Questions that do not deserve a thread

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thebigcheese
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by thebigcheese »

When the CoreGrafx is plugged into an IFU, does it still output sound of its own jack? I am looking to do an RGB mod wherein RGB is taken from the CoreGrafx and only audio is taken from the IFU. In this case, the cable would split between the DIN connector and the RCA jacks. On the extreme off chance that I want to use the CoreGrafx by itself, it would be handy if I could still have audio connected to the DIN plug on the cable, but something tells me that audio is output from there and the IFU at the same time, which would result in some rather poor levels. I could mod the IFU instead, but the nice thing about this way is I understand the IFU to be more prone to video noise when RGB modded (hence grabbing at the source instead) and I also don't have to drill any extra holes, so it's a little more stock in appearance.
Galgomite
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Galgomite »

I'm setting up my DVDO Edge with a new display, in this case a projector. Since my projector is so slow to sync up with an input, I'd like for the projector to never lose an image (during, say, a switch from 240p to 480i). Shouldn't the edge be able to output a constant, 1080p 59.976, regardless of input changes, and never cause my display to lose sync?
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Fudoh
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Fudoh »

Yes, the Core Grafx does still output audio on its own.

And no, I think it's actually OK to output from both at the same time. Many many years ago I experimented with this a lot and I used an external audio mixer to change the balance between the various audio sources. You get chip audio from the Core Grafx and straight CD audio from the CD-Rom's headphone jack, while you get a mix of these two PLUS the additional ADPCM audio (used for voice on some games) on the IFU's output.

And adding RGB to the IFU is really ok, certainly even more so with Voultar's IFU RGB mod board coming up.
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Fudoh
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Fudoh »

re Edge: it's not a seamless switcher, so it will still resync with the input. If you disable the framelock and output everything at 59.94Hz (not 59.976) you can probably minimize the resync with the projector, but the Edge will still resync with the source on any resolution change.
thebigcheese
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by thebigcheese »

Fudoh wrote:Yes, the Core Grafx does still output audio on its own.

And no, I think it's actually OK to output from both at the same time. Many many years ago I experimented with this a lot and I used an external audio mixer to change the balance between the various audio sources. You get chip audio from the Core Grafx and straight CD audio from the CD-Rom's headphone jack, while you get a mix of these two PLUS the additional ADPCM audio (used for voice on some games) on the IFU's output.

And adding RGB to the IFU is really ok, certainly even more so with Voultar's IFU RGB mod board coming up.
I mean, I know it won't break anything. I just expect that the chip audio would be louder since it's coming from two sources. Or, depending on how much it gets delayed in passing through the IFU, could potentially get some phase cancellation. In either case, I'd rather only have it going through the cable once :) In that case, I will probably still go the route of separate RCA plugs for audio. Somewhat related note, a lot has been made in various threads about sync strippers being poo-poo and adding delay. I'm debating if I want to wait on Voultar's normal PCE board that does c-sync or just get a board that doesn't mess with sync and either leave it as sync-on-composite or put a sync stripper in the cable for cleaner sync. Any thoughts on the options? The latter two seem nice in that they give me the option to use the regular AV cables that come with the CoreGrafx if I should so desire.
Galgomite
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Galgomite »

Fudoh wrote:re Edge: it's not a seamless switcher, so it will still resync with the input. If you disable the framelock and output everything at 59.94Hz (not 59.976) you can probably minimize the resync with the projector, but the Edge will still resync with the source on any resolution change.
Thank You:)
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Kez
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Kez »

Odd question - could you connect a Gamecube + Gameboy Player via GBA->GC cable (DOL-011) to another Gamecube? Like, for example could you play Zelda Four Swords using a Gameboy Player as a GBA?
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Syntax
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Syntax »

Kez wrote:Odd question - could you connect a Gamecube + Gameboy Player via GBA->GC cable (DOL-011) to another Gamecube? Like, for example could you play Zelda Four Swords using a Gameboy Player as a GBA?
Yup

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/legend-o ... ubes-5-tvs
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Kez
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Kez »

Awesome.. I was thinking of just doing it with one TV but now.. oh dear.
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Jademalo
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Jademalo »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_zTFRVh7ug

Been having this issue recently, don't know what to do about it.
I've got an Avermedia Extremecap U3, and for whatever reason it has a habit of dropping frames randomly. The mirrored signal going to my TV is absolutely perfect (with the odd snes frame hitch), but the capture drops out like this.

It's not a CPU issue since its not even getting close, and i've tried three different USB PCIe cards all with the same issue. This happens on 720p as well as 1080p. Drivers etc are up to date. It happens on both OBS and AmaRecTV

Any ideas?
nmalinoski
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by nmalinoski »

Jademalo wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_zTFRVh7ug

Been having this issue recently, don't know what to do about it.
I've got an Avermedia Extremecap U3, and for whatever reason it has a habit of dropping frames randomly. The mirrored signal going to my TV is absolutely perfect (with the odd snes frame hitch), but the capture drops out like this.

It's not a CPU issue since its not even getting close, and i've tried three different USB PCIe cards all with the same issue. This happens on 720p as well as 1080p. Drivers etc are up to date. It happens on both OBS and AmaRecTV

Any ideas?
I'm not sure what hardware you have in your AV setup, but, assuming an OSSC and just an SNES, I would think your TV is likely more tolerant of the video signals coming from the SNES than your capture device, which is probably expecting a more stable and standard signal, like what it would get from a PC or most native, off-the-shelf HDMI devices.

For example, your capture device might be expecting a perfect 60Hz or 59.94Hz signal, and it might not be tolerant of the ~60.08Hz signal from the SNES, not to mention the SNES is known to have jittery sync, which can throw off HDMI displays/capture devices and cause sync dropouts. There are probably also TVs and capture devices that can lock onto the SNES's sync just fine, but perform framerate conversion, which can result in tearing or dropped frames.

The NES is also known to have similar sync problems. As I understand it, the Hi-Def NES kit (HDMI output for the NES) was designed to avoid these sync problems and increase compatibility by slightly underclocking the NES in order to generate a perfect 60Hz video signal signal. I don't believe the SNES currently has anything comparable, but I can't imagine someone isn't working on a similar Hi-Def SNES mod.
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Jademalo
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Jademalo »

nmalinoski wrote:I'm not sure what hardware you have in your AV setup, but, assuming an OSSC and just an SNES, I would think your TV is likely more tolerant of the video signals coming from the SNES than your capture device, which is probably expecting a more stable and standard signal, like what it would get from a PC or most native, off-the-shelf HDMI devices.

For example, your capture device might be expecting a perfect 60Hz or 59.94Hz signal, and it might not be tolerant of the ~60.08Hz signal from the SNES, not to mention the SNES is known to have jittery sync, which can throw off HDMI displays/capture devices and cause sync dropouts. There are probably also TVs and capture devices that can lock onto the SNES's sync just fine, but perform framerate conversion, which can result in tearing or dropped frames.

The NES is also known to have similar sync problems. As I understand it, the Hi-Def NES kit (HDMI output for the NES) was designed to avoid these sync problems and increase compatibility by slightly underclocking the NES in order to generate a perfect 60Hz video signal signal. I don't believe the SNES currently has anything comparable, but I can't imagine someone isn't working on a similar Hi-Def SNES mod.
Sorry, thought I'd mentioned it - It's the SNES into the OSSC into an iScan VP50Pro. Specifically so that my capture card would play nicely with it, lol.
SavagePencil
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by SavagePencil »

Jademalo wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_zTFRVh7ug

Been having this issue recently, don't know what to do about it.
I've got an Avermedia Extremecap U3, and for whatever reason it has a habit of dropping frames randomly. The mirrored signal going to my TV is absolutely perfect (with the odd snes frame hitch), but the capture drops out like this.

It's not a CPU issue since its not even getting close, and i've tried three different USB PCIe cards all with the same issue. This happens on 720p as well as 1080p. Drivers etc are up to date. It happens on both OBS and AmaRecTV

Any ideas?
Just because I had this same issue with my XCAPTURE-1: are there other things on the USB bus that could be monopolizing it? In my case, I had to move the offending piece to a separate USB port and let the capture card have its own.
nmalinoski
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by nmalinoski »

Jademalo wrote:Sorry, thought I'd mentioned it - It's the SNES into the OSSC into an iScan VP50Pro. Specifically so that my capture card would play nicely with it, lol.
Oh, whoops; my mistake. I vaguely remember that, but I don't recall where I read it. Such is the problem with a catch-all thread like this one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't have experience with any iScan products; I would've expected them to normalize the output signal, just as you have.

You were saying that output from the VP50Pro looks fine when connected to your TV, but you have frame drops/duplication when that same output is connected to your capture device?

It sounds like you're using the VP50Pro to upscale the output from the OSSC to 1080p, and this probably defeats the purpose of your AV chain; but do you still get the same dropped/duplicated frames if you remove the OSSC from the chain, so the SNES is running directly into the VP50Pro?
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Syntax
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Syntax »

Just install one of these and you'll be fine.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=61285
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Jademalo
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Jademalo »

SavagePencil wrote:Just because I had this same issue with my XCAPTURE-1: are there other things on the USB bus that could be monopolizing it? In my case, I had to move the offending piece to a separate USB port and let the capture card have its own.
I've tried it literally by itsself on three separate USB cards. One renesas, one Etron, and one Fresco. I think.
What's weird is it seems to do the exact same thing at 1080p. I would expect it to be barely usable at 1080 if it was struggling with 720.

nmalinoski wrote:You were saying that output from the VP50Pro looks fine when connected to your TV, but you have frame drops/duplication when that same output is connected to your capture device?

It sounds like you're using the VP50Pro to upscale the output from the OSSC to 1080p, and this probably defeats the purpose of your AV chain; but do you still get the same dropped/duplicated frames if you remove the OSSC from the chain, so the SNES is running directly into the VP50Pro?
Yes, it's fine on the TV and a mess on the capture card.
I'm outputting 3x mode at 720p, then capturing at 720p. There's no 1080p anywhere in the chain.

Due to the nature of how it's wired, plugging the SNES directly into the VP50Pro will be a huge hassle. I'm not really sure if I can do that at all, honestly.
There's still a frame skip every so often due to the VP50Pro because of the SNES's weird framerate, but that's fairly infrequent and mostly fine. Plus it's consistent between the TV and the capture card. This is something else and I've got no idea what.

Syntax wrote:Just install one of these and you'll be fine.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=61285
That looks pretty neat. Though after a bit more testing, I'm also having this issue on N64 so I've got no idea what the cause could be. I don't have an easy test on N64 though like I do on SNES.
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Lawfer
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Lawfer »

ross wrote:Am I correct in thinking all region-free Mega Drive games are reliant on the hardware for determining speed/language? Would content be identical across each region release?

Would save me a lot of money if I didn't have to import every MD game for 60 Hz.
Only a few early Megadrive/Genesis games are region-free from what I read. Most Megadrive games are region-locked. I think you can play NTSC U/C games on an NTSC-J console and vice versa, the difference lies in the cartridge slot, basically japanese megadrive cartridges won't fit in NTSC U/C consoles and NTSC U/C cartridge will fit in NTSC-J consoles but you won't be able to power it on because unlike japanese cartridges, NTSC U/C cartridges have no groove on the left side of the cartridge.
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theclaw
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by theclaw »

ross wrote:Am I correct in thinking all region-free Mega Drive games are reliant on the hardware for determining speed/language? Would content be identical across each region release?

Would save me a lot of money if I didn't have to import every MD game for 60 Hz.
Speed/language are toggled in hardware. This gives the MD four modes.
But 50 Hz with Japanese isn't commonly used.

50 Hz or 60 Hz affects all games.
Language really only matters if a game uses it

At first the speed/language were more backwards compatibility features (they're based upon Master System).
Starting around 1992, MD games began using it as region lockout.
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Einzelherz
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Einzelherz »

Syntax wrote:
Kez wrote:Odd question - could you connect a Gamecube + Gameboy Player via GBA->GC cable (DOL-011) to another Gamecube? Like, for example could you play Zelda Four Swords using a Gameboy Player as a GBA?
Yup

http://www.racketboy.com/retro/legend-o ... ubes-5-tvs
When I first came across that years ago it broke my brain and I really wanted to try it.
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Syntax
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Syntax »

Kind of reminds me of how much effort it is to set up PS2 GT3/4 multi monitor.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/ ... torLAN.jpg
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Xyga
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Xyga »

I'd like to see it but there's nothing in your link (never use photobucket for anything anyway)
Strikers1945guy wrote:"Do we....eat chicken balls?!"
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Einzelherz
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Einzelherz »

Syntax wrote:Kind of reminds me of how much effort it is to set up PS2 GT3/4 multi monitor.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/ ... torLAN.jpg
I didn't even know you could do this!
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ASDR
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by ASDR »

Syntax wrote:Kind of reminds me of how much effort it is to set up PS2 GT3/4 multi monitor.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/ ... torLAN.jpg
That's so cool, I had no idea GT4 supported this...
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Einzelherz
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Einzelherz »

This is the stuff that makes me like this particular community. We really like the obscure and insane here.
nmalinoski
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by nmalinoski »

I bought a faulty Kramer FC-4040 off someone a while back, and I'm getting back into trying to troubleshoot it, since it seems like a useful bit of kit (when it's working).

So, right now, the device appears to boot properly (firmware 0.7), but I can only seem to get it to take composite input and give me composite output. S-Video or component inputs do not generate anything on composite output, and I don't seem to be able to get anything on component output, regardless of input, and, weirdly, nothing on component when the color bar generator is turned on. (I'm not set up to test S-Video output at the moment.)

The board looks clean; and I've previously replaced a large 2200uF cap, but that didn't seem to improve anything. None of the BNC connectors looks or feels loose. Is there anything I can do, or is it junk?
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maxtherabbit
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by maxtherabbit »

If anyone has an open GameCube, could you please get me a value for R16 on the main board? It's in line with pin 1 of the controller board connector, directly above it
Ikaruga11
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Ikaruga11 »

Is the Dreamcast the only 31khz console that gives a skewed image on PVMs/BVMs? Since VCR Mode can only be enabled for 15khz signals, I was wondering if an Extron 203Rxi was worth it just for the Dreamcast.
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maxtherabbit
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by maxtherabbit »

when you say skewed, do you mean horizontally shifted? because it does that on all displays not just PVM/BVM
Ikaruga11
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by Ikaruga11 »

maxtherabbit wrote:when you say skewed, do you mean horizontally shifted? because it does that on all displays not just PVM/BVM
I mean the funky wavy distortions that you commonly see people show and complain about when trying to play Dreamcast on their PVM/BVM. The same thing happens with the Genesis when VCR Mode isn't enabled/not available. I was wondering if the Dreamcast was the only 480p console to give these wavy/skewed images.

If the Dreamcast is the only 31kHz console that displays this behavior, then investing in an Extron 203 Rxi isn't worth it for just one console.
nmalinoski
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Re: Questions that do not deserve a thread

Post by nmalinoski »

GeneraLight wrote:
maxtherabbit wrote:when you say skewed, do you mean horizontally shifted? because it does that on all displays not just PVM/BVM
I mean the funky wavy distortions that you commonly see people show and complain about when trying to play Dreamcast on their PVM/BVM. The same thing happens with the Genesis when VCR Mode isn't enabled/not available. I was wondering if the Dreamcast was the only 480p console to give these wavy/skewed images.

If the Dreamcast is the only 31kHz console that displays this behavior, then investing in an Extron 203 Rxi isn't worth it for just one console.
Is there video of this behavior? (Not necessarily yours specifically.)
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