240p test suite for DC,PCE,Wii,SNES,GC,MD and SCD

[Xan]

Am I the only one who only gets a black screen with the latest 1.02 SNES version? Also, any release notes available?

Edit: the ROM works in an emulator, so not sure what the deal is. I use a Super Famicom and Super Everdrive v2, for reference.

[22point8]

The Wii version is all red for me, (PAL Wii/ official SCART Cable 480i in the wii main menu). Also, the IRE windows would be more useful if they were smaller (5-10% area) so they don't give distorted measurements on plasma (ABL) with a colorimeter. Also 5-10% size windows for Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, Magenta, White at 100IRE and some saturation sweeps for each colour (0/25/50/75/100IRE). Also this pattern might be handy for anyone taking a picture of their screen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColorChecker.

[Artemio]

Am I the only one who only gets a black screen with the latest 1.02 SNES version? Also, any release notes available?

Edit: the ROM works in an emulator, so not sure what the deal is. I use a Super Famicom and Super Everdrive v2, for reference.

Sorry for taking so long to reply, but I wanted to get home and test everything. I just downloaded the 1.02 release from sourceforge and tested it in my setup, it works alright. However, I might have the solution to your issue. I've found that behaviour with the everdrive If you just overwrite the file from windows. Try deleting it first, and then copying it. That fixed it for me in the past.

Regarding release notes, Sorry I didn't include them in the zip file. They do exist, but are in the SVN with the code. The differences between 1.01 and 1.02 are:

- Faster GfX DMA transfers
- The PLUGE now defaults to a custom one, it displays the inner bars at the lowest luminance color the snes can output, blue. This way you can make sure you never get crushed colors.

The Wii version is all red for me, (PAL Wii/ official SCART Cable 480i in the wii main menu).

I though we had that figured out during testing. Did you change the resolution to a PAL one instead of NTSC? What cable does teh suite report on the bottom left screen? Which version of the suite is it?

Also, the IRE windows would be more useful if they were smaller (5-10% area) so they don't give distorted measurements on plasma (ABL) with a colorimeter.

You mean making them 5 o 10% smaller than they are, or are you stating a percentage fo the full screen area?

Also 5-10% size windows for Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan, Magenta, White at 100IRE and some saturation sweeps for each colour (0/25/50/75/100IRE).

This is doable, but I'd ask the same as for the above point. I can get my hands on a colorimeter to test.

Also this pattern might be handy for anyone taking a picture of their screen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColorChecker.

I'll look into it. Thanks for the suggestions.

[niall]

holy crap I come back to thank you for the SNES version, and now PC Engine THANKYOU!

[Artemio]

holy crap I come back to thank you for the SNES version, and now PC Engine THANKYOU!

Thanks for taking the time to comment about it, it is always a pleasure knowing others find it useful.

[22point8]

I mean 5-10% of screen area. I'll check what my wii says later.

EDIT

It was version 1.3, I thought I had updated it but I must have put the updated version in the wrong folder, it works fine now, the old version said 'composite' for some reason.

Do you have a PVM 2044QM? Thats what it looks like from a previous post, that's the one I've got, the green gain control doesn't seem to work so to get a decent greyscale (less than 3 deltaE) i have to have contrast at one exact setting.

[Xan]

Sorry for taking so long to reply, but I wanted to get home and test everything. I just downloaded the 1.02 release from sourceforge and tested it in my setup, it works alright. However, I might have the solution to your issue. I've found that behaviour with the everdrive If you just overwrite the file from windows. Try deleting it first, and then copying it. That fixed it for me in the past.

Thanks, as you said it's likely an issue with the Everdrive. Actually not even deleting the old file and extracting the new one from the archive worked for me, I had to extract it on my drive and copy it onto the SD card from there.

[XC-3730C]

Will there be an NES version?

[Artemio]

Will there be an NES version?

I don't have a flash cart to develop yet, but when I get one I'll probably want to make it as well.

[Jademalo]

The Wii version is all red for me, (PAL Wii/ official SCART Cable 480i in the wii main menu).

I though we had that figured out during testing. Did you change the resolution to a PAL one instead of NTSC? What cable does teh suite report on the bottom left screen? Which version of the suite is it?

I know this one!
An NTSC Wii can't output RGB scart, and instead outputs S-Video. The red screen is a result of S-Video output being put into an RGB input. When running this, I assume it puts the Wii in US Graphic modes. That's the reason for the issue (And why I just use component, lol)


Anyway, I have a bug to report. The 288p grid test pattern is misaligned compared to how the Wii actually does it's 50hz mode. If I align everything perfectly with this grid, the actual Wii graphics are off the bottom of the screen, with a big black space at the top.
I know of a way to get the measurement right though - when in 288p mode and having configured using the grid, the main menu of this app is perfectly centred. If you align the top of the blue with the top of the monitor, then the Wii's main menu and games etc all align properly. I assume this is just some weird thing to do with how PAL works. But yeah, essentially the grid is ~24 lines too high.

[Einzelherz]

Out of curiosity, was a PS2 version ever worked on? I'd love to be able to use the same software/tools to try and figure out why they appear to output different 240p feeds.

[RocketBelt]

It should be possible to run the megadrive version in an emulator on the ps2 with the screen options set to 240p or 288p. I think that picodrive will also let you set higher resolution interlaced and progressive screen modes as well but I don't know how useful that would be.

[Einzelherz]

That wouldn't be ideal. My TV acts strange with all 240p sources except SMS, GEN/MD, and PS2 which is peculiar and what I'm curious to diagnose.

[Artemio]

Anyway, I have a bug to report. The 288p grid test pattern is misaligned compared to how the Wii actually does it's 50hz mode. If I align everything perfectly with this grid, the actual Wii graphics are off the bottom of the screen, with a big black space at the top.
I know of a way to get the measurement right though - when in 288p mode and having configured using the grid, the main menu of this app is perfectly centred. If you align the top of the blue with the top of the monitor, then the Wii's main menu and games etc all align properly. I assume this is just some weird thing to do with how PAL works. But yeah, essentially the grid is ~24 lines too high.

I am sorry I wasn't able to respond earlier, but I was away for the holidays. I'll check it out today and report back later.

EDIT: What is your setting in Options->PAL Starting Line? The default is centered. You should also try playing with Enable PAL background and even Stretch to full 288 and let me know you results. The 24 line offset you describe is expected in some modes. Since I don't have a PAL machine I can't tell what the default alignments are in the menu, but can display it in my PVM without overscan to check all combinations and make the default one match with the wii.

Out of curiosity, was a PS2 version ever worked on? I'd love to be able to use the same software/tools to try and figure out why they appear to output different 240p feeds.

Unfortunately, no I haven't worked on a PS2 version yet. I'd love to do it, but I need to do research on SDKs.

[lev11]

I've got latest version, GameCube-240pSuite-1.7.dol, and the audio test seems reversed, (or the red (right) and left (white) on the official composite cable are wrong way round). Anyone know a GC game that I can simply test for left and right audio to compare?

Edit: Nevermind, it was my audio switch box, the 3.5mm input jack was wired wrong internally and I used that as my control sample.
p.s. the Wii version is still ok too on audio

[Einzelherz]

Is there any way to have a 480p scaled without scanlines? When I try to use my auto calibration on this resolution (Wii) it errors out and I wonder if it's due to the simulated scanlines. It's a silly request, but it just seemed odd that it isn't an option.

[Artemio]

Is there any way to have a 480p scaled without scanlines? When I try to use my auto calibration on this resolution (Wii) it errors out and I wonder if it's due to the simulated scanlines. It's a silly request, but it just seemed odd that it isn't an option.

It is an option, you can change scanline intensity insert options. Just reduce it to zero.

[Einzelherz]

Is there any way to have a 480p scaled without scanlines? When I try to use my auto calibration on this resolution (Wii) it errors out and I wonder if it's due to the simulated scanlines. It's a silly request, but it just seemed odd that it isn't an option.

It is an option, you can change scanline intensity insert options. Just reduce it to zero.

Fantastic! I didn't notice this

[HiroWorship]

Artemio, thank you very much for this amazing software suite! Getting everything set up to calibrate my Sony consumer and BVM sets over RGB.

One quick question - do you have a preferred CD burning program for windows that you recommend for this?
I used ImgBurn successfully for the Dreamcast .cdi version but it was unable to burn the PC Engine SuperCDROM2 version properly (even though the .cue file looks perfectly fine).

Any suggestions on you have on burning software would be much appreciated (preferably freeware).
Also, any way to donate via PayPal for the time you've spend on this lovely program?

[Artemio]

Artemio, thank you very much for this amazing software suite! Getting everything set up to calibrate my Sony consumer and BVM sets over RGB.

I am really glad to hear that, thanks for mentioning it and giving feedback.

One quick question - do you have a preferred CD burning program for windows that you recommend for this?
I used ImgBurn successfully for the Dreamcast .cdi version but it was unable to burn the PC Engine SuperCDROM2 version properly (even though the .cue file looks perfectly fine).
Any suggestions on you have on burning software would be much appreciated (preferably freeware).

I've used ImgBurn in the past without issues for the PCE SCD2 version. Are you getting an error? Maybe I can help if there is some output from ImgBurn.

Also, any way to donate via PayPal for the time you've spend on this lovely program?

Thanks a lot for the offer. Since I started using the net in the mid 90s I've learnt a lot from what other people have shared here. I feel this is a small way of repaying with something, and that is also the reason the source code is under GPL/open source/free. You offering it and your feedback is more than enough for me. Thanks a lot.

[HiroWorship]

Hi Artemio,

Thanks very much for the quick reply!
I really do appreciate all of the work that you have done to help this community.
Please accept my gratitude!

I tried to burn the PCE SCD2 version using ImgBurn again - here is the error log I got:

I 17:27:33 ImgBurn Version 2.5.8.0 started!
I 17:27:33 Microsoft Windows 8 Professional x64 Edition (6.2, Build 9200)
I 17:27:33 Total Physical Memory: 8,386,608 KiB - Available: 6,324,984 KiB
I 17:27:33 Initialising SPTI...
I 17:27:33 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...
I 17:27:33 -> Drive 1 - Info: PIONEER BD-RW BDR-205 1.12-ID43 (D:) (SATA)
I 17:27:33 Found 1 BD-RE!
I 17:28:15 Operation Started!
I 17:28:15 Source File: C:\Users\gaiji\Desktop\240p\240pSuite_1.0_SuperCDROM\240pSuite.cue
I 17:28:15 Source File Sectors: 917 (AUDIO/2352)
I 17:28:15 Source File Size: 1,951,584 bytes
I 17:28:15 Source File File System(s): None
I 17:28:15 Destination Device: [0:0:0] PIONEER BD-RW BDR-205 1.12 (D:) (SATA)
I 17:28:15 Destination Media Type: CD-R (Disc ID: 97m26s66f, CMC Magnetics Corp.)
I 17:28:15 Destination Media Supported Write Speeds: 4x, 10x, 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x
I 17:28:15 Destination Media Sectors: 359,844
I 17:28:15 Write Mode: CD
I 17:28:16 Write Type: SAO
I 17:28:16 Write Speed: 4x
I 17:28:16 Lock Volume: Yes
I 17:28:16 Test Mode: No
I 17:28:16 OPC: No
I 17:28:16 BURN-Proof: Enabled
I 17:28:16 Write Speed Successfully Set! - Effective: 706 KB/s (4x)
I 17:28:16 Advanced Settings - Optimal Writing Speed: No
E 17:28:17 Failed to send Cue Sheet!
E 17:28:17 Reason: Invalid Field in Parameter List
E 17:28:21 Operation Failed! - Duration: 00:00:05
I 17:28:21 Average Write Rate: N/A - Maximum Write Rate: N/A

I've done some searches online but have not been able to come up with a solution.
I also tried TAO (track-at-once) burning, which started burning but failed during the burn.
If you have any thoughts that would be very much appreciated!

Thank so much for your help!

[Artemio]

There is indeed little information regarding the issue you are experiencing.

I just burned the image myself from the zip, and it worked as it always had. However, I ripped it back again with Turbo Rip and here is teh resulting zip. There is very little difference in the resulting files, but it might be a start.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/140 ... rboRIP.zip

Let me know how it goes, and if it doesn't work w can try creating a bin/cue or even a clone cd image and chekc that out.

[HiroWorship]

Artemio,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I used the new rip that you provided in your previous post (thank you very much for that!), but unfortunately I got the same error as I reported before.
I also tried using ImgBurn to create the .cue from scratch (which ended up almost exactly the same as your original) but that didn't work either.

I'm sorry for the trouble but if you have any other suggestions I would really appreciate it.
I use my Duo RX a lot and would like to get your suite working on it if I can.

Best wishes,
Hiro

[TheShadowRunner]

Hiro, I see 2 potential issues.
1. I 17:28:15 Destination Media Type: CD-R (Disc ID: 97m26s66f, CMC Magnetics Corp.)
CMC Magnetics are possibly the worst type of CD-R blanks available.
Try to get some Verbatim (MCC / Manufactured in Singapore) or some Taiyo Yuden (Manufactured in Japan) blank CD-Rs instead.
2. I 17:28:16 Write Type: SAO
Session At Once burning mode leaves the disk 'open' for further writing. It is quite possibly the culprit here.
You want to burn in DAO or RAW DAO (best) mode. It would be very surprising your PIONEER BD-RW BDR-205 couldn't write at least in DAO mode.

Maybe Lightning UK! the author of IMGburn needs to enable DAO mode for this recent BDR-205.. latest IMGBurn release is from 2013 I believe..
You could also try burning with Alcohol 120% using the PlayStation profile, it will force the drive to burn in RAW DAO mode (again if your Pioneer supports it) or at least fall back to DAO mode.

[HiroWorship]

Thanks The ShadowRunner!
I'll give those suggestions a try.

I didn't realize the blanks were that bad (TDK brand) so I'll try to find some Taiyo Yuden blanks - I'm sure I can find some locally.
I also appreciate the DAO/RAW DAO suggestion - I figured that might have something to to with it.
I tried Track-At-Once but that didn't work so I'll see if I can get DAO to work on the Pioneer using either ImgBurn or Alcohol 120% as per your suggestion.

After I've tried all that I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Thanks again very much for the help!

-Hiro

[HiroWorship]

Success!!

Got the Taiyo Yuden blanks on the way home from work and tried again with ImgBurn - no luck.
So I grabbed the free version of Alcohol 120%, set it to RAW DAO and eureka!
Everything works fine (the suite booted up on the Duo RX with no problems).

Thanks so much to Artemio for the help (and for making this awesome utility!) and to the TheShadowRunner for the suggestions!

Now time to calibrate my CRTs!!

Artemio, one last quick question - knowing that all of the different retro consoles have different display areas and overscan quirks, what would be the one single system that you would choose to calibrate to for a monitor with fixed settings? (service menu tweaks)
Just curious for your opinion.

Thanks again guys!!

-Hiro

[Artemio]

It's great to hear it has finally worked for you. Thanks for your TheShadowRunner.

Artemio, one last quick question - knowing that all of the different retro consoles have different display areas and overscan quirks, what would be the one single system that you would choose to calibrate to for a monitor with fixed settings? (service menu tweaks)
Just curious for your opinion.

It is of course a matter of personal choice, but I use the PCE and Wii versions for general settings, since they use the whole 320x240 and the 512 horizontal resolution (PCE). That leaves borders in 224 resolutions, but those I consider part of teh signal itself; just as scanlines.

[TheShadowRunner]

You're welcome, glad it worked ;)

[HiroWorship]

Artemio, thanks for your opinion.
I'll use the PCE version as a baseline and tweak from there.

Thanks again guys for all of the help!

-Hiro

[akumajo]

hi

I finally did the lag test with Dreamcast and Microphone...
Result is 6 frames. How accurate is this test ?

LCD tested is BENQ XL2420T and have 13ms input lag (SMTT 2.0).
chain is Dreamcast > VGA Box > Benq