GBS 8200/8220 CFW Project

[rama]

A change is coming up that affects all presets:
I figured out a building block of the Input Formatter that I previously could only adjust by eye, looking for errors.
You may have seen such errors as green bars, either static on the image sides, or moving along the sides, or similar.

I can now correctly set the parameters, so that there is no more randomness associated with it.
This means that parameters that I haven't touched in years now have to be changed, so there is some potential for new glitches.
These changes make testing much more reliable though, and I expect no new problems (and haven't seen any).

You probably won't see any differences, except for the 2 presets that push the limits:
The 1920x1080 presets (for PAL/NTSC) show a few more input pixels now. It's not the full possible width, but very close

[aleckermit]

@NoAffinity

Hello, I'm to guy that talked to you on Youtube. Couldn't find a way to direct message you through your profile here.

[strayan]

I seem to recall there being some discussion suggesting gbs control had 240p downscaling potential. Was I imagining that and/or are there any updates?

[rama]

No, I think I just theorized about it.
It should depend on whether the VDS / Output Formatter can reduce the line doubled input while not looking like garbage :p

Edit: Well, that was fast :p

Beta:


Some tweaks:


It should even have natural scanlines on a CRT.
Do you want it?

[SuperSpongo]

WTF that's awesome

This should be interesting for the mame/PC crowd to get a picture on their cabinets, PVMs or consumer TVs.
Just to clarify, you could feed 480p into it and get 240p out, right? This would also be interesting for Shmups on XBox360.

I'd love to have the feature, since i currently do not own a device capable of doing this.

[Gunstar]

Very cool, Rama. What res did you downscale, 480p? would 480i work?

[rama]

The first pics were 240p to 240p. Whoops :p

But this here is 480p (PS2) to 240p, and it's flawless on the Trinitron


480i is the same as 240p, but whenever actual interlacing is needed, this will not work so easily.

[SuperSpongo]

Dude, this is amazing! Really cool stuff

Metal Slug Anthology on PS2 comes to mind!

[Gunstar]

Niiiiice. What's your setup to output to the CRT, Rama?

[maxtherabbit]

I love the boneyard of GBS boards under the TV

[rama]

8 in total, maxtherabbit :p

Niiiiice. What's your setup to output to the CRT, Rama?

VGA cable to SCART end, using a diode to combine H and V Syncs.

The chip appears to be pretty good at downscaling
I have NTSC almost done. The output horizontal is some kind of "super resolution".
Sources are handled like this:
240p > 240p
480i > 240p (some issues determining source odd/even fields, so it randomly is unsharp)
480p > 240p (no issues, great picture )

[strayan]

Do you want it?

Yes please.

[strayan]

480p > 240p (no issues, great picture )

Is it averaging two adjacent lines like the Extron Emotia or displaying every second line and every second row like the Genius II? Chances of being user selectable?

[SuperSpongo]

Also, is the resulting resolution somehow "adaptive"? I'm thinking of a scenario where, for example you output a certain line-doubled resolution from Retroarch (448p for SNES) and the board outputs 224p. Or do you generate a "one size fits all" preset, similar to the upscaling presets (720p, 1080p, ..)?

[rama]

The option is in, go wild!

Beware that it doesn't deal with > 480p/576p (yet?), but 480i and 240p are handled.

Nothing is configurable yet, but I managed to sort out the field order, so it always starts the processing chain on the same field.
From there on, I think (not sure yet), every downscale option comes down to source line priority.
This can be changed in software, so if it's needed, I can make it an option.

[fernan1234]

Woah, is this going to render all those expensive Extron Emotias, Mimo Genuises, etc. obsolete?

[rama]

Probably, yes :p

[donluca]

Thanks Rama, that's huge for me, now I'll probably get one so I can play x360 shmups at their proper 240p rendering on my arcade cab.

[rama]

Sure, it was on my todo list :p

Will the XBOX output 720p/1080p in menus?
Better take some precautions against that, as gbscontrol right now will pass it right through.

[donluca]

Sure, it was on my todo list :p

Will the XBOX output 720p/1080p in menus?
Better take some precautions against that, as gbscontrol right now will pass it right through.

If you're talking about the X360, you set the output video mode system-wide and it'll use it for everything, from menus to all games.

OG XboX should be the same, but not 100% sure.

[kitty666cats]

This is gonna be a real game changer! I've got some gear I'll have to sell off very soon, lol

[Ryoandr]

Some megacheap GBSs have popped on ebay, get some if you don't have one
Thanks to kitty666cats who spotted it.

Spoiler

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233469740881

[Shiver_169]

Is there any way to connect an Svideo output to the GBS 8200 ?. It's for Gamecube for now I only have Svideo and I'm interested in making Upscale a Gameboy Player in 240p mode at 1080p or 720p.

[AndehX]

Some megacheap GBSs have popped on ebay, get some if you don't have one
Thanks to kitty666cats who spotted it.

Spoiler

https://www.ebay.com/itm/233469740881

awesome. Grabbed 3!

[Gunstar]

Quite a few cheap GBSs being listed, weird.

Picked up a backup for $3.93/£3.04

EDIT: Currently a listing selling one for $3.62/£2.79

[donluca]

Thanks for the links, I got one along with a wemos D1.

[Ryoandr]

Rama can you tell how to wire the diode for combining H+V please ?
Is a 1N4148 adequate ?

[shift838]

I have an older Myarc Geneve 9640, which is a 15 kHz RGB with CSYNC system.

I have read various hardware mods to make the picture through the GBS8200 clearer.

My question is if I am using the 'gbscontrol' firmware do i need these hardware mods.

The page (https://github.com/ramapcsx2/gbs-contro ... od-Library) states 'Note that in most cases, gbscontrol will work without any of these modifications.'

so do i need to do anything to get a better picture. the quality is decent, but i do notice some color issues at the bottom right of my screen.

Should I put a LM1881 Sync Separator circuit in the mix or is that not recommended?

[Gunstar]

Need some help confirming mods and part sizes required for a stock GBS8200 v4. Does this make sense?

Also, I have a few remaining questions:

If anybody has a pic/example of where they put the 100ohm resistor I would be grateful.
Thanks

[shift838]

Need some help confirming mods and part sizes required for a stock GBS8200 v4. Does this make sense?

I can at least answer one of your questions. the power that you reference puts out 5v, which is too much for the ESP8266.

You need to use the 3.3v by the SDA/SDL connections. This is how I tapped mine and powers it good.