Even vs odd scanlines: should we care?

[Triple Lei]

A simple yes or no will do, but if you guys want some more meat to this post...


I just got a T-SLG scanline generator from Toodles and I'm freaking loving it (well actually I got it a few days ago but realized I needed a VGA M/M gender changer too ). Don't know why it took me so long; I've had an HDfury3 for years but I put it away when I found a better HDCP workaround for video capture. I guess between phonedork's vids and Fudoh's masterful write-ups it just suddenly clicked that I basically do have the setup and I don't have to wait for some HDMI scanline generator that will never come.

On PS2 through component:

Einhander... nice.

Mega Man 4 (through It Might Be NES)... very nice. (And satisfied my NES scanline appetite enough that any NES modwork was pushed down my priority list, yet again...)

Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou... just incredible. Makes me miss my cab a whole lot less. No worries about geometry but I still get to have my sprites look, as one of our own put it, "like they have been passed through a bread slicer."

And my chain:

1. console
2. DVDO Edge
3. yadda yadda some HDCP workaround (don't want too many people to know even though it's widely documented)
4. capture card input (Intensity Pro)
5. capture card pass through (HDMI)
6. HDfury3 (have to change the switch in the back from component to VGA, of course)
7. T-SLG (wide scanlines)
8. monitor

[muckyfingers]

Yes and no, lol.

I've noticed a difference in a couple of games, such as Marvel vs Capcom 2 on the Dreamcast. I forget which is which setting, but with one setting the name in the life bar becomes truncated and isn't very legible, flip the switch to the other scanlines become active the names become legible and looks proper. For general playing I haven't noticed a difference.

[Fudoh]

What output resolution are you using from your EDGE ? With 720p or 1080i/p your setup hardly produces correctly aligned scanlines, so even/odd doesn't matter.

With correctly aligned scanlines, it matters depending on the linedoubler you're using. You want the scanlines to cover the interpolated lines, not the original ones.

[Triple Lei]

I have my Edge output 720p. Also I'm using the zoom and pan functions of the Edge so Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou and Espgaluda fit neatly within 4:3 using the game's tate mode (not tatehosei), and I know that's not "correct." (It'll take me some work to figure out those games' original, stupidly long aspect ratios and incorporate them correctly into 16:9 with the Edge, but that's another post.)

And I thought scanlines varied from CRT to CRT anyway. Why else would BVMs in particular be known for thick scanlines?

[Fudoh]

They vary in their look, but the alignment is fixed. You get exactly ONE "dark" line for EACH active line of pixels.

With 720p output from the Edge you get 360 scanlines with standard scanlines (or 180 with "wide" scanlines), while you're supposed to get 240p. The double scanlines are supposed to be used with 960p resolutions on CRTs.

If your Intensity supports 480p passthrough, try setting the Edge to 480p output, which gives you proper scanlines using the T-SLG. On games originally running in 224p (Daioujou?) you also must not use any scaling.

Also these games have proper 4:3 aspect ratios. They just don't use square pixels.

[Triple Lei]

I got around to trying 480p with my Intensity Pro capture card (it's listed as "NTSC Progressive"). Initially I was concerned because the capture preview was 720x486 (or at least not widescreen), but the original 16:9 picture does pass through to my monitor properly. I do have to toggle the V-sync switch on the T-SLG though.

I grabbed some screens with my phone.

Setup:
PS3: 720p
Ketsui in-game: Over Scan: 100% / Aspect ratio: 16:9 / Smoothing: N. Neighbor

480p


720p, Thin


720p, Wide



For PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast I still plan on cropping out the overscan. Not sure what that means for even and odd scanlines again when the T-SLG is right before the monitor. Oh well... looks good enough to me anyway.

By the way, all this stretching and resolution switching with the DVDO Edge is a lot easier with discrete codes! I'm using my hacked PSP-1000 and a program some guy made (IRgen). Great for instantly resizing PSP games too...