Forcing Fake Hi-Res back to true Low-Res on a HDTV

[Skykid]

Pretty ridiculous to go through all that trouble when you probably have a true low-res monitor lying around. Props for the dedication though.

I often wondered why going the route of XRGB to achieve this effect is necessary.
People are literally throwing crt monitors away left right and centre at the moment.

[Animaitor]

I often wondered why going the route of XRGB to achieve this effect is necessary.
People are literally throwing crt monitors away left right and centre at the moment.

I own a CRT that my wife uses as the main TV. I use my LCD to play shmups and in a snap and with no effort you get tate. If I was not living in Japan on a 40m square hole and single, I might have a dedicated CRT but space is a real problem in this country. The XRGB (any model) is as small as a PS2 slime and gives you much more than just scanlines.

Strider77, if you don't mind I'll quote you from the Mushihimesama thread just to have the info on this thread. It'll make things easier for future reference.

true but you can also use the Extron Emotia and convert 480i into 240p... once I get the 4 BNC to Scart cables I'll do some tests with DDP: DOJ on the 360 + Emotia + XRBG-3.

I was going to see what this looks like myself with Death Smiles. I do know for sure if you switched your console to 480p with a vga cord it can be done.

As long as the 480p imagine is just line double and not filtered to death.

I was gonna just feed the emotia vga form the 360 then go to a SONY PVM low res monitor though.

I have done this (with dreamcast stuff) going into an XRGB2 and 2+ like you mention attemting...

The results visually were dead on. I had to tweak some color and picture adjustments mildly, mostly brightness, but it worked.

As for lag... I tryed it with a few shooters and fighters. I could not notice any, but I'm human.

I do know the emotia itself adds no lag... at least no more than a XRGB2+ does.

Keep in mind I did this with a CRT HDTV... NOT LCD. My Sony CRT has TWO native resolutions (480p AND 1080i). I get zero scaling with 480p material. I can't speak for LCD... I believe it is possible but only if you payed at least 1200.00 RECENTLY (that's me lowering what I think you should have spent for arguments sake also) or paid alot more in the past for your LCD. Along with alot of research on you purchase.

But it all depends on the person also... everyone always assumes SOME lag is going to be noticed. SOME lag can break down to 500's to 1000's of a second ect. There is a point where I think saying it's not possible for a human to see/register/and physically act on that small fraction of time is less devil's advicate and more science. But I have no way of knowing or measuring time on that small a scale with lag....

I'd say from my experience I could notice no lag on my set up.... it's up to you weather you think I am good enough and all to notice. I can argue that I certainly didn't play worse than I normally do though for sure. But like I said my TV does 480p native.


But if we are talking YOKO mode or starting with 480i.... forget it. Don't bother.

I can see GP's concern for lag though and I did this right when I was getting into PCBs so I've replaced anything that I would have wanted to use it for.

The 360 stuff I might use with the emotia since it's only going into the emotia then to a low res monitor.

Also interesting notes from Fudoh:

Of course the XRGB-2plus has component inputs, it's just a japanese D-Terminal socket, but component nevertheless. The problem is that the scanline emulation works with 240p input only, but the 360 is limited to 480i output as a minimum. To play Futari or any other 360 shoot'em up with scanlines you need to go this way: 360 via VGA -> Emotia -> XRGB-2+/3 -> CRT TV. The Emotia will do a losless and lagfree VGA to 240p RGB conversion. I had this setup running with a Dreamcast and Animaitor is setting it up right now....

Fudoh forgot to mention that a 4BNC to Scart cable (with a Japanese layout) is needed to connect the Emotia to the XRGB.

These things generally manipulate the image... that by definition is going to introduce at least a frame of lag.

The Emotias are raw analogue circuits. The output is locked to the input and you have a delay of just 2 video lines. If you want to measure this in time, it's about 0.07ms.

[Strider77]

I have got a 360 VGA cable on the way.... once it shows up I can post some pics of death smiles on the 360 with scanlines via a emotia unit.

[Animaitor]

Great! I'm just missing a 4BNC to Scart cable that Markus is getting ready at the moment. Once I get it, I'll do some tests as well. It seems that the arcade mode on Deathsmiles is a good candidate for scanline tests... the game in clean "HD" quality looks ugly as hell!!

[Strider77]

I thought the remixed modes look surprisingly good.