Upscalers and Resolution changes

[Dikdikvandik]

About a year ago I bought a Framemiester and for a while all I did was play my Super Famicom on it. I tired N64 but no matter what I did what settings and profiles I used the image never ceased to look like somebody smeared vasoline all over the Screen.

THEN came Dreamcast and Saturn. I finally decided to stop dragging my ass on buying an RGB cable and just hook up my Saturn with the Cables I had, an S-video cable I bought here when there was still a store. It looked FANTASTIC. I knew that some games change resolutions and the Framemiester trips up but so far none of those changes made a game unplayable. Until I played Dead or Alive.

I couldn't remember which My life in Gaming episode addressed this and what you do to lessen the video cut out. I'm thinking over my options another upscaler, Getting a retro tink and then plugging it into one of the HDMI Sockets on the Framemiester... I don't know.

But I thought I'd ask here.

[alienjesus]

About a year ago I bought a Framemiester and for a while all I did was play my Super Famicom on it. I tired N64 but no matter what I did what settings and profiles I used the image never ceased to look like somebody smeared vasoline all over the Screen.

THEN came Dreamcast and Saturn. I finally decided to stop dragging my ass on buying an RGB cable and just hook up my Saturn with the Cables I had, an S-video cable I bought here when there was still a store. It looked FANTASTIC. I knew that some games change resolutions and the Framemiester trips up but so far none of those changes made a game unplayable. Until I played Dead or Alive.

I couldn't remember which My life in Gaming episode addressed this and what you do to lessen the video cut out. I'm thinking over my options another upscaler, Getting a retro tink and then plugging it into one of the HDMI Sockets on the Framemiester... I don't know.

But I thought I'd ask here.

I'm afraid I don't know of an easy solution for this. If it was in a MLIG video I'd check the saturn or PS1 vids, as they're easily the systems that suffer the most from this.

EDIT: Undfortunately, I found the section in question, and it's only a solution for PS1 games (the solution is 'use the PS3 because it consistently outputs at 1080p or 720p'.)

EDIT2: They offer some suggestions for Saturn signal here: https://youtu.be/DSMgOcY6KGQ?t=11m27s

On the N64 front, the only way to de-vaseline the image requires a rather expensive mod, so whether you're willing to do that really relies on how big a fan of the N64 you are. I got mine modded and I love it, but that price tag hurts.

[Anapan]

If you update to the latest firmware for the framemeister, you can load settings (profiles) from the Micro-SD card.
Then download FirebrandX''s settings files:
http://www.firebrandx.com/framemeisterprofiles.html
He's made ones for 1:2 and up for 720 and 1080p. The math involved in making these boggles my mind, but luckily he's done all of the hard work for damn-near every console.

[Dikdikvandik]

If you update to the latest firmware for the framemeister, you can load settings (profiles) from the Micro-SD card.
Then download FirebrandX''s settings files:
http://www.firebrandx.com/framemeisterprofiles.html
He's made ones for 1:2 and up for 720 and 1080p. The math involved in making these boggles my mind, but luckily he's done all of the hard work for damn-near every console.

I'm using one of his Saturn 1080p Profiles.

I don't think he did any for Dreamcast, but one of his GameCube profiles works just fine.

[crux]

Per the change of resolution problem, the Framemeister has to establish a handshake to display an image and it's not particularly fast at it. It has to do this at every change of resolution, so some games run into a lot of delays (from the desync) while it's establishing the handshake.

I've never read about any solution, outside of getting older XRGB models like XRGB2+ which are much faster at establishing the handshake (but are less robust in other regards). I ran into the problem particularly badly when streaming Silent Hill, which goes to 480i when viewing the map. It made it horrible for the stream and I still haven't gone back to it since.

Other games that change resolutions: Chrono Cross (PS), Tobal (PS), Thunder Force V (PS), Akumajō Dracula X (Saturn), and many others.

P.S. Good to see everyone. You can thank fastbilly.

[marurun]

Resolution changes seem to be a huge bugaboo for modern digital video equipment and standards. And, of course, analog equipment just takes it right in stride.

[pierrot]

If you update to the latest firmware for the framemeister, you can load settings (profiles) from the Micro-SD card.
Then download FirebrandX''s settings files:
http://www.firebrandx.com/framemeisterprofiles.html
He's made ones for 1:2 and up for 720 and 1080p. The math involved in making these boggles my mind, but luckily he's done all of the hard work for damn-near every console.

I tried out a few of those profiles when he was first releasing them, but didn't really care for the square pixel settings. That's not really what I want out of my setup. I want to approximate the CRT/PVM feel as much as possible. Otherwise, I'd just emulate.

I'm a little curious about what math he used, though. Do you have any links? I wouldn't think it would be that involved, unless he was interpolating, which often requires convolution. Many times the trick with convolution is figuring out how to not have to actually convolve the functions. Sometimes solutions fall out elegantly, though, like with functions involving Euler's number (e).