Scalers, scalers, scalers... and another story that's not quite as good.

Pyongyang

So I finally got around to some hardcore scaler action tonight (after electrocuting myself again on my SLG 3000).

Just been playing some Ferrari F355 Challenge on my Dreamcast using the following setup - Dreamcast > VGA Box > SLG 3000 > iScan HD > VGA OUT > LCD (as seen below):



I prefer lighter scanlines from my SLG 3000. Here's a close up shot of my LCD monitor taken with my iPhone 4 in HDR mode. It really does not represent how amazing the image looks on the screen, seriously just buy one, but I hope it gives a good indication of what it can do.



Also, the iScan HD I'm using is absolutely fantastic. Head and shoulders above the CGA/VGA PCB doing the rounds. The upscaling and clarity of the picture is phenomenal and I've not even hooked up any of my other processors yet which are far better!

I'm going to try a test run shortly with my HD-PVR and new scan converter. Fingers crossed it all works! YouTube reviews are almost uponeth.

80s Synth Pop

Hi Pyongyang,

What advantages do the iScan HD > VGA OUT options add over stopping at the SGL3000? Just curious because I take VGA out of the SLG3000 and run that straight through to the TV. It looks like retro CRT quality and it's fantastic - do you recommend adding in the iScan HD to the chain? Any additional frame lag with it?

Pyongyang

Absolutely no lag whatsoever. Check out the very rough video I made just now of me playing Mars Matrix on the Dreamcast.

Same set up, I just added a Hauppauge HD-PVR and a scan converter to the chain. You lose VGA as you need to convert to component to get the PVR to work and there's a few complications I'm still working on there.

This is just a very quick, initial proof of concept video. No audio yet as all I want ed to do was test the video.

It's not bad, I need to work on the settings, but it's getting there. No SLG either though too as you can't use it when scan converting...i think.

As for the advantages over the CGA/VGA PCB, they are definitely visible. The device just handles the scaling and processing so much better. I'm not incredibly versed in the intricacies of it yet, still learning, but from a naked eye point of view, it's night and day.

Here's the video I recorded just now. See what you think of the (very rough remember) scan conversion to PVR.

EDIT: Note I have not processed this through Vegas, this using default YouTube encoding/compression so it's degraded quality a LOT. Take this video with a severe pinch of salt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5WF90sQb9Q

safetyboy

FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU that looks good!

Pyongyang

safetyboy wrote: »

FFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU that looks good!

It's odd. Excuse me while I tip my own bonnet here. It looks a lot better on my office monitor than my one at home.

That's quite strange. I may need to make some settings adjustments for that. To reiterate though, I've done no processing, filtering, messing around etc. That's just the HD-PVR recording a raw M2TS file and me uploading it directly to YouTube, which then gets compressed and faffed with.

The raw M2TS is miles better, but still only raw default settings. Once I get each setting nailed for each system it should be miles better. I can then run it through Sony Vegas and have a quality recording. The one thing I do like though is the lack of ghosting or interlacing when the background moves fast. Recording Soukfhgfjkdhglksdghgurentai from my Plasma using a DSLR causes a lot of these problems to appear. I have some test footage of this I can upload for comparison.

Hoping to make the odd review or record high scores and superplays, aka, credit feeding the entire game (yeah, I wish I was any good at these games, I just enjoy playing them).

Glad you like the recording though, even if it is at it's most basic.

Pyongyang

EDIT: The video link I posted does now have 720p enabled it seems. However I'm uploading a new test with new rendering settings to get better YouTube quality.

Finally got the audio figured out! Using my current processor though I can't record scanlines. Anyway, here's my latest upload, I'm really disappointed with the image quality though as the raw file is fantastic quality.

Here's a screenshot from my raw M2TS file, followed by my YouTube video. I'm currently rendering another version which will hopefully be in 720p on YouTube when it's uploaded. We'll see, but certainly more experimentation is needed to get the best quality on YouTube, capturing it is no problem at all, it's pixel perfect.

Click the screenshot for the full size image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFUNlQLDjow