Retrotek Products

[orange808]

The age of old FC-14 machines can also a problem. No doubt, many of the units out there are deteriorating. Better to buy a brand new unit. My FC-14 is taken care of and it's sitting in front of CRTs, so I probably won't buy another transcoder soon. If there's color error, I can't see it. When I do replace it, though, I'll want something new. Old gear is a hassle. I'm tired of fighting old gear. Newbies shouldn't have to hunt unicorns and recap their purchases, either.

It would be really nice if there was an analog sync processor/color space transcoder/porch adjustment machine to replace both analog color space processors and the Extron RGB sync boxes in one tidy unit. I use these machines in front of CRTs and many of them need a specific signal. Nobody likes playing around in menus (particularly service menus) to center the image. I would also like that unicorn dream machine to always output a specific signal--and passthrough the color space and/or sync if it matches the current user output configuration. Needs to be tidy, always on, and allow everything to feed into a single input on the CRT. Obviously, it can't do any digital sampling; nobody wants to battle sampling on a transcoder.

It would also be nice if we had a high quality DAC solution that's readily available. Do we have one yet? I understand a lot of MiSTer users are still fighting that.

Speaking of that, there's pulse wave modulation for MiSTer. So, don't throw out that old analog card or rush to the digital output without trying it first. Doesn't work with the analog scaler, but I feed the native signal to a CRT. The screenshots speak for themselves. Like many other useful things, it's locked out of the main official branch, but who uses the official cores? Two player SNAC? Better video without replacing my card and without fighting the DAC? Yes, please.

[kitty666cats]

The age of old FC-14 machines can also a problem. No doubt, many of the units out there are deteriorating. Better to buy a brand new unit. My FC-14 is taken care of and it's sitting in front of CRTs, so I probably won't buy another transcoder soon. If there's color error, I can't see it. When I do replace it, though, I'll want something new. Old gear is a hassle. I'm tired of fighting old gear. Newbies shouldn't have to hunt unicorns and recap their purchases, either.

It would be really nice if there was an analog sync processor/color space transcoder/porch adjustment machine to replace both analog color space processors and the Extron RGB sync boxes in one tidy unit. I use these machines in front of CRTs and many of them need a specific signal. Nobody likes playing around in menus (particularly service menus) to center the image. I would also like that unicorn dream machine to always output a specific signal--and passthrough the color space and/or sync if it matches the current user output configuration. Needs to be tidy, always on, and allow everything to feed into a single input on the CRT. Obviously, it can't do any digital sampling; nobody wants to battle sampling on a transcoder.

It would also be nice if we had a high quality DAC solution that's readily available. Do we have one yet? I understand a lot of MiSTer users are still fighting that.

Speaking of that, there's pulse wave modulation for MiSTer. So, don't throw out that old analog card or rush to the digital output without trying it first. Doesn't work with the analog scaler, but I feed the native signal to a CRT. The screenshots speak for themselves. Like many other useful things, it's locked out of the main official branch, but who uses the official cores? Two player SNAC? Better video without replacing my card and without fighting the DAC? Yes, please.

I’m unsure of the FULL set of features, but if you’ve heard of the Extron ISM 824, my friend told me it passes through 240p on the output - I need to double check with him if he means that in regards to converting between SD signals sans-scaling. But it’s also a scaler, switcher & has sync processing.


https://www.extron.com/product/ism824


It’s a bit of a little-known secret of a gizmo - IDK if to the degree YOU haven’t heard of it, though! My buddy has one that I’m going to grill him about a bit more. Or, if you use Discord, you could message him! Username = balaxxe

There’s also, afaik, 2 community made HDMI to VGAs still in the works, but idk how special they will end up being. I think one may have been for very accurate 24bit output from MiSTer, but was basically rendered moot by the new 24bit boards.

I’ll try to chime in with any info, orange!

Others, feel free to geek out on transcoders for the 2000th time / ponder where to find Fusion / air grievances about how Blob is hella fuckin’ wack


EDIT: orange, RE: that insane Extron I linked, my friend said “if signal is 240p going in - transcoding output is 240p I believe”

[orange808]

I'm not here to beat up on Bob, Voultar, or Mike.

You're right that information goes out of date, though.

The SCART to RGBHV converters I bought from Castlmania frustrated me. They're awful and useless. I can't seat cables in them, but that's on Castlemania and their manufacturing/QA process (or lack thereof in this situation).

Behar Bros and Arcadeforge are other vendors I personally ignore because of past quality issues.

YMMV.

I hope the community DACs are good. These Chinese things aren't a reliable solution--and no major manufacturers are going to be jumping into the DAC market.

I don't know how big the market is for switches. I ignored other switch options because I already have what I need. It's a niche market. You're right about component switchers, though. I have a Shinybow matrix somewhere around and it's fine. Of course, my Crosspoint works well, but most people won't want to battle the phoenix connectors and sync levels--and who really needs an all in one matrix (besides a few of us)?

A Shinybow is plug and play. Good component switchers are the easiest ones to get. Makes sense, because it was adopted globally (to some degree) for a brief time, before HDMI took hold. A little brightness loss won't end the world, either. Adjust your scaler or display and get on with it. If it doesn't crush or burn out detail, you're fine.

[kitty666cats]

I'm not here to beat up on Bob, Voultar, or Mike.

Oh, no no I was not trying to drag you into something like that. Mike Chi is a fucking saint! Anyone who would ever have one single bad word to say about Mike Chi would be out of their god forsaken mind. RE: anything RetroTink, I was merely pointing out that the GreenAntz thing is wildly engineered compared to Mike’s more simple design.

Also, I’m not aware of any SCART to RGBHV from Castlemania. Do you mean the one wired in the opposite direction that apparently had abysmal form factor?

Lastly, RE: DACs. What are your needs? High bandwidth support, or ones that DON’T FREAKIN forcibly need limited range HDMI on the input? I have one of these and it surprisingly does proper full range processing in+out. I suppose having a DVI input, too, is theoretically telling… heh. I don’t have a scope for measuring proper color voltage, IRE, et al, however

https://www.ebay.com/itm/266288412151

[TooBeaucoup]

Man, looking for this thread to reminisce about this cool thing I'm gonna link. But I also read the posts in the thread and felt inclined to say RetroRGB Bob is a fucking dick. Fuck. You. Bob. In the unlikely event you ever see this. Blob: Your ill-informed (not about thingy in this thread, but countless other stuff - btw, you've unknowingly condoned your BFF Kaico/BitFunx numerous times without realizing it) website looks like ass riddled with so many ads as you biasedly condone certain people's stuff, lying through your teeth that you are neutral and just want to recommend the best stuff. Soooo many good cablemakers out there - not just my buddy mentioned later in this post, like sooo many more left perpetually unmentioned.

I don't think I was aware that some people had such contempt for Bob. In the last several years I've watched his videos, he seems to always go out of the way to mention "I'm not saying your way is wrong", "I'm not shilling for this company", or "You can use whatever you like if it works for you" - Usually, this is backed up by him testing things on stream or in a video and usually hooking scopes and equipment up to things to verify what he's claiming. The only time I recall him actively shitting on things is if it poses some kind of risk to people's equipment or if it could damage something. Also, when did he condone Kaico or BitFunx? If he did, that sucks, but I've only seen him shit on that company and constantly warn people not to give them money.

As far as him shilling, the only time I see him recommend products is when the rest of the retro community collectively agrees that it's a good product. How is him recommending a good product shilling? If he was recommending bad products for money, I'd get it. But, I don't think I've seen him recommend any universally hated or bad products to collect a paycheck and "shill" for it. I've also seen him recommend plenty of generic, cheap alternative products instead of expensive ones made by whomever you might consider his friends. I just don't get shill vibes from him.

On a related side note, I just talked to Mike Chi on here a few months ago. I see he's deactivated his account now, though, for some reason.

[orange808]

On a related side note, I just talked to Mike Chi on here a few months ago. I see he's deactivated his account now, though, for some reason.

That's probably related to that ridiculous Voultar episode. Jeez, you guys. Why? He didn't do anything to you.

[TooBeaucoup]

On a related side note, I just talked to Mike Chi on here a few months ago. I see he's deactivated his account now, though, for some reason.

That's probably related to that ridiculous Voultar episode. Jeez, you guys. Why? He didn't do anything to you.

I guess I'm out of the loop.

[kitty666cats]

Man, looking for this thread to reminisce about this cool thing I'm gonna link. But I also read the posts in the thread and felt inclined to say RetroRGB Bob is a fucking dick. Fuck. You. Bob. In the unlikely event you ever see this. Blob: Your ill-informed (not about thingy in this thread, but countless other stuff - btw, you've unknowingly condoned your BFF Kaico/BitFunx numerous times without realizing it) website looks like ass riddled with so many ads as you biasedly condone certain people's stuff, lying through your teeth that you are neutral and just want to recommend the best stuff. Soooo many good cablemakers out there - not just my buddy mentioned later in this post, like sooo many more left perpetually unmentioned.

I don't think I was aware that some people had such contempt for Bob. In the last several years I've watched his videos, he seems to always go out of the way to mention "I'm not saying your way is wrong", "I'm not shilling for this company", or "You can use whatever you like if it works for you" - Usually, this is backed up by him testing things on stream or in a video and usually hooking scopes and equipment up to things to verify what he's claiming. The only time I recall him actively shitting on things is if it poses some kind of risk to people's equipment or if it could damage something. Also, when did he condone Kaico or BitFunx? If he did, that sucks, but I've only seen him shit on that company and constantly warn people not to give them money.

As far as him shilling, the only time I see him recommend products is when the rest of the retro community collectively agrees that it's a good product. How is him recommending a good product shilling? If he was recommending bad products for money, I'd get it. But, I don't think I've seen him recommend any universally hated or bad products to collect a paycheck and "shill" for it. I've also seen him recommend plenty of generic, cheap alternative products instead of expensive ones made by whomever you might consider his friends. I just don't get shill vibes from him.

On a related side note, I just talked to Mike Chi on here a few months ago. I see he's deactivated his account now, though, for some reason.

https://www.retrorgb.com/sega-saturn-rg ... cable.html

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568036 ... 4itemAdapt

^ BitFunx selling the same one he just happened to see on Amazon and assume was something unique. These RCA RGBS cables have been around for yearssss haha

https://a.co/d/4iC9YGx

https://misteraddons.com/products/satur ... L-a7vMOA2g


^ ffs, MiSTerAddons is selling em. Just paying the manufacturer a wee bit extra to toss on a Svid connector.








These are made in Shenzhen, in the massive factories where Kaico and BitFunx get their shit/or are based out of in the first place.

A massive assortment of stuff people buy, like plentyyyy of recommended gear on Amazon, is often coming from the same factory across by the street owned by the same exact conglomerate that decided to sell RetroTink or the zillion other clones. Maybe even built on the same exact same production floor.

It’s basically moot to rally against Kaico and BitFunx. There’s a zillion other ‘companies’ that are basically the same parent one. You’re really just rallying against some difficult to pin down section of a factory district in Shenzhen itself, and one bored-ass hobbyist who likes reverse engineering things anyway, says fuck it and hands over his clone design, BOM etc for some money.


And yeah, RE: the website - just lazily suggests the same old companies that have been around forever, despite many being unreliable. Zero due diligence taking one’s own time to seek out new interesting options.

[orange808]

Ha. Just plug the RCA into some cheap BNC "adapters" and call it a day.

Hey, let's use the Saturn port because HD-15/DE-15 cables and 3.5 mm audio cables are way too much trouble!

But, is it really that big of a hassle? Is using standard video and audio cabling really (really) that much of a hassle? Are you sure? Is plugging two things into your MiSTer really that bad?

Chances are, you already had a nice BNC to HD-15/DE-15 cable if you're still maintaining a professional CRT monitor. You probably have a 3.5mm to RCA audio cable as well.

Looks like a scam to sell more cables and new cases to me. It's not much more convenient and you're abandoning standards. What's next? Apple Lightning power ports?

[TooBeaucoup]

Man, looking for this thread to reminisce about this cool thing I'm gonna link. But I also read the posts in the thread and felt inclined to say RetroRGB Bob is a fucking dick. Fuck. You. Bob. In the unlikely event you ever see this. Blob: Your ill-informed (not about thingy in this thread, but countless other stuff - btw, you've unknowingly condoned your BFF Kaico/BitFunx numerous times without realizing it) website looks like ass riddled with so many ads as you biasedly condone certain people's stuff, lying through your teeth that you are neutral and just want to recommend the best stuff. Soooo many good cablemakers out there - not just my buddy mentioned later in this post, like sooo many more left perpetually unmentioned.

I don't think I was aware that some people had such contempt for Bob. In the last several years I've watched his videos, he seems to always go out of the way to mention "I'm not saying your way is wrong", "I'm not shilling for this company", or "You can use whatever you like if it works for you" - Usually, this is backed up by him testing things on stream or in a video and usually hooking scopes and equipment up to things to verify what he's claiming. The only time I recall him actively shitting on things is if it poses some kind of risk to people's equipment or if it could damage something. Also, when did he condone Kaico or BitFunx? If he did, that sucks, but I've only seen him shit on that company and constantly warn people not to give them money.

As far as him shilling, the only time I see him recommend products is when the rest of the retro community collectively agrees that it's a good product. How is him recommending a good product shilling? If he was recommending bad products for money, I'd get it. But, I don't think I've seen him recommend any universally hated or bad products to collect a paycheck and "shill" for it. I've also seen him recommend plenty of generic, cheap alternative products instead of expensive ones made by whomever you might consider his friends. I just don't get shill vibes from him.

On a related side note, I just talked to Mike Chi on here a few months ago. I see he's deactivated his account now, though, for some reason.

https://www.retrorgb.com/sega-saturn-rg ... cable.html

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568036 ... 4itemAdapt

^ BitFunx selling the same one he just happened to see on Amazon and assume was something unique. These RCA RGBS cables have been around for yearssss haha

https://a.co/d/4iC9YGx

https://misteraddons.com/products/satur ... L-a7vMOA2g


^ ffs, MiSTerAddons is selling em. Just paying the manufacturer a wee bit extra to toss on a Svid connector.








These are made in Shenzhen, in the massive factories where Kaico and BitFunx get their shit/or are based out of in the first place.

A massive assortment of stuff people buy, like plentyyyy of recommended gear on Amazon, is often coming from the same factory across by the street owned by the same exact conglomerate that decided to sell RetroTink or the zillion other clones. Maybe even built on the same exact same production floor.

It’s basically moot to rally against Kaico and BitFunx. There’s a zillion other ‘companies’ that are basically the same parent one. You’re really just rallying against some difficult to pin down section of a factory district in Shenzhen itself, and one bored-ass hobbyist who likes reverse engineering things anyway, says fuck it and hands over his clone design, BOM etc for some money.


And yeah, RE: the website - just lazily suggests the same old companies that have been around forever, despite many being unreliable. Zero due diligence taking one’s own time to seek out new interesting options.

Well, I guess cables are sort of unavoidable if one or two companies control everything. I guess I was more thinking about Kaico/BitFunx cloning things like the OSSC (Even though it's open source), or certain GC video products or ODE products or some of the little other niche circuit boards that smaller creators make. Bob and most of the community always seem pretty much against that, which is about all you can do, I suppose. I guess I never detected what I thought was him being purposely malicious to anyone or trying to give out bad information, so in that regard it seems a bit extreme to me to hate him. Idk. lol

[ldeveraux]

As far as him shilling, the only time I see him recommend products is when the rest of the retro community collectively agrees that it's a good product. How is him recommending a good product shilling? If he was recommending bad products for money, I'd get it. But, I don't think I've seen him recommend any universally hated or bad products to collect a paycheck and "shill" for it. I've also seen him recommend plenty of generic, cheap alternative products instead of expensive ones made by whomever you might consider his friends. I just don't get shill vibes from him.

Call it what you will, but his constant recommendation of at the time the highest priced SCARTSW with no cheaper alternatives comes to mind. He even interviewed SuperG (who's also not here any longer) and praised him highly in the interview.

Look I'm glad there's someone out there reviewing products of a niche market, but I don't think he pays for those products he tests. Someone like Consumer Reports buys each car they test so as not to appear biased. It's hard to draw the line between an honest review and "I essentially got paid or received free stuff to review". I've seen enough of his reviews that I made the personal decision to no longer trust the source.

[Josh128]

Probably OT, but I just want to jump in here and praise Mikes RGB2COMP unit. Got one last year or so and while I used to recommend the cheap $50 units on Ebay that you have to tweak pots for colors and mod to passthrough audio, I didnt know what I was missing. Mikes unit just "works", and if your TV or monitors color is correct, there is no adjustment to be made. Brilliant picture and sound. Wish I had gotten one when he released them.

[TooBeaucoup]

As far as him shilling, the only time I see him recommend products is when the rest of the retro community collectively agrees that it's a good product. How is him recommending a good product shilling? If he was recommending bad products for money, I'd get it. But, I don't think I've seen him recommend any universally hated or bad products to collect a paycheck and "shill" for it. I've also seen him recommend plenty of generic, cheap alternative products instead of expensive ones made by whomever you might consider his friends. I just don't get shill vibes from him.

Call it what you will, but his constant recommendation of at the time the highest priced SCARTSW with no cheaper alternatives comes to mind. He even interviewed SuperG (who's also not here any longer) and praised him highly in the interview.

Look I'm glad there's someone out there reviewing products of a niche market, but I don't think he pays for those products he tests. Someone like Consumer Reports buys each car they test so as not to appear biased. It's hard to draw the line between an honest review and "I essentially got paid or received free stuff to review". I've seen enough of his reviews that I made the personal decision to no longer trust the source.

I'd say the only time I truly give any weight to what he or anyone says is when they back it up with testing. So if he shows an expensive product and puts it on a scope to test for interference, ripple, distortion, whatever, I'll gladly take his opinion as legit. As for getting free products, I know he's mentioned more than a few times that he's gotten certain things for free. I also know I've seen him disclose that he's paid for certain items (If you believe him, I guess).

As for the SCARTSW, I guess I don't recall everything that came out of his mouth. I always thought he simply reviewed things and said whether he thought it was a quality device or not. Obviously, nobody is forced to purchase any product. I guess I never had a problem with him simply because I never saw him recommending products that were clearly trash, kind of like an Adam Koralik. That dude reviews every piece of broken trash under the sun and then tells people to buy it. LOL! Idk. I don't think any reviewer is ever perfect. I guess it's the hate part that confuses me. Like his attitude or dislike it, he never came off as the type of dude that needed to be hated or sent to the pits of hell. With that said, I've never bought a product simply based on anything he's said. I typically wait for 4 or 5 different opinions before I pull the trigger on anything.

[ldeveraux]

I'd say the only time I truly give any weight to what he or anyone says is when they back it up with testing. So if he shows an expensive product and puts it on a scope to test for interference, ripple, distortion, whatever, I'll gladly take his opinion as legit. As for getting free products, I know he's mentioned more than a few times that he's gotten certain things for free. I also know I've seen him disclose that he's paid for certain items (If you believe him, I guess).

As for the SCARTSW, I guess I don't recall everything that came out of his mouth. I always thought he simply reviewed things and said whether he thought it was a quality device or not. Obviously, nobody is forced to purchase any product. I guess I never had a problem with him simply because I never saw him recommending products that were clearly trash, kind of like an Adam Koralik. That dude reviews every piece of broken trash under the sun and then tells people to buy it. LOL! Idk. I don't think any reviewer is ever perfect. I guess it's the hate part that confuses me. Like his attitude or dislike it, he never came off as the type of dude that needed to be hated or sent to the pits of hell. With that said, I've never bought a product simply based on anything he's said. I typically wait for 4 or 5 different opinions before I pull the trigger on anything.

Here's the interview with SuperG, I knew it existed! There's also one with Mike, I have literally no comment on it as I didn't watch/listen. I'm sure it's a lot of bowing at the altar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVRYHIpt7r0
I absolutely remember reading that Bob or his company went in on some retro products despite what their policy says, though I can't find record of it. That's about when I stopped following. I don't mean to bash on the guy too much really, I like the majority of the recommendations he's made. It's just not for me any more.

[kitty666cats]

I'm assuredly speaking the opinion of numerous people from the hobby/this forum too (hell no I ain't no snitch), he's not the worst guy - but he absolutely gives off an air of "this is the only option out there" when endorsing and reviewing devices, and it's drained the FUCK out of a lot of people's wallets, collectively. I know people can do what they want with their money, but (using this again as a general scenario, but seen several cases just like this) very heavily endorsing a gcompsw while neglecting to mention something like how you can get a component matrix switcher for dirt cheap on eBay realllllly irks me. That's like a $250 difference that so, so many people are completely unaware of.

I suppose it's on them for not doing their due diligence, but the guy and his website lean heavily away from pushing people to do their own diligence about certain gear - which just happens to cost a LOT. A lot of his 'officially endorsed' Amazon items are also shit, and I've seen prices drive WAY up on them. There's some HDMI audio extractor that went from, like, $20 to $50 but it's sold under so many different brand names. People won't look and see that they can get the same thing for cheaper, and the guy never admits it.

There's just an undeniable air of dollar signs behind his eyes and he's monopolized the collective knowledge of people on this forum (and others) to the point where an alternative website would probably be doomed to fail. It's just unfortunate seeing word taken as gospel draining people of their hard earned money. It really, really all comes down to money for me - and my ire that he's directly and indirectly (i.e. for several close associates) vampirically drained this money from the naive public's wallets for so long.

https://castlemaniagames.com/products/r ... rt-cleaner

And selling something as simple a design as this for THAT much money - from a website with such a consistently horrendous track record - makes me pissed.

And, again, starting a snowball effect of negativity that fucks up people like the individual this thread is about. Who we’ve steered so far away from. Once again, that design of an all-purpose SCART + VGA switcher that doubles as a transcoder/encoder is *brilliant*, and it’s an absolute shame that it went so overlooked. That’s really what this is about, aside from the secondary debate. Brilliant ingenuity left unacknowledged because of one batch of videogame toys slightly off-spec from one man’s scope reading.