OSSC Pro

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ldeveraux
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by ldeveraux »

Drunk_Caterpillar wrote:Honestly, I feel like HDMI input is a pretty necessary feature. At this point I'm basically only going to use the YPbPr inputs for Saturn and PC Engine—everything else has a digital output mod available.
Yeah, this right here! I'm sure there are other additions to the Pro I'm forgetting too though. I'm pretty naive when it comes to all the settings the OSSC has to offer, but excited to see what it can do with an HDMI signal if anything. Personally, that's not worth $500 for me, but I could be convinced of the $350.
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kitty666cats
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by kitty666cats »

ASDR wrote:I'd say the general idea is that the original OSSC has fundamental limitations, such as not having enough memory to buffer a few fields / frames. This means it can never do the following:

- Provide high-quality deinterlacing which requires access to previous fields
- Do Yoko/Tate rotation, which requires buffering a full frame
- Normalize any compatible input signal to a standard refresh rate and resolution, which requires buffering a frame, reformatting it and then scanning it out in a different refresh rate
- Saving a screenshot to an SD card etc., requires a framebuffer (guess you could write a static input image line-by-line...)

And so on. The OSSC Pro should be able to do all of the above and has additional hardware features like extra inputs, an expansion port and a more powerful FPGA. This doesn't necessarily mean it'll have all or any of these features on day one, but the limits of what the OSSC hardware can do seems to have been hit and we need a new platform for all these more advanced things to be implemented.

Even though it is the best we currently have, the idea that the regular OSSC is already 'good enough' shows a strong lack of imagination of what a video processor for video games could be. We could apply machine learning to reconstruct the original high-res color signal from composite video, use post-process anti-aliasing techniques to improve early 3D games, add true CRT simulation using 4k HDR displays to really get the look right, we could have the video processor learn a console's defect like jail bars from a series of test patterns generated by something like the 240p test suite and compensate for these errors, and so on. Things that go far beyond even what the OSSC Pro will likely be able to do.

I think there's a huge demand for what the OSSC Pro will offer and even beyond that. I'd love to have a lag free HQ deinterlacer, Yoko/Tate rotation, the option to enable a 100% standard output signal, HDMI input, expansion modules with composite input etc. And looking at what machine learning is doing for video and 3D game upscaling and for improving image quality in smartphone cameras, I hope one day we get a video processor with these types of features as well.
I wonder, though: what about a regular OSSC or GBScontrol chained with a secondary video processor? I feel that there's many combinations that can pull off a lot of these desirable results for a fraction of $500 - though I assume there is very high potential that no chain out there could do all the upcoming magic of OSSC Pro with quite as low lag...?

Of course, that negates the neatness and convenience of an all-in-one powerhouse of a single device.
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by Greg2600 »

500!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, a 300% increase for a "Pro" model of anything is vein popping. I wanted a nice case, plus the expansion board for composite/S-video inputs, and didn't expect to have to spend anywhere near that. I could get the current OSSC and a RetroTink for half that. What in the holy Hell components are being put in this?
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orange808
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by orange808 »

kitty666cats wrote:
ASDR wrote:I'd say the general idea is that the original OSSC has fundamental limitations, such as not having enough memory to buffer a few fields / frames. This means it can never do the following:

- Provide high-quality deinterlacing which requires access to previous fields
- Do Yoko/Tate rotation, which requires buffering a full frame
- Normalize any compatible input signal to a standard refresh rate and resolution, which requires buffering a frame, reformatting it and then scanning it out in a different refresh rate
- Saving a screenshot to an SD card etc., requires a framebuffer (guess you could write a static input image line-by-line...)

And so on. The OSSC Pro should be able to do all of the above and has additional hardware features like extra inputs, an expansion port and a more powerful FPGA. This doesn't necessarily mean it'll have all or any of these features on day one, but the limits of what the OSSC hardware can do seems to have been hit and we need a new platform for all these more advanced things to be implemented.

Even though it is the best we currently have, the idea that the regular OSSC is already 'good enough' shows a strong lack of imagination of what a video processor for video games could be. We could apply machine learning to reconstruct the original high-res color signal from composite video, use post-process anti-aliasing techniques to improve early 3D games, add true CRT simulation using 4k HDR displays to really get the look right, we could have the video processor learn a console's defect like jail bars from a series of test patterns generated by something like the 240p test suite and compensate for these errors, and so on. Things that go far beyond even what the OSSC Pro will likely be able to do.

I think there's a huge demand for what the OSSC Pro will offer and even beyond that. I'd love to have a lag free HQ deinterlacer, Yoko/Tate rotation, the option to enable a 100% standard output signal, HDMI input, expansion modules with composite input etc. And looking at what machine learning is doing for video and 3D game upscaling and for improving image quality in smartphone cameras, I hope one day we get a video processor with these types of features as well.
I wonder, though: what about a regular OSSC or GBScontrol chained with a secondary video processor? I feel that there's many combinations that can pull off a lot of these desirable results for a fraction of $500 - though I assume there is very high potential that no chain out there could do all the upcoming magic of OSSC Pro with quite as low lag...?

Of course, that negates the neatness and convenience of an all-in-one powerhouse of a single device.
Here's how I see it:

About lag and a secondary machine: I still use two DVDO's for different things because they are fast. Of course, they are 4:2:2, so the OSSC Pro still beats them. An Extron is a full frame of lag. Too slow for me. I have a few very nice Extrons and they are not even hooked up right now (I'm good with 1080p output from my chain right now). I've also had good luck with 960p on a DVDO Duo on the launch firmware, but where you gonna source that? If the OSSC Pro can line double and perform video processing with half a frame of lag at 4:4:4, it will beat any OSSC and VP combo I know of. This alone makes the OSSC Pro a great bargain because it's offering something you can't buy anywhere else. (That's right, no 4:4:4 sub-frame lag video processors exist today!)

You'll have to invest time and trouble into the Gonbes. That's fine for some of us but, most people don't build their own machines. It's cheap if you can do the labor. Certainly a machine worth building if you have the ability and time. I understand the upscaling is a frame of lag. Too much for me, thanks.

Want tate rotation and playable latency? I found a few machines at fair prices. I also made a good profit selling them at real market value, because those machines aren't supposed to be cheap. There are high latency options available for less, but who wants to play a vertical arcade shooter PCB with tons of lag? Also, if the OSSC Pro has rotation and padding with one frame of lag, it will best my preferred solution: Calibre HQV Reon machines that specifically support rotation (and those are 4:2:2). I see only one on eBay (the "lite" version Kramer vp-792) and it's $750usd. There's also the Datapath x4, but getting padding is a real pain in the arse. The Calibre ones are also a (much smaller and easier) challenge, because you need to create a "custom warp" to get the lower latency with pan/scan turned off.

Warping features may or may not happen--and many gamers may not like the effect. I hope warp comes to OSSC Pro, because I like the option of CRT curvature. There are a few obscure solutions meant for beamers that do it fast, but they are picky beasts and 100% network controlled (no buttons or remote). I don't recommend them to you. Those are also hard to find and could be expensive. For ease of use and compatibility with signals, the best of the bunch is the tate machine:
a Calibre HQV Reon; they have warp, rotate, padding, and "just okay" 4:2:2 scaling (and physical buttons and a GUI). It's a frame and a half of latency. An OSSC Pro with warping could be faster and it would also be 4:4:4. May or may not happen.

Let's not forget customer service. I've had great experiences with Extron, but many people here have not. Calibre's customer service flat out lied to me. DVDO is basically dead. Aurora is trying to reinvent itself as a video over IP company. TVOne is adrift and I have no idea where they are going; lots of competition in digital signage machines. Kramer machines have too much latency and they seem obsessed with video.

Let's also not forget the OSSC Pro will be a brand new machine and guaranteed to arrive working properly--and backed by people that we trust.

4:4:4, video processing, video game features, low lag, readily available, brand new, with good service. Yes, please.
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strayan
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by strayan »

If this wasn’t a open source project and was in fact sold by DVDO or Lumagen I wouldn’t be surprised it it retailed for 5-10k.

$500 is peanuts.
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ASDR
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by ASDR »

It maybe should've been 550$ so it does composite & S-Video out of the box. That's my main gripe, really.

Most commercial hardware never reaches its full potential because firmware development is stopped relatively quickly. I bought an OSSC at v0.78 and would've been satisfied with what I got for my money, but look at all the firmware gifts we got since then. Imagine how good the Framemeister could've been if they kept up improving it to this day. Having a video processor platform as powerful as this fully available to anybody willing to put up with the joys of FPGA development is pretty exciting!
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maxtherabbit
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by maxtherabbit »

Gbs control is sub frame when upscaling. It's just a handful of scanlines, like 4ms iirc
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bobrocks95
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by bobrocks95 »

ASDR wrote:It maybe should've been 550$ so it does composite & S-Video out of the box. That's my main gripe, really.
What if it was $500 with a $50 composite and S-Video add-on board?
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ASDR
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by ASDR »

bobrocks95 wrote:
ASDR wrote:It maybe should've been 550$ so it does composite & S-Video out of the box. That's my main gripe, really.
What if it was $500 with a $50 composite and S-Video add-on board?
I can live with that, but I'd rather just have one box instead of two. I mean if it was as seamless as an input card in a BVM, sure, great, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
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Kez
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by Kez »

Greg2600 wrote:500!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, a 300% increase for a "Pro" model of anything is vein popping. I wanted a nice case, plus the expansion board for composite/S-video inputs, and didn't expect to have to spend anywhere near that. I could get the current OSSC and a RetroTink for half that. What in the holy Hell components are being put in this?
I'm confident that Marqs' costing is reasonable. It may not be exactly what you want, but if an OSSC "Pro" were to be released without the hardware required for framebuffers and proper scaling it would be outrageous to many.
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James-F
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by James-F »

marqs wrote:the sale price could settle somewhere on $350-550 range.
:shock:
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by RocketBelt »

I'm sure the costs are reasonable, and I'd like to support this because updates and support for the origianl ossc has been brilliant, but unfortunately too rich for me. :(
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by Downcry »

I would be happy to spend more and wait longer for 2560x1440 @ 60hz support.

I want to be able to integer scale my content to my display’s native resolution.
1080p displays aren’t really being made anymore, 1440p is the new low-end.

Not to mention that almost every console integer scales to 1440p.
(including 480i/p anamorphic widescreen)

Seems like the perfect target for the next OSSC.
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Triple Lei
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by Triple Lei »

I guess I'll be fine at $350 if:
  • I can squeeze out a proper tate out of Instant Brain's untateable Dodonpachi with 1 frame of lag or less
  • Resolution switching blackouts are truly no more at 1 frame or less (I'll have to get PS1Digital and PS2Digital way down the line then)

I wasn't getting a PS5 any time soon anyway... :?
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kitty666cats
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by kitty666cats »

Triple Lei wrote:I guess I'll be fine at $350 if:
  • I can squeeze out a proper tate out of Instant Brain's untateable Dodonpachi with 1 frame of lag or less
  • Resolution switching blackouts are truly no more at 1 frame or less (I'll have to get PS1Digital and PS2Digital way down the line then)

I wasn't getting a PS5 any time soon anyway... :?
There's a device out there called the "DIDO Jr." that can rotate (and also downscale to 240p!), but I have no idea how it is in regards to lag.
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orange808
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by orange808 »

If I recall correctly, the Dido Jr doesn't have frame lock. Latency varies and there might be a few artifacts from frame rate conversion. The lag changes every frame. Worst case is ~33ms. Probably averages to one and a half frames. Used Dido Jrs are often affordably priced--and still faster than a Realta machine or the SOIA. SOIA was 3 or 4 frames, no frame lock, and tops out at 720p.

By comparison, the Calibre Reon machines are frame locked and score at ~25ms consistently--without tearing/studdering from frame rate conversion.

The Dido Jr does rotation with padding in one solution. You should be able to get vertical scanlines as well. It's a decent budget machine right now, but I would wait and see what the OSSC Pro does.
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NormalFish
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by NormalFish »

Greg2600 wrote:500!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, a 300% increase for a "Pro" model of anything is vein popping. I wanted a nice case, plus the expansion board for composite/S-video inputs, and didn't expect to have to spend anywhere near that. I could get the current OSSC and a RetroTink for half that. What in the holy Hell components are being put in this?
It's a totally different spec doing totally different things with a frame buffer. Neither of the devices you note can do many of the things that this design is meant to do. If you want a device that does what the OSSC or Retrotink does for less, then buy an OSSC or Retrotrink. Hardly rocket science.
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marqs
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by marqs »

NormalFish wrote:
Greg2600 wrote:500!!!!!!!!!!! Come on, a 300% increase for a "Pro" model of anything is vein popping. I wanted a nice case, plus the expansion board for composite/S-video inputs, and didn't expect to have to spend anywhere near that. I could get the current OSSC and a RetroTink for half that. What in the holy Hell components are being put in this?
It's a totally different spec doing totally different things with a frame buffer. Neither of the devices you note can do many of the things that this design is meant to do. If you want a device that does what the OSSC or Retrotink does for less, then buy an OSSC or Retrotrink. Hardly rocket science.
For starters Pro has a $100 FPGA whereas original OSSC has $10 one and Retrotink no FPGA at all. A budget alternative is to buy subvented DE10-Nano board and build an add-on PCB with the same video ADC (pictured below) for ~$200 total. No case, no warranty, some performance and feature limitations but otherwise does the job.

Image
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by xeos »

marqs wrote:For starters Pro has a $100 FPGA whereas original OSSC has $10 one and Retrotink no FPGA at all. A budget alternative is to buy subvented DE10-Nano board and build an add-on PCB with the same video ADC (pictured below) for ~$200 total. No case, no warranty, some performance and feature limitations but otherwise does the job.
The price for the OSSC Pro seems reasonable to me - just more than I can afford. Sorry. I hope you sell a lot of them nonetheless; it's clearly a nice bit of hardware and a lot of work to design. The DIY DE10 option sounds more in my budget. It's not an unreasonable tradeoff - deluxe box for people with more time than money, and cheap option for the reverse. I'll be curious to see how the DE10 based option fares in terms of popularity vs the full on OSSC-PRO.
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by XtraSmiley »

xeos wrote:
marqs wrote:For starters Pro has a $100 FPGA whereas original OSSC has $10 one and Retrotink no FPGA at all. A budget alternative is to buy subvented DE10-Nano board and build an add-on PCB with the same video ADC (pictured below) for ~$200 total. No case, no warranty, some performance and feature limitations but otherwise does the job.
The price for the OSSC Pro seems reasonable to me - just more than I can afford. Sorry. I hope you sell a lot of them nonetheless; it's clearly a nice bit of hardware and a lot of work to design. The DIY DE10 option sounds more in my budget. It's not an unreasonable tradeoff - deluxe box for people with more time than money, and cheap option for the reverse. I'll be curious to see how the DE10 based option fares in terms of popularity vs the full on OSSC-PRO.
I think you mean a deluxe box for people with more MONEY than TIME, but I get your point. And yes, I'll pay the extra for a finished product, especially when things cost so much today anyway. From $200 to $400 is not a huge jump. Just need to save for it a little longer!
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bobrocks95
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by bobrocks95 »

Question I thought of: would it be possible to create an add-on board that had a second HDMI output? The Pro will already get rid of an HDMI to YPbPr converter in my setup, I wonder if it could get rid of an HDMI splitter too...
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Strider77
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by Strider77 »

Will this have HDMI passthrough? Basically for adding scanlines to modern consoles games then just flipping to a passthrough as needed.
Damn Tim, you know there are quite a few Americans out there who still lives in tents due to this shitty economy, and you're dropping loads on a single game which only last 20 min. Do you think it's fair? How much did you spend this time?
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by XtraSmiley »

bobrocks95 wrote:Question I thought of: would it be possible to create an add-on board that had a second HDMI output? The Pro will already get rid of an HDMI to YPbPr converter in my setup, I wonder if it could get rid of an HDMI splitter too...
Wouldn't an add on board be basically a splitter that plugs in? Not sure what you would gain from that?
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by xeos »

XtraSmiley wrote:
I think you mean a deluxe box for people with more MONEY than TIME, but I get your point. And yes, I'll pay the extra for a finished product, especially when things cost so much today anyway. From $200 to $400 is not a huge jump. Just need to save for it a little longer!
yes, thankfully my point was clear anyway ;-). There's another potential advantage to the DE-10 route: it can also be used as a MiSTER, without any porting work that would be required for the OSSC PRO. Or any other DE-10 based hacking you might want to do.

as for a finished project vs diy: yes you have to plug the add-in board into the DE 10, but with a $200 budget to play with one could make a damn awesome box that would hold both and still save money in the end too. Given the blowback on price that a full custom board is getting here I'd really wonder if just going the DE-10 + plugin board might not be a better choice? if the number of initial units is too small the price is going to be closer to $500 for sure which is a shame indeed... :-(
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bobrocks95
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by bobrocks95 »

XtraSmiley wrote:
bobrocks95 wrote:Question I thought of: would it be possible to create an add-on board that had a second HDMI output? The Pro will already get rid of an HDMI to YPbPr converter in my setup, I wonder if it could get rid of an HDMI splitter too...
Wouldn't an add on board be basically a splitter that plugs in? Not sure what you would gain from that?
An HDMI splitter is a separate box with its own power adapter taking up space. A small board that simply plugs into the back/side of the OSSC Pro would save space and an outlet.
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orange808
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by orange808 »

Okay. You guys gotta stop. Marqs was specific for a reason.

The DE-10 and DE-10 Nano are two completely different boards with different hardware. If you want to abbreviate, call the DE-10 Nano the Nano. Saying DE-10 is confusing.
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bobrocks95
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by bobrocks95 »

Maybe I'll get a Pro at launch just because I fully realized today that I can't capture Dreamcast audio without an AV3 audio input :\
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by Fudoh »

(deleted - post was misleading - sorry about that)
Last edited by Fudoh on Mon Oct 19, 2020 7:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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bobrocks95
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by bobrocks95 »

Fudoh wrote:
because I fully realized today that I can't capture Dreamcast audio without an AV3 audio input
there's a software setting which allows you to choose between the AV1 and AV2 audio inputs to be used in combination with AV3 video. AV1 is obviously a bit complicated, but AV2 is pretty easy to handle and if you have active component and VGA sources, you can add a little switch before the AV2 audio input.
Hmm, not seeing that option mentioned on the wiki or when flipping through the settings. There's the physical switch to change the 3.5mm jack between AV1 audio output and AV2 audio input of course, but not seeing anything like that software-side.

Unless you mean the AV3 use alt. RGB option, but from what I understand that uses video from AV1/AV2 and sync from AV3 for specific Taito boards, in addition to changing the audio input.
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ASDR
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Re: OSSC Pro

Post by ASDR »

I'm confused, which OSSC revision did not have AV3 audio input? Did the pre-HDMI boards not have that? I thought they were missing the AV2 audio input.
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