Mega Drive 2 + SCART dropping signal at most screen transitions

[JonIIDX]

Hi everyone.

I have just gotten an Insurrection Industries SCART cable for my Japanese Mega Drive 2 (Model No. HAA-2502, SERIAL No. A30116304, original AC Adapter), and am using it via the OSSC to play games on my ViewSonic VX3276-MHD monitor. The picture quality is great, and I am having no issues except for one thing… Basically every time there is a screen transition, the red light on the OSSC comes on for a just a few milliseconds, which I assume means the OSSC is reading a signal drop. This isn’t a big issue for my 4k capture card, but my monitor keeps recognizing this split second drop of signal, and as a result I lose about 3 seconds of gameplay every time.

I am using FirebrandX’s presets for Genesis, and since many of the games I am playing switch between 320 and 256 line modes, I am using 4:3 mode at 1920×1200 resolution, Line 5x (the problem happens at every setting, including passthrough).

I have tried adjusting:
– H-PLL Pre-Coast and Post-Coast to 3, no change
– Analog sync LPF to 0-2.5MHz, no change
– the sampling phase, no change
– the H. Samplerate, no change
– Video LPF, no change

I never lose a signal unless there is a scene change where both audio and video are not present. If the audio remains present, this issue does not occur, so it’s basically most prevalent with loading battles in RPGs, or switching to a story sequence between stages in action games.

If I could just set my monitor to stop going to a blackscreen every time a signal drops or if you could force the OSSC to always put out a signal even when it doesn’t have a signal from the console, I’d be fine with it… But when a signal drops, it takes my monitor about 3 seconds to refresh. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!

[BuckoA51]

Does it occur when using generic timings too?

[JonIIDX]

By generic timings, do you mean the OSSC defaults and not firebrandx’s settings? Sorry, I’m not quite sure what that is referring to.

[BuckoA51]

yes, OSSC defaults.

[JonIIDX]

Thanks. Sadly, yes, it still happens on default settings.

[BuckoA51]

Can you tell me specifically which game and at what point?

[JonIIDX]

It happens on virtually every mega drive game, and some Mega Drive games bork out entirely (Bugs Bunny something or other, sorry I can load it up to confirm that one after work).

Direct examples:
Mamono Hunter Yohko: Every time it switches between gameplay and a movie scene (literally every time) (clearest example is after you beat a stage, but you can see this even on the title sequence and start button screen)

Vay for Sega CD: Every time it enters a movie scene or you go in or out of a battle. This one can also be checked even on the title screen when it starts loading the intro sequence. If you hit the start button to go back to the title screen it happens every time.

Like I said, it happens on virtually every game I have played, but those are the ones with the specific examples I can share at this time. I also already mentioned the cause: it happens virtually every time there is no video or audio feed (presumably when loading).

Thanks!

[JonIIDX]

Is there a chance that my SCART cable is causing this to happen? I’m starting to wonder if I got a dud from Insurrection Industries… It was one of their new batch for Mega Drive 2 and it came with a few bent pins that I had to straighten before I could connect it to the OSSC. I am also getting a lot of static/white noise in the audio, which I can’t remember if that is normal for MD2s… But it reminds me of the complaints people have with poorly shielded SCART cables. Insurrection Industries has a good reputation, but maybe their new batch has some duds…?

I’ll reach out to them if you think that may be a cause to the problem. Thanks.

[BuckoA51]

Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble is a known incompatibility.

Do you have anything less obscure to try, e.g Sonic?

That’s strange about the audio, I’d definitely ask Insurrection because as you say their cables are supposed to be well shielded.

[Jose]

Just happened to me with the initial cutscene of Popful Mail on a Japanese model 1. Retrogaming cables and FirebrandX Genesis profile too, but monitor is a LG 24gm77, which has almost perfect compatibility with OSSC. It was like a blink, so fast that I thought it was actually that way lol.

[JonIIDX]

My monitor is perfect for OSSC as well (0 frames of input lag), but what it is not good for is refreshing an image after a signal drop. :< Every drop I lose about 3-4 seconds due to how slow my monitor refreshes a signal change, even though the actual drop is like a fraction of a second. :<

Sonic 1 USA/Europe: Can’t find it happen
Sonic 2 (World): Select 2-player mode doesn’t work at all, when it changes to extra stage it drops connection. This also happens after finishing the extra stage and before the stage results screen loads.

If you don’t have Sonic 2, then name a game and I will load it on my Mega Everdrive Pro and get back to you.

Virtually any time, I presume, the resolution changes in any game (basically every time a cutscene loads, a video sequence, or sometimes when full screen menus are loaded (any time the resolution changes, which happens a TON on Sega Genesis)), signal drops for a split second, which causes my monitor to refresh for 3-4 seconds. Jose’s monitor refreshes much faster than mine, so it doesn’t appear to be an issue for him…

It even happens when you load a game from the Mega Everdrive Pro out of the menu into virtually any game. Is there any way to stop this extremely brief desync? I have never experienced this on NES, SNES, or PSX with my OSSC. Even when loading from the menu of the FX PAK Pro, it doesn’t drop sync like this to cause my monitor to refresh. Something only I have experienced on the Mega Drive 2.

I wouldn’t mind if my monitor refreshed at the same rate that the OSSC does after the signal drop, but sadly it chains into a 3-4 second black screen on my monitor every time. :< It doesn’t break the game, it’s just annoying to miss a few seconds of the start of virtually every cut scene or battle in RPGs. Not to mention getting back into the map screen after a battle or something like that.

Thanks again for your ideas and support.

[BuckoA51]

Sonic 2 switches to interlace in 2 player mode so a drop there is to be expected. If it’s not working at all you need to adjust the H-PLL coast options so that pre is set to 3 and post is set to 3. (as per http://junkerhq.net/xrgb/index.php?title=Sega_Genesis).

I do have an everdrive so I’ll give one of those games on your list a shot.

[Riven]

I’ve seen this issue in a couple of Mega Drive titles, I believe it to be a resolution or Hz change by the game or Mega Drive. Which I don’t believe the OSSC can do much about. Capture units tend to deal with the change better than TVs which tend to black screen for a few seconds. It the same issue you see on PS1 and Saturn games with resolution changes.

I’m the editor of a channel called Randomised Gaming and we’ve been capturing with an OSSC for about a year now. One game this issue is very easy to show with is Splatterhouse 3 on Mega Drive when ever a cut scene played when swapping from fight sections you would get a transition. Example of this is the cutscene at 7:20 in this video of the game: https://youtu.be/Gf74Ir1gPos (Often the TV screen wouldn’t come back on the TV until after the enemies attacked you in the next room.) The capture via the Elgato doesn’t have this issue.

Shining in the Darkness does it when you start a new game and bring up the name selection menu, but it’s a none event on that game. But it’s an example of a game many players will have.

[Author]

Posts