OSSC (DIY video digitizer & scandoubler)

[BuckoA51]

5v 1 amp should be fine. The ones we sell are rated 1.2 amp but I don't think it makes a difference. Don't try to use a guitar pedal PSU though as they rarely have enough ampage.

[Gunstar]

5v 1 amp should be fine. The ones we sell are rated 1.2 amp but I don't think it makes a difference. Don't try to use a guitar pedal PSU though as they rarely have enough ampage.

Awesome, thanks man.

[Guspaz]

I wanted to comment on the latest OSSC poll done by BuckoA51. Right now, pre-order is beating mailing list by roughly 9:1, but of the two pre-order options, pre-pay is beating charge-on-ship by roughly 2:1. Clearly there is an apetite for a pre-order system, but I just want to say (to BuckoA51) that you shouldn't feel pressured to take pre-payments if it would make things uncomfortable. I voted for that option (as an existing OSSC owner) because it's my preferred option, but to be honest, charge-on-ship would have been fine too. I know from watching others (like the HD Retrovision guys) struggle with it that pre-payments can add a huge amount of stress to your life, so don't hesitate to take the middle option if that would make things easier!

[Thomago]

I voted for the pre-pay option because it would have give me more financial security (as in: better to pre-pay now, when I know I have the money, than being charged at some random, perhaps unfavorable point in the future).

[BuckoA51]

that you shouldn't feel pressured to take pre-payments if it would make things uncomfortable.

Yeah I'm not that keen on taking peoples money months in advance, if it's only a week or two it's not so bad, but at this point I do think I can trust my supply chain (he says, anxiously waiting for power supplies to turn up), so as long as I make it 100% clear to folks where there money is going I'm willing to go with it.

Actually taking pre-payments is quite a hassle too, probably more so from an IT/web back end perspective. The service RetroRGB recommended seems to be a bit of a start up and they don't handle VAT correctly for starters, meaning there'd be quite a bit of kludging to do to even get it to work properly for Europe.

[NJRoadfan]

Another hobbyist project that I purchased from in the past (see link below) would run an "interest list". Once the list reached a certain amount of people, there would be another batch run done of the product. There was no prepayment system. If you didn't order, your slot would go to a wait listed person who signed up after the list closed. The system seems to have work for 4 batches of 500 cards so far.

http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppl ... I/main.php

[RocketBelt]

I would be very, very cautious about taking people's money in advance. If for some reason you have it for a single day longer than they feel is reasonable you get people kicking up a gigantic stink and lots of unpleasantness.
Your current system works fine. I put my name down, you emailed me, I thought about it for a few hours, checked my finances, and decided to buy. A few days later it arrived. If I had decided to pass, no harm done to either of us.
People wanting to pay in advance so that you can save their money for them is ridiculous. You are not a bank. Those same people will want their money back at a moments notice when the next shiny thing catches their eye. And if you don't get it back to them quick enough (for them) they will call you a thief in public.

[CobraKing]

I voted for the pre-pay option because it would have give me more financial security (as in: better to pre-pay now, when I know I have the money, than being charged at some random, perhaps unfavorable point in the future).

Credit card? Line of credit? Savings account? Just curious and I mean no harm here at all but the 'financial security' bit is puzzling.

[neorichieb1971]

If the price goes up.

[Thomago]

Credit card? Line of credit? Savings account? Just curious and I mean no harm here at all but the 'financial security' bit is puzzling.

Let's just say that due to my financial situation, credit cards etc. are a non-option and I am not able to amass significant savings (I sold my Framemeister in order to get the OSSC and paid via PayPal after consulting with Matt).

[BuckoA51]

I would be very, very cautious about taking people's money in advance. If for some reason you have it for a single day longer than they feel is reasonable you get people kicking up a gigantic stink and lots of unpleasantness.
Your current system works fine. I put my name down, you emailed me, I thought about it for a few hours, checked my finances, and decided to buy. A few days later it arrived. If I had decided to pass, no harm done to either of us.
People wanting to pay in advance so that you can save their money for them is ridiculous. You are not a bank. Those same people will want their money back at a moments notice when the next shiny thing catches their eye. And if you don't get it back to them quick enough (for them) they will call you a thief in public.

Yeah I'm definitely aware of that risk, I would make sure to keep enough capital back to cover a reasonable amount of refunds and cancellations. If suddenly everyone wanted their money back though and I'd spent it on a batch of OSSC already, that's a problem, but I think that's fairly unlikely.

If the price goes up.

I would honour the price pre-paid, currency is a little volatile here at the moment but I can absorb some minor losses. Besides if it was pre-paid then it's already gone through at that currency rate so what am I even talking about.

[Gunstar]

Aww crap, I think my OSSC is dead. I just tried it with an adapter I got off ebay and the lcd and led flashed on a few times and then nothing, there's a plasticky smell too, not sure if that was there before lol. Fuuuck.

[BuckoA51]

Oh no! Which adapter was it out of interest? Hopefully we can at least warn other folks.

Pop it back to me quick and I should be able to sort you a replacement from current batch.

[Harrumph]

Aww crap, I think my OSSC is dead. I just tried it with an adapter I got off ebay and the lcd and led flashed on a few times and then nothing, there's a plasticky smell too, not sure if that was there before lol. Fuuuck.

Incorrect polarity perhaps? If you're a bit handy you can easily check a fuse that's on the board, and replace if needed.

[Gunstar]

Whoa, thanks Bucko!!! Return to the address on the box?

It was this one:

'Mass Power' brand.

Center positive and the outside is negative, that should be the correct one to use? Maybe it's my extension cord.

[Gunstar]

Aww crap, I think my OSSC is dead. I just tried it with an adapter I got off ebay and the lcd and led flashed on a few times and then nothing, there's a plasticky smell too, not sure if that was there before lol. Fuuuck.

Incorrect polarity perhaps? If you're a bit handy you can easily check a fuse that's on the board, and replace if needed.

I've opened it up, it's all tiny smd stuff, I can take off a fat cap but this smd stuff is way beyond me. Couldn't see any burn marks but there was a mark on the bottom plexi layer and one of the tiny chips, D5?, looked like it had some sort of lump O_O

Irrelevant but the 'OSSC' cut out in the middle plexi layer is an awesome touch.

[bobrocks95]

I would think Bucko (or one of his contractors) could just replace a fuse on it right?

[marqs]

Is it cool to have the OSSC toggle switch constantly set to the "On" position, but power it on/off by using the switch on a power strip/socket? A the moment I'm manually using the toggle switch, but it'd be handy if I could have all my video equipment plugged in to one one strip with everything turned on, then have it all power up by plugging it into the wall .....Just wondering would this cause any stress or side affects to the OSSC?

I've also wondered for a while if leaving the toggle switch "on" and controlling power externally is any any way bad for the OSSC. Interested if anyone has some advice on this

It should be fine, assuming your PSU is a quality one that doesn't generate severe transients/ripple when its mains input is turned on/off.

Just got my OSSC today and I'm very pleased apart from one thing: on my RGB modded AV Famicom, the top of the image (8ish lines) shakes a bit, which I guess is some sort of sync issue. The console does not exihibit the issue on my XRGB mini. Any advice?

Using 256x240 optimized mode should help if it's the same problem I have. I really wish marqs had a NESRGB so he could look at it.

I finally got a NESRGB around a month ago, and yes, there's some jitter after PPU skips a tick (every other frame) just before rendering the first visible scanline. I managed to significantly reduce the effect by disabling "Allow TVP HPLL2x", after which masking can be utilized to hide the remaining part.

[Harrumph]

I've opened it up, it's all tiny smd stuff, I can take off a fat cap but this smd stuff is way beyond me. Couldn't see any burn marks but there was a mark on the bottom plexi layer and one of the tiny chips, D5?, looked like it had some sort of lump O_O

Irrelevant but the 'OSSC' cut out in the middle plexi layer is an awesome touch.

D5 is the diode which is right next to the fuse F1, iirc those are both involved in the ESD protection, so makes sense. But yeah, maybe easier to have Bucko take care of it.
Edit: and the PSU looks fine so no idea how that happened...

[BuckoA51]

Whoa, thanks Bucko!!! Return to the address on the box?

Yeah pop it back to that return address, honestly that PSU looks fine, really can't think why it'd screw things up like that, so I think best give you the benefit of the doubt and just swap it.

[ZellSF]

Just got my OSSC today and I'm very pleased apart from one thing: on my RGB modded AV Famicom, the top of the image (8ish lines) shakes a bit, which I guess is some sort of sync issue. The console does not exihibit the issue on my XRGB mini. Any advice?

Using 256x240 optimized mode should help if it's the same problem I have. I really wish marqs had a NESRGB so he could look at it.

I finally got a NESRGB around a month ago, and yes, there's some jitter after PPU skips a tick (every other frame) just before rendering the first visible scanline. I managed to significantly reduce the effect by disabling "Allow TVP HPLL2x", after which masking can be utilized to hide the remaining part.

Oh that's what that setting is for. That works and is easier than messing with optimized modes.

Have you tested the bug mentioned a few pages ago where 480p component from a PS2 sometimes is erroneously detected as 960i?

[Galdelico]

Hi everyone,
I'm wondering if you guys can shed some light on this...

Basically, with LineX2 - and especially with 240p sources (it becomes less noticeable, with higher resolutions) - I see what I'd describe as vertical segments of the image looking blurrier than everything else. I tried to represent the occurrence here:



Of course it's all exaggerated, since LineX2 doesn't look as sharp to begin with, and the blurred colums aren't that blurry in real life. It's literally enough I can tell the difference.
It looks like the position of said colums is ruled by the low pass filter - different combinations of Video LPF and Analog Sync LPF move them left or right a bit - but I can't get rid of them entirely. I mean, I kinda can by disabling both VLPF and ASLPF, which causes all kinds of jittering and jailbars artifacts. It's the very same on both my monitors (1080p and 4K) and limited to LineX2, since from LineX3 on, the IQ goes up from excellent to immaculate.

It's not an issue by any stretch, but I'm still pretty curious about it.
Thanks in advance! ^_-

[Thomago]

Seems you don't have the right horizontal sampling rate. Try playing around with that; you should see the colums moving / changing size.

[Galdelico]

Seems you don't have the right horizontal sampling rate. Try playing around with that; you should see the colums moving / changing size.

Ha, I'll try that, thank you!
I just checked the OSSC wiki page, which suggests to set the H sample rate to 427 for both the MD and the Saturn. I always left it untouched and right now I can't remember what's the default setting (but I believe it's higher than 427).
That said, as a complete newb, I'm still learning my way through which interconnections exist, between sampling options and actual results on screen (aside from the obvious ones that control H and V size/position).

Another thing I'd like to ask: if sync is already stable (as in, producing zero video noise or glitches) with Video Low Pass Filter set to Auto, is it ok to set Analog sync LPF to OFF, or is it better to keep it to max anyway, for optimal performances? I'm interested in that because I noticed how changing it causes a very slight horizontal shift, which can be crucial, especially with Mega Drive games I want to pixel-perfectly crop their colored overscan out of the way.

[Guspaz]

That sort of thing will happen if you try to use one of the optim modes, or if you try to set the sample rate to precisely match the console. This shouldn't happen on the default sample rate since it's much higher than the console's output.

[Gunstar]

Whoa, thanks Bucko!!! Return to the address on the box?

Yeah pop it back to that return address, honestly that PSU looks fine, really can't think why it'd screw things up like that, so I think best give you the benefit of the doubt and just swap it.

I found a psu that was 5v 1a, so before I was about to send it off I tried it and the bloomin' thing works!

I was checking the F1 fuse and it seems it's fine with a multimeter, the D5 though, to me looks like it's blown? It's hard to take a picture with a magnifying glass:




Is it safe to keep operating the OSSC without the D5? Is the D5 actually fine?

[Thomago]

Another thing I'd like to ask: if sync is already stable (as in, producing zero video noise or glitches) with Video Low Pass Filter set to Auto, is it ok to set Analog sync LPF to OFF, or is it better to keep it to max anyway, for optimal performances? I'm interested in that because I noticed how changing it causes a very slight horizontal shift, which can be crucial, especially with Mega Drive games I want to pixel-perfectly crop their colored overscan out of the way.

As long as there are no drop-outs and the image is crisp I'd say: Do as you please.

[Galdelico]

That sort of thing will happen if you try to use one of the optim modes, or if you try to set the sample rate to precisely match the console. This shouldn't happen on the default sample rate since it's much higher than the console's output.

Thanks. ^_-
I get those blurry colums without touching default sample rate, or messing around with specific modes. In fact, they're there (once again, in LineX2 only) even if I 'reset all settings' on the OSSC.

As long as there are no drop-outs and the image is crisp I'd say: Do as you please.

Great. Thanks again!

[bonzo.bits]

[quote="Galdelico"]
I get those blurry colums without touching default sample rate, or messing around with specific modes. In fact, they're there (once again, in LineX2 only) even if I 'reset all settings' on the OSSC./quote]

I have the 'blurry columns' issue when using optim modes, my guess was that it was due to my TV identifying the signal as 1280x1084 and not mapping the pixels accurately.

Only way I found to fix it is by increasing H.samplerate until the shit-blur has disappeared. As you increase H.samplerate the number of columns should decrease and change position. Eventually they disappear entirely and all that's left is a nice and crisp image.

[zazilu]

hello, I'm planning to buy ossc in order tu use it with a LG MP57 Ips Led Pc monitor... Will I be able to run PS2 with scart rgb in sync-on-green mode? And by the way all the 480i interlaced content will display fine?


Best regards.