That $20 converter you are talking about is complete garbage. I tried adapters like those, they do the job of image signal conversion but the quality of the image would be horrendous.
You may as well use composite video (Yellow RCA plug) to a HD TV. Not to mention cheap converters will add a minimum of 2 frames of lag.
You really get what you pay for with Video Equipment. And yes converting a video signal properly, without noise or visual artifacts and without lag is not cheap.
It really depends on the TV it self. The older HT TVs with Analog Pass though do a better Job than those who lack analog pass though, as the TV Set was intended to handle Analog signals.
What seems to be much more promising than Framemeister is the OSSC, which lacks the 2 frames of lag and has no frame buffer to cause lag. The OSSC works on scan line by scan line and not frame by frame.
The OSSC works by Line doubling, trippling video. The OSSC accepts RGBs as well as RGsB so that the PS2 can output 480p via Scart and the device will accept the signals. The OSSC also does not lose signal when their is a resolution change, which plagues a number of PS2 and Saturn games with the Framemeister. Anyone who tried to play Cronocross on the PS2 with the Framemister will tell you (game play is in 240p but the pause menu is 480i). The one flaw of the OSSC is that how interlace looks, as interlace has a weird side effect when it’s line doubled giving the image a comb effect. To be fair Interlace video has the same sidee ffect on most HDTVs.
Example of combing effect of Interlace video on a progressive display
Here is a simulation of each scan type, slowed down so the human eye can see what going on.
The Progressive image is flickering as with Interlace, a video image is drawn from top to bottom, a fast enough camera can catch the progressive video scan being drawn in.
This draw or fill time is what a Leo bodnar video lag tester actually looks for to measure input lag.
Interlace draws each frame skipping every odd line, and the next frame skips every even line.
Here is another simulation of each scan type.
Whats not been seen on the last frame Deinterlace via interpolation) needs 2 frames of video (both the even and odd number Scan lines to create a single frame of Progressive video.
Hence a major source for input lag. Great for Movie/TV show watching, terrible for any gaming.
My TV is a Samsung KS8000, so analog pass-thru is probably a no go. I have everything shot to my Marantz AVR. Here’s to hoping the “Game Mode” video output setting on this receiver isn’t just BS.
Agreed. I’ve been eyeing that thing for quite a while. I was wondering how it (with line doubling) would look like when connected to the Akura box I linked earlier. Then… I realized that I wasn’t rich. ha!
I’ll wait for someone with loot to post a review of that setup on Youtube.
Not everybody is looking for “Tournament-worthy-frameperfect- OMG” Quality. We’re just looking to connect our retro systems to modern TVs with the best quality picture, without getting too crazy about it.
After gaming on my saturn for months using composite, my S-Video-to-HDMI converter was a pretty nice step up in quality and has no lag that i can see.
Or maybe people have different tolerance levels for shit-quality video output (esp. when spending a bit more coin removes that from the equation). My tolerance level is quite low, yours may be higher.
When it comes down to it, it’s all a matter of preference. If it doesn’t bother someone at $20, then… awesome!
Like i said, i gamed on composite for a good bit. So when i finally got a SVideo-to-HDMI converter to use with my Saturn, i saw the quality improvement right away. I would have noticed if picture quality was inferior to composite or glitchy.
For the record, i’m sure there is probably a way to get even better quality out of the Saturn, using Scart adapters/RGB/Etc. For the price and ease of use(Saturn supports S-Video output out of the box), this was a nice and simple solution to upgrade from composite.
Unplayable? lol. Again, you’re taking this waaaaay too seriously. I can play games like fighters and shooters on my Saturn with no problems.
Now is it 100%, tournament-worthy, lag-free down to the .0001 nanosecond? I don’t know.
I’m sure if i analyzed every frame with a magnifying glass, i could probably detect some millisecond delay or whatever. But it’s just not that big of a deal.
Lol there’s some deep tech talk goin on. Thanks for the extra input guys.
AlphaCharlie I have a saturn too which I need to set up soon. The svideo to hdmi is this not just a connection ? As in you only get svideo quality but get to connect it through a hdmi port (for use of modern input)… I just never knew the saturn could stretch past a certain quality.
Thats why for the ps2 people advised me on ypbpr rgb component cable instead of a ‘ps2 to hdmi converter’ as it would be the same quality.
Thought this would be the same for saturn?
Darksakul , whats your recommendation for connecting a saturn to my tv? I mean no crazy prices I’m willing to accept a slight loss in image if it’s gonna be £££££ .
I don’t mean to scare you or mean you have to spend big bucks. I just don’t want to have peoples expectations to be let down with cheaper devices.
Component pbpr or RGB cables are the best you can get out of your PS2. Unless you can get a device that can do sync on Green stick to PbPr to HDMI.
If the device can do Sync on green RGB Scart cables aren’t bad as for some reason 480p on the PS2 via Scart only works with Sync on Green.
The Component PbPr cable sidesteps the issue.
Simple plug & play set-up. Outputs S-Video signal through an HDMI connection and looks a lot better than connecting with composite. You could probably do nicely with a cheaper box but, that’s what i have. I don’t know if higher quality can be achieved but, Saturn can do S-Video out of the box. You just need a Saturn S-Video cable like what i linked too.
The reason i ordered a £2 ps2 to component cable is because I had read elsewhere that the component cable would deliver the max image quality from a ps2 as it was an old machine.
And reading Jopamo 's replies, i gathered this was the best way.
Component cable IS the best way for good picture quality from a PS2.
However, as with all analog video cables, it usually pays (pun very much intended) to get a good quality cable.
A good quality analog video cable usually costs more than what you paid. Is your cable shit? No clue.
The thinking here was that the low cost of your purchased cable denoted a lack of that “quality.”
My experiences lead me to believe you get what you paid for.
Those stupid cheap made cables aren’t worth the purchase.
And a £2 video cable is going to be cheaply made, poor construction, only a few strands in each wire, ect.
Also RGB is a superior format to YPbPr as YPbPr does have some compression going on. RGB it self is a lossless format.
The only flaw is with the PS2 is that RGB at 480p only comes as Sync on green.
Guys the cheap arse cable actually made the picture quality look great. I was more than happy with hooking that up instead of composite. I noticed the composite had a weird blur to it anyway. But the component looks sharper, somewhat a tad faded (very mild) but I’ve been on comparison videos on YouTube and this seems to be the case. Whether this cable will fuck up on me down the line is another story so i get what yous are saying but as I’m just getting into this a cheaper cable seems to do the trick.
DarkSakul, so that site you linked that sells the retro gaming wires, i believe I had seen a rgb scart (better than normal scart) but what’s the sync on green flaw all about?
