Portta Component YPbPR v1.3 To HDMI Upscaler Review

[EpicDave]

https://www.amazon.com/Portta-PETRHS-Co ... B00ATNIFPA
$29.99

Just a few good things to say about it.

1. Fast upscaling
2. Pretty good output quality with both both 480i and 480p sources.
3. Can accept 240p sources through component and display them correctly for the most part but may have issues with non standard refresh rates. Super Nintendo for one.
4. Very small compact device easily stored anywhere.

Firstly let me start off with saying there are actually two converters by portta that are component to hdmi. The first just being a straight forward converter. It's the black and blue box. The second one is the black and gold box and that one actually upscales to 720p Or 1080p. I have both units and the blue one works fine if you just want to connect any component devices like a ps2, xbox, gamecube, wii, dvd player what ever to an HDMI display like a pc monitor or HDTV with a low input delay on a certain HDMI port. That is assuming your display is compatible with 480i through hdmi. Not all displays are. Luckily my tv the d40u-d1 by vizio does and I reccomend that tv to any one who wants a nice 40 inch 4k display with input lag as low as 13ms if you use HDMI 5. Anyway The main part and the reason of why I'm writing this is portta's upscaler. The gold box. The output qaulity when upscaling either 480i or 480p sources is actually really damn good from what I can tell for such a cheap box. It retails for about 30 bucks or so depending on where you get it. I got mine from amazon. As for input delay when upscaling? It's either non existent or less than a frame. I can not for the life of me detect any. I even tested the 240p test suite with it's lag test with my super nintendo hooked up to it using a scart to component converter. On a side note yes this portta upscaler does accept 240p sources and does display them properly from what I can tell. There is a catch how ever. Since the super nintendo has a slightly off refresh rate of like 60.8 when using it with this converter the image will jerk every 5 seconds or so. When using 240p sources on my ps2 either a ps1 game or one of the ps2 games that are 240p like the monster world complete collection. it works just fine with them. All in all I shocked at how well this thing works for how cheap it is because I have heard nothing about cheap scalers and to avoid them like the plague. I just wanted to let anyone know who might care that this one at least is pretty good to tide you off until you can get something like an xrgb mini or the OSSC. I don't have a way of directly capturing footage or images since I don't have a capture card but I can take pictures off screen if anyone want's to see.

[Fudoh]

didn't know that they had an upscaling version of the box as well. I'll give it a try. The straight A/D converter has always been solid. Absolutely no need to invest into anything more expensive.

All in all I shocked at how well this thing works for how cheap it is because I have heard nothing about cheap scalers and to avoid them like the plague.

in general 480p to any other resolution is dead easy compared to handling 15khz 240p signals, so that's usually why you should stay away from cheaper upscalers.

[EpicDave]

didn't know that they had an upscaling version of the box as well. I'll give it a try. The straight A/D converter has always been solid. Absolutely no need to invest into anything more expensive.

All in all I shocked at how well this thing works for how cheap it is because I have heard nothing about cheap scalers and to avoid them like the plague.

in general 480p to any other resolution is dead easy compared to handling 15khz 240p signals, so that's usually why you should stay away from cheaper upscalers.

Yeah Id love to hear your thoughts on how this thing does 240p through component. I am no expert on the subject but I was surprised this little box even accepted it. All in all I love this little box. My tv the d40u D1 by vizio has an input lag of 13ms but only on hdmi 5. HDMI 5 how ever locks out aspect ratio settings for every resolution you throw at it. So 480p and 480i is stuck in 4:3 so any ps2 game with widescreen looks like I put them through a vice. This upscaler did the trick.

[Harrumph]

Would be interesting if someone could test this with the HD retrovision SNES/Genesis component cables. Perhaps SNES image stability would be improved then?

[EpicDave]

Would be interesting if someone could test this with the HD retrovision SNES/Genesis component cables. Perhaps SNES image stability would be improved then?

Perhaps. I wish I had a set. I honestly think it might be the super nintendo's odd refresh rate. Since ps1 games and 240p ps2 games like mega man x collection work fine with out any slight screen jerk. I will try and explain what happens to the best of my ability. I don't have a way of showing it off hand. The screen looks perfectly when using snes but the screen acts like it loses sync for a second every 5 or so seconds.

[Fudoh]

I'll have the unit on monday and will report back

[EpicDave]

I'll have the unit on monday and will report back

awesome! You are the man fudoh! I look forward to your findings.

[Gunstar]

I have the blue box version of this and the picture quality is really good but I noticed some detail loss in the shadows, looks like black crush. At first I was seeing how it performed on a pc crt with a simple hdmi>vga but then checked without the adaptor on various other tvs and it's definitely the box which has this issue. The brightness beats out the Mayflash/Garo as well as the colour saturation looking more correct (comparing against a consumer crt via RGB) and it holds sync on bright whites when using the wii, just a shame that it crushes details slightly in the shadows.

[EpicDave]

I have the blue box version of this and the picture quality is really good but I noticed some detail loss in the shadows, looks like black crush. At first I was seeing how it performed on a pc crt with a simple hdmi>vga but then checked without the adaptor on various other tvs and it's definitely the box which has this issue. The brightness beats out the Mayflash/Garo as well as the colour saturation looking more correct (comparing against a consumer crt via RGB) and it holds sync on bright whites when using the wii, just a shame that it crushes details slightly in the shadows.

I have both and I havent really seen any issue with the gold box regarding that tho im no expert on the subject.

[Fudoh]

I have the blue box version of this and the picture quality is really good but I noticed some detail loss in the shadows, looks like black crush. At first I was seeing how it performed on a pc crt with a simple hdmi > vga but then checked without the adaptor on various other tvs and it's definitely the box which has this issue.

I'm using the black/blue box on a regular basis and really haven't noticed anything like this. Maybe that's a color range issue?

And earlier today I got the upscaling version.

Positive:

- it's indeed quite fast, even with interlaced material. I didn't measure the unit, but it seems faster than the common Scart to HDMI converters I've tried. Didn't feel slower than a Framemeister.

- as long as the game doesn't move, the results are quite OK.

Negative: everything else

- the deinterlacing isn't any good. Looks to me as the same deinterlacing engine used on the usual Scart to HDMI boxes.
- 240p and 480i get treated the same and are both deinterlaced.
- forced 16:9 ratio.
- with 480p from a PS2 I get a severe chroma delay (might look better with Cube or XBox).

[Gunstar]

It's possible that the one I'm using is defective.

DKR is my go to for testing black levels, does anyone have a copy to check against?

All shots taken at max brightness to make sure it's not just a case of it being too dark.

The texture trim on the first level should usually be visible.


The cave at the start is also another good place to check detail, in the back you can see the entire support strut and the texture on the barrel is nicely resolved.

I've checked on various monitors (these are PC CRT pics) and also did a hdmi cable swap but the crush was still evident. I have one more check to make which is the portta output to a flatscreen tv. I also need to switch back the Wii 240p test suite to 480p so I can do a check with that.

[Fudoh]

It's possible that the one I'm using is defective.

i don't doubt that there are plenty of different versions of the box out there (by different OEM brands). Thanks for the pictures! I'll pay extra attention the next time I'm using the box.

[Gunstar]

Here's the 240p test suite grey ramp screen:

The whites look fine but there's some clipping at the black range on the portta. Also checked Halo CE on the xbox just in case there was something going on with the Wii's signal not playing nice with the portta.

I opened this up and found that it's using the Macro Silicon MS9282 chip which is interestingly enough the same one used in some of the better Wii2HDMI adaptors.