OSSC (DIY video digitizer & scandoubler)

[Gnomenthusiast]

Hi guys, how's everyone doing? First poster here.
I'm not really familiar with SHMUPS Forums in general, but I kept lurking this OSSC board since quite a long time, and now that I'm finally going to receive my unit, I thought to jump in!

I would personally go with the SOWTECH. Only for the reason that you don't need to buy another HDMI cable on top of the price.

That's the same cable I bought as well. DVI-D to HDMI.

I think the OSSC firmware could possibly be updated to allow all the overscan to be trimmed out completely? There appears to be enough range to do it, however you would need some way of changing the point that the system thinks is the center. At the moment if you bring the border in horizontally to get rid of the top overscan, it also trims away the bottom of the image because it does it symmetrically.

That's one thing that gets brought up alot, and I couldn't agree more with you on it.
Being able to cut off all the coloured overscan you get with Mega Drive games (there are a few Saturn titles that use it too), and control each crop border independently (in order to keep them all centered), would be a super welcome addition to the OSSC's display settings. I hope the feature will be implemented soon.

You may consider to highlight the topic in the 'Feature Requests' section of the official forum at VGP.

I'll take a few pictures to clarify what I mean, and then do that!

EDIT : I also get the inkling that different Megadrive/Genesis models may have different amounts of overscan (I don't know why I think that I believe I read it somewhere). So I will try my original MD tonight and see if its different with the same setup.

[Das Muel]

You can trim the Mega Drive overscan area pretty much perfectly by first adjusting the horizontal/vertical backporch setting inside the advanced timing tweaker. You have to centre the image first before adjusting the horizontal/vertical masking.

[Gnomenthusiast]

You can trim the Mega Drive overscan area pretty much perfectly by first adjusting the horizontal/vertical backporch setting inside the advanced timing tweaker. You have to centre the image first before adjusting the horizontal/vertical masking.

Oh, this is interesting! I will give this a shot!

[Galdelico]

I also get the inkling that different Megadrive/Genesis models may have different amounts of overscan (I don't know why I think that I believe I read it somewhere). So I will try my original MD tonight and see if its different with the same setup.

From my personal experience - I own a Japanese Mega Drive 2 - the overscan I get with Sonic (which I use as a benchmark ) on an LCD screen looks pretty much identical to whatever screenshot/video grabbed from an emulator.

You can trim the Mega Drive overscan area pretty much perfectly by first adjusting the horizontal/vertical backporch setting inside the advanced timing tweaker. You have to centre the image first before adjusting the horizontal/vertical masking.

Fun fact, I was watching your OSSC videos yesterday, feeling quite jealous of your VGA setup.

Do you think those advanced centering/tweakings are anything that can be shared and replicated on a different display? Or is it something you do 'backwards', by first measuring how much is left out of the cropping mask on your screen, and then adjust the H/V backporch consequently?

[CobraKing]

I've tried to update firmware to 0.74 3 times with 3 different 32gb micro sd cards and every time it has said no sd card detected?

Are you using a Mac ?

Windows 10. I'm on FW 0.73 atm.

Which 2gb micro SD card should I get?

I mentioned this an earlier post but fw 0.73 is extremely finicky with SD cards and you'll have to score a 'recommended' 2GB card as in the link below.

https://www.videogameperfection.com/for ... -sd-cards/

fw 0.74 fixes the issue but you'll have to update it first.

[BuckoA51]

I'm 1754
Not my lucky day lol.

(Is there a way to get in this batch ? )

No but you may be able to order soon, we've a number of units that came from the factory faulty. If Marqs can fix them up then you can have one of those if you like. I've also held onto a few in case of returns, so if there aren't any returns after a few months I could release those too.

Btw, how many people are there on the mailing list?

2115 at present. We're doing some promotional pieces in Retrogamer mag and hopefully Ars Technica so that could go up. Still, should clear the waiting list next batch.

[sqturn2k]

Edit : After thinking about it, if @Marqs can fix them, and the refurbished unit work as it should, I'm ok to get one.

Thank you for replying.

[Xyga]

^ Why ? Personally I love manufacturer-refurbished units, often cheaper, with warranty, and at least I know they've been double-checked technically.

[Simon Belmont]

Just received my Pandora Box 4S and hooked it up to my Supergun Max Strike using the OSSC and it worked straight away. I tried to connect it through jamma, but the pandora box 4 case was in the way so I took it off and just have the pcb.

Using my OSSC on my 4KTV it looks amazing! No issues with frame-rates using supergun pandora box

My ultimate arcade experience.

Just Wow!



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[sqturn2k]

You are right @Xyga.
If it works fine I don't even care actually, I think I made my reply too fast.

I took a little time to think about it (to be sure), and finally if you have in the future one for sale @BuckoA51, I decided that I'm up for one refurbished OSSC
Price can be the same, I don't mind, just to know that the device is working as it should is enough for me.

One of the (many) things I want from this device is to get rid of the micro-dimming that I can only remove on the HDMI input of my TV.
This make me crazy, I can't even disable it in the service menu for the scart/ypbpr input (Tried for months to find a solution for this)
Having a OSSC with a passive dvi to hdmi would make me able to turn off this "feature".

[Mikeyy00]

I can't believe this. I tried my cheap scaler which also has a HDMI in as well as scart. The OSSC works like a dream now. Wow the picture looks great in line double. in 720p or 1080p. X3 is very sharp, but looks more pixelated where 2x is very smooth. I'm happy with my OSSC now. Hardly any lag as well if any? I'm shocked.

Who would have thought a cheap scaler would work so well.

Which cheap one are you using? Something like https://www.amazon.ca/OFKP%C2%AE-Conver ... rt+to+hdmi ?

[Simon Belmont]

I can't believe this. I tried my cheap scaler which also has a HDMI in as well as scart. The OSSC works like a dream now. Wow the picture looks great in line double. in 720p or 1080p. X3 is very sharp, but looks more pixelated where 2x is very smooth. I'm happy with my OSSC now. Hardly any lag as well if any? I'm shocked.

Who would have thought a cheap scaler would work so well.

Which cheap one are you using? Something like https://www.amazon.ca/OFKP%C2%AE-Conver ... rt+to+hdmi ?

Yes that one, but I'm not using it on my pandora box arcade. Using that scaler with OSSC for PC Engine only because PC Engine doesn't like my TV for some reason, but my supegun works great with direct input. Glad I keep the OSSC now

[Mikeyy00]

I can't believe this. I tried my cheap scaler which also has a HDMI in as well as scart. The OSSC works like a dream now. Wow the picture looks great in line double. in 720p or 1080p. X3 is very sharp, but looks more pixelated where 2x is very smooth. I'm happy with my OSSC now. Hardly any lag as well if any? I'm shocked.

Who would have thought a cheap scaler would work so well.

Which cheap one are you using? Something like https://www.amazon.ca/OFKP%C2%AE-Conver ... rt+to+hdmi ?

Yes that one, but I'm noting using it on my pandora box arcade. Using that scaler with OSSC for PC Engine only because PC Engine doesn't like my TV for some reason, but my supegun works great with direct input. Glad I keep the OSSC now

Yeah, I'm dreading that my TV won't like the 3x signal.. so I'm hoping that scaler may help me too if it doesn't.. (should have OSSC on Monday/Tuesday.. sooo stoked)

[Simon Belmont]

Yeah, I'm dreading that my TV won't like the 3x signal.. so I'm hoping that scaler may help me too if it doesn't.. (should have OSSC on Monday/Tuesday.. sooo stoked)

That scaler works great for my PC Engine and 4KTV and while 3x line triple works it's very pixelated on my TV. Using 2x is much smoother for me at least

[BuckoA51]

^ Why ? Personally I love manufacturer-refurbished units, often cheaper, with warranty, and at least I know they've been double-checked technically.

Refurbished ones should basically be exactly like new and fully tested. I'll inspect them all and make sure though.

That scaler works great for my 4KTV and while 3x line triple works it's very pixelated on my TV. so I use 2x line because it's much smoother for me at least

Likely that scaler always outputs frame locked signal at 59.94hz so will induce some stuttering and of course input lag.

[Simon Belmont]

Likely that scaler always outputs frame locked signal at 59.94hz so will induce some stuttering and of course input lag.

I thought so too, but I have no input lag at all. Fast response. Framerate is fine also. The OSSC seems to stable the image from that scaler. win, win for me

Extremely happy with the OSSC. Cheers guys.

[BuckoA51]

There will always be some (I think your TV does something like 28ms?) plus the scaler is 1 frame at least (another 16ms) but if you can't feel it then don't worry about it.

[Simon Belmont]

There will always be some (I think your TV does something like 28ms?) plus the scaler is 1 frame at least (another 16ms) but if you can't feel it then don't worry about it.

My TV does 19ms. Yeah no input lag not worried

[Gnomenthusiast]

As Promised :

Metal Gear Solid















Bloody Roar 2 :

[CobraKing]

^^^
Fantastic shots. Can't wait for Marqs to implement line 4X & 5X - hopefully those have better compatibility than 3X.

[Galdelico]

Looks awesome! Is that an original PlayStation or PS1 games through a PlayStation 2?

Which makes me wonder... Since LineX3 mode is available for 240p sources only, is it possible to switch from Line Double to Line Triple on the fly? As for now, running PS1 games through PS2 backwards compatibility is my only viable option, so it would be interesting to know if I'll be forced to keep LineX2, due to the fact PS2's boots up in 480i (I believe).

[Gnomenthusiast]

Looks awesome! Is that an original PlayStation or PS1 games through a PlayStation 2?

Which makes me wonder... Since LineX3 mode is available for 240p sources only, is it possible to switch from Line Double to Line Triple on the fly? As for now, running PS1 games through PS2 backwards compatibility is my only viable option, so it would be interesting to know if I'll be forced to keep LineX2, due to the fact PS2's boots up in 480i (I believe).

It's an original PS1, from before they got rid of the parallel port, so it's easy to play backups. It's great because all the original discs are basically scratched to hell and ruined with jam fingerprints.

[Simon Belmont]

Since LineX3 mode is available for 240p sources only, is it possible to switch from Line Double to Line Triple on the fly?

Yes you can. You'll notice the difference Immediately.

[Galdelico]

Yes you can. You'll notice the difference Immediately.

Awesome, thank you.

Man, the wait is killing me...

[Simon Belmont]

Yes you can. You'll notice the difference Immediately.

Awesome, thank you.

Man, the wait is killing me...

It'll be worth the wait

[sofakng]

Just received my Pandora Box 4S and hooked it up to my Supergun Max Strike using the OSSC and it worked straight away. I tried to connect it through jamma, but the pandora box 4 case was in the way so I took it off and just have the pcb.

Forgive me for asking (and probably asking in the wrong place), but is the Pandora Box 4S just an ARM CPU running MAME or something? (is this different than a Raspiberry Pi just running MAME with a JAMMA connector?)

[Simon Belmont]

Just received my Pandora Box 4S and hooked it up to my Supergun Max Strike using the OSSC and it worked straight away. I tried to connect it through jamma, but the pandora box 4 case was in the way so I took it off and just have the pcb.

Forgive me for asking (and probably asking in the wrong place), but is the Pandora Box 4S just an ARM CPU running MAME or something? (is this different than a Raspberry Pi just running MAME with a JAMMA connector?)

Yes it's ARM CPU connected to jamma through my supergun. Don't know if it uses mame? I have raspberry pi 3 with all the emu's, while I like those I find input lag very bad imho with pi. Not getting any lag using supergun/jamma

[Guspaz]

^^^
Fantastic shots. Can't wait for Marqs to implement line 4X & 5X - hopefully those have better compatibility than 3X.

IIRC those modes are expected to have much worse compatibility than 3x.

Since LineX3 mode is available for 240p sources only, is it possible to switch from Line Double to Line Triple on the fly?

What do you mean by "on the fly"? Line triple only applies to 240p inputs, so if the input switches from 240p to 480i, the OSSC outputs a 480p signal.

[Simon Belmont]

^^^
Fantastic shots. Can't wait for Marqs to implement line 4X & 5X - hopefully those have better compatibility than 3X.

IIRC those modes are expected to have much worse compatibility than 3x.

Since LineX3 mode is available for 240p sources only, is it possible to switch from Line Double to Line Triple on the fly?

What do you mean by "on the fly"? Line triple only applies to 240p inputs, so if the input switches from 240p to 480i, the OSSC outputs a 480p signal.

I was switching from 2x to 3x back and forth no problem. Don't know what rez it was at? It seemed to stay put on my display.

[Gnomenthusiast]

Whoever suggested to use the porch settings in advanced timings to center the image so the madking would work correctly, you are my hero! PERFECT!