RetroN 5 to sport 720p HDMI, 9 system support

[Fudoh]

(or mod your PS2 to output in RGB 31hz all the time)

details please!

then you can ditch the line doubler all together.

neither the XPloder nor the GSM work with all the games - far from it actually.

[shmuppyLove]

Makes you wonder where they go from here. I imagine in a few years (when patents/copyrights expire/pin connectors become available) they can add even more systems like N64, TG-16, Atari 2600/7800, Game Gear, Neo Geo and maybe Intellivision/Colecovision and other Atari consoles (For Master System you just use a Power Base Converter, the Genesis/Mega Drive slot could also take 32X games and you could play Neo Geo Pocket games through an adapter to the Neo Geo slot). But that's assuming they get compatibility and image quality right.

I'd like to see something like this, but with a modular approach.

e.g., the core system can be designed to run all these different systems, and maybe it has slots for the most common ones built in. Then, if you want to expand the support for additional systems, you can connect a cartridge/card connector/slot whatever via an expansion port.

But somebody kind of already did that.

[Fudoh]

A few screenshots are available:

http://hyperkingames.tumblr.com/post/47 ... effects-on

[trap15]

lol nearest neighbor scaling with non-integral scale factors...

[Fudoh]

that's no nearest neighbor scaling. Pixel edges are to blurry for this.... Anyway, certainly good enough for most people - especially for those coming from composite on a LCD screen

[trap15]

You sure? Look at the right-most pixel of the left-most wall, and look at the pixel right next to it. Similar problems all over the image....

[Fudoh]

that's why it's no nearest neighbour scaling (which would be 100% clean). Nevertheless, except for a few XRGB users, this will be way better than the original thing (if a LCD screen is the target).

[trap15]

It'd be 100% clean if it had an integral scaling factor (2x, 3x, 4x, etc). Non-integral scale factors (like 1.5x, 2.75x, etc) do hideous stuff like that.

Or maybe I'm confusing terminology?

[Fudoh]

you migth. Nearest neighbour scaling really just allows to use either the left or right pixel and duplicate it. You might end up with some columns/rows slightly wider/higher than others, but you never end up with blurred pixel or chroma problems like these.

Anyway, for a $100 box that's WAY BETTER than what I expected and I will certainly pick one up to give the GBA emulation a try.

[Ed Oscuro]

I concur with Fudoh. In the screenshot shown here above, the border between blue and black pixels (wall / water) is sharply defined, but green / brown pixels are partly blended together, with a central portion looking like the original, while the border areas look horribly blended. This appears systematic, but how can we be sure of the cause?

RetroN 5 isn't supposed to output a 500x441 resolution so the result of that scaling problem could have multiple causes. Compare with the non sequitur captions in this Hyperkin advertising image:

Maybe this image appears in a context that explains what it's meant to show (I grabbed it off this page without bothering to read what they wrote about it, and at a glance that looks like a justified time-saving measure), but it does appear that they are showing "idealized" (or worst-case, if that SNES 'screenshot' is any indication) images rather than images as displayed at HD resolutions, which could make some images look better or worse than others. It doesn't seem especially useful or honest.

What seems possible is that some of the images are being screwed up by image scaling after the fact, for publishing on the web. The Tumblr page is almost silent on detail about what the screens are meant to show, or if they even are meant to. The scanlined image is really bad, perhaps because it's been rescaled - as far as I can tell the scanlines look like they start at the right spot on each row (nevermind I don't think they should look anything like that, which appears to be a simple second-line-dimmed pattern), but the screenshot looks bad partly because the pattern results in a sort of vertical jailbar effect. Page 2 of this document shows examples of a spurious bar pattern appearing due to scaling (bicubic and bilinear in the examples), just like those seen in the scanlined screenshot. It also shows a couple example of nearest-neighbor scaling problems and (the main thrust of the paper) a method of obscuring the spurious macro patterns it can generate, like what Fudoh mentions here.

I will leave you with some words of wisdom from the linked Hyperkin page to ponder deeply:

What interpolation does is instead of repeating each low quality sample, it creates new samples between the originals. As a result, it creates a smoother, crisper sound output than the original sound.

What kind of interpolation? Smoother AND crisper? Is crisper aliased? Who knows.

[Jeneki]

Wow, they're actually using an image in the wrong aspect ratio for advertising?

[lettuce]

Did they confirm what filter options the RetroN5 would have for video?

Thinking of picking one up just for NES use, the composite picture on the nes is less than ideal and thinking this might be a much better option??

[eightbitminiboss]

I'd honestly want to see a screenshot of how it renders NES, those screenshots they have now do not give me a lot of confidence.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow, they're actually using an image in the wrong aspect ratio for advertising?

Isn't Ken supposed to be more beefy like the RetroN screenshot there, at least in the arcade original? Certainly, showing these side-by-side screenshots without the full view makes judging anything much harder. It certainly looks pretty laughable on the face of it.

[lettuce]

New info here from E3.....

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/11/hand ... n=Engadget

Seems it not actual system on chip design, but actually running an advanced Android Rom!

[Fudoh]

I think this was made clear the day they announced the system.

[shmuppyLove]

Wow, were they trying to make it as ugly as possible?

[Ji-L87]

Ohjeez, I don't want that...that thing near my other consoles in the case it's contagious.

Clearly a mutant, that!

[kamiboy]

It looks like someone dropped a Super Famicom in a vat of toxic waste. The first thing I thought of when I saw the picture was this scene.

[broken harbour]

It's as if their trying to compete with PS4 and XBone for 'ugliest console you'll buy this generation'.