XRGB-mini Framemeister

[Woland]

Dear all,
I am using the Framemeister with a Super Famicom. I just got a RGB cable, the result is absolutely awesome...for a few minutes only ! After 3 to 4 min of play, there is some sort of "red" filter coming on screen. It varies in intensity but is clearly visible. I noticed that it tends to disappear when the screen changes (for example when the "pause" menu displays another screen). But it comes back soon when the game restarts.

Does anyone know anything about such issues ? Thanks a lot for your help !

Here is a link to a picture :
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/9869/89j7.jpg

[Fudoh]

Do you have other RGB sources ? If the problem doesn't show with them, I would say that possibly the capacitor in the RED line on the SFC RGB cable is bad.

[Woland]

Thanks for the answer ! Yes I have tested other RGB sources (modified pal PS2 and Japanese AES), there is no such problem.
So I guess you are right on the red capacitor. I will look for ways to sove the issue (I have zero knowledge about it, I am a beginner in all these stuff , if you have any link or advice, that would be very hepful !

[Fudoh]

If you open the scart end of your cable, you'll see that there's a capacitor on each of the RGB lines. Those capacitors tend to die or dry out over the years.

[Shining]

So, what exactly did firmware 1.08 do? I'm still on 1.07A and it's rock solid, any reason to upgrade?

[6tusBeckmesser]

Hello all,

after having gotten a Framemeister and finally a CMVS I decided to upgrade my TV. Now since Loewe is in big trouble I got a Connect ID 32" for an excellent price. Loewe are often regarded as the top of the line and I thought all was well… The seller even reassured me after I feared that there might be problems ahead. "Just change to game mode and all should be well" he said.

Well nothing is well. Even though I'm changing Sync Levels like crazy, the picture continues to flicker away and the colors are as bad as it gets. Gaming is near impossible. And it can't be the cables or anything because even my 6 year old 23" Samsung LCD will work after some tuning.

I'm completely baffled. Does there exist a technical explanation for this? Or even (god forbid) a solution?

[Konsolkongen]

What happens if you don't input any source into the Xrgb? Do you get a stable image of the blue screen and menu (when pressed)? What system(s) are you using, and how are you connecting them to the Xrgb?

What do you mean the colors are as bad as it gets? If this isn't a problem on your Samsung LCD it sounds like it's a problem with the Loewe.

Have you tried changing the sync type from Auto to Off? The main difference here is that Off will lock the output to 60Hz, so as far as I understand that should work even with the most troublesome screens. Sync type is different from the sync level slider. I can't remember where it is in the menu's but it should only take you a few seconds to locate it on your own.

[6tusBeckmesser]

Hi and thank you for getting back to me.

Over the week-end I tried a few things until I found the problem this morning – or so I think.

I did get a blue stable picture (including menu) without any source input from the Framemeister. However, whenever I connected my CMVS through the RGB IN there was blanking and flickering. If a picture showed up the colours were very grey.

Everything was fine when I connected my CMVS straight to the Loewe.

So I continued to try with S-Video and component D-terminal on the XRGB (the Framemeister didn't even register the signal) until I went back to RGB and suddenly it worked. Beautiful picture, could change around sync levels, V-Line intensity, modes and what not. I switched off my CMVS and tried to reproduce it – no luck and I tried a lot.

This morning I got my Samsung LCD 23" back from storage to try again and can you guess it? Nothing worked. Same problem as on the Loewe, stable, blue menu picture put once I switched on the CMVS everything flickered and I only could hear the sound.

I then proceeded to open up my RGB IN cable from retrogamingcables.co.uk. And what did I find? A broken white cable, and within a few seconds a broken red cable too. I guess I found my culprit… Am I right with my assessment?

Since I haven't got the tools nor the knowledge to do some soldering, I ordered a new one. However I'm not the first one with problems with retrogamingcables.co.uk, so fingers crossed.

[Konsolkongen]

Yeah that could be your problem. No you're not the first one who had problem with their products. I think you're the fouth or fifth person I've heard of

Have they offered to replace the cable for free?

[6tusBeckmesser]

No but I didn't ask. I ordered the cable three months ago but I was away for work during summer. Try that explaining to someone

Anyway if this solves my problem, I will simply write the first cable off. Perhaps it's tax deductible. (not really)

Will keep you posted and thank you very much for your help.

[Konsolkongen]

Fingers crossed

[mickcris]

I just got an xrgb-mini recently. For some reason, when you 1st turn it on, it does not show green. If left sitting for a while or hitting rgb input button on the remote, most of the time will make the green start working. Has anyone run into this issue? I am using a eruo scart to mini din adapter instead of the jap21 adapter that came with the unit. Could this cable be the problem possibly?

[Fudoh]

most likely. I doubt that it's the processor itself.

[mickcris]

most likely. I doubt that it's the processor itself.

thanks for the reply. I will try a different cable. ill either try to re-pin the original that came with it or build a new one.

[Fudoh]

The included one isn't great either. Extremely thin audio cables and not the best soldering. Build one from scratch, if you can. Will turn out way better.

[mickcris]

The included one isn't great either. Extremely thin audio cables and not the best soldering. Build one from scratch, if you can. Will turn out way better.

Tried a different cable and it did the same thing. Figured out its only my SNES that is doing it. Seems to be only outputting green after it warms up. So its not an issue with the XRGB-mini.

[NoelEdwards]

Just got a XRGB-mini and I'm having a few issues with it. I can't get to display an image when using a PAL Dreamcast with RGB Scart cable and I have the same problem when using my French PAL N64 with RGB mod on it. Both consoles work fine on XRGB-3 but not with the mini. I was hoping to get rid of XRGB-3 once I got the mini.
Also does anyone have link for best suggested settings
Thanks in advance for any help.

[Konsolkongen]

The problem is most likely that you need to update the firmware. 50Hz support wasn't available when the Mini was released.

[NoelEdwards]

I'm running the latest firmware 1.08.

[Fudoh]

If he got a new Mini, it should already be up to date.

Assuming you tried to alter the RGB sync level, at least on the DC, it's most certainly a ground problem, meaning that your RGB cable uses different pin(s) for gound than your adapter cable expects.

[NoelEdwards]

Sorry to be sounding thick but how do I alter rgb sync level.

Thanks.

[Fudoh]

In the options. I think standard is 9, but you can lower it or raise it to 20 or so... Various RGB system require different settings.

[NoelEdwards]

Thanks Fudoh that sorted the problem I had to up the setting to 16.

[Bog]

For some reason everything works and runs great at 1080p/60, but obviously I want to run at 720p/60 for the authentic look/scan lines. But during most games (SNES/Genesis/whatever), the picture continually drops out. I'll see the image for a second then it'll drop for a few seconds, then it comes back for a second... Rinse/repeat. Is there a way to fix this, or am I stuck running everything at 1080?

Thanks!

[6tusBeckmesser]

For some reason everything works and runs great at 1080p/60, but obviously I want to run at 720p/60 for the authentic look/scan lines. But during most games (SNES/Genesis/whatever), the picture continually drops out. I'll see the image for a second then it'll drop for a few seconds, then it comes back for a second... Rinse/repeat. Is there a way to fix this, or am I stuck running everything at 1080?

Did you try to alter the sync level? See above… Or it might be your RGB IN cable (see my problem above)

Fingers crossed

Just a follow up on this—it was the RGB IN cable. New one fixed it. It seems that a general recommendation should be to double check the RGB IN cable from retrogamingcables.co.uk. Or from other sources for that matter…

[Konsolkongen]

Kewl! Glad that worked for you

[EmperorZelos]

For some reason everything works and runs great at 1080p/60, but obviously I want to run at 720p/60 for the authentic look/scan lines. But during most games (SNES/Genesis/whatever), the picture continually drops out. I'll see the image for a second then it'll drop for a few seconds, then it comes back for a second... Rinse/repeat. Is there a way to fix this, or am I stuck running everything at 1080?

Thanks!

I had a similar issue, it was due to sync levels.

If you use a scart cable and a scart switch between consoles and the framemeister I recomend you get a special scart-input cable for the framemeister like I did, the issue disappeared instantly

[EmperorZelos]

I do have a question, what does Sync Mode do? What is the differens between Auto and Off?

And another, what is this Vsync issue I read about the framemeister having?

[Fudoh]

When set to off, the input framerate gets converted to a standard NTSC output rate. When set to Auto the output refresh rate gets "bended" (despite) the official HDMI timings, according to the input refresh rate. Basically a framerate-lock.

There are no VSync issues issues. There's just a bug which not always fully disables the sync lock even when set to off. Can cause problems with picky capture cards like Blackmagic.

[Midnight Milkshake]

Hi!

Finally got a mini and I'm very impressed with the quality, but have some minor problems (all related to red colour) that don't know if the ara normal or can be solved. For more info, I'm using Konsolkongen settings and 480i / 240p (the second one with Tekken 5's arcade ports of 1 and 2) to 720 / 1080p.

The first one only happens with my main TV (Pioneer Kuro) and think that it's the same that MMjuno had, he comments it here:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 62#p917762

The scanlines are perfect with 720p output until they cross red areas, then, I get uneven.

Did what he says, and solved it, but I'm losing like a 15% of the screen because can't adjust the screen size with the Smart2x option selected; so, can it be solved, or this is the only way to get good scanlines with my tv?

The other one dont know if it's really a problem, or some kind of eye perception, it also happens with the red and also with my Iiyama monitor. The problem is that when a sprite is red, if it's moves, there's some noise/fuzziness inside it, for example, Ken's Alpha 3 standing animation shows it clearly; is it normal, or could be solved with some tweaking?


thanks!