Gamecube 480p 2x mode aspect ratio not 4:3. Any ideas?

[Yovan Basurto]

Hey guys so when I set my gamecube to 2x using firebrands settings the aspect ratio of 4:3 changes to a slightly thinner one. What’s weird is that it actually displays more game info at the top so its not only a different aspect ratio but it’s also changing what you would normally see in a true 4:3 aspect ratio. Any idea why it does this and any way to fix this?

Also setting sampling phase on gamecube and wii is a total nightmare. I just can’t tell what’s happing. Sharp or not. Ugh.

My tv is an oled lg c8 and using firebrands settings.

[Yovan Basurto]

Anyone?

[TrantaLocked]

I’m trying to figure this out on my Xbox too. I believe 480p games often have thin black pillars on the sides but I’m trying to figure out how to determine what kind of scaling to use for these instances.

[BuckoA51]

With a resolution like 1280 x 960 that a lot will depend on your TVs scaling as to how it eventually ends up.

I wasn’t even aware there was an Xbox FBX profile for the Xbox, I would have thought the standard timings for 720×480 were correct.

[Yovan Basurto]

So if my tv doesn’t want to give me 960p in true 4:3 then that’s it. It’s either passthrough 4:3 or linex2 960p but skinner aspect ratio? Ugh. Weird.

[BuckoA51]

Doesn’t the c8 have the “all direction zoom” option for aspect ratio, that essentially lets you free scale the image to a degree?

[Yovan Basurto]

Yeah it does but all my retro consoles are on the same setting with the ossc so messing with the aspect ratio just for GameCube and going back and forth is annoying.

So I’m trying to understand why this is happening and weirdly enough why I can’t find much info on the internet. Is a bit frustrating.

[Harrumph]

Like has been mentioned, your TV doesn’t seem to apply overscan with the line doubled image, like it does with the passthrough signal. You can correct it with zoom function (as was already mentioned and afaik is very good on LGs), or try altering h.active, e.g. setting it to 704 instead of 720.

[Yovan Basurto]

I tried the aspect function on my LGc8 thats called all direction zoom and all it does is put the image in 16:9 and barely lets me alter anything. It’s useless. I also tried changing 720 to 704 and it didn’t do anything. Ugh.

I changed the 480p in sampler from DTV to VESA and that seemed to give me an image close to 4:3 just not centered. Weird. What is VESA?

also changing h. synclen and h. backporch literally do the same thing. just move he screen right or left. which option is to stretch the screen?

Whats weird is that the main menu of Swiss software is right but as soon as a game is put on it changes the aspect ratio. Only on OSSC in 2x mode. Weird.

ok so further testing revealed my tv changed options when i switch from passthrough and x2. I wonder if the 906p is causing my tv to go into PC mode or something.

ok ok last thing. different games now seem to be different aspects. Luigi and others are thin. Mario Sunshine is not 4:3 but close and twilight princess is 4:3!!! I wonder if the gamecube is doing funky resolutions kinda like 256p for snes that is 8:7.

[Zacabeb]

VESA stands for Video Electronic Standards Association, and is a worldwide organization involved in proposing and effecting standards pertaining to TVs, projectors, and computer displays.

The VESA setting on the OSSC alters timings somewhat to produce a signal that roughly follows the VESA ruleset for computer video resolutions. The DTV setting, while optimal for many consoles, involves non-square pixels. Some displays try to display them as square pixels, stretching or squashing the picture as a result.

[TrantaLocked]

I think the different aspect ratio between games is just how much of the 720×480 frame the developer chooses to use. Sometimes they don’t use the whole frame so the active content could be a slightly thinner image, but would still be correct proportionally. This works fine on CRTs which overscan and hide any of this area anyway.

It is possible to properly scale the image to within the bounds with just the settings in advanced timings for 480p in case something is misaligned. I use DTV and stock settings should be good, with active area of 720×480 and sample rate of 780.

[Yovan Basurto]

I did all that and nothing worked. This is my best guess. I read that the Gamecube internal resolution is different than the 480p its displaying. So basically most of the time it’s image is being stretched ala SNES (not as bad though) but with 3D this isn’t usually a problem. This can be seen clearly in the Gameboy advance disc where it’s blurry pixels and that’s probably cause the image is being stretched.

So on passthrough is no problem the TV is handling and correctly outputting the 4:3 aspect ratio. But in 2x at 960p the TV I think goes into PC mode (the TV has two different setting presets for passthrough and 960p even though it’s the same gamemode) and thus is displaying the image based on the internal resolution of each game vs the normal stretched 480p resolution that happens usually.

Is annoying.

[Harrumph]

No, the OSSC or your TV can never know the internal resolution of the gamecube. It’s just your tv detecting the different resolutions 720×480 vs 1440×960. One is a standard tv resolution, the other is not.
Trantalocked’s explanation is correct. I participated in a shmups thread where we investigated horizontal image width in different gamecube games. There was no game with wider than 704 active area. You can set to 640 for some, 684 for others, but 704 was the best ”fits all” setting in my opinion.
I can link it later when i have more time.

[Yovan Basurto]

So basically go with 720 (i already have this as i use firebrandx profile) and just kinda live with all the different screen sizes after that. But as long as i have 720 i’ll be fine for any game that uses the whole screen basically. i think that’s what i’m understanding.

Weird so why does the EON HDMI in 480p and OSSC passthrough have every game in 4:3 but once it switches to 2x it starts using all the different aspect ratios?

[TrantaLocked]

There was no game with wider than 704 active area.

Oh this makes me wonder if I have my settings correct. I’m on an Xbox not Gamecube, but I based my picture dimensions on Ninja Gaiden which I assumed was using the full 720 width. If it’s less than that, then everything is slightly too wide on my screen. That would explain why THPS4 looked kind of wide compared to the PC version on my monitor. I might need to get my DSC 301 out to look at it but if anyone can confirm or has a list of games by their active area on different consoles that would be cool. There’s also a method I saw involving a known square object, and Halo 2’s Zanzibar has these cubes that can be used for calibration so I’ll probably check that out too. I’d bet one of the Metroid Prime or Mario 3D games would have that kind of object for Gamecube.

edit: I actually had to too narrow and was duped by Ninja Gaiden. So in OSSC, active area of 720×480 and sample rate of 780 with some adjustments to backporch or sync length if necessary for alignment.

[Author]

Posts