Extron DSC 301 HD (RGB>HDMI+scaling)-Best settings for 480p?

[dr_myslihiiri]

Was the text you quoted complete?

Yes. Only other text on bottom of page is what the PREVIOUS updates did.

Huh, that’s strange. Why release a new firmware with no changes? The other possibility, of course, is that they fouled up when compiling the release notes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dr_myslihiiri]

The other possibility, of course, is that they fouled up when compiling the release notes.

Well, I received a link to the release notes from Extron's tech support, and it seems the problem is that the CSS layout on the web page is broken. As a result, web browsers truncate the content, hiding the actual changes.

The following is a list of changes and fixes in this release.

Fixed Issue (originated in 1.00.0011) – Input presets deleted after a power cycle – After restoring a box config to a DSC 301 HD and performing a power cycle, the recently restored input presets would be lost. This issue has been resolved in version 1.28.0001.

Fixed Issue (originated in v1.00.0011) – Recalled input preset values could be lost after an input hot plug or power cycle – The signal sampling and picture control values of a recalled input preset could be lost after a hot plug of the input signal, or after a power cycle as values were not being written into Auto Memory. This issue has been resolved in version 1.28.0001.

Updated Feature – Copyright year out of date – The copyright year has been updated to the correct year.

Updated Feature – Copyright message out of date – The copyright message has been changed from “Extron Electronics” to “Extron”.

[pneumatic]

Hello, new user here.

I was about to pull the trigger on an mClassic when I read about the DSC 301 in the mClassic thread. It seems like this may be worth the extra money over the mClassic.

I want to use it in the following scenarios:

1. Wii outputting 480p from Mayflash HDMI adapter -> DSC 301 upscale to 1080p YUV -> Samsung TV

2. Wii U outputting 1080p RGB limited range -> DSC 301 convert to 1080p YUV (limited or full, I'm not bothered) -> Samsung TV

Crucially, I need to output YUV because my display has bad video processing in RGB mode which cannot be fixed. The DSC 301 manual implies we can manually force the output format to YUV - can anyone confirm this works on Wii U? I can't even get my HDMI switcher to work with Wii U because it uses that silly 1080p RGB limited format.

Crucially, I also need it to perform the 601 to 709 colourimetry conversion when upscaling 480p to 1080p - does DSC 301 oblige? According to this report, mClassic does correctly convert 601 to 709 (but obviously interferes with the colours in other ways that are undesirable). Basically, Mario's had should look a deep saturated red, not a pale orangey red (http://www.glennchan.info/articles/tech ... ec601.html). As far as I can tell OSSC and Retrotink 5x do not convert 601 to 709 (please correct me if I'm wrong, there is such little info on this).

Thanks

[azumaro]

Hi guys,

I recentry got extron SSP-200 from ebay and old PCS from this post.

Do you have insider access to the Extron PCS update?
They never give insider account to end-user.

with gratitude from Japan

[SGGG2]

Picked up a second DSC, getting artifacts when brightness and contrast are adjusted to certain levels, tried the same exact video chain on my other unit and it’s fine. Tried factory resetting and going through the menus to see if I missed anything, but the issue is still present.

Spoiler

[SavagePencil]

Firmware disparity?

[SGGG2]

Went away after changing some settings, not sure what it was.

[Dusko]

Hello all!
I just bought a DSC-301-HD for a decent price and I wonder if the output will be sharper than my RGB-HDMI-300-a, has anyone compared the two?
For reference, I'm using the 300-a to capture my 486 PC VGA output (using a ezcap Gamedock Ultra as the capture device)
I also have a Gefen ext-vgaaud-2-hdmis and the image quality is spectacular, but it has some really annoying notification when the resolution changes that can't be turned off.
Any thoughts?

[SGGG2]

IIRC, The Gefen VGA to HDMI uses the the same scaling engine as their VGA to DVI units, if that’s the case, the sharpness is far superior on on the 301.

[Dusko]

IIRC, The Gefen VGA to HDMI uses the the same scaling engine as their VGA to DVI units, if that’s the case, the sharpness is far superior on on the 301.

Compared to the Extron 300a or the Gefens?

[SGGG2]

I have no experience with the 300a.

[Dusko]

I have no experience with the 300a.

Got it, thanks for clarifying. Happy Holidays!

[SGGG2]

FYI, make sure to get a high quality VGA to RCA adapter for component sources. I was shocked at how much sharper and detailed the image was with a BNC adapter over the Monoprice VGA to Component adapter I was using. Even better would be using an OSSC for line doubling and/or transcoding before the 301.

[Dochartaigh]

FYI, make sure to get a high quality VGA to RCA adapter for component sources. I was shocked at how much sharper and detailed the image was with a BNC adapter over the Monoprice VGA to Component adapter I was using. Even better would be using an OSSC for line doubling and/or transcoding before the 301.

DSC 301 HD has a simple VGA/RB15 connector for analog signals. It'll let you use a super cheap (usually, on eBay a lot) Extron brand 5x BNC to VGA/DB15 cable (which I've used with cheap RCA to BNC adapters – I've tried about 200 of them and brand doesn't seem to matter), and I commonly use 12-25' runs... NO reason to use anything else with the high availability of this cable (and/or the shorter dongle version with female BNC's you can hook a nice regular Extron BNC to BNC cable to or whatever). In setups you can run RGBHV, RGBS, YPbPr, etc over that same cable ending in VGA/DB15 (just don't use the BNC's you don't need).

And yeah, ever since the start I was using OSSC to initially line-double/2x 480p to 960p for input to the DSC 301 HD.

[Dusko]

I received my new Extron DSC-301HD in the mail last week, and can confirm that the image quality is much better than the RGB-HDMI-300A to capture DOS.
The Gefen VGA to HDMI Scaler is sharper than the Extron DSC-301HD, the pixels are better defined on the Gefen. (I have all 3 of them).

[orange808]

I believe the Gefen scalers were 4:4:4, so good graphics scaling makes sense. Unfortunately, those didn't have frame lock or programmable frame rate output, so the motion will not be great. Frame rate conversion is unavoidable.

[rancid]

Hey guys,

Sorry to necro an old thread, but I am curious if anyone has ever tried the DSC301 HD with the Nintendo Switch? I can get a picture with all my other devices, but for the Switch it just sits on a black screen no matter what I try.

Chain: Switch > DSC 301HD (480p) > Porta HDMI to Component > GBS-C > VGA (with compnent out enabled) to CRT. I am using this setup to downscale and was hoping I could get the built-in picture adjustments from the DSC301. This setup works perfect with my gaming laptop, just swap the laptop for the Switch in the chain.

[charlizardon]

Can't recall I've had any inherent issues with the Switch (though I've mostly used a Wii U for testing purposes), but one thing you could try is to use the DSC 301 to downscale directly to 240p, thus bypassing the GBS-C.

It requires a custom EDID (confirmed to work with a 1920x240p resolution) but it's fairly simple to set up. You need the Extron PCS software and a mini USB cable to load the custom resolution onto the DSC 301, but an older version of the software will work so it's available online.

You can use CRU or really any EDID editor to create an EDID .BIN file with the correct timings. I have a file on hand so hit me up if you run into any issues

The downscaled image is very sharp, and you do get access to the centering controls. However, since the menu is placed to the side of the image, it's a bit tricky to set up outside of the control software. You can create a preset to somewhat circumvent this issue.

[orange808]

Interesting.

Can someone confirm working 240p downscaling with this machine, identify the firmware rev, and share a functional "EDID" binary?

I tried it years ago without success, but it's possible I made an error or didn't meet an internal requirement to get output.

[RebeL9]

Sorry for bumping this but a few questions.
How does this scaler compare to Extron DVS 605? In terms of input lag, options (such as zoom etc), image quality etc?
I am only interested in downscaling to 240p from 480p, 720p and 1080p.

[Dochartaigh]

Sorry for bumping this but a few questions.
How does this scaler compare to Extron DVS 605? In terms of input lag, options (such as zoom etc), image quality etc?
I am only interested in downscaling to 240p from 480p, 720p and 1080p.

I think the TVOne Corio2's are the current king of 480p+ to 240p downscaling - not the DSC 301 HD and similar to be honest.

[charlizardon]

Sorry for bumping this but a few questions.
How does this scaler compare to Extron DVS 605? In terms of input lag, options (such as zoom etc), image quality etc?
I am only interested in downscaling to 240p from 480p, 720p and 1080p.

It looks fantastic, and I'd personally choose the DSC's downscaling over the Corio2 because it's a much more versatile device. You can pretty much apply every step of Marco's videos with the same results. I'd argue it's even easier and more practical than his videos let on.

– AFL guarantees 1 frame of lag regardless of input and output resolution, which means the DSC is 16ms downscaler.

– You don't need an Extron Insider account or the proprietary EDID Manager software. Any EDID editor will do, and the PCS software that's compatible with the DSC is readily available online to download.

– Selecting a default 240p preset within a 1920x240 resolution is essentially a four button configuration. Menu -> Preset -> Enter -> Select preset -> Enter. The DSC offers extensive picture controls.

The 240p EDID.bin that Marco links to doesn't have any vertical blanking. I'd recommend bumping the VTotal to 263.

I can send you my custom 240p EDID if you're interested and want to try for yourself.

[RebeL9]

Sorry for bumping this but a few questions.
How does this scaler compare to Extron DVS 605? In terms of input lag, options (such as zoom etc), image quality etc?
I am only interested in downscaling to 240p from 480p, 720p and 1080p.

It looks fantastic, and I'd personally choose the DSC's downscaling over the Corio2 because it's a much more versatile device. You can pretty much apply every step of Marco's videos with the same results. I'd argue it's even easier and more practical than his videos let on.

– AFL guarantees 1 frame of lag regardless of input and output resolution, which means the DSC is 16ms downscaler.

– You don't need an Extron Insider account or the proprietary EDID Manager software. Any EDID editor will do, and the PCS software that's compatible with the DSC is readily available online to download.

– Selecting a default 240p preset within a 1920x240 resolution is essentially a four button configuration. Menu -> Preset -> Enter -> Select preset -> Enter. The DSC offers extensive picture controls.

The 240p EDID.bin that Marco links to doesn't have any vertical blanking. I'd recommend bumping the VTotal to 263.

I can send you my custom 240p EDID if you're interested and want to try for yourself.

Thank you for your insight. I've read that it's a bit more cumbersome to set up because of the lack of LCD display compared to the DVS 605 or Corio2.
But yeah not having to use an insider account is a huge benefit.
I'm currently totally lost in this jungle of which downscaler to use. Been following Marcos reviews for quite a while. It's great, but indeed all downscaler seem to have some shortcomings. If the lag is low, then the image is blurry and soft. If the image is sharp, the lag is higher.

[Kiki2024]

Hi Guys!!
Amazing forum thank you so much

I ordered a Extron DSC 301 HD yesterday and looking forward to use it. Ionly will use with a PC connected downscaling a resolution from 720p or so to 480p EDTV to my loewe.
What i ask in here is this. Can you confirm the 480p downscaling is ok an sharp? Is the 480p 720x480p in 16:9 widescreen? I need it paired with 59.94hz refresh rate.
Lastly i downloaded thanks to you the new firmware and program. I will neeed probably to inject a new res (852x480p). I need for that the edid program too, can somebody share it with me?

Thanks!!!!

[Kiki2024]

custom resolution like 1440x1080p should be possible. You need the Edid Manager Software from Extron and PCS to upload the particular EDID file to one of the custom output resolution slots. If you need the software, send me a PM. https://media.extron.com/public/img/gal ... 1r_lwg.jpg

Which particular source are you using? I used 480p extensively on the 301 and can't say that I noticed any blurred borders. But then again most sources have a slight underscan, so you usually don't see what happens to the most outside pixels.

hi!!
If you can share with me the progream to add custom EDID resolution into my 301 extron which is in my way to arrive i would really thank you soooo much!