Etekcity Upscaler Composite to HDMI

[Unadan360]

Has anyone used a device such as the following to play old school systems on their flat screen TVs? Wondering if this is worthwhile:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MNFWYBI/ref ... R2CZ07Y4DA

Any other recommendations on something that might work better? The above seems like a low cost option for me to connect my Genesis to my Vizio LCD.

[accaris]

Has anyone used a device such as the following to play old school systems on their flat screen TVs? Wondering if this is worthwhile:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MNFWYBI/ref ... R2CZ07Y4DA

Any other recommendations on something that might work better? The above seems like a low cost option for me to connect my Genesis to my Vizio LCD.

Ohh April Fool's day. You almost got me.

[Unadan360]

It's even funnier in that I'm not joking. I'd really like to know if this adapter is worth buying.

[Fudoh]

It's definitely not better than the direct composite input on your TV.

[accaris]

It's even funnier in that I'm not joking. I'd really like to know if this adapter is worth buying.

Oh. Thought it was an April Fool's joke because pretty much this whole forum is dedicated to this topic. It's like going on a Sega forum and asking if you should play Sonic the Hedgehog.

But to answer the question, it depends on if you truly care about video quality or input lag. The Etekcity converter is just a rebranded Chinese converter that you can see countless versions of on eBay. It is very low quality, very basic, and probably not much better than hooking the console directly to your Vizio via composite. In fact probably worse, since many Vizios have a Game Mode that introduces single frame deinterlacing to composite sources, almost completely eliminating input lag.

If you're not a videophile though then you might not care. There aren't many cheaper options, but there are certainly many better ones. http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/

[Unadan360]

Thanks. I've only recently started looking in to the best connection to my LCD TV for my Saturn and Genesis. Any recommendations that won't break the bank are appreciated. I hooked up my Genesis directly to my Vizio LCD via composite/component and it looks terrible. The text is very blurry. It looks better on my smaller Samsung LCD just using an RF connection. Also considering also just getting a Retron 5 to take advantage of the HDMI output.

[FinalBaton]

Genesis consoles, for the most part, have a composite video quality that's even worst than the average console's.

[accaris]

Genesis consoles, for the most part, have a composite video quality that's even worst than the average console's.

I tried to run my Genesis through my iScan HD with composite and it was practically unplayable.
One of these days I'll be able to afford some RGB cables

[FinalBaton]

Genesis consoles, for the most part, have a composite video quality that's even worst than the average console's.

I tried to run my Genesis through my iScan HD with composite and it was practically unplayable.
One of these days I'll be able to afford some RGB cables

yep, a better video signal is going to make a big difference

in the meantime: there are some consoles wich have a decent composite signal

the playstation's is pretty damn nice. totally enjoyable picture on an SD CRT

Suposedly the PC Engine has a decent one too. but I can't comfirm this, I've never played on an actual PC Engine

The NES one has a lot of dot crawl but it's still okay, I guess. I'm not a big fan but some people like it just fine.
I've gotta say that when I tried it on my two CRTs that have good comb filters (Sony KV-36FV300 and Sony PVM-1354Q) the other day, I thought it wasn't too bad. Was still somewhat enjoyable, especially on the PVM

[Guspaz]

Errm, the playstation's composite video is really not good, it does a strange blur on even the chroma, particularly visible on vertical lines. It makes all text harder to read and is not pleasant. I did some comparisons:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=56181

This may be less of an issue on full 3D games, but I don't own any.

[FinalBaton]

Errm, the playstation's composite video is really not good, it does a strange blur on even the chroma, particularly visible on vertical lines. It makes all text harder to read and is not pleasant. I did some comparisons:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=56181

This may be less of an issue on full 3D games, but I don't own any.

you telling me that this doesn't look good?

Come on... not everybody out there is a video purist like most of us on this site. Those composite screenshots you just linked look damn fine

[Koop]

Those composite screenshots you just linked look damn fine

Literally unplayable.

Spoiler

Just fuckin' around lol

[nissling]

To me composite is never an option. I cannot stand the color bleed, noise and lack of textures. As a kid it was my only alternative but even back then I noticed the issues with composite on the Playstation.

[FinalBaton]

I'm also a video nut, I have 3 professional RGB monitors here, and RGB cables for all my systems. And of course I always use RGB.

But what I'm saying is : if the best connection for consoles we ever got was composite, then I would be perfectly happy today playing playstation via composite on a PVM that has a good comb filter.
(can't say the same for some other consoles though)

I guess we aren't all looking for the same qualities (or defaults, should I say) in a CRT image.
Color bleeding doesn't really bother me, it's a "CRT attribute" to me (don't jump on me here, I know professional CRTs can have good color separation and detail, lol), part of the CRT look that's etched into my memory from way back.
To me those screenshots hit the right qualities : the color reproduction is pretty good and the luminance reproduction is quite good too. Sure there's less detail and there's color bleeding, but like I said : those don't bother me as much.

I'll end by saying this : to me this picture quality looks nice. It totally makes the cut as an "enjoyable" CRT picture TO ME. But YMMV

[FinalBaton]

lol Koop

[Guspaz]

Composite on an NES does't look so bad to me, but on the playstation, the horizontal blur is nuts, makes me wonder if it's worse than the N64. Drives me nuts.