Retro gaming in modern displays.

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daniloberserk
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Retro gaming in modern displays.

Post by daniloberserk » 17 Jul 2018, 15:28

Hi! I'm always reading this forum time to time, thanks for everyone here for maintaining such a high quality forum! So, I'm looking for a setup for retro gaming, to connect my PC Engine, Mega Drive and SNES... All this things is such a nightmare in the current era, I'm looking for ideas here.

I have a XL2420z, great monitor for me and works great with my Nintendo Switch with single strobe and such, I would love to connect my other consoles here but I'm not sure how.

I can't afford a Framemeister, you guys will never believe how expensive this thing is here on Brazil (this display was expensive enough btw). I tried some cheap AV2HDMI converter but without luck, black and white picture and a lot of distortion going on. Also, I'm not sure how fast is the upscalling on this display.

Something I didn't tried yet is a component to VGA converter.

Of course, the ideal would be an old CRT, but this would be my last resort.

The most important thing for me is low input lag and of course, least amount of blur. There's a good option for this besides going for a CRT route ? Thanks in advance guys!

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Chief Blur Buster
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Re: Retro gaming in modern displays.

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 26 Jul 2018, 01:52

Besides going to CRT or a LED HDTV with 60Hz-single-strobe feature -- you've already got one of the best desktop LCD monitors for 60Hz zero motion blur for consoles.

Another bonus of the XL2420Z / XL2411Z / XL2720Z / XL2420P / XL2430T is the single-strobe 60Hz support -- which works excellently with emulators.

Basically 11Z/20Z/20P/30T are single strobe capable (none of the other Z/P/T series are)

With some adjustments in Blur Busters Strobe Utility, you can minimize double images. Basically calibrate via 1080p/60 on a PC, then reconnect monitor to a console -- and you've got zero motion blur for 60Hz console games -- albiet you will have lots of flicker.

As for adaptors -- there are many available -- There are some cheap component to HDMI adaptors, but they won't always be good. I see a few cheapies for $20 USD, but they won't be as good as a Framemeister, and might actually add a bit of lag.

The Brazil video standards may be tricky -- it's not exactly the same as North America, isn't it... That might be why you didn't have success with the adaptors you've tried.
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daniloberserk
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Joined: 22 Aug 2017, 16:50

Re: Retro gaming in modern displays.

Post by daniloberserk » 02 Aug 2018, 13:22

Chief Blur Buster wrote:Besides going to CRT or a LED HDTV with 60Hz-single-strobe feature -- you've already got one of the best desktop LCD monitors for 60Hz zero motion blur for consoles.

Another bonus of the XL2420Z / XL2411Z / XL2720Z / XL2420P / XL2430T is the single-strobe 60Hz support -- which works excellently with emulators.

Basically 11Z/20Z/20P/30T are single strobe capable (none of the other Z/P/T series are)

With some adjustments in Blur Busters Strobe Utility, you can minimize double images. Basically calibrate via 1080p/60 on a PC, then reconnect monitor to a console -- and you've got zero motion blur for 60Hz console games -- albiet you will have lots of flicker.

As for adaptors -- there are many available -- There are some cheap component to HDMI adaptors, but they won't always be good. I see a few cheapies for $20 USD, but they won't be as good as a Framemeister, and might actually add a bit of lag.

The Brazil video standards may be tricky -- it's not exactly the same as North America, isn't it... That might be why you didn't have success with the adaptors you've tried.
Thanks Chief!!! Yea, you're right. Here the standard is PAL-M and not NTSC, PAL-M is a really good standard btw because it's 60hz with the NTSC resolution but with Pal colors. I do have some old consoles which is NTSC, and in the 90s was common to have CRT TVs who supports both PAL-M and NTSC but is a tricky situation...

BUT afaik this standards only apply to RF connection, it does apply to composite connections to?

Also, how good is the upscaling of the Benq XL2420z? Thanks for the help Chief!!!

daniloberserk
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Re: Retro gaming in modern displays.

Post by daniloberserk » 03 Aug 2018, 22:00

So, I tried this https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com ... SS350_.jpg to connect my Wii in the XL2420z VGA connection, and works quite good! BUT, when I try to play something like Megaman X collection, it seems 240p is "out of range"... How can I solve this?

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RealNC
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Re: Retro gaming in modern displays.

Post by RealNC » 04 Aug 2018, 00:11

daniloberserk wrote:So, I tried this https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com ... SS350_.jpg to connect my Wii in the XL2420z VGA connection, and works quite good! BUT, when I try to play something like Megaman X collection, it seems 240p is "out of range"... How can I solve this?
You can't. 240p is just not supported by the monitor.

You need to use an upscaler device, or a display that supports 240p.
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Re: Retro gaming in modern displays.

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 07 Aug 2018, 10:52

Unfortunately, no desktop LCD gaming monitor I know can support 240p native. You need to upconvert first; i.e. an external scaler -- before the monitor accepts it.

The most lagless scalers I know that can suppot 240p includes the Framemeister or the OSSC. This device can essentially do realtime scaling (bufferlessly) -- well, rolling-window scanline buffered if we want to get nitpicky technical -- which is important in avoiding scaler lag.

Converters (that are also scalers) tend to add lots of lag, and avoiding scaling lag requires an extremely specialized scaler that's intentionally designed for this purpose.

For a cheaper solution, you can also use Convert Composite to RGB -> Then use the Open Source Scan Converter (OSSC)
OSSC does not support native composite, so you have to do a non-scaling analog transcode (that preserves original signal timings), before feeding into OSSC.

Note: Do not convert NTSC to PAL or vice versa (format conversion can add lag and other unwanted stuff), try to keep the original timings, though you can convert NTSC to RGB or convert PAL to RGB -- keeping the original NTSC/PAL timings (e.g. 50Hz and 625 scanlines including its original VBI). Instead, transcode to RGB, *then* pipe through the OSSC.
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Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
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