The Worst Scaler In Retro Gaming

if you're looking to get into playing original classic consoles the easiest way to get started is to just find any CRT and connect it using whatever cables came with your console unfortunately if you need to game on a flat screen things can get expensive and confusing there are good options out there and even some excellent inexpensive options for people starting out but no matter what there's one thing beginners should definitely stay away from this piece [Music] before I begin I just want to start out by saying that this video is in no way meant to insult anybody's current gaming setup and it's also not some elitist video that's saying the only way to play is the best the truth is I've spent the last eight years trying to educate people about the most cost-effective things to buy and it really doesn't take much to have a good gaming experience in fact I think it's more important to learn what to stay away from so I'll skip to the end and say that if you're just starting out using classic original consoles on flat-screen TVs stay away from any of these generic scart to HDMI adapter and these come in different shapes and sizes but all perform the same as well as any of these generic console to HDMI adapter z' which are now being sold under many different brand names the best way to identify them is they'll use the same black case with the screws in the feet and the same shape to vent holes will be on the bottom of each some of them have the HDMI cable integrated right into it and others don't but they all share the same exact crappy guts if you decide to use these you're not going to have an accurate gaming experience and many people will walk away from this not enjoying games they once loved even if they didn't realize that it was the fault of the scaler please allow me to explain why a word that you'll often hear in the context of retro gaming is lag to demonstrate lag here's Castlevania on the genesis shot with a 960 frame per second camera here's a CRT showing the time it's supposed to take from when the button is pushed on the controller to when there's movement on the screen please keep in mind that this isn't lag this is just establishing the baseline input processing time you can consider this reading the zero baseline and anything added to it is lag to the right of that is the same console connected to a low lag TV attached via a zero lag scaler as you can see movement on the screen happens about 10 milliseconds or less than one frame after the CRT next to that is the infamous scart 2 HDMI converter which in 720p mode takes almost double the time the CRT does for the whiffed to crack lastly here's that same scaler in 1080p mode taking just about one frame longer than in 720p mode to make matters even worse the scalars delay varies meaning you can't just adjust your attack to compensate for the latency as it's constantly changing another way to measure lag is by splitting the output of a console 1 output into a CRT and the other through the scaler into a second CRT that accepts high-def signals then you run test software that measures lag and frames and see what the difference is once again the readings here show three to four frames of lag in 720p mode remember there's still a bit more lag if you run it in 1080p mode but this monitor isn't compatible with that so I'm just showing 720p oh and for the record here's that same HDMI to component converter showing zero lag so don't worry using that didn't affect the reading of the scart to HDMI box at all here's something else kind of funny this thing was definitely never made with gaming in mind because even the HDMI pass-through has lag check out my TV with a time sleuth lag testing device plugged directly in now here's the time sleuth routed through the HDMI pass-through port of the scart to HDMI device unless you match the input and output resolutions exactly it'll add over a frame of lag and even if the resolutions do match sometimes it'll randomly jump a full frame this thing is definitely terrible for gaming oh and here's those other crappy cables running through the same lag test they're not as bad as this card to HDMI box but still crappy and they perform worse in other tests which I'll show next regardless of what some people might tell you overall video quality isn't nearly as important as how the original consoles video signal is processed see every single one of these cables that are designed for 16-bit consoles as well as these generic scalars all processed the classic game consoles progressive-scan video signal as if it were an interlaced TV signal and you just saw a real-world example of what that looks like take another look at Castlevania and see how when the character moves it blurs when going through the scart to HDMI box but stay sharp when using a proper scaler while that's an easy real-world example to show there's software tools in the 240p test suite that makes it really easy to tell when the signal is processed wrong first check out the drop shadow test it's supposed to flicker and scroll smooth like with the good scaler on the left but look with the scar to HDMI box does to the image on the right next check out how the good scaler on the left retains the sharp look of the leaves on the trees as they scroll by the scart to HDMI box is on the right and you can't even tell that there's leaves on the trees when there's movement lastly here's the most damaging effect of progressive being processed as interlaced check out how the whole background of the crappy scaler kind of hops up and down when I show it in slow motion if the only problem was blurriness I wouldn't harp on it so much but that flicker will give most people a headache after a while also all those generic console the HDMI cables have the same problems but look how much noise they add to the signal you get the same headache-inducing scaling and an even messier picture also one thing to note is all of these crappy solutions seem to stretch the image to sixteen by nine most TVs have an option to set the input to four by three but I felt it was worth mentioning as it might be an issue for some people sadly every time I've tried to explain this in other videos many people think that I'm just being picky but that couldn't be farther from the truth I have no problem gaming on a solution that isn't very sharp as long as it doesn't change the overall gaming experience and that's exactly what happens when you use any of these crappy scalars you're changing the experience at the beginning of this video I said beginners shouldn't use any of these devices and I meant it don't waste your money on those when there's stuff out there that performs great for about the same price if you're an expert though there are some great uses for this scart - hdmi scaler as long as you know what you're doing first if you're gaming on a CRT and streaming through a capture card lag doesn't matter at all meaning you could just route the RGB outputs of your monitor into the Skaar inputs of this device also while the interlace flicker will still be there it'll be a lot less noticeable and streaming since your viewers are also paying attention to the chat as opposed to just staring at the game on a big TV like you would when you're playing it's still not the best choice but this device is so cheap that I feel comfortable recommending it as a starter scaler for streamers once again we're not playing games on this thing the scenario I just described this for people with CRT setups that just want a cheap way to get an HDMI signal to their capture card there's actually one reason people might prefer this device over better scalars if you mainly stream games from the PlayStation or n64 era you may have run into games that have 240p gameplay but for ATI menus most scalars take a few moments to switch between these resolutions but since the scaler is always improperly treating all signals as for ATI there's zero delay when the resolution switch now this is obviously a specific use case but I know professional streamers with awesome setups that sometimes switch to the scaler when playing multi-resolution games like that one other cool feature for streamers is the HDMI pass-through option once again this is terrible for gameplay since it adds lag but since its processing the HDMI signal it could actually increase the compatibility of the best scaler on the market the OSS see that means you can buy this device to start streaming then once you've saved some money switch to the OS SC and if that's not 100% compatible with your capture card try running it through this to fix now once again this is only for streaming as even the HDMI pass-through can mess with the image definitely don't use this for recording comparison shots or anything as it seems to change the colors and if you don't set the scalers output resolution to match the OSS C's output resolution it'll make even more changes to the image and hurt it even further by now many of you might be thinking you just named two really good uses for this device why is it the worst well unfortunately it's cuz of us see so many people in the retro gaming community have praised this scaler without understanding that it was never designed for use with video games it was just supposed to be used with DVD players and VCRs where all the shortcomings that pointed out about it don't matter at all all of this unwarranted praise was understandable many years ago as there really weren't any alternatives or resources like retro RGB to rely on for measurements and real data but the fact that so-called experts still keep insisting that it's good enough to use is maddening and even more frustrating are the people who will stubbornly defend anything they've bought simply because they bought it unfortunately the problem extends farther than just bad recommendations I've seen plenty of consoles ruined after eBay sellers stuffed them inside a console and call it an internal HDMI mod they're both misleading their buyers and giving them a crappy console experience we in the retro gaming community need to be patient and polite with people but make sure to drive the point home that it's not about being an elitist out for a perfect signal it's simply about preserving a good gaming experience and processing progressive as interlaced and adding three to five frames a variable lag is the opposite of that now look I realized that me standing up here and telling people they're wrong is gonna make me look like the bad guy but I've just received way too many emails over the years from people whose money was wasted because of bad recommendations I can't just keep my mouth shut and stay in my lane any longer I need to stand up for everybody whose money was wasted just because of misinformation hopefully you'll agree and hopefully I presented the information in this video and enough of a way that proves all of these points and we could all try to make a difference together and politely changing people's minds and more importantly getting rid of the misinformation about all of this bad scaling that's ruining a gaming experience on flat-screen TVs well that's it for this time I promise all of my other videos are more positively oriented and I'd like to invite you to subscribe to the channel and check out all the other videos that I have as well as a podcast that keeps everybody in the loop of what's going on in the retro gaming world every week also this channel is driven specifically from a patreon subscribed star and other supporters so if you'd like to see this research keep going please consider signing up thanks and I'll see you next time

Channel: RetroRGB

Views: 65,626

Keywords: scart to hdmi, adam koralik, ossc, framemeister, retro game hdmi, retro gaming, open source scan converter, retrotink 2x, ossc alternative, hdmi for retro consoles, snes hdmi, composite to hdmi, sega saturn hdmi

Id: ZUrqWN4AcJc

Length: 12min 45sec (765 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 01 2019