Reply To: Downscaling: Problems connecting the OSSC Pro to my CRT TV via Scart
Hey, after a week of more tinkering and trial and error, my setup seems to be finally working quite well. So I wanted to give some feedback.
– not duplicating my screen on two monitors but projecting just to the CRT fixed the perceived heavy slowdown and unsmooth frame pacing.
– disabling GPU and monitor scaling in the NVIDIA app fixed so many issues. For some emulators like Xemu, it was also neccessary to check “override the scaling mode set by games and programms”
– on the topic of scaling, what I perceived as vertical tearing lines across the whole width of the screen had nothing to do with differing refresh rates in the end. In Retroarch “integer scaling” had to be disabled also.
– in the beginning, I had problems fitting the content on my CRT screen. Sides would be cut off whatever the resolution, whether it’d be 640×480, 720×480, 1280×960 or 1290×1080. Adjusting the advanced timings only helped some, switching the aspect ratios wasn’t met with success really also. Experimenting with “crop bounding box” settings didn’t help either. So in the end, I found out that 720×480 is neither considered 4:3 nor 16:9, but PAR 1:1!!! So switching to PAR on the OSSC and Retroarch finally fit my 1280×960 image perfectly. I havn’t tried 1440×960 yet, which would be more correct theoretically, but for whatever reason, it’s already looking good as it is. And CRU looked a bit unwieldy on my first look.
So after all this, I’m pretty happy it’s finally coming together. A few questions tho remain:
- When the PC switches Apps, the OSSC or CRT tries to readjust resolutions which let’s the screen flicker for a bit. Is that normal or could it damage the CRT in the long run?
- I think this is not supported through the OSSC Pro, but is it possible to automate 240p/480i switching by core, by input res, by emulator? Is that even possible technically and could be a future feature? Or can it be mapped to my remote so I don’t have to maneuver through the OSD every time? Some PSX games also switch resolutions, like for example 480i for the title or menu screens, am I out of luck here?
- For some SNES/Megadrive and also some PSX games, mainly those with prerendered backgrounds and lots of FMVs, I couldn’t yet find a shader in Retroarch that satisfyingly replicated the look, blur of composite video. So I was thinking why not use the real thing, a composite cable. The OSSC isn’t outputting CVBS, but could it be done with an adapter like this:
or
https://www.syscomtec.com/de/cyp-europe-scanconverter-vga-auf-y-c-fbas-sy-pt385a.html
Edit: I also just found this https://videogameperfection.com/products/koryuu-transcoder/ on VGP.
AND if the OSSC could be upgraded to supported CVBS with such hardware, maybe a switch board could be of use if I don’t want to unplug and switch cables each time. My TV got two Scart inputs, one could be used with a composite to Scart adapter. I guess, it never ends, every solved problems makes way for more ideas. 😉
Well, well this turned out to be a bit of a wall of text, but in the end I also wanted to leave big thanks to you two for your very helpful suggestions. I the beginning I really thought this would go nowhere.
