PixelFX Morph

[Kretinou]

This Morph 4k really isn't bad. Here's a quick test of a Mortal Kombat arcade pcb. The sharpness of the colour is magnificent.

[Konsolkongen]

Genlock was just added. Really a nice improvement:)

[tongshadow]

Genlock was just added. Really a nice improvement:)

What does it do?

[Kretinou]

Genlock was just added. Really a nice improvement:)

What does it do?

July Newsletter :

Magiclock (AKA “Genlock”) added to Morph 4k
We've refined the Magiclock mode for better performance:

This mode lowers output latency and decreases/ removes dropouts between resolution or console switches.

Get the no signal drop experience like triple buffer, while having the lowest lag possible.

[woodenman]

Evening all. Looking for some help on this.

I have the Morph and any console that is connected to it via RBG SCART will produce a crackle on the audio on certain games. I have the Morph connected to a 4K DELL OLED via HDMI and all the RGB cables are high quality from RGC store. Anyone else get this and know of a fix? Ended up getting HDMI in my N64 to escape it, but cannot do that for the SNES.

[Konsolkongen]

Evening all. Looking for some help on this.

I have the Morph and any console that is connected to it via RBG SCART will produce a crackle on the audio on certain games. I have the Morph connected to a 4K DELL OLED via HDMI and all the RGB cables are high quality from RGC store. Anyone else get this and know of a fix? Ended up getting HDMI in my N64 to escape it, but cannot do that for the SNES.

If you use discord I would recommend that you join the Pixel FX discord channel and ask there. There are a lot of people willing to help out with stuff like this

https://discord.com/invite/pixelfx

[woodenman]

Thanks. I don't use Discord! From what I've been reading, seems the Nintendo consoles audio signals are a little 'hot' and can cause distortion in a way other systems may not. A workaround I saw was to split the audio out into a dedicated stereo speaker set, so I'm getting one of these to test that out.

SNES Multi-Out Breakout Box

[Konsolkongen]

Thanks. I don't use Discord! From what I've been reading, seems the Nintendo consoles audio signals are a little 'hot' and can cause distortion in a way other systems may not. A workaround I saw was to split the audio out into a dedicated stereo speaker set, so I'm getting one of these to test that out.

SNES Multi-Out Breakout Box

Have you tried removing and re-instering the Analog Bridge and the AV port cart a few times? The connectors used sometimes has some white dust in them that might cause this.

[WobblingPixels]

Evening all. Looking for some help on this.

I have the Morph and any console that is connected to it via RBG SCART will produce a crackle on the audio on certain games. I have the Morph connected to a 4K DELL OLED via HDMI and all the RGB cables are high quality from RGC store. Anyone else get this and know of a fix? Ended up getting HDMI in my N64 to escape it, but cannot do that for the SNES.

Do you have your consoles connected through Hydra 2 RGB Scart switch? Morph 4K is known to clip analog audio with N64 consoles. When you add hydra 2 rev scart switch to the chain it clips audio with all consoles going by my testing:
https://bsky.app/profile/wobbling-pixel ... foqkk5lc2n

An audio controller should fix the issue as long your scart switch or scart cable has RCA/3.5mm jack audio output.
For example:
https://https://www.amazon.com/Volbox-i ... B00XDKKQ9E
https://www.amazon.com/JAMHER-Universal ... B0F2MTHX5J

Unfortunately it can't be fixed fia firmware update

[BuckoA51]

Evening all. Looking for some help on this.

I have the Morph and any console that is connected to it via RBG SCART will produce a crackle on the audio on certain games. I have the Morph connected to a 4K DELL OLED via HDMI and all the RGB cables are high quality from RGC store. Anyone else get this and know of a fix? Ended up getting HDMI in my N64 to escape it, but cannot do that for the SNES.

I've heard reports of this and I have been trying to replicate this here so far no luck every system I've tried has worked without clipping. On the N64 does it have this issue if you use the composite out + RCA via SCART? I don't have a RGB modded N64 on hand so I can't try that.

As Wobbling says there's definitely a known design fault with some of the Hydra switches that cause it to boost audio too high.

It should be a relatively easy fix to change the SCART backplate to add e.g a resistor to prevent this if I could just find a system that actually exhibited the fault for me.

[WobblingPixels]

I've heard reports of this and I have been trying to replicate this here so far no luck every system I've tried has worked without clipping. On the N64 does it have this issue if you use the composite out + RCA via SCART? I don't have a RGB modded N64 on hand so I can't try that.

I have tested it with a N64 RGB modded and without any mods directly connected to the Morph 4k using S-Video or RGB scart cable. In both cases the Morph 4K clips audio. It's easy to recreate the issue by launching a race and hit acceleration in RR64 as shown in the video. Give it a try Other consoles like SNES, MD, PS1, Saturn I have no issues with when connected directly to the Morph 4k.

So to my understanding there are 3 cases where audio clipping occurs with the Morph 4k:

1. N64 - modded and unmodded consoles. Other reports in the retro community confirm the issue.
I would guess it's the same hardware design flaw as with Retrotink 2K first batch:
https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/co ... d_garbled/
2. Modded consoles but not all. Confirmed by reports.
3. Hydra 2 boosts audo which results in worse audio clipping and affects other consoles. Even with the R4k you can hear audio clipping when connected through the Hydra 2.

[BuckoA51]

RIght, guess I'm hunting for composite cables tomorrow then lol.

[woodenman]

Not using Hydra or anything else. Just direct SCART from console to Morph. Happens with composite using SCART adapter, but I can always remove those audio cables and feed them to a Hi-Fi. Don't want composite image tho!!

[BuckoA51]

That might be a faulty bridge then, the Morph is definitely more sensitive to over-boosted audio but most consoles output line level audio within spec anyway, except N64 it seems.

[BuckoA51]

Right, so, tried my N64, fired up Ridge Racer 64 and went into sound test, no clipping.. tested the specific sound effect WP mentioned, still nothing... so did as advised and started a race and... yep there it is.

Pretty specific circumstances but it's there. Now at least I can replicate it I can work on getting a fix.

[2mg]

Is Morph "retro computer" friendly?

IE DOS 70Hz modes, whatever the Amiga 500 can output (it has a bunch of modes, plus digital RGB), and so on?

I'm kinda in a limbo here, OSSC Pro can't do 4K (but it seems like it's the best downscaler), RT4k is 50/60Hz input only AFAIK, and Morph is new to me.

And feeding say OSSC Pro 1080p output to Digital Only Morph to upscale to spec'd 4K/UHD costs more than RT4k...
Unless I'm missing a simpler HDMI to HDMI only upscaler?

[Guspaz]

Some of the scalers you mentioned support 70Hz input. However, you will need to reduce output resolution, since they may not support 3840x2160 output at 70 Hz. 2880x2160 at 70 Hz is usually a good compromise, since it’s 4:3, if your display supports it. If not, you can drop down to a lower more common resolution like 2560x1440 at 70Hz.

You don’t need multiple devices daisy chained to do what you want. A single appropriate scaler will suffice.

[2mg]

Some of the scalers you mentioned support 70Hz input. However, you will need to reduce output resolution, since they may not support 3840x2160 output at 70 Hz. 2880x2160 at 70 Hz is usually a good compromise, since it’s 4:3, if your display supports it. If not, you can drop down to a lower more common resolution like 2560x1440 at 70Hz.

You don’t need multiple devices daisy chained to do what you want. A single appropriate scaler will suffice.

As I understand it, no Retrotink device handles odd retro PC resolutions ala 400p and/or outside 50/60Hz, OSSC 1.X I'm unsure but there are some threads floating around about it, but OSSC Pro does handle this stuff (AFAIK it doesn't do scan conversion ala 70Hz > 60Hz, but that's a secondary issue).

Thing is I can't find any info about retro computer compatibility with Morph4k.
Sure, it has a bunch on Analog Bridges, some with VGA, but can't find more than that.

I'm also looking into these 3 devices for downscaling, and seems OSSC Pro wins so far.

So I can't seem to settle on an "universal" scaler for both retro consoles and retro computers (be it IBM PC/clones, or homecomputers ala C64/Amiga), as OSSC Pro doesn't do in spec 4K but seems awesome for literary everything else, RT devices seem to be more console oriented, and then comes Morph4k and I can't find much about where it fits.

PS: there are those Marseille device like mClassic, but I didn't even dig into that, heard something about them being laggy...

[Guspaz]

The RT4K can handle arbitrary input resolutions and refresh rates, as long as they're within its pixel clock limitations and don't get too crazy on sync. Many people use it for retro PCs. I would assume that the Morph 4K is the same in this regard, there's no reason why it shouldn't be able to handle 70 Hz input. So either scaler should be able to handle this use case. However, neither scaler supports any sort of framerate conversion other than simple duplicating/dropping of frames, so a 70 -> 60 conversion via triple buffering would have a noticeable stutter when objects are in motion. That would require temporal interpolation, like you find in Game Boy Interface or madVR. It should be possible on an FPGA, but nobody has implemented it yet. The preference would be to output a 70 Hz signal (which any decent modern TV or monitor can handle, since they're mostly 120+ Hz displays with VRR support) so that you don't need to do any conversion in the first place.

mClassic devices are not viable for this use case. They're designed to apply smoothing filters on top of relatively modern game consoles, and are not very tolerant of esoteric video timings.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Thanks. I don't use Discord! From what I've been reading, seems the Nintendo consoles audio signals are a little 'hot' and can cause distortion in a way other systems may not. A workaround I saw was to split the audio out into a dedicated stereo speaker set, so I'm getting one of these to test that out.

SNES Multi-Out Breakout Box

Stone Age Gamer sells the above listed SNES Multi-out Breakout Box here: https://stoneagegamer.com/electronnmb-s ... do-64.html

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BuckoA51]

Is Morph "retro computer" friendly?

IE DOS 70Hz modes, whatever the Amiga 500 can output (it has a bunch of modes, plus digital RGB), and so on?

I can confirm 70hz works as tested from my CRT Emudriver PC:-

morph-70hz by videogameperfection, on Flickr

I've not tried all the esoteric Amiga modes since they're not super useful these days, but I'll get around to it eventually. My Amiga is having some issues at the moment and I really need to get it sorted.

[kitty666cats]

Is Morph "retro computer" friendly?

IE DOS 70Hz modes, whatever the Amiga 500 can output (it has a bunch of modes, plus digital RGB), and so on?

I'm kinda in a limbo here, OSSC Pro can't do 4K (but it seems like it's the best downscaler), RT4k is 50/60Hz input only AFAIK, and Morph is new to me.

And feeding say OSSC Pro 1080p output to Digital Only Morph to upscale to spec'd 4K/UHD costs more than RT4k...
Unless I'm missing a simpler HDMI to HDMI only upscaler?

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=135

This could be worth a try. Here’s a list of their tested Amiga models:

Amiga OCS
Amiga PAL
Amiga NTSC
Amiga ECS/AGA (without VGAonly)
Amiga EURO36
Amiga EURO72
Amiga SUPER72
Amiga DblNTSC
Amiga DblPAL
Amiga Multiscan
Amiga SUPERPLUS
Amiga HIGHGFX
Amiga HD720
Amiga ECS/AGA (with VGAonly)
Amiga DblPAL*
Amiga DblNTSC*
Amiga EURO72*
Amiga Multiscan*
Amiga SUPER72*





…It has a digital RGB input, as well

[2mg]

Is Morph "retro computer" friendly?

IE DOS 70Hz modes, whatever the Amiga 500 can output (it has a bunch of modes, plus digital RGB), and so on?

I can confirm 70hz works as tested from my CRT Emudriver PC:-

morph-70hz by videogameperfection, on Flickr

I've not tried all the esoteric Amiga modes since they're not super useful these days, but I'll get around to it eventually. My Amiga is having some issues at the moment and I really need to get it sorted.

Is it XXhz in > XXhz out? 70hz isn't that common these days, tho it's also not an uncommon resolution too.
But yeah, is it a generalist or more console oriented with some basic support for say C64 via Composite, or can it do C128 RGBI?

Is Morph "retro computer" friendly?

IE DOS 70Hz modes, whatever the Amiga 500 can output (it has a bunch of modes, plus digital RGB), and so on?

I'm kinda in a limbo here, OSSC Pro can't do 4K (but it seems like it's the best downscaler), RT4k is 50/60Hz input only AFAIK, and Morph is new to me.

And feeding say OSSC Pro 1080p output to Digital Only Morph to upscale to spec'd 4K/UHD costs more than RT4k...
Unless I'm missing a simpler HDMI to HDMI only upscaler?

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=135

This could be worth a try. Here’s a list of their tested Amiga models:

Amiga OCS
Amiga PAL
Amiga NTSC
Amiga ECS/AGA (without VGAonly)
Amiga EURO36
Amiga EURO72
Amiga SUPER72
Amiga DblNTSC
Amiga DblPAL
Amiga Multiscan
Amiga SUPERPLUS
Amiga HIGHGFX
Amiga HD720
Amiga ECS/AGA (with VGAonly)
Amiga DblPAL*
Amiga DblNTSC*
Amiga EURO72*
Amiga Multiscan*
Amiga SUPER72*





…It has a digital RGB input, as well

It seems that it can do what they refer as unknown-PAL and unknown-NTSC, does that mean consoles?
It accepts from Composite up to RGB, they do mention that they have a database for "device fingerprints", but they don't mention consoles at all at the same time.

Question is, why for just ~250$ product that covers so many devices didn't make some hype?
I don't remember any of the popular (or even some smaller) retro channels covering it.

They are honest tho, it's not a silver bullet, it's not a scan converter (XXhz in > XXhz out) and so on, but I'm just wondering why isn't it among the OSSCs, RTKs, Morphs, since Medusa seems to be a heavyweight just like those mentioned...

I'm just being wary of something that wasn't chewed to bits and then spat into pros and cons by retro enthusiasts, since this really is an enthusiast device.

PS: regarding digital RGB (RGBI), are only EGA, CGA and C128 interchangeable? Ie is there an oddball that uses different pinouts or signals (voltage differences for example)?

[Guspaz]

Lotharek's products don't get coverage from the retro gaming community because Lotharek has no interest in supporting retro gaming and is actively hostile towards the retro gaming community. Asking him about retro gaming will result in rude responses and insults.

Example:

[orange808]

CGA support looks interesting. Legacy home computers aren't easy to connect.

Seems that Lotharek isn't interested in using resources to support game consoles... and I could not care less about it

Given that there are five current running projects (RT5X, RT4K, OSSC, OSSC Pro, Morph) for game consoles, that's probably okay...

Support could be an issue, though...

[BuckoA51]

Also worth pointing out that no Amiga games used those screen modes anyway... well ok you could run games like Sim City or Colonisation in DoublePAL/DoubleNTSC/Multiscan productivity mode, at a crawl (believe me, I did lol). Given the Amiga can display highres interlace MUCH faster than those modes and we have perfect flicker free deinterlacing, I don't see the need to revisit modes like that for any purpose unless you really really want to connect your Amiga to a 31khz only VGA monitor and do work and play only the handful of OS compliant games that supported those modes...

The Indivision AGA I have annoys me like this too, some super confusing interface to map a bunch of screen modes that nobody really needs these days. give me a Morph Amiga that has scaling for all the 15khz modes, deinterlacing (or pass through of course) and just passes through everything else.

PFX got a bunch of support tickets about the Hydra with the Morph too over on their discord, pretty much all due to bugs and design issues with the Hydra itself rather than the Morph lol.

[2mg]

Retro gaming can be done on retro computers, but seems like there's not only a split in hardware targets (ie RT/OSSC/FX don't have RGBI), but in the community too.

Ya'll giving me a headache, retro stuff is already taxing (figuratively and literary due to prices)

PS: Amiga ain't the only one, there are Ataris, Spectrums, Amstrads, C64/128, Apples, heck the IBM PC line...

[orange808]

Retro gaming can be done on retro computers, but seems like there's not only a split in hardware targets (ie RT/OSSC/FX don't have RGBI), but in the community too.

Ya'll giving me a headache, retro stuff is already taxing (figuratively and literary due to prices)

PS: Amiga ain't the only one, there are Ataris, Spectrums, Amstrads, C64/128, Apples, heck the IBM PC line...

Don't forget TI-99/4A, MSX, and X68000.

[BuckoA51]

Don't forget TI-99/4A, MSX, and X68000.

None of those should pose a problem for Morph (or RT4K of course). X68k famously outputs low, medium and high res of course. I tested some medium res stuff on the Morph before it came out. For RGBi like the C128 uses there's this adapter - https://www.protovision.games/shop/prod ... cts_id=369

I've not tried it though, perhaps foolishly I sold my C128D before I moved, it went to a good home (a collector I've known many years ) but still, I do regret it some days!

There are some demos on the ST and Amiga that use some timing tricks that often upset scalers, those would be interesting to try.

[2mg]

None of those should pose a problem for Morph (or RT4K of course). X68k famously outputs low, medium and high res of course. I tested some medium res stuff on the Morph before it came out. For RGBi like the C128 uses there's this adapter - https://www.protovision.games/shop/prod ... cts_id=369

I've not tried it though, perhaps foolishly I sold my C128D before I moved, it went to a good home (a collector I've known many years ) but still, I do regret it some days!

There are some demos on the ST and Amiga that use some timing tricks that often upset scalers, those would be interesting to try.

Is that converter the same as this one https://gglabs.us/node/2284 ?