I finally found a good/affordable Upscaler

This is a topic from my previous thread about the clone hardware vs original hardware.

So I got the Super Retro Trio, it outputs in both composite and s-video, however my 4k TV can only accept a composite signal. (Some TV's are even lucky to still have that option)

Sadly my retro collection is mostly Genesis and Genesis looks horrible over composite. I was also experiencing visual glitches. (I assume from the crappy scaler in the TV) My NES/SNES games looked ok, but I would still get some glitches.

So what are a person's options? Well there are a few.

Use a CRT TV for the true retro experience and best picture. But CRT Tv's are huge and getting harder to find. (Good ones anyway)

Buy an XRGB Mini. This is the best option as it gives the best picture for retro gaming with 0 lag. But it's $300 and you have to buy scart cables for all your consoles. (The Super Retro trio doesn't output RGB so this was useless for me)

Buy a Retron 5. Probably the second best option. But they are $170 if you can find one, and it runs emulation through an android OS and reliability is an issue.

Buy a cheap $20 scaler and hope it works. I've heard mixed things on scalers, some work great but they all almost seem to have horrible lag and reliability issues.

But I said screw all that noise. I just bought the Trio, there has to be an S-video scaler that actually works worth a damn and isn't $200 or more. So I looked around some professional video websites, B&H, and I finally found one! It came in today and I've been playing for a few hours.

It's the KanexPro. It's around $100 and it takes composite and s-video signals and upscales them to resolutions of 720p@60hz, 1080p@60hz, 4k@30hz, and 4k@60hz. And it does all of this with virtually no lag. None that I can notice anyway. Below are some screens I took with my cell phone.4:3 720p on a Samsung 4k TV running svideo through the KanexPro on Super Retro Trio

I am very pleased with the KanexPro so far. You can manually choose the resolution, zoom, and input on the front with dedicated buttons. It was easy to setup, just plug it in and it works.

There are some cons. First there is no power button, so you have to unplug it to turn the device off, it has a bright light so that is kind of annoying.

Second, while it has a zoom button for aspect ratio, when I tested it it didn't work. So it stretched the image to 16:9. I had to use my TV to manually put it into 4:3. Not all TV's can do this so this may be a big issue for some.

Thoughts? Questions? Let me know. I have a dreamcast and n64 I want to try out, but I want to get S-video cables for them since that looks much better.

@Star67: that looks pretty good. Nice alternative, if you don't want to plunk down $400 on a Framemeister. I just checked, and it will upscale to 1080p as well, if you only have a 1080p HDTV. Might look into one of these. Thanks for the info.

There is also a VGA version. I bet it would make Dreamcast games in VGA mode look even better.

@pixel8: Yeah, it upscales to 720p, 1080p, and 4k resolutions. In my experience, on my 4k tv, 720p actually looks the best.

I've been playing through Sonic 1 & 2 and the difference between the scaler and just through composite is night and day! The scaler even has scan lines through S-video which is a bonus. I'm trying to find a lag testing software to test the lag. Even though I'm not noticing any at all so far, I'm just curious.

I wish they made a version with all 3. VGA, S-video, and composite.

Glad you found a scaler that works for you. I'm on my cell phone but in the first two pics it looks like some de-interlacing is being applied when it shouldn't, are there any video processing options that you can tweak?

For input lag you could run composite through a video splitter to a CRT and through your scaler to an HDTV. A slo-mo video of the timer in sonic or something similar would show if there's lag since the timer on the HDTV would be behind the one on the CRT.

@achilles614: sadly I don't have a CRT, so I won't be able to do that.

As far as additional video processing the only thing I could do is put the TV in game mode to see if that does anything.

But yes those are interlaced lines. More noticeable on the Genesis (first 2 pics) but the SNES I hardly see them at all

It's taking an svideo signal from the trio and upscaling to 720p60hz in those pics. Then through the TV i set the aspect ratio to 4:3.

Any update on the converter? Were you able to test everything?

You should be using RGB on old consoles like that, composite and svideo are a bit poo.

Open Source Scan Converter will take RGB scart and line double in real time. That means zero lag.

I agree, RGB is the "best", but s-video is good too. S-video has all the sharpness of RGB with only a small color loss. Once you go down the RGB rabbit hole, there's no turning back :P You can always make it better, shielded cables, powered switch matrices, non-stock RGB amps for "sharper" RGB. I think s-video is fine for most people.

If you have an N64, NES, or gamecube I would just go the HDMI mod route.

HDMI mod is a great solution, but it's far too expensive when an OSSC can be had for much less.

I was quite happy plugging RGB direct into my 4k TV, but the one I bought last month doesn't support it :(

@Star67: so this is pretty much the best alternative to the framemeister from your experience then huh?