PixelFX Morph

[Gara]

WobblingPixels posted an interesting collection of notes on the current state of things. Going by this it's probably a good thing no one has created a review video yet. I get the feeling this is more like an open beta rather than a product launch. I hope PixelFX can get things squared away by the time they get their analog input boards made and then we can see a real product launch.

Spoiler

https://x.com/WobblingP/status/1766967131432714337?s=20

[bobrocks95]

I do know the SNES jitter issue was addressed super quickly, within like a day of reporting they released a fix that hopefully does it. So here's hoping they move quickly with these.

[strayan]

I have no idea why anyone would waste $400-500 on this when there are better options at the same price and a much better option at $750.

No idea?

Some people may already own a RT5x or ossc and might want to connect it to a morph
Some people may want 240p output
Some people might already own a RT4k and want to fiddle with the Morph
Some people, like me, have consoles that all have hdmi mods and don’t need analog inputs

Still no idea?

[tongshadow]

I have no idea why anyone would waste $400-500 on this when there are better options at the same price and a much better option at $750.

I'm interested in knowing what these better options are.

[ldeveraux]

I have no idea why anyone would waste $400-500 on this when there are better options at the same price and a much better option at $750.

I'm kinda with you here. It's just the 4k HDMI scaler, they haven't released the analog version yet. I passed on the RT4k at its price, I'll likely pass on the Morph when whatever the analog price is. Guess I'll just stick with my RT5x.

[fernan1234]

Damn, didn't expect it to launch with a firmware this raw. Should get better eventually at least, less sure about it ever reaching parity with the Tink4K though.

It also sounds like this thing definitely needs the analog bridge, except for the niche of digital output only users. The hassle of chaining it to other ADCs and then not knowing what to troubleshoot in the event of issues is too much.

[SuperSpongo]

Damn, didn't expect it to launch with a firmware this raw. Should get better eventually at least, less sure about it ever reaching parity with the Tink4K though.

Well, Mike had his firmware tested for over a year by various volunteers. This was possible because he seems to be a genuinely nice guy.
The morph crew on the other hand burned many bridges leading up to their release so I assume they only had a handful of beta testers.

[tongshadow]

Damn, didn't expect it to launch with a firmware this raw. Should get better eventually at least, less sure about it ever reaching parity with the Tink4K though.

Well, Mike had his firmware tested for over a year by various volunteers. This was possible because he seems to be a genuinely nice guy.
The morph crew on the other hand burned many bridges leading up to their release so I assume they only had a handful of beta testers.

I dont think credible testers such as MLiG would flat out deny a sample from PixelFX just because of e-drama.
The fact is that the Morph has been in testing for awhile, way before the launch of the RetroGEM. But considering the state the GEM launched (lack of Direct Mode for instance), that's probably how PixelFX operates, release the product and fix/add features as time goes on.

[Josh128]

Hmmm. Not a great look.

[SavagePencil]

There was a livestream yesterday walking through the features of the morph: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGCkyjQUUHg

[XtraSmiley]

Damn, didn't expect it to launch with a firmware this raw. Should get better eventually at least, less sure about it ever reaching parity with the Tink4K though.

Well, Mike had his firmware tested for over a year by various volunteers. This was possible because he seems to be a genuinely nice guy.
The morph crew on the other hand burned many bridges leading up to their release so I assume they only had a handful of beta testers.

I dont think credible testers such as MLiG would flat out deny a sample from PixelFX just because of e-drama.
The fact is that the Morph has been in testing for awhile, way before the launch of the RetroGEM. But considering the state the GEM launched (lack of Direct Mode for instance), that's probably how PixelFX operates, release the product and fix/add features as time goes on.

Well if that is how one likes to roll (buying a product and waiting for better/more features to roll out), then I would recommend the OSSC Pro. The original OSSC was very limited on release as well, but over the years has become a powerhouse of a tool at it's price point. No reason the OSSC Pro wouldn't follow suit, and also, Marqs is also a nice guy, not a bridge burning type.

[tongshadow]

Well, Mike had his firmware tested for over a year by various volunteers. This was possible because he seems to be a genuinely nice guy.
The morph crew on the other hand burned many bridges leading up to their release so I assume they only had a handful of beta testers.

I dont think credible testers such as MLiG would flat out deny a sample from PixelFX just because of e-drama.
The fact is that the Morph has been in testing for awhile, way before the launch of the RetroGEM. But considering the state the GEM launched (lack of Direct Mode for instance), that's probably how PixelFX operates, release the product and fix/add features as time goes on.

Well if that is how one likes to roll (buying a product and waiting for better/more features to roll out), then I would recommend the OSSC Pro. The original OSSC was very limited on release as well, but over the years has become a powerhouse of a tool at it's price point. No reason the OSSC Pro wouldn't follow suit, and also, Marqs is also a nice guy, not a bridge burning type.

The OSSC Pro is a great product for its price and marqs is an awesome guy, who supported and added features to the original OSSC for free. No doubt about it.
However, it lacks the next-gen features like true HDR (HDR10), real 4k output (no pixel repetition) and VRR.
Both are great products, but for $90 more the Morph feels like a worthy upgrade... the software does need alot of polishing though.

[SuperSpongo]

In my opinion, the product was not ready yet but they were feeling the pressure of Mike already selling out a second batch without them even offering a preorder. So they had to hurry it out the door and this is the expected result.
I agree that it is most likely going to mature over time.

[BuckoA51]

I think Wobbling was a little harsh on the Morph with that post, though don't get me wrong there were issues, but no scaler I've helped launch has ever been bug free on day one, not even close. I'm told even the RT4k has some issues losing sync when Dubesinhower was comparing it with Morph in his stream.

For the list currently, 3 and 7 were fixed instantly, 4 is misleading (surround sound works just fine, it's dolby digital that sometimes goes wrong, which has certainly happened on other products!) 8 is just as likely to be Mister as Morph and 5 is an issue with the Gem boards not the Morph anyway (and only applies to the PS1 and N64 versions, it's already working on PS2 and Dreamcast). 6 is something that's problematic on a lot of scalers but a fix has been attempted.

As for should they have launched now, well damned if you do damned if you don't sometimes, when I told folks on the Discord to wait a little longer while we did more testing, they said they just wanted to get their hands on it and play, since most features are working just fine, I understand both points of view to be honest.

[fernan1234]

but no scaler I've helped launch has ever been bug free on day one, not even close. I'm told even the RT4k has some issues losing sync when Dubesinhower was comparing it with Morph in his stream.

The rest of your post is pretty reasonable for someone with a horse in the race, but this point we have to be fair and note how this comparison just doesn't work. There's a big difference between being "bug free" on launch, which indeed no product has been, and launching both with very bare-bones features only and with several non-minor bugs.

The RT4K's day 1 bugs were not nearly this many nor this significant, and also launched with a much more mature and extensive set of features on day 1 (including proper HDR colors, which IMO should be seen as basic at this point and be available day 1 for this scaler too).

[BuckoA51]

this comparison just doesn't work

I think you miss the point I was trying to make, nobody is realistically trying to claim that the Morph is in any way as good as the Tink 4k right now in terms of features or software maturity. My point was that you can have a product undergo rigorous testing before launch, then have several months of real world testing, but still things can crop up because it's simply impossible to test every possible configuration etc. I certainly remember people moaning that Mike should just launch the Tink 4k for months before he actually did.

and launching both with very bare-bones features only and with several non-minor bugs.

Other than the HDR I would argue that they mostly were fairly minor bugs. Anyway as a tester I can only apologise for not spotting them, and give kudos to PixelFX for fixing them very quickly when they were pointed out.

On the HDR tone mapping and gamma correction, I appreciate Tink4K has really raised the bar in terms of that, and it's definitely something we all want to see improved in the Morph sooner rather than later.

[Bahn Yuki]

https://youtu.be/EsJjSXyCsNM?si=zv1WnUvMCBM1Stwx

Liking this product so far. After hearing the analog Bridge will only be $100, I'll be looking forward to that.

[TooBeaucoup]

https://youtu.be/EsJjSXyCsNM?si=zv1WnUvMCBM1Stwx

Liking this product so far. After hearing the analog Bridge will only be $100, I'll be looking forward to that.

Which makes me wonder why they didn't just make it an all-in-one right from the start? I mean, I get that the theory is targeting people who are equipping all their consoles with a Retro Gem mod, but the majority of people aren't doing that. So $400 for the Morph and $100 for the bridge, and you could've had a nice $500 solution that could've competed right out of the gate with the Tink4k and at a much cheaper price.

And I get that giving people a choice is a thing, but 99% of retro gamers that are shelling out this kind of money on any scaler in the first place want everything available right out of the box. Most people aren't interested in spending $400 just to spend more later to build their own scaler. Idk, seems like such a misfire in thought process to me.

[BuckoA51]

What's your 99% figure based on? Plenty of folks replaced all their older consoles with a Mister, maybe now just have a Dreamcast and a PS2 with HDMI, so HDMI is all they will ever need. Some folks might just want to prescale indie titles on PC or Switch etc. Then on the other end of the scale there are CRT die hards that want analogue inputs AND outputs.

Modular seems to me to be the way to go to cater for how diverse the retro scene is these days. Pretty sure you will be able to buy it pre-assembled with an analogue bridge too if that's what you want to do.

[bobrocks95]

Did want to chime in to say that VRR seems to be fixed, Dolby Digital passthrough just got a fix, SNES dejitter got a fix, lag in minimal and probably triple buffer as well got fixes, and the Discord Game ID integration tool has been released for PS1, PS2, and experimentally for N64 (no cover database set up yet). There's also been some nice talk with Dustin from MakeMHz reaching out for potentially adding stuff to Xbox's Stellar in the future.

So fixing things quite quickly it seems like which is good to see.

[TooBeaucoup]

What's your 99% figure based on? Plenty of folks replaced all their older consoles with a Mister, maybe now just have a Dreamcast and a PS2 with HDMI, so HDMI is all they will ever need. Some folks might just want to prescale indie titles on PC or Switch etc. Then on the other end of the scale there are CRT die hards that want analogue inputs AND outputs.

Modular seems to me to be the way to go to cater for how diverse the retro scene is these days. Pretty sure you will be able to buy it pre-assembled with an analogue bridge too if that's what you want to do.

It's diverse, for sure, but you truly don't think that the majority as a whole aren't still rocking a ton of systems with analog outputs? Seems like a huge portion of the market. Just seems weird to me when you're already making a $400+ scaler, to not just go all the way for another $100ish dollars and have analog inputs on it.

I just don't see something like PC or the Switch having a huge userbase that would care about a scaler. Switch fans, regardless of age or gender don't strike me as the kind of gamers who care about prescaling. Just based on all the people I see on YouTube videos for these products going - "Jesus, $400-$750 for a scaler?! That's insane!". Now, certainly, there are SOME Switch players that want to do it, but I just don't believe it's in the tens of thousands of people.

That said, we already saw both of Mike's couple thousand unit batches of the Tink4k sell out immediately, which to me, shows that there's a large number of people who care about analog inputs being all included in one unit and just being done with it. I didn't exactly see a ton of people bitching and moaning that they couldn't get a Morph when they tried to buy one, not anywhere near to the extent that people were bummed about the Tink4k. I spend a lot of time terminally online because I have nothing better to do, and from everywhere I've watched, there really hasn't been, what I would call, massive hype for the Morph, especially given Pixel's lackluster business model of locking features behind firmware on their Retro Gem products, as well as just kind of stumbling in general in how long it's taking them to get products out. If they do happen to release an all-in-one unit, I'd wager that would do great! The build as you go just seems kind of half-assed to me, like they knew they wouldn't have an all-in-one unit ready as soon as they wanted, so decided to do HDMI only just to get something out the door.

Now, of course, this is all just my opinion and anecdotal from all the time I sit online and read everyone's opinion. I don't have any polls or sales statistics to back up any of the shit I say. LOL! So it's certainly everyone's right to disagree with me. But, if in a year, we actually were able to look at sales data for the two scalers, I'd bet all my money that the Tink4k outsells the base model HDMI only Morph by like 5 to 1.

[Bahn Yuki]

I actually am now more interested in the "crosspoint" for analog downscale to my CRTs. More on that when there's more info on that option. Anyhow you state 99% want an all in one solution. Personally I appreciate the option of customizing my own morph with different inputs that I need/ want.

Currently I don't need analog inputs as I've gotten the things I want to hdmi already, but I understand my usage case isn't everyone else's. I'm digging the morph and I would imagine that "99%" of the market already had a scaler to get their analog consoles to hdmi already.

[BuckoA51]

don't think that the majority as a whole aren't still rocking a ton of systems with analog outputs?

I don't actually, I think people using all original hardware, with a games room stuffed full of original consoles, are the exception rather than the rule. Considering original hardware breaks down, requires maintenance like recapping etc, I know at least two people here given up on it partially or entirely.

True, someone who just wants to retro game on a Raspberry Pi or similar probably doesn't care to get a Morph, RetroTINK etc anyway and is just as happy with the native output of the system so you're never going to sell a 4k scaler to them no matter how affordable you make it.

[PaTaito]

don't think that the majority as a whole aren't still rocking a ton of systems with analog outputs?

I don't actually, I think people using all original hardware, with a games room stuffed full of original consoles, are the exception rather than the rule. Considering original hardware breaks down, requires maintenance like recapping etc, I know at least two people here given up on it partially or entirely.

True, someone who just wants to retro game on a Raspberry Pi or similar probably doesn't care to get a Morph, RetroTINK etc anyway and is just as happy with the native output of the system so you're never going to sell a 4k scaler to them no matter how affordable you make it.

I'm one of those people. I have MiSTerFPGA, Retrogem'd PS1, PS2, and Dreamcast with VGA, and Saturn with RGB. This is because I live in a relatively small apartment with very limited space for having every console.

When the VGA analogue expansion card is released I'm golden!

I do not see any real negatives beyond what people are bringing with them. We are given options here which is always the best for the consumer. Best price, best versatility, even with anaologue expansion combined the best price across the board, a team of individuals who have a proven track record(for after sales service too in my experience). Software infancy is a slight inconvenience at best. But with the names attached to this i'm totally confident it will get there within a few months. The only way i'm put out is not always being able to use direct mode on MiSTer(which the RT4K also has had issues with), and not having CRT emulation at the touch of a button...no biggy at all. Morph also has a physical power switch and wireless integration, which don't get enough praise for being included here. Literally, the only proper negative I can think of is the remote being shit!

Also, the infinity switch looks like a must have too.

[BuckoA51]

What are peoples thoughts on a premium remote option, similar to the OSSC Pro's but specifically for Morph?

I had just planned to make extra OSSC Pro remotes and use those, since it's fairly close as it is, but once analogue bridge and infinity switch is out, that might actually call for something a bit more advanced for folks that need a good IR remote. Ballpark price would be round what the Pro remote is, so 13 Eur plus shipping and taxes, but there'd need to be enough demand to make it worthwhile.

[ldeveraux]

Which makes me wonder why they didn't just make it an all-in-one right from the start? I mean, I get that the theory is targeting people who are equipping all their consoles with a Retro Gem mod, but the majority of people aren't doing that. So $400 for the Morph and $100 for the bridge, and you could've had a nice $500 solution that could've competed right out of the gate with the Tink4k and at a much cheaper price.

And I get that giving people a choice is a thing, but 99% of retro gamers that are shelling out this kind of money on any scaler in the first place want everything available right out of the box. Most people aren't interested in spending $400 just to spend more later to build their own scaler. Idk, seems like such a misfire in thought process to me.

This right here. And sorry Mike, I'm not dropping $750 on a 4k. We're talking retro game consoles; good enough is just that.

[tongshadow]

I dont see the lack of the analogue bridge as a deal breaker. The OSSC in passthrough mode already works as the analogue bridge, so I'll say I am one of those who benefit from the standalone Morph 4k. And for the price, it cant be beaten, really.
Not to mention the Morph is also a solution for HD consoles so that sharp 2x/3x scale can be achieved .

[PaTaito]

What are peoples thoughts on a premium remote option, similar to the OSSC Pro's but specifically for Morph?

I had just planned to make extra OSSC Pro remotes and use those, since it's fairly close as it is, but once analogue bridge and infinity switch is out, that might actually call for something a bit more advanced for folks that need a good IR remote. Ballpark price would be round what the Pro remote is, so 13 Eur plus shipping and taxes, but there'd need to be enough demand to make it worthwhile.

I'd buy a premium remote for sure. The one included is understandably basic...But then you only really need it for the directional buttons and the middle/enter button.

[SavagePencil]

don't think that the majority as a whole aren't still rocking a ton of systems with analog outputs?

I don't actually, I think people using all original hardware, with a games room stuffed full of original consoles, are the exception rather than the rule. Considering original hardware breaks down, requires maintenance like recapping etc, I know at least two people here given up on it partially or entirely.

I mean, you run a shop catering to that audience, so I'd be curious as to what trends you've seen over the years to indicate what people are buying.

[fernan1234]

This right here. And sorry Mike, I'm not dropping $750 on a 4k. We're talking retro game consoles; good enough is just that.

And Mike agrees with you. There's so many good enough and even more than good enough options out there now. The message has always been you get the Tink4K if you want the absolute best of the best, and want to have all features available. It seems like many people do going by how fast it sells, but for the rest there are more suitable options.

The Morph is kind of in a weird niche middle ground, and the modularity introduces a new model. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out and if it's sustainable. From what I can tell, sales for this and the OSSC Pro have not been great in terms of numbers, but maybe its market share will grow slowly or it can be supported even with low sales volume.