Questions that do not deserve a thread

[eightbitminiboss]

Does the Micomsoft X-Capture 1 work with native Intel USB 3.0 chipsets?

Yes, it works with Intel and NEC/Renesas USB 3.0 chipsets.

http://micomsoft.co.jp/xcapture-1_spec.htm

[Mishrak109]

Part of it was already having all of the equipment in order to stream via s-video, which is a bit more affordable than a full RGB capture setup. It was easier to restore the mini and at the time I had no aspirations of picking up an RGB monitor. I am going to try and pick up a PVM 205L this weekend and eventually I'll see how my older snes looks on it.

Aren't there some pretty cheap line-doublers out there you can use to convert 240p RGB from a SNES to 480p VGA or something?

How would that work? (serious question)

[Glossectomy]

Does the Micomsoft X-Capture 1 work with native Intel USB 3.0 chipsets?

Yes, it works with Intel and NEC/Renesas USB 3.0 chipsets.

http://micomsoft.co.jp/xcapture-1_spec.htm

Good to hear. I purchased one for $240 and didnt consider that until afterwards.

Thanks!

[Fudoh]

for RGB in particular it's not this easy.

For all linedoublers and upscalers available, check my page: http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/

With a RGB monitor you would usually use RGB from a SNES Mini into the Monitor. At the same time you can use a cheap RGB Scart to HDMI 720p upscaler to get a proper 720p60 signal, which you can then record with any USB live h.264 encoder (e.g. an Avermedia LGP portable lite).

This is about the only cheap RGB Scart to HDMI solution:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/391010807737

[eightbitminiboss]

Does the Micomsoft X-Capture 1 work with native Intel USB 3.0 chipsets?

Yes, it works with Intel and NEC/Renesas USB 3.0 chipsets.

http://micomsoft.co.jp/xcapture-1_spec.htm

Good to hear. I purchased one for $240 and didnt consider that until afterwards.

Thanks!

$240 is a killer deal for it and even if you didn't have the right chipset on your motherboard, you could have easily gotten an expansion card with the right chipset and still come out under it's normal price.

[12345]

Hi,

just a brief question:
If I use the Zoom function of my TV/xrgb to remove PAL boarders on 576i/p material, will I get a native, visible resolution of 480i/p or will this furhter decrease PQ?

Thanks!

On a CRT that would certainly be the case, but on digital display setups it seems that overscan introduces moire on certain patterns. It might not be that noticeable during usage though.

There really isn't any 576p on 6th gen consoles though, unless you are talking about forcing it with Swiss on GC or such.

Thanks, that's exactly what I'm talking about. I want to force MGS: Twin Snakes (PAL) to the best possible/feasable, progressive resolution but it nativly only supports 576i hence is not optimised for 480i. So from an aspect ratio point of view it always looks the same (small borders on top and bottom of the picture) no matter if I force 480p or 576p.
So going back to my initial question: Do you think forcing 576p over 480p will give me any benefit?

[Xan]

Ideally you'd really go for a progressive full NTSC setup, but I know that doesn't seem so feasible when you already have a decent collection of PAL GC games. The borders are obviously there because the game doesn't render at the full PAL resolution. I'm not familiar with the game, maybe it's like RE4 and renders not even at full NTSC resolution to save fillrate. So if 480p works properly without timing issues, that's easily the better choice. I'm not sure what the maximum possible res for PAL GC games is but on PSX for instance it's 256 lines instead of 288 or 512 instead of 576, and certainly not all games took advantage of even that little extra resolution compared to NTSC.

[12345]

Thanks a lot for the input. After checking a few gameplay videos I realized that the NTSC version seems to have the same borders as the PAL one, just like with RE4. So after forcing 480p in swiss both versions should be practically identical.

[Xan]

Just as a little curiosity, the Swiss compatibility list states RE4 as rendering in 512x448. Metroid Prime on the other hand has 640x448 in 60 Hz and 640x528 in 50 Hz, that's not something I was aware of.

[Ed Oscuro]

Does the Micomsoft X-Capture 1 work with native Intel USB 3.0 chipsets?

Yes, it works with Intel and NEC/Renesas USB 3.0 chipsets.

http://micomsoft.co.jp/xcapture-1_spec.htm

Good to hear. I purchased one for $240 and didnt consider that until afterwards.

Thanks!

Intel USB 3.0 is the better solution anyway. The reason many Intel chipset boards have third-party USB 3.0 hardware is because Intel didn't have its own solution for a long while.

[Sixfortyfive]

Why isn't USB 3.0 as "universal" as its predecessors, anyway? It seems to have more compatibility issues.

[beatsgo]

Why isn't USB 3.0 as "universal" as its predecessors, anyway? It seems to have more compatibility issues.

In theory, there should not be a problem at the hardware level. However, there may be a problem with the drivers or the underlying controller for the ports.

To determine if this is a hardware or software problem, try booting into a Linux live CD and see if USB 2.0 devices work in the USB 3.0 ports. If they do work, the problem is in the drivers. If not, the problem is in the hardware.

Legacy support in the BIOS only applies to systems that do not natively support USB in general. When this setting is enabled, the BIOS attempts to provide a compatibility layer for very old operating systems such as Windows 95 or MS-DOS, so that storage devices attached to these ports can be used (probably with some restrictions such as no hot-plugging). I'm not sure about this, but USB 3.0 legacy support setting is probably to allow USB 3.0 devices on such operating systems to communicate at USB 3.0 speeds. An operating system that supports USB should not be affected by these settings, as they can communicate with the USB hub controllers directly without having to rely on the BIOS.

Source

[Ed Oscuro]

Additionally, $$. It just wasn't a priority for vendors as market uptake was apparently slow at the outset. I think that USB long ago reached its primary goal - an easy way to connect things - and people who need USB 3 speed (or even USB 2 speeds) are in the minority.

[tacoguy64]

I've been looking around for a long time around the web on about cleaning old game cartridges pins and labels. After a while I found so many "best way to clean videos" im not sure what really is the best method. So my question is what is the consensus best method around here?

I like this one but i am unsure about the brasso
http://retrorgb.com/cleangames.html

[beatsgo]

Brasso should be decent at removing tarnishes on edge connectors, though I don't think it will remove all of it. Just make sure to remove all the residue afterwards.

[Mishrak109]

Two questions:

1) If I'm buying just a standard component video (w/o audio) cable, is there really any reason to spend more than $5 on it? I see some "higher quality" ones on Amazon for $10 and $11 and I'm just wondering if that quality improvement will matter.

2) What's the deal with gold plated RCA -> BNC adapters? Do they provide any noticeable increase in quality output over non-gold plated adapters?

[beatsgo]

Two questions:

1) If I'm buying just a standard component video (w/o audio) cable, is there really any reason to spend more than $5 on it? I see some "higher quality" ones on Amazon for $10 and $11 and I'm just wondering if that quality improvement will matter.

2) What's the deal with gold plated RCA -> BNC adapters? Do they provide any noticeable increase in quality output over non-gold plated adapters?

2) Nothing, it just there to protect the contact point underneath the plating.

[BazookaBen]

1) If I'm buying just a standard component video (w/o audio) cable, is there really any reason to spend more than $5 on it? I see some "higher quality" ones on Amazon for $10 and $11 and I'm just wondering if that quality improvement will matter.

For the most part, no. Especially since the cable runs are so short.

Durability is an issue though. If you get the cheapest of the cheap, the internal wire might eventually break because it's so thin. Honestly, you could probably find some used Monster video cables on ebay for pretty damn cheap. I would go with that, the build quality is usually pretty good.

[HDgaming42]

So ages ago I ripped all my PS2 games to my PC, and I believe I used Winhiip to transfer them over to a HDD for use in my PS2.

I ran out of room on my PC not soon afterward and deleted the original rips.

Now I'd like to be able to snag those games back and try them in an emulator. Is it as simple as hooking the drive up to the PC and using some software to pull them back? What software would that be?

My initial research doesn't look promising--like it is a one way journey. Please enlighten me.

And if it *is* impossible, what is the best software nowadays to re-rip my collection? Imgburn sufficient? Or will later-era copy protected games give it grief?

[BazookaBen]

Don't know if Winhiip works in reverse.

It's been a while since I ripped an ISO, you should just rip the ISO with ImgBurn and see what happens. I'm sure there are plenty of FAQ's on the emulator sites

[Xyga]

On the pcsx2 forums they say "Just rip with ImgBurn. Done." with no further recommendation...

[BuckoA51]

Now I'd like to be able to snag those games back and try them in an emulator. Is it as simple as hooking the drive up to the PC and using some software to pull them back? What software would that be?

It's been a while since I tried but I'm sure HDLDump and/or HDLDumb can do this.

[andykara2003]

Hi, can anyone tell me the difference between a PVM-20M2U, a PVM-20M2MDU and a PVM-20L2U?

I'm looking into late produced (post 2000) 20" 600 line PVMs for a specific look - are there any other's I've missed?

Cheers..

[Xan]

L-series is newer. The medical monitor has two component/RGB inputs instead of one.

[BazookaBen]

Both the M2 and the L2 have 2 RGB inputs, but one on the L2 is removable. I guess you can swap for SDI or something.

They're both really similar, but the M2 syncs better with fake-240p from my Extron RGB. That probably varies between Extron's though. The L2 technically came later than the M2, but I recently purchased an Olympus OEV203 that is a rebranded M2, and it was manufactured in 2004, well after the L2 had already been introduced.

So, from my limited experience, the L2 didn't really introduce any features that make it superior to the M2, though there may be someone out with information to the contrary.

[Xan]

Both the M2 and the L2 have 2 RGB inputs

Nope, that's definitely not correct. Where are you seeing two RGB inputs here? http://www.hyperactivebroadcast.com/pub ... Rental.jpg

[BazookaBen]

Both the M2 and the L2 have 2 RGB inputs

Nope, that's definitely not correct. Where are you seeing two RGB inputs here? http://www.hyperactivebroadcast.com/pub ... Rental.jpg

Oh, there must be a difference between the M2U and the M2MDU. I have two 20M2MDU's, and they have 2 RGB inputs:

[Xan]

Hence what I said in my initial reply...

What's interesting: I have a PVM-1453MD, so one line older than the M-series, and it's actually HR Trinitron branded with 600 TVL. The M-series medical monitors have 600 TVL as well, but they have the lower grade P-22 phosphors instead of the SMPTE-C ones on mine... seems like a downgrade, unless they maybe figured the P-22 phosphors to be somehow better suited to medical tasks. They are more geared for light output than color accuracy, as far as I know.

[BazookaBen]

Wait, were some PVM's specifically marketed for the medical field while others were marketed for other applications (broadcasting, etc.)?

What's interesting: I have a PVM-1453MD, so one line older than the M-series, and it's actually HR Trinitron branded with 600 TVL. The M-series medical monitors have 600 TVL as well, but they have the lower grade P-22 phosphors instead of the SMPTE-C ones on mine... seems like a downgrade, unless they maybe figured the P-22 phosphors to be somehow better suited to medical tasks. They are more geared for light output than color accuracy, as far as I know.

Man, I hope not. I have two 20M2MDU's and one 20L2MD. Do the 20L2MD's have the P-22 as well? Have there been side by side tests to see if there is a noticeable difference in color accuracy between the P-22 and SMPTE-C? My monitors are pretty damn bright, I keep the contrast knob pretty low.

[andykara2003]

Thanks guys. Would you say that the scanline prominence of these 600 line 20" PVMs lie about mid way between a 20" 900/1000 line BVM and a 20" consumer Trinitron or do they lean more towards the BVM in that regard?