XRGB-mini Framemeister

[psychosync]

Ok so x2 is 3 times the original resolution then, right?

[FBX]

Ok so x2 is 3 times the original resolution then, right?

Well in 1080p mode, "SMART_2x" is actually 4x the original 224 Genesis resolution. Not sure about the res mode you are working with though.

[Fudoh]

yeah I think it's a bit inconsistent across the various output resolutions. Since x2 was meant for 1080p output, it gives you a 960p window in which you'll see 4x 240p or 2x 480i/p.

[gutsmanheavy]

My mini has decided to stop outputting video over hdmi to my tv, I can get an image on my monitor but its... not great

Tried multiple cables, safety, reset and even firmware downgrade. Nothing

From 1 to $400 brick how screwed am I?

[FBX]

My mini has decided to stop outputting video over hdmi to my tv, I can get an image on my monitor but its... not great

Tried multiple cables, safety, reset and even firmware downgrade. Nothing

From 1 to $400 brick how screwed am I?

[img]

Have you tried 720p just to see if it's an all-encompassing HDMI output issue?


Anyway, my PS1 RGB Sync-on-Luma cable arrived today and I was able to generate two new profiles:

Code: Select all

PS1RGBIN:

This is for the NTSC Sony Playstion consoles's 480 interlaced mode (boot menus and games that use interlaced 480 res) via RGB Sync-on-Luma video output. Suggested display area: -1


PS1RGBPR: 

This is for the NTSC Sony Playstion consoles's 240 progressive mode (most PS1 games) via RGB Sync-on-Luma video output. Please note that scanlines are not perfectly uniform at this 4x scale, so you shouldn't use them. Suggested display area: -1

Zip package is already uploaded on my Pixel Purist page. I will say that the PS1 RGB image is quite beautiful!

[austin532]

It's unfortunate that you can't get even scanlines with the correct AR settings. 2D PS1 games while I think they look better with scanlines on they still look good with them off with the correct AR settings. 3D games however still look "meh" even with the correct AR and scanlines are a "MUST HAVE".

[FBX]

It's unfortunate that you can't get even scanlines with the correct AR settings. 2D PS1 games while I think they look better with scanlines on they still look good with them off with the correct AR settings. 3D games however still look "meh" even with the correct AR and scanlines are a "MUST HAVE".

It's a weird quirk with the Framemeister. The graphics of the game are perfectly scaled, but the scanline feature has one horizontal line on the screen that isn't uniform and it will bug the hell out of anyone using them.

In all honesty I don't really like scanlines on PS1 games anyway. Scanlines can look great for consoles like the Genesis and SNES, but I don't like them on the Sony systems.

[austin532]

Yes, that one uneven scanline messes everything up and looks like crap. It wouldn't be so bad if it was near the edges but unfortunately it's near the center of the screen.

I find the scanlines help hide the artifacts, compression noise, jaggy polygons, dithering, and cross hatching that 5th gen. era was known for.

[FBX]

The cross-hatching I feel shouldn't be hidden, much like dithering. I like seeing the original checkerboards. For example Tempest X looks stunning in clean RGB.

[gutsmanheavy]

Have you tried 720p just to see if it's an all-encompassing HDMI output issue?

All resolutions have varying levels of messed up, it now randomly loses video for a second or two :/

Talking to Solaris about it now, fingers crossed!

[12345]

As for uneven scanlines: Sometimes adjusting the V_WIDTH helps solving this issue.

[FBX]

As for uneven scanlines: Sometimes adjusting the V_WIDTH helps solving this issue.

Edit: Got it to work after more testing! See below.

[FBX]

Update:

I was actually able to juggle in V_Width with ZOOM_OVERSCAN in order to fix the scanline issue for the PS1 and PS2 profiles! I'll be spending the next several minutes updating the profiles, but for those that would like to know the immediate fix (assumes all other settings loaded from my profiles):

VISUAL_SET:

V_WIDTH: 29

ZOOM_SET:

ZOOM_SIZE: 100
ZOOM_OVERSCAN: 90

This makes both the pixels uniform and the scanlines uniform when turned on as far as I can tell from my own end.

[FBX]

Profiles package updated with all the fixes in addition to a new profile:

Code: Select all

PS2PSRGB:

This is for the NTSC Sony Playstation 2 console's (both normal and slim versions) original Playstation console emulation mode via RGB Sync-on-Luma cables, and is scaled to 4x the PS1's 240 resolution. In order to eneable RGB mode from the PS2, you'll need to go to the system menu and change the output to RGB instead of the default component output. This can be done while hooked up to the Framemeister in RGB, but be warned the graphics will be predominantly green in hue until you finish enabling RGB output in the PS2 system menu. Also be aware that if you want to switch back to component output, you'll need to do it before you swap to component cables or you won't be able to see anything on the Framemeister's D-Terminal input. Be sure to ONLY load this profile once the PS1 game has appeared on the screen AFTER the PS1 boot logo! Suggested display area: -1

I'm going to develop RGB profiles for PS2 games, though the only difference to the component counterparts will likely be in color settings.

[austin532]

Yes, this seems to have finally fixed it. Have you been able to find the best settings for scanlines while in 1080p? I know it can be tricky to get them looking just right. I think INT_LINE 80 and INT_SMOOTH 99 looks good to me. What do you think?

[FBX]

Yes, this seems to have finally fixed it. Have you been able to find the best settings for scanlines while in 1080p? I know it can be tricky to get them looking just right. I think INT_LINE 80 and INT_SMOOTH 99 looks good to me. What do you think?

That's very similar to mine!

[FBX]

Update:

I added in an RGB profile for PS2 480i mode as well as improved the color and A/D settings to give a better picture for the PS2's P1 emulation RGB profile. Zip package is already updated.


That will wrap things up for a while, with the next targeted console being the RGB-modded N64. Right now though, my money is being spent on getting various Everdrive carts for my consoles.

[pyrotek85]

Update:

I added in an RGB profile for PS2 480i mode as well as improved the color and A/D settings to give a better picture for the PS2's P1 emulation RGB profile. Zip package is already updated.


That will wrap things up for a while, with the next targeted console being the RGB-modded N64. Right now though, my money is being spent on getting various Everdrive carts for my consoles.

Cool, and thank you again for taking the time to make and upload these profiles for us.

[austin532]

Yes, this seems to have finally fixed it. Have you been able to find the best settings for scanlines while in 1080p? I know it can be tricky to get them looking just right. I think INT_LINE 80 and INT_SMOOTH 99 looks good to me. What do you think?

That's very similar to mine!

What are your settings?

[bonzo.bits]

I have a question for anyone with a rgb modded snes mini.

I modded mine last week (just the wires and 75ohm resistors, not the amp mod). Given it was my first time holding a soldering iron since high school back in the 90s, I was surprised when I switched the snes mini on amd it worked

However, the snes mini (connected to plasma TV via a framemeister) now experiences intermittent visual flicker (every 1-2 minutes), accompanied by loss of audio at the same time. The visuals are still displayed, there is just flickers on certain lines with no real patter (different lines each time).

I'm using a snes ntsc scart cable connected to the mini via the scart adapter.

Given that both the audio and video issue occur together, I'm thinking (hoping) this is a problem with the scart cable and I haven't damaged the system with my shoddy workmanship.

Has anyone else has similar problems with the rgb of a snes mini or have suggestions for troubleshooting?

I'm going to order a composite sync cable to try out, the one I have now is sync on composite but I wouldn't think that would make any difference to the Framemeister......

[FBX]

Yes, this seems to have finally fixed it. Have you been able to find the best settings for scanlines while in 1080p? I know it can be tricky to get them looking just right. I think INT_LINE 80 and INT_SMOOTH 99 looks good to me. What do you think?

That's very similar to mine!

What are your settings?

Mine I ended up with some time ago was 80 & 100.

[Tomdominer]

Japanese Super Famicom: This console never gets perfectly in sync and always has v-sync issues. It seems most stable at around 22hz I guess. I'm using an official nintendo gamecube euro scart cable.

The DOL-013 cable has a series 220uF capacitor on the composite video line that if bypassed, should fix your sync issues. I've had to perform this modification on my own DOL-013 cable as I don't have any PAL consoles. SNES pin 3 is also wired in the cable - 12VDC on PAL, CSYNC on NTSC consoles. Alternatively, you can remove the 220uF cap and move the SNES pin 3 wire in the SCART plug to where the negative leg would be connected to give you CSYNC output. However, the cable won't be safe with PAL consoles if you modify it for CSYNC, as feeding 12VDC to the XRGB-mini could damage the unit!

Hey Mr RGB. Could you perhaps link me to a guide to bypassing this capacitor? I'm going to try this at home. Wish me luck!

Also, would this be causing a similar problem on the rgb megadrive cable with the framemeister? Link

Please? Anyone else help me out?

[TheShadowRunner]

The DOL-013 cable has a series 220uF capacitor on the composite video line that if bypassed, should fix your sync issues. I've had to perform this modification on my own DOL-013 cable as I don't have any PAL consoles. SNES pin 3 is also wired in the cable - 12VDC on PAL, CSYNC on NTSC consoles. Alternatively, you can remove the 220uF cap and move the SNES pin 3 wire in the SCART plug to where the negative leg would be connected to give you CSYNC output. However, the cable won't be safe with PAL consoles if you modify it for CSYNC, as feeding 12VDC to the XRGB-mini could damage the unit!

Hey Mr RGB. Could you perhaps link me to a guide to bypassing this capacitor? I'm going to try this at home. Wish me luck!

Also, would this be causing a similar problem on the rgb megadrive cable with the framemeister? Link

Please? Anyone else help me out?

RGB32E already gave you the solution, inside the DOL-13 cable the Composite line has a 75ohm resistor and a 220uf capacitor on it.
The 220uf capacitor is easy to remove/bypass, it is located on the small PCB inside the SCART plug.
For this one you will need to take apart the SCART connector, then just remove the cap completely and replace it by a simple wire or any other solution you might be comfortable with to connect the 2 points.
You can see here how to take apart the SCART end of the plug:
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/official-pal- ... -consoles/

For the 75ohm resistor it's another story, it's located inside the male Multi-out connector.
To quote Link83 from a message posted 7 years ago on another forum:
"Having taken apart the MultiAV plug end though I can see that the resistor is there, covered in heat shink tubing. Its also covered up by a piece of black sticky fabric - so its abit hard to see normally."

So there you have it, I suggest removing the 220uf cap first and see if it solves the issue. If not you will have to remove the resistor as well.

[austin532]

Update:

I added in an RGB profile for PS2 480i mode as well as improved the color and A/D settings to give a better picture for the PS2's P1 emulation RGB profile. Zip package is already updated.


That will wrap things up for a while, with the next targeted console being the RGB-modded N64. Right now though, my money is being spent on getting various Everdrive carts for my consoles.

Thank you both 12345 for the "adjust the V_WIDTH to get even scanlines" tip and FBX for the time you put into making these profiles. Is there really any reason to use 720p output anymore now that scanlines look good at 1080p?

[Sectorbob]

Hello Everyone, My name is Kyle. I have been reading through this board from the past month - drooling over the Framemeister. Finally, I purchased one last week.

I have a technical question about my setup:

Early 90's NTSC-U SNES --> Official NTSC-J RGB Cable --> Framemeister (Firmware 1.11) --> HDMI --> 42" Panasonic LED Flat screen

I received my Framemeister from Solaris Japan today, and plugged it all up to my setup and it WORKED first try. It was great. However, I am now experiencing some weird intermittent signal drops while playing Super Mario All-Stars, specifically Super Mario Bros 2. The mini would, I assume, lose the signal from the SNES momentarily, the screen would go dark, then re-detect the signal and diplay the screen again.

I first noticed the signal completely dropping when some of the bomb enemies would explode, and then later I would experience it randomly throughout the levels. Also, I am seeing some glitches in the picture. Never experienced this video drop while using the Composite cables, but obviously, composite blows, and I am enjoying the clarity and scan-lines with the mini.

I am going to continue to play with this, and see if I can nail down a source, but not being very familiar with retro video tech, I was wondering if you all might have some insight for what to check. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[bonzo.bits]

Hello Everyone, My name is Kyle. I have been reading through this board from the past month - drooling over the Framemeister. Finally, I purchased one last week.

I have a technical question about my setup:

Early 90's NTSC-U SNES --> Official NTSC-J RGB Cable --> Framemeister (Firmware 1.11) --> HDMI --> 42" Panasonic LED Flat screen

I received my Framemeister from Solaris Japan today, and plugged it all up to my setup and it WORKED first try. It was great. However, I am now experiencing some weird intermittent signal drops while playing Super Mario All-Stars, specifically Super Mario Bros 2. The mini would, I assume, lose the signal from the SNES momentarily, the screen would go dark, then re-detect the signal and diplay the screen again.

I first noticed the signal completely dropping when some of the bomb enemies would explode, and then later I would experience it randomly throughout the levels. Also, I am seeing some glitches in the picture. Never experienced this video drop while using the Composite cables, but obviously, composite blows, and I am enjoying the clarity and scan-lines with the mini.

I am going to continue to play with this, and see if I can nail down a source, but not being very familiar with retro video tech, I was wondering if you all might have some insight for what to check. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I had the same drool > purchase > Mario game weirdness journey, starting a few months back.

I have a PAL SNES > RGB PAL SCART > FRAMEMEISTER > Panasonic Plasma.

I did not experience loss of signal but had some problems with game stages where there is lots of white graphics on the screen together. Namely Butter Bridge stage on SMW and the ice tracks on Super Mario Kart. On both games the problem areas would be fuzzy and glareyand basically look very bad (everything else remained awesome though).

Not sure if it is any specific component or combo. It did occur on a second TV though so pretty sure it's between the SNES and the Framemeister.

I also have a SNES mini which I recently did the resistor-based RGB mod on. I was experiencing some problems with the visuals until I plugged my PAL SCART cable in and it all went away. With the NTSC cable There had been some intermittent flickering and also general weakness of signal that only became apparent up close to the screen.

You might want to check with other NTSC scart cables, just to see if the cable is the problem. Might also be useful to check that composite cable work without problems (that would rule out problems with the Framemeister (touch wood ) and the Panasonic.

[FBX]

Small update in that I had a request for 5x PS1 RGB, so that has been added to the package. Looks great for games like Doom and Castlevania SotN, but generally it's going to cut off too much of the image on other games (12 pixels off the top and 12 off the bottom).

[Sectorbob]

I had the same drool > purchase > Mario game weirdness journey, starting a few months back.

I have a PAL SNES > RGB PAL SCART > FRAMEMEISTER > Panasonic Plasma.

I did not experience loss of signal but had some problems with game stages where there is lots of white graphics on the screen together. Namely Butter Bridge stage on SMW and the ice tracks on Super Mario Kart. On both games the problem areas would be fuzzy and glareyand basically look very bad (everything else remained awesome though).

Not sure if it is any specific component or combo. It did occur on a second TV though so pretty sure it's between the SNES and the Framemeister.

I also have a SNES mini which I recently did the resistor-based RGB mod on. I was experiencing some problems with the visuals until I plugged my PAL SCART cable in and it all went away. With the NTSC cable There had been some intermittent flickering and also general weakness of signal that only became apparent up close to the screen.

You might want to check with other NTSC scart cables, just to see if the cable is the problem. Might also be useful to check that composite cable work without problems (that would rule out problems with the Framemeister (touch wood ) and the Panasonic.

I'll give this a go. Any RGB-21 cables you would recommend?

[Tomdominer]

The DOL-013 cable has a series 220uF capacitor on the composite video line that if bypassed, should fix your sync issues. I've had to perform this modification on my own DOL-013 cable as I don't have any PAL consoles. SNES pin 3 is also wired in the cable - 12VDC on PAL, CSYNC on NTSC consoles. Alternatively, you can remove the 220uF cap and move the SNES pin 3 wire in the SCART plug to where the negative leg would be connected to give you CSYNC output. However, the cable won't be safe with PAL consoles if you modify it for CSYNC, as feeding 12VDC to the XRGB-mini could damage the unit!

RGB32E already gave you the solution, inside the DOL-13 cable the Composite line has a 75ohm resistor and a 220uf capacitor on it.
The 220uf capacitor is easy to remove/bypass, it is located on the small PCB inside the SCART plug.
For this one you will need to take apart the SCART connector, then just remove the cap completely and replace it by a simple wire or any other solution you might be comfortable with to connect the 2 points.
You can see here how to take apart the SCART end of the plug:
http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/official-pal- ... -consoles/

For the 75ohm resistor it's another story, it's located inside the male Multi-out connector.
To quote Link83 from a message posted 7 years ago on another forum:
"Having taken apart the MultiAV plug end though I can see that the resistor is there, covered in heat shink tubing. Its also covered up by a piece of black sticky fabric - so its abit hard to see normally."

So there you have it, I suggest removing the 220uf cap first and see if it solves the issue. If not you will have to remove the resistor as well.

Thank you for this response! I removed the 220uf cap and it seems to be better, but hasn't completely cured my problems. I'm actually seeing similar problems to other people here, where a bright white screen causes huge sync issues. This other mod? Am I just removing the 75ohm resistor as well? Or is there more to it? I might just order a different cable...

[TheShadowRunner]

Thank you for this response! I removed the 220uf cap and it seems to be better, but hasn't completely cured my problems. I'm actually seeing similar problems to other people here, where a bright white screen causes huge sync issues. This other mod? Am I just removing the 75ohm resistor as well? Or is there more to it? I might just order a different cable...

I'd certainly try to remove the 75ohm resistor first, it might very well be the culprit. Otherwise, yes, a different cable might be an easier solution.