OSSC Pro

[DirkSwizzler]

Looks marvelous! Lack of 4K output in the initial hardware release is my only real complaint - that's my Number One Most Wanted feature in a new upscaler, and I'd happily pay more for it.

That said, if the new OSSC can handle the jittery sync that a few of my arcade boards put out so that I can finally sell off my Framemeister, I'll be happy.

I'm sure it's doable now, but I think the kind of FPGA that would make a 4K scaler feasible is still too expensive to make a 4K-capable OSSC a viable product.

Agreed. Obviously there's an R&D cost and a production cost.

I have no idea what the R&D cost would be, but I'd be interested in a Kickstarter to fund that.
And just wildly throwing per-unit cost interest around. I'd definitely be in for buying a unit at or below $400. And probably be in for up to double that if it were a compelling enough experience somehow.

[ApolloBoy]

Still no composite or S-video inputs? I know the Koryuu is around the bend but this is still disappointing IMO.

[NormalFish]

looks good to me. Will be interested to see how the deinterlacing options work. Not sure I'll be an early adopter, though. The base OSSC is still doing everything I need it to.

Oh, couple potential things to consider for Marqs.
1. The PSP is a pain in the ass to display from due to its letterboxing. the Framemeister handles this well with a PSP-specific mode. Something similar for the OSSC would be nice. Not sure what the technical options would be.
2. This may have changed since the original run, but my OSSC is so light that it is near impossible to make it lay flat, as the DVI and scart cables just pull one side downwards. Some sort of weight at the bottom of the construction would make the whole unit feel a lot more solid and look nicer on a desk.

[bobrocks95]

It's interesting that it'll have an HDMI input, what were the rationales/projections behind it?

Offhand the following possibilities come to mind:

- ability to scale an existing HDMI signal to circumvent subpar scaling the sink would do
- ability to have the device connected in-line at all times in case your source is HDMI
- HDMI audio extraction/muxing
- video muxing/picture-in-picture

- ability to scale an existing HDMI signal to circumvent subpar scaling the sink would do

that's huge, most TVs do absolutely disgusting scaling

My HDMI GameCube went from the best-looking console in my setup on an EDTV plasma to the worst looking on a 4K OLED + OSSC. All my other 480p consoles are razer sharp at 960p with the OSSC, while the TV turns 480p into vaseline.

[6t8k]

I think the only remaining wishlist item would be some form of serial or ethernet control/config, which could possibly be accomplished by a GPIO expansion...

Onboard Ethernet would be killer; it would open the door for web-based management (configure and back up your profiles directly on the device), online firmware updates, and remote control with a REST API.

That shouldn't be a problem to implement using a small extension board such as this one for example: ENC28J60 Ethernet Module

Still no composite or S-video inputs? I know the Koryuu is around the bend but this is still disappointing IMO.

2x20 pin GPIO connector for future expansion possibilities such as:
* composite & s-video input module
[...]

[Fudoh]

nice to see the project progress! Gratulations!

It almost feels like the end of a very long journey. It's been 18 or 19 years now since I got my first video processor and I can't even count the machines I've been through since. It's highly enjoyable that actually nothing comes to mind to add to a feature list like that.

With enough FPGA gates and ram available all the small features one could wish for should easily be doable once the important stuff's running. I'm thinking of gimmicks like barrel distortation or loading additional test patterns from SD card. I would love to see moving test patterns, like a scrolling bar that's synchronized to the output refresh rate.

For the HDMI input I'm hoping for a restore function to fix bad scaling on other HDMI sources in order to remove shimmer and other artefacts. As in removing the horizontally doubled pixels, restoring the original horizontal resolutions and properly rescaling it. Will be fun

[XtraSmiley]

Is the only output still HDMI? Any chance of getting maybe component or RGB out?

[Dochartaigh]

This looks amazing. Honestly, I can only comprehend like a third of what you're saying it will be able to do with all these features, but still, a LOT so far seems like things I could definitely put to great use!

I'm half way sure it already sounds like it can do a lot of the below, and others have already mentioned some of these as well, but I'll list my dream (probably unrealistic) wishlist anyway:

• 480i to 480p+
• 480i to 240p
• every type of signal (<1080p) to 240p lol
• 480p to 1080p/4K still needs some love. I don't know if it's filters (eww) or what, but it's still pretty nasty on a 1080p/4k set, even with supplementary scalers like Extron DSC 301 HD, DVDO's, etc.
• CV/YC inputs!
• Transcoder with scaling or just passthrough conversion (YPbPr> RGBS, RGBS > YPbPr, CV>RGBS, RGBS>CV, YC>RGBS) -- this would literally get rid of my ~20 different transcoders/converters, most of questionable age, NONE easily available to even find to buy, which I've been searching out for ~3 years now (and yes, I'm dreaming this can be used for digital AND analog uses fyi)
• Sync correction/rebuild w/ corrected passthrough (i.e. make any console work on any analog BVM CRT's by Sony, Ikegami, JVC, etc. ALL of which can have issues on certain consoles - that 'horizontal slices in the vertical sync block' problem)
• Dejitter for NES/SNES and whatever else needs it
• SEAMLESS 480i/240p switching
• I'm probably forgetting some...but literally just going through what my current equipment circa 2000ish does or even equipment I STILL can't find on eBay for sale all these years later because it's unobtanium


And my own personal pet peeve I've mentioned before is:

HAVE ALL THE PORTS ON THE BACK!!! pretty pretty please. Picture this: you're going to have a beautiful professional piece of video scaling equipment, most likely showcased in your living room, your den, or your office. It's the most amazing thing in there. Forget your Xbox One X or PS4 Pro, forget that DVDO VP 50 Pro you had to stalk eBay for 14 months to get and it STILL cost you $400+; forget your $3000 OLED TV, your Denon X6500, your Analogue Nt mini, Mega SG and/or Super Nt. Forget all those subpar toys - it's all about wowing your company with your awesome new OSSC PRO, which yes my clueless company, that is what is making the magic happen on the TV right now. Aren't you impressed? What? Your head feels like it's going to explode because that old video game system can't possibly be that crispy on that 75" flatscreen. It's impossible that those 20-30+ year old retro video games can be made to look this brand new with pixels as sharp as a razor. Mind. Blown.

You're then going to point to this mindblowing piece of electrical genius...and it's going to look like a friggin frankenstein DIY project. You're going to have at the very least a big old non-bendable, non-hideable, HUGE (by today's plug/connection standards) SCART cable sticking right out the side of it in plain view. Most likely we'll start using the other 2x ports on the side as well and there's going to be stuff sticking out from there too. All different color cables. Going in all sorts of weird directions (because you know high quality proper shielded cable doesn't like to bend). The OSSC PRO will probably be lifted off the shelf and all crooked because the wires attached to it weigh more than the actual scaler. It's going to look like a circuit board with a mess of wires sticking out of it like a giant floating spider ready to eat their young. It's going to be scarier than RE2.

OR, you could just put all the ports on the back and it can look nice and clean and REALLY professional, just like its namesake. lol. Yes, I'm being a pain in the ass (and hope at least one other person giggled at the above), but seriously. Pro equipment should at least attempt to be user friendly in regard to wire management, these things are most commonly prevalently displayed in our living room areas - the most used part of the house. At least have all the wires run out the back of it.

I have two OSSC's. The one on my server rack I finally found out if I sandwich it in a 1U space between two other pieces of equipment, then double side tape it so it stays pointed straight forward and doesn't rotate at least, then zip tie the SCART plug down (which always likes to come loose), I can at least make sure it stays put with everything plugged in. The one in my living room I literally hide in a drawer so my entertainment center looks at least half way believable that an adult lives there. Then when people want to play some games I'll then pull it out (cables are all there and ready, just pushed to the back of the shelf in the shadows) then plug in the all the wires and we play some games. It then goes back in the drawer afterwards.

[Fudoh]

Wanted to add one thing:

Markus and Matt: please at least make some calculations on the feasibility of a proper case. Personally I REALLY wouldn't mind to swallow a - let's say - $50 price increase over whatever the base price might be, in order to get a proper housing for the thing. Aluminum injection molding tools aren't this expensive.

[fandangos]

This is huge news!

I asked this on the regular ossc thread so I want to ask this here.

Is it possible for this pro model to take 240p@60hz and output 240p@120hz?

[Joe]

Marqs - great announcement and well done on the design. My question is how will this handle arcade JAMMA boards (e.g. RGB input and sync with higher voltages)? Will it attenuate and handle their various resolutions and sync okay? Thanks

[orange808]

So, what is the potential for this as an FPGA console? How does the hardware compare to the DE-10 and DE-10 Nano?

[Dochartaigh]

Wanted to add one thing:

Markus and Matt: please at least make some calculations on the feasibility of a proper case. Personally I REALLY wouldn't mind to swallow a - let's say - $50 price increase over whatever the base price might be, in order to get a proper housing for the thing. Aluminum injection molding tools aren't this expensive.

One half server rack width (9.5in/24cm), 1U tall (1.75"/4.44cm), is pretty standard size for professional scalers. I think people would be fine with it being larger even - if it's easier for your design/manufacturing process to spread the ports out left-to-right. The majority of these scalers/transcoders pictured below are roughly half width, 1U height:



And you can fit a TON of connections in that pretty small space. Just for an example, this is a TVOne Corio2 scaler - those are actually a little shy of the above dimensions but look at how many connections, of so many different types, they're able to fit in such a small area:

[Hao]

OhEmGeee

Sold.

I have a (possibly stupid) question, apologies if its already been answered and I just havent understood the terminaologym, but will this allow for automatic resolution switching (eg MD 320/256 games) so we dont need different profiles for the same system?

This is great news! Cant wait for the pre order!

[parodius]

That's some great news !

It's interesting that it'll have an HDMI input, what were the rationales/projections behind it?

There are more and more game systems HDMI mods that offer digital domain only signal output, in 240p. Apply whatever scaling you want after that via the OSSC Pro.

Is the only output still HDMI? Any chance of getting maybe component or RGB out?

It's been mentioned that analog output will be possible via a GPIO extension.

[XtraSmiley]

Is the only output still HDMI? Any chance of getting maybe component or RGB out?

It's been mentioned that analog output will be possible via a GPIO extension.

This is important for people who want to play arcade PCBs on CRT TVs, but can't get a sync with PCBs that are far out of sync, such as Mortal Kombat(s) and Raiden(s).

Awesome news!

[strayan]

Will it be able to do 720x2 or 480px3?

I’d pay a $100 premium for a good case too.

If it’s going to be able to do 960p in a 1080p frame I assume it could do 1280x720p in a 1360x768 frame or 640x480 in a 852x480 frame?

[_Spekkio_]

Is this something that could possibly support HDMI VRR? Many TVs are adding HDMI 2.1 to their newest models.

[bahamutfan64]

I'm very excited for more advanced deinterlacing options!

[Ikaruga11]

Will this have RGBS inputs and outputs? I was told to get an OSSC to change the aspect ratio of a NES and SNES from 4:3 to 8:7

[toadhall]

Holy shit the feature list. The possibilities! This is so exciting. 2020 is shaping up to be pretty good so far!

[GigaBoots]

Would it be possible to get a 240p 120Hz signal from component (e.g. - the GBi) to output in 1080p 120Hz? This would actually be incredible.

[2mg]

Guy in the backseats: "I've an old Pong and Magnavox Odyssey with RF only, what about me?"

[James-F]

I am most interested in how it's going to prevent sync drop between resolution changes ie on Genesis between 256x224 and 320x224,,, any other console between 240p and 480i.

[Drunk_Caterpillar]

I don't really have anything to add except that I'll be very excited to own one of these eventually. Apart from eventually wanting a 4K version, this seems like it'd essentially be perfect.

[Konsolkongen]

For the HDMI input I'm hoping for a restore function to fix bad scaling on other HDMI sources in order to remove shimmer and other artefacts. As in removing the horizontally doubled pixels, restoring the original horizontal resolutions and properly rescaling it. Will be fun

Holy shit, that would be its most killer feature! I've lost count on how many retro games I've immediately lost all interest in playing because the developers didn't scale them properly. This is really where 4K support on the OSSC Pro would be really nice so we didn't have to switch to 1080p on PS4 Pros, which is a bit of a hassle but nothing I wouldn't mind doing.

Any idea if the new deinterlacing method can rival that of the Framemeister?

Is there a low pass filter on the VGA input? So everything can be run through the same port from an Extron switch without visible noise.

[Fudoh]

What I like most about the integrated deinterlacing feature is that it's really the first device where this is open to enhancements. Everything so far was either fixed in silicon (ASICs like the ABT102 or traditional ICs like the Marvell) or manufacturers were/are hiding their altgorithms as best as they could/can (DVDO or Lumagen).

Here we can actually see the algorithm behind the deinterlacing and this lets us change the balance between weaving and doubling based on different conditions or requirements. The Marvell's deinterlacing (used in the FM) is still unbelievably good, but with good captures from selected sequences, it shouldn't be too hard to recreate the algorithms at work here.

Would it be possible to get a 240p 120Hz signal from component (e.g. - the GBi) to output in 1080p 120Hz? This would actually be incredible.

You can do anything that's inside the available HDMI bandwith. 1080p120 at 4:4:4 exceeds this, but lower resolution at 120Hz 4:4:4 should be fine. For 1080p120 Marqs would have to integrate YCbCr output.

[pcb_revival]

Over to you Micomsoft.

Actually I would like to see a box made by Micomsoft that this new device could be housed in.

[ldeveraux]

And just wildly throwing per-unit cost interest around. I'd definitely be in for buying a unit at or below $400. And probably be in for up to double that if it were a compelling enough experience somehow.

You'd pay $800 for the upgraded OSSC Pro? I wouldn't.

[BuckoA51]

Markus and Matt: please at least make some calculations on the feasibility of a proper case.

It's going to be the premium product (OSSC original will not be discontinued for some time) so will have a proper, finished case this time.