OSSC (DIY video digitizer & scandoubler)

[Xer Xian]

I can barely stand black bars on 4:3 content, let alone gray ones.

Also, when you start going OCD on preserving your equipment, there's no end to it. Ever thought about the scanlines overlay added to the picture? That's uneven wear too.

[Xyga]

For pillarboxed 4:3 side wallpapers with adjustable brightness and timing are the best solution, moderately animated ones would be cool though.

(I wish MAME had something as convenient as what's on some of the console ports)

[beer monkey]

I can barely stand black bars on 4:3 content, let alone gray ones.

In the dark I can't see where my set begins and ends because the black levels are so low (LG OLED), so I don't actually 'see' the bars.

Also, when you start going OCD on preserving your equipment, there's no end to it. Ever thought about the scanlines overlay added to the picture? That's uneven wear too.

Every couple of weeks I toggle Scanline Alignment between Top and Bottom and save my OSSC profiles.

[Galdelico]

For pillarboxed 4:3 side wallpapers with adjustable brightness and timing are the best solution, moderately animated ones would be cool though.

(I wish MAME had something as convenient as what's on some of the console ports)

Dude, I said the exact same thing to a friend of mine, a couple of days ago, while talking about playing retro on modern displays.

[Zappyraccoon]

I can barely stand black bars on 4:3 content, let alone gray ones.

Also, when you start going OCD on preserving your equipment, there's no end to it. Ever thought about the scanlines overlay added to the picture? That's uneven wear too.

How is that uneven wear exactly? The pixels under the scanlines are still constantly fluctuating between varying color values so there is no risk of image burn or pixels sticking... I'd say that's a perfect example of letting the OCD take over rationalization.

[Sid]

How is that uneven wear exactly? The pixels under the scanlines are still constantly fluctuating between varying color values so there is no risk of image burn or pixels sticking... I'd say that's a perfect example of letting the OCD take over rationalization.

It's not so much about whether or not the pixels are being exercised, but rather how much they are being exercised. Put a bright white scanned line next to a dark grey (with or without colour variance) non-scanned line, and burn-in will ensue. Though as far as I know, with non-scanned lines set to 100% on the OSSC, the display would receive no colour or shade information anyway.

[bobrocks95]

What it comes down to is uneven wear on the pixels- some parts being consistently much brighter than others will make them degrade and lose peak brightness much faster.

[Zappyraccoon]

Still most likely a negligible wear. One of those situations where you have to weigh the stress it causes to the benefit received.

[neorichieb1971]

I don't know anything that works optimum until end of life. Thats why we buy new again. (if thats possible).

[DejahThoris]

Recently got mine, and have just been messing around with it today.

Are there some generally-accepted settings for PS2 over component? My PSX (DESR-7000, not a PS1) looks AWFUL, but I got the Wondermega and SNES looking pretty great.

Or maybe there are some nice pre-made profiles someone's uploaded somewhere?

Apologies if I missed these somewhere back there, but 169 pages is a looooot of info. I did scan through a lot of it though.

[nmalinoski]

Recently got mine, and have just been messing around with it today.

Are there some generally-accepted settings for PS2 over component? My PSX (DESR-7000, not a PS1) looks AWFUL, but I got the Wondermega and SNES looking pretty great.

Or maybe there are some nice pre-made profiles someone's uploaded somewhere?

Apologies if I missed these somewhere back there, but 169 pages is a looooot of info. I did scan through a lot of it though.

Regarding the PS2, you're probably going to have a hard time getting anything 480i to look really good with an OSSC, simply because it doesn't have a proper framebuffer to do good deinterlacing. (Not that you'd really want the lag associated with it.) The best you're going to get is with the bob deinterlacing, which I believe is defaulted on. If you want something better, you'll probably have to look into an additional video processor to perform deinterlacing, or step up to a Framemeister (Which has its own pitfalls).

Regarding the profiles, I don't believe there is any way yet for the OSSC to use profiles from the SD card--as far as I know, software to configure profiles before writing the firmware to an SD card is either planned or in the works--so the best you'll probably find at the moment is a recommended configuration that you'll need to implement yourself.

[DejahThoris]

Regarding the PS2, you're probably going to have a hard time getting anything 480i to look really good with an OSSC, simply because it doesn't have a proper framebuffer to do good deinterlacing. (Not that you'd really want the lag associated with it.) The best you're going to get is with the bob deinterlacing, which I believe is defaulted on. If you want something better, you'll probably have to look into an additional video processor to perform deinterlacing, or step up to a Framemeister (Which has its own pitfalls).

Regarding the profiles, I don't believe there is any way yet for the OSSC to use profiles from the SD card--as far as I know, software to configure profiles before writing the firmware to an SD card is either planned or in the works--so the best you'll probably find at the moment is a recommended configuration that you'll need to implement yourself.

Gotcha. Maybe I'll just stick to leaving it hooked up to the old TV. Was really hoping to move away from it.

Fair enough!

[mdd45]

FBX, are you going to release your OSSC settings for each console soon?

Have a Happy New Year!

[TooBeaucoup]

I'm sure this info is in here somewhere, but this thread is huge, so I figure I'll ask. I have my Gamecube hooked up to the OSSC via the component cables. I'm running the audio from the Gamecube red and white audio cables into a 3.5mm adapter, into the A1 OUT/A2 IN 3.5mm plug. I'm not getting any audio, though. Am I doing this correctly? LOL!

[nmalinoski]

I'm sure this info is in here somewhere, but this thread is huge, so I figure I'll ask. I have my Gamecube hooked up to the OSSC via the component cables. I'm running the audio from the Gamecube red and white audio cables into a 3.5mm adapter, into the A1 OUT/A2 IN 3.5mm plug. I'm not getting any audio, though. Am I doing this correctly? LOL!

Did you toggle the switch for that audio port? I believe it ships in the AV1-audio-out position (mine did, at least), and you need to flip it to use it as audio-in for AV2.

[TooBeaucoup]

I'm sure this info is in here somewhere, but this thread is huge, so I figure I'll ask. I have my Gamecube hooked up to the OSSC via the component cables. I'm running the audio from the Gamecube red and white audio cables into a 3.5mm adapter, into the A1 OUT/A2 IN 3.5mm plug. I'm not getting any audio, though. Am I doing this correctly? LOL!

Did you toggle the switch for that audio port? I believe it ships in the AV1-audio-out position (mine did, at least), and you need to flip it to use it as audio-in for AV2.

Thanks, that did the trick. I didn't even realize that was a switch. The damn thing is so tiny, it could pass for part of the PCB. That's one thing they could have done is made these switches juuuuuuust a hair more clear. LOL!

[Xyga]

Regarding the PS2, you're probably going to have a hard time getting anything 480i to look really good with an OSSC, simply because it doesn't have a proper framebuffer to do good deinterlacing. (Not that you'd really want the lag associated with it.) The best you're going to get is with the bob deinterlacing, which I believe is defaulted on. If you want something better, you'll probably have to look into an additional video processor to perform deinterlacing, or step up to a Framemeister (Which has its own pitfalls).

Gotcha. Maybe I'll just stick to leaving it hooked up to the old TV. Was really hoping to move away from it.

Fair enough!

@Bucko & marqs: IMHO every presentation of the OSSC including the wiki should have a more self-explanatory description of what it does with each feature, and with pictures (better: animated gifs), because it seems to me a non-negligible number of people buy it primarily with upscaling/upgrading the looks of 480i and 480p sources in mind, like the PS2 and GC, while it is not the ideal standalone machine for that (or not filling the averge person's expectations)

IMHO on the long term that persistent confusion could hurt the product's image, because after the more niche-hobby customers are all equipped, the less-old-tech-hobby-savvy people group will progressively become the majority, and I think we all know how merciless their snowballing negative feedback can be.

EDIT: I mean the overall limited compatibility of 'upper modes' with lots of TVs is already a tough thing that mostly only the well-to-moderately informed people will accept/pass the product and buy it anyway even if that means also seeking new display, but at some point the clueless customer demographics will be the majority, I'm just saying better be prepared for that with rock-solid foolproof communication, at least on difficult points such as this and 480i/p. When I put myself in the shoes of a complete n00b in that field I don't find the quick-start guide nor the wiki to be clear/warning enough.

[borti4938]

You forget, that the OSSC is open source software under GPL v3.0.
VGP offers the OSSC for a good value for those who are not able to build the OSSC on its own. To my point of view the product description there is good enough and says several times - everytime it comes to linex3 and higher for 240p and linex2 for 480p content - "compatible displays only"!

If you feel that the wiki of the OSSC could be better, please feel free to contribute on that.
Writing documentation does not make fun for an engineer, although marqs provides a very good one, in my oppinion. A lot of commercial products out there have worse once, even though there are people who are paid for writing documentation. Others rely on good documentation out of a fan base (see Framemeister).

Just my two cents

[Kez]

Gotcha. Maybe I'll just stick to leaving it hooked up to the old TV. Was really hoping to move away from it.

You can also set the OSSC to 480i passthru mode. This allows your TV to do the deinterlacing. It will introduce some lag, but probably not a crazy amount and fine for many games. Some TVs actually do a better job upscaling HDMI inputs over component, so you may find that you are getting better results than plugging component directly into your TV.

[beer monkey]

Some sets will deinterlace 480i better than the OSSC, but then you've got the non-integer scaling applied to take the now-delinterlaced image from 480p to 1080p or 4K (or 768p if you have an old "720p" flat panel).

What I love about the OSSC is the ability to have it output 960p , which my OLED will integer scale to 1920p windowboxed inside of my 2160p display.

Good gosh the Wii (and Nintendon't) look better than ever before on a flat panel, including the substandard Wii U output at any settings.

But then, I barely mess with 480i as a habit so my needs are simpler.

[DejahThoris]

Gotcha. Maybe I'll just stick to leaving it hooked up to the old TV. Was really hoping to move away from it.

You can also set the OSSC to 480i passthru mode. This allows your TV to do the deinterlacing. It will introduce some lag, but probably not a crazy amount and fine for many games. Some TVs actually do a better job upscaling HDMI inputs over component, so you may find that you are getting better results than plugging component directly into your TV.

I'll give pass-through mode a whirl. My TV doesn't have component input at all. I know its ability to handle composite on its own is absolute garbage though. LG OLED55B7 for the record.

Everything else I've thrown at the TV through the OSSC looks wonderful. Didn't realize that 480i would be a rough thing for the OSSC to handle, and I only recently got back into owning a PS2 of any kind, and funny enough I sold on my Framemeister not long beforehand, which apparently would've been ideal for it.

[MiserablePixels]

I’m having difficulty determining whether my Sony KDL-55W802A has the necessary PC capability/resolutions described in the guide on VGP https://www.videogameperfection.com/for ... lx5-modes/ to allow it to attain x3/x4/x5. Currently, only 2x works, with default OSSC settings. 3x, 4x and 5x all supply audio but no video signal. 3x displays “Unsupported Signal” but 4x and 5x are just blank/cycling(unless I switch to TX Mode: DVI, then I get “Unsupported Signal”), which I thought may be a good sign.

Spec Sheet https://docs.sony.com/release//SPECS/KD ... A_mksp.pdf
PC Connectivity and Signal Info https://www.sony-asia.com/microsite/bra ... index.html

The listed PC video input signals are for my TV are:

640 x 480, 31.5 kHz/60 Hz
800 x 600, 37.9 kHz/60 Hz
1024 x 768, 48.4 kHz/60 Hz
1280 x 768, 47.4 kHz/60 Hz and 47.8 kHz/60 Hz
1360 x 768, 47.7 kHz/60 Hz
1280 x 1024, 64.0 kHz/60 Hz (Full HD model only)
1920 x 1080, 67.5 kHz/60 Hz (Full HD model only)*

I’ve attempted the solution in the OP on VGP with no success, but I’m unsure if I am missing part of the equation. For an SNES/Genesis to send 3x/4x/5x, does the Adv. timing need to be 960×240/1280×240/1536×240 respectively? Would they all require adjustment to 256 V. Active and V. backporch reduction? I’ve tried it in AND out of TX mode DVI/HDMI with no success.

Fundimentally, I guess I am just not quite understanding why the TV isn’t recognizing the 3x/4x/5x signals if all they’re doing is integer multiplying. If it can recognize a line doubled signal, shouldn’t any 1080p device be able to accept a line tripled/quadrupled/quintupled signal, as well? Is it just a matter of finding the correct Sampling/Timing configuration or is it a hardware issue?

If you have any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them!

[Elron6]

I Dunno how do-able this is for everyone, but you can use an Xbox one to normalize the Snes video with the OSSC. I'd reckon it would enable linemulti as well. I don't have sound at the moment but there is glorious stable picture. Please test it out see how it works for everyone!!!

[mdd45]

I Dunno how do-able this is for everyone, but you can use an Xbox one to normalize the Snes video with the OSSC. I'd reckon it would enable linemulti as well. I don't have sound at the moment but there is glorious stable picture. Please test it out see how it works for everyone!!!

But what about the added lag?

[Xyga]

I’m having difficulty determining whether my Sony KDL-55W802A has the necessary PC capability/resolutions described in the guide on VGP

Even if those resolutions are listed the compatibility with all modes is not guaranteed.

The full-hd Sony 'W' series from 2013~2014 are known to only accept 2x from the OSSC.
Several members here own a W, I have a 42W650 and it's the same story.

For the OSSC TVs are hit or miss, monitors are much more compatible, but that doesn't mean all of them will handle absolutely all modes perfectly, for instance I've tried several full-hd ones that couldn't display x5 as intended.
Today I'm using a ViewSonic VX3211-mh thanks to a member's advice and it's the first display I've had that could take everything from the OSSC.

[paulb_nl]

A question for LG TV owners. Do you have to change the Black Level setting on your TV to display the correct black level with the OSSC? As in that the 3 darkest bars of the grayramp from the 240p suite are distinguishable.

Im curious because I have recently learned that there is a setting for that on the LG OLEDs without an auto option and its supposedly for Limited and Full Range. My current Sony TV handles Limited and Full Range automatically. As it should be.

[jayde6]

A question for LG TV owners. Do you have to change the Black Level setting on your TV to display the correct black level with the OSSC? As in that the 3 darkest bars of the grayramp from the 240p suite are distinguishable.

Im curious because I have recently learned that there is a setting for that on the LG OLEDs without an auto option and its supposedly for Limited and Full Range. My current Sony TV handles Limited and Full Range automatically. As it should be.

I have an few years old LG and I have to change it manually. Frustratingly enough if I'm not in game mode, some resolutions give me an automatic setting but at the cost of the lag and not being able to use the higher line modes and keep the automatic setting. It literally disappears from the menu.

If you can set all your other devices to full range or split them up between inputs since LG likes to keep separate settings per input you wouldn't have to set it back and forth constantly.

I made a post in the feature request section on videogameperfection.com for a way to set the black level on the ossc itself but haven't heard back yet if that's even feasible with the current OSSC hardware.

[Xyga]

Didn't realize that 480i would be a rough thing for the OSSC to handle, and I only recently got back into owning a PS2 of any kind, and funny enough I sold on my Framemeister not long beforehand, which apparently would've been ideal for it.

Wanted to add more on that;
The OSSC isn't bad for 480i, actually it is pretty awesome for what it does with it, which is field deinterlacing with a choice of using single field and make it look 240p~ish or alternating the two fields to simulate a crt showing 480i.
It's a method we should never assume anyone will already know about or naturally understand just by reading a technical description on a document, or browsing hundreds of pages of convoluted forums posts.

With that method good or bad results will depend more heavily on the display's own ability/performance, I mean more than if you were just feeding an already fully-deinterlaced-and-upscaled-to-1080p source to your display.
(note: full deinterlacing is different and the most common and known method; it combines the two fields into one frame, giving the most accomplished picture in theory but is very difficult and heavy processing-wise and laggy. It's what most external scalers and display's built-in scalers do with 480i)
Of course 4K displays make things more complicated by adding another scaling step after that, though a select few indeed offer unprocessed integer scaling of 1080p sources, not sure how many other resolutions those that do can handle that way.

In a situation where the source, OSSC, and display make a good trio working together the results can even surpass a Mini/DVDO/Crystalio, it's just not a given that your setup or 'chain' will meet all the requirements, you have to try everything (check beer monkey's post, not sure what his TV model is though).
So, the latter (Mini/DVDO/Crystalio) I wouldn't call ideal vs the OSSC, just by default they make it easier in a greater number of cases to achieve decent 480i results on a display.
That's what I meant when I wrote the OSSC is not ideal for 480i, typically people expect an all-round solution for 480i with full-deinterlacing, and few have experienced what the field-deinterlacing alternative is, unless one has owned an old XRGB for instance, it is very unlikely.

With all that said, CRT's are still by far the best choice for 480i period.

[bobrocks95]

Some sets will deinterlace 480i better than the OSSC, but then you've got the non-integer scaling applied to take the now-delinterlaced image from 480p to 1080p or 4K (or 768p if you have an old "720p" flat panel).

What I love about the OSSC is the ability to have it output 960p , which my OLED will integer scale to 1920p windowboxed inside of my 2160p display.

Good gosh the Wii (and Nintendon't) look better than ever before on a flat panel, including the substandard Wii U output at any settings.

But then, I barely mess with 480i as a habit so my needs are simpler.

Do you have an LG OLED? Integer scaling of 960p is great to hear, I wouldn't have expected that.

For anyone paying attention to CES, LG's new OLEDs aren't a huge improvement, but they do now support 4K at 120Hz. If they add HDMI 2.1 and Variable Refresh Rate support next year, they'll be killer gaming displays for any sort of source from OSSC to high-end PCs.

[beer monkey]

Do you have an LG OLED? Integer scaling of 960p is great to hear, I wouldn't have expected that.

For anyone paying attention to CES, LG's new OLEDs aren't a huge improvement, but they do now support 4K at 120Hz. If they add HDMI 2.1 and Variable Refresh Rate support next year, they'll be killer gaming displays for any sort of source from OSSC to high-end PCs.

Yeah, I have an OLED65B7A from LG.

480p to 960p (line2x scaling, Allow upsample2x ON for the horizontal sampling) through the OSSC (with light scanlines - personal choice) is a game changer. Wii, for example, has never looked good on a fixed pixel flat panel HDTV, it looks great now. I don't even care about CRTs for 480p any more.

Re: the 2019 LG OLEDs, I'm hoping for Black Frame Insertion in addition to VRR. I don't think BFI will make classics look very different, though, that's more for new stuff.