XRGB-mini Framemeister

[youtoo]

Hey guys, I ordered my Mini last week, and now I urgently need a Euro Scart-to-Mini adapter.

I will be plugging:
- Jap MD2
- Jap Saturn
- Pal MD1 (and potentially a Pal MD2)
- Pal PS2

Do you think I need the one with power input or without for these consoles?

A) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micomsoft-XRGB- ... 2570862f11

B) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micomsoft-XRGB- ... 3832wt_912

A or B?

[darthcloud]

Hey guys, I ordered my Mini last week, and now I urgently need a Euro Scart-to-Mini adapter.

I will be plugging:
- Jap MD2
- Jap Saturn
- Pal MD1 (and potentially a Pal MD2)
- Pal PS2

Do you think I need the one with power input or without for these consoles?

A) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micomsoft-XRGB- ... 2570862f11

B) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micomsoft-XRGB- ... 3832wt_912

A or B?

I'm sure the seller of this would be more than happy to answer your questions through an eBay question. He is manufacturing those and is the best person to answer compatibility question for your particular situation.

You can check your SCART cables with a multimeter for the 5v pin. If you read 5V I guess you are fine with the regular one.

[youtoo]

I actually asked her, but I'm still waiting for the answer... I figured maybe somebody knew it over here.

[youtoo]

I'm sure the seller of this would be more than happy to answer your questions through an eBay question. He is manufacturing those and is the best person to answer compatibility question for your particular situation.

You can check your SCART cables with a multimeter for the 5v pin. If you read 5V I guess you are fine with the regular one.

I don't have a multimeter, but what I do is test them with my Sync Strike turned off...
Btw darthcloud, I see you're from Montreal. Do you know by any chance anyone there that would make this kind of cables? I'm also in Montreal

[Fudoh]

If you already have a sync strike, I would just get a HD15 to MiniDin8 cable without any additional electronics and use it this way.

[Hamburglar]

If you already have a sync strike, I would just get a HD15 to MiniDin8 cable without any additional electronics and use it this way.

Just wondering, what's the benefit to using the Sync Strike with the XRGB Mini?

[ZellSF]

Yai, got composite sync cable for my SNES today, and it definitely needed it (it should be a 1CHIP SNES...), no sync issues at all now.

[youtoo]

If you already have a sync strike, I would just get a HD15 to MiniDin8 cable without any additional electronics and use it this way.

I may do that for now, but I would be happy to get rid of the Sync Strike and its power supply, so I will eventually switch to the Scart-to-MiniDin8 cable...

I'm thinking of buying the one with extra power input, just in case... I guess nothing bad will happen if I end up don't needing to plug it to the power supply...

[BuckoA51]

Just got mine today, so far its okay, though biggest disappointment was to find that the Genesis and Amiga still won't Vsync lock, which means stuttery scrolling in Genesis and Master System games. I pretty much expected this I suppose, but since nobody else had reported it I did hold out some hope. I guess that it's just a limitation of my particular TV set. I do intend to try a Genesis 2 see if the outputs any different, but I can't really do anything about the Amiga other than play 60hz games without vlock.

SMS games stutter too (since they are going through the SMS converter) but are otherwise perfect which is great, PC Engine even works now, which is fantastic! There's a bar of like a white haze at the top of the PC Engine's picture and a bit of banding if you look really really closely but otherwise it's flawless and nothing I can't live with.

RGB modded N64, however, doesn't work at all! Works fine on the XRGB3 and on the DVDO Edge but just gets no signal on the Mini. Not tried any of my 480p stuff yet as I need to run a new cable for that and we all know what a nightmare that is

One thing I'm not clear on is the horizontal and vertical scaling options, I'm on Firmware 1.5 and I see H_SCALER and V_SCALER, H_WIDTH and V_WIDTH. H_SCALER and V_SCALER seem to be greyed out (though I've only tried 240p material so far), H_WIDTH AND V_WIDTH don't seem to work (I seem to remember someone saying there was an issue with them?)

So yeah a real shame about the Sony having this V_LOCK issue with certain machines as it's a lovely gaming TV otherwise, but I guess that's life. Mini is sure not as problematic as the XRGB3 but still not perfect!

Any news on firmware 1.7, very interested in trying PAL stuff but don't want to give up the English menus!

[shinjig]

I tried this out again when my Asus vh236h monitor came in yesterday. I'm noticing some color bleeding, now. I'm not sure if its the monitor or my cabling, though it didn't appear when I hooked up the PS3 so I'm thinking its the cabling. Was there an option in the menu that might correct this to some degree?

[Fudoh]

Mega Drive completely v-locks on my Sony set and so do SMS games. Neo Geo MVS (59.15Hz) has a very slight stutter every now and then, but at least it just works. N64 is really just a cable matter. Will definitely work fine.

H_ and V_SCALER are greyed out if you chose a scaling preset (Game = 6/6, Video = 6/5). Disable the preset and set H to 5 for a little bit of added sharpness on 240p games. H and V_WIDTH work to some degree, but I don't use them. It's a hassle as the Mini needs to resync with every click you change those settings.

Regarding V_Sync: this is certainly as good as it gets with HDMI sets. Micomsoft did REAL MAGIC to make the Mini output v-locked stuff like 59.1Hz and make modern TVs display it after all.

[BuckoA51]

Fudoh, do you still have your Extron 203rxi in your chain? If so, what does the V frequency say on yours for the Genesis? I'm seeing 59.3 on my Genny which I guess is just that little bit out of spec. I'll get around to trying it on some other TV's too see if its just a problem with this particular Sony Bravia.

[Fudoh]

pretty sure that it says 59.8, but you can simply check the full status page on the Mini and it will show you the exact input frequency, even with two digits after the decimal point. I don't think that the MD was so way off. 59.3 seems to be way to problematic for a home video game system.

[BuckoA51]

Ah right didn't realise it was in the full status.. Yep my Genesis is 59.37, I bet you're not all so envious of my Jailbar free machine now huh? I'll try my Mk2 Genesis once the cable gets here from Retro Console Accessories.

Amiga is 59.28 in 60hz so that's even further out. Looks lovely apart from the stuttering though.

Also On PAL material on 1.05 I get "unsupported signal", is that normal? I'm not that bothered just thought I'd still get a picture.

[Fudoh]

FWs prior to 1.06 did not support 50Hz RGB, just component. 1.06 does PAL on all inputs.

Yep my Genesis is 59.37

that really seems to be too far off. I'm using a japanese unit, but even modded PAL units should be much closer to 60Hz, otherwise we would have heard about problems with all kinds of displays.

[BuckoA51]

I'll dig out my other Megadrives/Genesis to test. This is a genuine NTSC Sega Genesis Mk1 I'm using, serial number 420043246.

[anticipating]

Any news on firmware 1.7, very interested in trying PAL stuff but don't want to give up the English menus!

If you haven't been on fw1.6 I'd encourage you to at least try it. Half the menu options are English anyway after the first screen, and memory and a bit of trial and error should get you through just fine. I don't know a word of Japanese and I've been using it constantly with no major hassle.

[BuckoA51]

Well I still have my XRGB3 hooked up so PAL stuff can just go through that.

Tried a 60hz modded Megadrive Mk1, it came out at 59.38 and also stutters.

[Fudoh]

Before I tell rubbish from shoddy memory, let me hook up my MD and give it a spin. Maybe tonight, otherwise tomorrow.

[Konsolkongen]

Japanese MegaDrive 1. 59.91Hz, no stuttering and perfect V-sync on my Panasonic plasma.



EDIT: You can also remove 90% of the visible jailbars on all MegaDrive 1's by lifting a pin on the video chip. Add scanlines to that, and you pretty much end up with the perfect MegaDrive experience

[blizzz]

I just tested my 60Hz modded SNES and it runs at 59.56 fps (50.01 fps in 50Hz mode) while my original SFC runs at 60.10 fps, nearly 1% difference. Guess modding consoles doesn't always give you perfect 60Hz.

[BuckoA51]

I just tested my 60Hz modded SNES and it runs at 59.56 fps (50.01 fps in 50Hz mode) while my original SFC runs at 60.10 fps, nearly 1% difference. Guess modding consoles doesn't always give you perfect 60Hz.

Fascinating! It doesn't stop there! How about:-

59.40 - Modded PAL Saturn set to 60hz
59.82 - NTSC Saturn running at 60hz!

The things we collectively discover on this forum huh?

Can anyone sell me a bare bones NTSC CD32 and/or Japanese Megadrive 1?

[Ji-L87]

Quick question (anything that starts out this way will never really be a quick question, will it?)

I don't feel like creating a new thread for this so, how well does the XRGB mini (and/or XRGB 3) handle a non-modded PC Engine Duo?
I'm not sure why, but this seems to be the most problematic console I own I usually use the game Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 2 as a stress test, since the opening uses some kind of effects that will produce artefacts and other issues on my LCD. Only my CRT have cleared it without problem, of course.

Thanks to Fudoh, I now have a VP30+ABT102 combo that I've tried with different sources and it works fairly well. However, this game is still problematic.
I bought a DVD recorder in order to utilize it's combfilter and then send the image through component to the VP30. That almost worked. The recorder's progressive output didn't produce any artefacts and everything that was supposed to flicker, did in fact flicker but the image was kind of wobbly.

So I've been looking on the XRGB 3 and the mini, and I just wonder, do you guys reckon it should be able to pull it off?

[Fudoh]

Isn't the whole problem this "non-modded" ? The PCE on the Mini looks ok'ish since the PCE's composite signal isn't this bad to start with, but how good can it get considering "rubbish in, rubbish out". I would make much more sense to just have the PCE RGB-modded and be happy with the VP30's performance (which is really good with RGB).

But to answer your question more deeply: your TV or the VP30 do not recognize 240p, but treat it as 480i. I don't know about your DVD recorder though. Both the XRGB-3 or the Mini correctly see 240p and won't apply any deinterlacing which is obvisouly causing the artefacts you see. Nevertheless I would prefer RGB + 480i processing anytime over composite + 240p recognition

Although the VP30 does not see 240p as progressive, Gamemode 1 usually treats flicker effects pretty good. Not in this case ?

[Shining]

And as for my PC Engine Duo-RX.. I bought it in 2007 from VideoGameImports.com and it's RGB modded. I get no picture whatsoever but i do get sound. I have never had any problems connecting it directly to my TV. What do you think might be the issue here?

You could always open up the system and share a photo to identify the particular RGB mod used?

I have finally been able to open up my Duo-RX. Please take a look at these pictures to have a look at the mod and the scart RGB cable being used: http://imgur.com/a/JzOgL#0

When using the original 8pin to SCART adapter shipped with the Mini i get neither picture nor audio, so it's safe to say the RGB cable being used is of the Euro model sort. When using Retro Accessoris Euro SCART to XRGB Mini 8 pin adapter(the first cheaper model) i do get audio, but no picture. I have just ordered the second version of the Euro SCART to XRGB Mini 8 pin adapter which takes its power from the power supply, hoping that it will solve the problem. If not, i really don't know what to do.

So, can you guys see any 'faults' in this mod looking at the pictures?

[Ji-L87]

Isn't the whole problem this "non-modded" ? The PCE on the Mini looks ok'ish since the PCE's composite signal isn't this bad to start with, but how good can it get considering "rubbish in, rubbish out". I would make much more sense to just have the PCE RGB-modded and be happy with the VP30's performance (which is really good with RGB).

Yes, most probably. And, well, I wouldn't mind getting it modded so much as I have no idea who to ask to perform the mod. If I have to send it 'round the world, I'd rather not.
I'm actually quite happy with the composite out from the PCE as far as quality goes. I mean, RGB (or s-video) would be better but this is by no means bad.

Although the VP30 does not see 240p as progressive, Gamemode 1 usually treats flicker effects pretty good. Not in this case ?

Gamemode 1 treats flicker effects good but the picture quality is bit...less desirable. (Though not overly bad, I guess). Gamemode 2 looks almost perfect though, sans the problems.
Introducing my dvd-recorder makes the picture shake on gamemode 1 though.

I'd probably have to move this discussion to a more fitting thread if I want to go on about this.

But if the XRGB-mini (and the older products in the family) would offer a superior picture in this case, I'm all ears.

/You can have the thread back now

[Yamato]

Hi there! I got my XRGB-mini a couple of days ago and now I want to use it with my Dreamcast too. I managed to mod my VGA box for 15 khz output so no cable swapping is required anymore But now I need to get a custom cable solution for converting VGA+Audio L/R to SCART so I can plug it to the XRB-mini's RGB input at the front. Can you buy such a cable somewhere? I don't want to use an extra piece of hardware like the UMSA Scart adapter. Many thanks!

[Hamburglar]

Japanese MegaDrive 1. 59.91Hz, no stuttering and perfect V-sync on my Panasonic plasma.



EDIT: You can also remove 90% of the visible jailbars on all MegaDrive 1's by lifting a pin on the video chip. Add scanlines to that, and you pretty much end up with the perfect MegaDrive experience

Which pin?

[jaxmazon]

quick question I have noticed my super nintendo PAL when using rgb looks slightly blurry (when compared to the megadrive which is very sharp)

is this because rgb on a PAL snes is rubbish?

or could it be my cable?

thanks

[Fudoh]

Most SNES units have a slightly blurry picture. If you go back a few pages, you'll find infos about getting a 1-CHIP SNES built from 1995 onwards. Not this easy to track down, but the best picture of all SNES units.

Nevertheless cable quality is important. On a system like the MD you will get the same quality from most cables. On the SNES good shielding and good coax wires will help to reduce the blur on your current system as much as possible.