trinitron consumer TV he had, to try to replicate the look of a high end consumer TV set. 

 

Settings:

Hybrid: 75% (50% if you want less bloom around bright colors)

Custom scanlines: Line1: 100%, Line5: 100%. Column1: 75%, All other settings: 0%

 

*If you prefer the look of a professional monitor (Sony PVM/BVM), it's better to just use a standard horizontal scanline filter (no custom settings).  I found scanline strength 100% and hybrid strength from 50% to 75% to replicate the look pretty decently in 3X mode.

 

---

 

Finally, here's some off-screen shots taken with my cellphone running some PSX games.  The custom scanlines add slight vertical scanlines in an attempt to emulate phosphors, and compression in the photos causes some havoc.  The full size images look much more natural.

 

I just happen to be playing through Final Fantasy VIII now, so it seemed like a good candidate for a screenshot.  FF8 has some of the best prerendered backgrounds in any PSX game, even better than subsequent Square releases (both FF9 and Chrono Cross suffer from attempting to pack too much detail into such a limited resolution, imo).

The extreme bloom around bright colors here is due to my camera, not the OSSC.  I do have the hybrid scanlines set, but the effect is not THIS dramatic.

 

Biohazard, a total classic that has aged perfectly imo.  I think the prerendered backgrounds have aged very well in this one.  As far as the game goes, I really like the exploration in this one compared even with its sequels, as it seems you have much greater freedom to explore the mansion right from the start.  I love the awful voice acting, it adds so much charm to this game.

 

Rockman 8!  Among the best 2D games on the system, though I personally lost interest with the series once it moved to 16-bit (I much prefer the X series).  Colorful and clean graphics, without any of the hardware dithering the PSX is infamous for (even on 2D games like Castlevania Chronicles... WHY KONAMI WHY).

The thumbnail image for this one messes it all up, so do click on the image to see it expanded to full size.

 

Finally, here's a zoomed-in shot to show how the custom scanline filter looks.  The "phosphors" are obviously not noticeable when sitting away from the screen.  So why even bother?  It helps make the "blooming" of the hybrid scanline effect look more natural around vertical edges.  For example, look at the "crest" on Rockman's helmet; the scanline blooms out in the center where the color is brightest, then naturally narrows as it switches to darker shades of blue.

Edited March 4, 2021 by newtmonkey

[pseudografx]

A few months back I got the RetroScaler 2x, which is a RetroTink 2x clone, to connect my Atari 800XE to a modern LCD screen. It works fine and the picture is good, except for one thing - all colors that have blue in them show some kind of a scanline effect, where odd and even lines are of a distinctively different color. Now I am considering a different upscaler, maybe the RetroTink 2x-Mini. If anyone has used that one with an Atari 8-bit machine, have you experienced the same issue?

P.S.: I even had UAV installed in my Atari to see if it resolves the issue, but it didn't ?

 

[newtmonkey]

I've used the Retotink 2X Pro with my Atari 800XL (composite video, not modded in any way) and don't have any issues with it.  It's hard to say for certain, but the RetroScaler 2x itself is certainly suspect due to being an unauthorized clone of the Retrotink.

Edited March 4, 2021 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Additional notes on OSSC:

 

Use of RetroTINK as a composite/svideo-to-VGA transcoder

This works fine, but the image quality leaves a lot to be desired.  I found the image from my AV Famicom to be pretty unstable (jittery), or perhaps the issues inherent with composite video were magnified by the OSSC.  I did confirm that the RT comb filter still works even in passthrough mode.  All in all, I found composite sources to just look better on the RT itself.  I might try again though with some adjusted timings to see if the image can be stabilized.

[Steven Pendleton]

Sega Mega Jet + HD Retrovision + OSSC 4x + set my monitor to 4:3.

 

Sampling phase needs adjustment since this is on my profile for my regular Mega Drive, but I think most people would believe me if I said this is the Mega Sg. I can't believe how good the video quality on the Mega Jet is. It's insane. No jailbars and perfect video (and audio).

 

 

 

[newtmonkey]

I was playing some Super Famicom last night, and decided to to hook it up to the OSSC rather than the Framemeister, and see how I like it.  There's some good and bad about the experience, mostly good though.

 

I'm running these at my standard OSSC settings (line5x, 1600x1200, generic 4:3).  I ended up slightly changing my scanline settings for a slightly brighter image with higher contrast:

 

Hybrid: 83%

Custom scanlines: Line1: 100%, Line5: 100%. Column1: 50%, All other settings: 0%

 

As always, these are off-screen photos taken with my cellphone, so it screws with the contrast a bit.

 

First up is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.  I finished this back in the day, and am playing it this time around with the MSU-1 enhancement patch.  The patch itself is a mixed bag; the intro FMV is fun, but the music itself is hit and miss.  It's fun to experience once, but I'd probably just go with the non-MSU-1 version for future playthroughs.

The screen is sadly not from a very colorful part of the game, but you can see how sharp (but not overly sharp) the OSSC looks even with generic timings.

 

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.  The aspect ratio looks even weirder than normal here since I cropped the black borders on the top and bottom of the screen, which appear to be part of the image in this game (I never played it on actual hardware on a CRT back in the day, so not sure).  The colors are really great in this game, and the perfect color reproduction of the OSSC is definitely a mark in its favor over the Framemeister.

 

---

 

Overall, I was pleased with the "no-fuss" color reproduction of the OSSC.  Tweaking the Framemeister for accurate colors can be a pain and requires the use of test patterns to dial in the right setting (even then, you have to strike the right balance between minimizing noise and preventing the FM from crushing color detail).  I was also pleasantly surprised by how sharp the OSSC looks even with generic 4:3 timings.

 

Having said that, the aspect ratio is clearly too wide when using the OSSC.  It's not excessively wide (1.36 vs 1.33 [4:3 AR]), and there are a lot of settings you can fool around with to get a more accurate aspect ratio, but there are tradeoffs including underscan/overscan, messing up the scanline filter, etc.  Having said that, I definitely prefer a "slightly" too wide aspect ratio over an overly narrow aspect ratio, and I would generally be satisfied with this if I didn't have any other options.  I do have another option, though, and that's the Framemeister which is a lot more flexible when it comes to aspect ratio.

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by newtmonkey

[cybercylon]

I have generally observed that the OSSC is less fuss with the colors, and the Framemeister is less fuss with the aspect ratio. Have you tried running the OSSC through the HDMI input of the Framemeister just for kicks? I haven't tried that often, but if I recall, the color bar test still looked pretty good from the 240p test suite.

[Steven Pendleton]

53 minutes ago, cybercylon said:

I have generally observed that the OSSC is less fuss with the colors, and the Framemeister is less fuss with the aspect ratio. Have you tried running the OSSC through the HDMI input of the Framemeister just for kicks? I haven't tried that often, but if I recall, the color bar test still looked pretty good from the 240p test suite.

That's how I have to run my PS2 if I want the Framemeister's deinterlacing (I do, as I specifically bought the Framemeister just for its deinterlacing ability and the OSSC's bob deinterlace is not so great and causes image retention), as I have no other way to connect it to my Framemeister. It's also why I stopped using my PS2 and bought a Japanese PS3 instead; Dreamcast S-video into Framemeister looks more sharp to me than PS2 HD Retrovision -> OSSC generic settings -> FM. PS2 + OSSC optimized settings + FM looks horrible for some reason, though.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[Austin]

Yeah, the OSSC's colors are infinitely better out of the box. The colors pop and blacks are actually black.

[newtmonkey]

I was particularly impressed with how accurate reds look out of the box with the OSSC.  The FM, even when calibrated carefully, tends to have really hot reds.

[newtmonkey]

I did some more experimenting with the OSSC today.

 

Using the Retrotink-2X as a composite/S-video transcoder

This works great!  However, you have to make sure that you are using the component-in on the OSSC instead of the VGA-in.  The VGA-in port disables the low-pass filter, which results in a jittery mess of an image.

 

This means you need an HDMI-component transcoder in between the Retrotink and the OSSC.  These are pretty cheap, but you need to make sure you get the right one (it needs to be able to handle 240p).

 

Info on junkerhq:

http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php?title=RetroTINK2X#RetroTINK_2X_and_OSSC

I have this same exact model (purchase from Amazon, however), and it works fine.

 

Q1. Why go through all this trouble when the Koryu transcoder (https://videogameperfection.com/products/koryuu-transcoder/) is an all-in-one solution meant specifically for use with the OSSC?

A1. The Retrotink has a comb filter, which really does an amazing job of cleaning up composite video. 

 

Q2. Why not just use the Retrotink on its own?

A2. The Retrotink is really quite nice indeed, but doesn't give you many options to tweak the output.  The scanline filter is very basic, and you just have to accept whatever aspect ratio you get.  Adding the OSSC to the chain allows you to take advantage of its many features such as its awesome scanline engine, border masking, position adjustment, and (limited) aspect ratio correction.

 

-----

 

So anyway, here's some screenshots.  OSSC is set to my usual settings:

Line5x mode (1600x1200), generic 4:3 timings

Custom scanline filter: Hybrid: 83%, Line1: 100%, Line5: 100%. Column1: 50%, All other settings: 0%

 

[Famicom] (composite)

The Battle of Olympus.  Not exactly a showcase of graphical power, but I thought this shot in particular was quite characteristic of overall FC/NES composite image quality.  The comb filter in the Retrotink helps to clean the image up a lot, but there's only so much you can do with FC/NES composite video.  Still, composite does give the NES a sort of gritty look that I enjoy.

 

[PC Engine] (composite)

Saigo no Nindo aka Ninja Spirit.  I was pretty impressed once I hooked the PC Engine up.  This console has some of the best quality composite video around, very stable with clean lines and rich colors.  The thumbnail here really messes the scanline filter up, so click to view the full-sized image if interested.  I foolishly had my kitchen light on (see the reflection next to my ninja double), ruining an otherwise nice picture.  Oh well!

 

Bonk's Revenge.  A good example of how clean composite video is on the PC Engine.  Tons of rich colors, but very little color bleeding.  My kitchen lights make another guest appearance.

 

[N64] S-Video

Super Mario 64.  I had a hard time getting good shots of N64 games, as many of the games I tried tended to point the camera at a downward angle to the main character (either to make platforming easier or to reduce the draw distance, who knows).  I didn't want a bunch of screens of a guy surrounded by grass, and this was the best I could do.  At least you can see the rest of the level in the distance up there.

[newtmonkey]

OSSC experimentation part 2: Optimal timings and aspect ratio

 

I was playing around with the Super Famicom plugged into the OSSC and was getting annoyed at the black bars at the top and bottom.  Why don't these black bars show up on a CRT?  Then it hit me: the OSSC is a very obedient device that is just doing what it's told.  The SFC has an internal resolution of 256×224 and the black bars (8 lines top and bottom) would likely be cut off by the overscan of your typical consumer CRT.  Every* SNES/SFC game runs at this resolution, so what if we told the OSSC to just upscale 224 lines instead of 240?  It would theoretically result in an image that fills the screen vertically without being "stretched" to do so.  I read up on optimal timings and how to dial them in, and off I went.

 

The OSSC has a built in "256×240 optimized" mode, so the first step was to select that and then get to work.  I set V.ACTIVE to 224, adjusted the horizontal and vertical screen position, and then adjusted "sampling phase" until the screen stopped flickering.  That's it!  I had a VERY clean and sharp image that filled the screen vertically and also maintained a proper 4:3 aspect ratio.

 

I also modified my scanline settings slightly since the custom settings I had no longer worked with the optimized timings I had set.

 

Some pictures:

 

Final Fantasy IV.  I've cropped it to show the bottom edge of my TV to show how the game now completely fills the screen vertically.  The aspect ratio of the photo is off slightly due to how I cropped it, but is actually nearly perfect.

 

Very sharp!  It's almost hard to believe this is from a multi-chip SFC, which has outputs a much softer image than the 1chip consoles or even other consoles that natively support RGB.

 

---

 

I will probably still use my Framemeister for 480i consoles (PS2 mostly) as well as 240p consoles that often use multiple resolutions (Megadrive, Jaguar, Saturn mostly), but will probably switch over to using the OSSC for the SFC.  You just can't beat this image quality, and since every* game on the SFC/SNES uses the same internal resolution, it's a "one-and-done" setting.

 

[newtmonkey]

I spent all weekend tweaking profiles, etc.  The OSSC has basically replaced my Framemeister, though I'll still use the FM for PS2 games.

 

Some random notes:

 

- I ended up going back to generic 4:3 for the SFC, because I felt the optimized timing setting was just too sharp.  It began to look emulator-esque to me.

 

- Being able to set H.ACTIVE and V.ACTIVE is a game-changer.  Most of the 8-bit and 16-bit consoles actually only have an internal vertical resolution of 224, so it makes no sense to scale the image as though it were a full 240 lines vertically, since you are just scaling 8 lines of black on the top and bottom (or in the case of the FC/NES or Genesis/MD, graphical junk).  From what I can tell, the way the OSSC handles this (it seems to ignore anything outside of the ACTIVE settings) provides a cleaner upscale than how the FM handles it (it seems to apply the ZOOM settings after upscaling the image). 

 

Some sources do recommend setting H.ACTIVE to 640 for Dreamcast 480p to get a proper aspect ratio at full resolution (for example, JunkerHQ), but there's less information on V.ACTIVE.  I found some discussion of setting this to 224 on some forums (VideoGamePerfection, shmups.system11), but the posters note that some TVs might not recognize the signal unless it's set to 240.  It's definitely worth experimenting with, as I found 224 to provide a full-screen image without any reduction in sharpness.

 

- The PSX is perhaps even more annoying than the Megadrive when it comes to resolution.  Although the MD has two major resolutions (320x224, 256x224) they both have the same vertical resolution.  The PSX, however, has something like half a dozen different resolutions, some of which use a full 240 lines of vertical resolution while others use 224 lines.  It's annoying, but you would therefore want to have two profiles for the PSX (V.ACTIVE 240 and V.ACTIVE 224).  It's too bad the OSSC can't somehow detect this and set V.ACTIVE automatically as an option.

[turboxray]

Nice write up! You've convince me to order both

[newtmonkey]

I think I've settled on my "final" settings, with profiles for each system (and separate 240 and 224 profiles for the PSX, Saturn, and N64).

 

- Universal settings for all profiles -

Sampling options:

Allow TVP HPLL2x: Off

- This kept Line5x mode completely stable for me

 

Output options:

240p/288p proc: Line5x (Generic 4:3)

480i/576i proc: Line4x (Generic 4:3)

480p/576p proc: Line2x (Generic 4:3)

Line5x format: 1600x1200

- Assuming the TV supports this resolution, this gives you an image that fills the screen top-to-bottom* with a nearly perfect 4:3 AR (ever so slightly narrow)

 

Scanline options:

Scanlines: Auto

Sl. strength: 100% (doesn't matter though)

Sl. hybrid str: 75%

Scanline type: Custom

Custom Sl.: Line 1/5: 100%, Column 1: 50%

- This gives the image a high-end consumer CRT look.  For a PVM/BVM look, just set "Scanline type" to horizontal

 

Compatibility:

Full TX setup: On

- This completely prevented sync from dropping during resolution switches

 

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- Individual settings as needed -

Video in proc:

Pre-ADC Gain: If using a Retrotink and HDMI-to-component transcoder, I found the Retrotink "retro" comb filter (crucial for composite video sources) to darken the image slightly.  Adjusting this upward one or two notches can brighten the image.

 

Sampling options:

H.active: Set this from 720 to 640 for DC VGA, as it will ensure the proper aspect ratio while also providing the full resolution.

V.active: Set this from 240 to 224 for any system with an internal resolution of NNNx224 to ensure the screen is filled vertically and to remove graphical garbage meant to be hidden in the overscan area.

 

Audio options:

Pre-ADC gain: I found the volume to be very low from consoles connected to the OSSC via the Retrotink to HDMI-to-component transcoder, and increasing this to +6dB or so resolved it.

 

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I've attached a JSON file with my profiles if anyone is interested.  This can be imported to the OSSC using the "OSSC Profiles" tool online (http://pbnl.byethost7.com/ossc/profiles/).  This includes the following profiles:

- PSX (separate 240 and 224 profiles) [RGB]

- SFC [RGB]

- Megadrive [RGB]

- Famicom [composite]

- PC Engine [composite]

- N64 (separate 240 and 224 profiles) [S-Video]

- Saturn (separate 240 and 224 profiles) [RGB]

- Dreamcast 480p/240p [RGB]

- Atari Jaguar [RGB]

- Atari 8-bit [Composite]

 

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Finally, some pictures I took last night.

 

 

Chrono Cross set to 240 lines active vs 224 lines active.  It's not a huge deal, and I probably will just settle on using one or the other for PSX, but for now it's nice to have the option to quickly switch between 240 and 224.  Note that Chrono Cross still has slight black bars on the top and bottom even when set to 224—that's just how some PSX games are.  I'm not sure if its for performance reasons or perhaps due to the aspect ratio of the artwork used, but another (strange) example is Arc the Lad, which is nearly in widescreen if you set the OSSC to 240 active lines!

 

Next some PC Engine shots (composite video >> Retrotink >> HDMI-component transcoder >> OSSC)

 

PC Denjin aka Air Zonk. One of the better-looking hucard games on the system with giant colorful sprites and some great parralax scrolling.  Composite video from the PC Engine always impresses me.  Sharp lines, vibrant colors, etc.

 

A shot from the intro to Xak I/II or maybe Xak III (can't remember which I selected...).  It's a little hard to believe this is 1) the PCE and 2) composite video.  Standing a bit away from the TV made it look a little like I had paused a (slightly low quality) VHS tape.

ossc_profiles_0.88(2).json