New XRGB mini Framemiester firmware allows for profiles!

[Ziggy]

Finally, no more having to switch around a million settings any time you wanna play a different console. The new firmware allows to save and load profiles from a micro SD card!

What's even better is you can share profiles. So I just went ahead and downloaded this guy's profiles (link at bottom of page - but I'm not encouraging you to skip reading it): http://www.firebrandx.com/pixelpurist.html

I haven't tried them all yet, but they seem to work great. I took his F-Zero GX profile and modified it to use with the Wii. Looks much better than the shared settings I had for my SNES and N64 (I was WAY too lazy to switch settings every time I switch consoles, so I just had middle ground settings for everyting).

Anyway, wanted to give a heads up. I know it's been out for a few months, but I only just found out. I figured I'd post it here for any one else that might have missed the news.

[8bit]

Hadn't seen this so thanks for letting us know. I'll have to see if I have an extra micro SD card to dedicate to my Framemeister and then test it out.

[Ziggy]

You can just use any micro SD card to update the firmware, but yeah, you'll want a dedicated card if you wanna make use of the profiles.

Also note that the Framemiester will only display 20 profiles, so you can only have 20 loaded at once. 20 might seem like a lot, but you might want more than 1 for each console. More details come in the instructions for the link I posted above.

And also lame, the Framemiester will not auto sort the files on the SD card. They'll just appear in whatever order you copy them to the card in. There's two work arounds: One, after you're done tinkering, copy all the profiles OFF the card. Then copy them back on, one by one, in the order you want them to be listed in. Or, name them appropriately, and use a sorting app.

Other than profiles, does any one know what else this firmware update has?

[fastbilly1]

That is awesome news

[pierrot]

This update has been available for a number of months. It rearranges a lot of the menu options for efficiency, allows direct HDMI input without processing, better zoom functionality (and maps some of the functions to the color buttons) and partially addresses some scanline issues.

I wouldn't really recommend the linked profiles for the most part. No offense to the creator of them, but they leave a lot to be desired from a purist perspective. The main issue is the color settings he uses, but he seems to be really focused on geometry, while not actually using geometry test patterns. They're all right as a reference, but I don't care to actually use them. I would also recommend these videos as references for settings, though: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 7fCVunV6MR. Although, he seems to like setting black level to 1 or higher, and I wouldn't recommend setting it above 0.

For Wii, there was another user on shmups forum who posted some settings I used as a base to get about the best picture I've seen from that console in 480p from component:

(All other settings at default)
HDMI output - 1080p
Image Mode - Picture
Brightness - 41
Gamma - 0
Saturation - 26
Sharpness - 1
Auto Scaler off
H Scaler - 10
V Scaler - 5
Zoom on
Zoom Size - 95
(These next two settings are very important, but aren't remembered in profiles.)
Output Color - RGB
Output Range - Limited
A/D Level - 134

[Ziggy]

^ Geometry is the important part though. Colors are subjective as hell, and also impossible to share since everyone's TVs aren't the same or even calibrated the same. I'll agree that using other people's settings are a good starting point. Or, they're perfect if you don't have the hours to spend tweaking every console from the default settings!

I'll have to check out those Wii settings when I get the chance. Thanks for posting them.

[pierrot]

To clarify, I'm not saying geometry isn't important. I'm assuming (and basing that assumption partly on firebrandx's own testimony) that he is simply blowing up the picture with the zoom function to get pixels large enough to eyeball them until they're square. I feel this is something of a fools errand, since he's taking the console's output resolution, and not considering how it would map to a CRT. I think this is fine for people who just want something that looks like what an emulator would output, but for trying to replicate what a CRT would look like, it's full of folly.

Personal anecdote: A while ago, I looked at his Genesis 5x profile, and checked it with the 240p test suite, and the geometry test patterns. What I found was that grid and linearity test patterns were slightly tall. I'm guessing the reason for that is, he used a game that was drawing in 256x224 mode rather than 320x224.

[Ziggy]

I feel this is something of a fools errand, since he's taking the console's output resolution, and not considering how it would map to a CRT. I think this is fine for people who just want something that looks like what an emulator would output, but for trying to replicate what a CRT would look like, it's full of folly.

Truth told, I'm actually NOT trying to replicate what a CRT would look like. So I guess that's where we differ.

Personal anecdote: A while ago, I looked at his Genesis 5x profile, and checked it with the 240p test suite, and the geometry test patterns. What I found was that grid and linearity test patterns were slightly tall. I'm guessing the reason for that is, he used a game that was drawing in 256x224 mode rather than 320x224.

I just downloaded his profiles today, and it shows it was last updated Aug 2nd 2015. There's 5 different Genesis modes in there. The included instructions briefly explain each one, if you're interested. For your convenience, I'll copy and paste them here...

GEN5X256: (Genesis RGB 5x scale for the rare 256x224 mode)

This is for the original NTSC Sega Genesis console and is scaled to 5x the original 256x224 resolution via an RGB CSync cable. This profile is aligned to the more rare 256x224 mode that roughly 10% of the game library for the Genesis uses. An example game that uses this mode exclusively is "Insector X". Suggested display area: Full Pixel (even at this unscaled screen setting, there will be 4 pixels cropped from the top and bottom of the image).


GENMSM5X: (Genesis RGB Master System Mode 5x scale)

This is for the original NTSC Sega Genesis console's Master System mode (when using a Power Base Converter or flash cartridge) and is scaled to 5x the original 256x192 resolution via an RGB CSync cable. Suggested display area: -1 (due to the short vertical resolution).


GENRGB4X: (Genesis RGB 4x scale)

This is for the original NTSC Sega Genesis console and is scaled to 4x the original 224 resolution via an RGB CSync cable. This profile is set to display square pixels, as the majority of the Genesis library did not take into account TV aspect ratio. Suggested display area: -1.


GENRGB5X: (Genesis RGB 5x scale)

This is for the original NTSC Sega Genesis console and is scaled to 5x the original 320x224 resolution via an RGB CSync cable. This profile is set to display square pixels, as the majority of the Genesis library did not take into account TV aspect ratio. Suggested display area: Full Pixel (even at this unscaled screen setting, there will be 4 pixels cropped from the top and bottom of the image).


GNRGB443: (Genesis RGB 4x scaled & 4:3 Aspect Corrected)

This is for the original NTSC Sega Genesis console and is scaled to 4x the original 320x224 resolution via an RGB CSync cable, and is aspect-corrected for 4:3 ratio. Suggested display area: -1.


GNRGB543: (Genesis RGB 5x scaled & 4:3 Aspect Corrected)

This is for the original NTSC Sega Genesis console and is scaled to 5x the original 320x224 resolution via an RGB CSync cable, and is aspect-corrected for 4:3 ratio. Suggested display area: Full Pixel (even at this unscaled screen setting, there will be 4 pixels cropped from the top and bottom of the image).

[pierrot]

That's fair.

It looks like he's done a lot more work on them compared to the profile package I looked through months ago. I'm interested to see how the 4:3 profile is, but I doubt I'll settle on it. Doesn't it seem like a lot of needless work to shift between so many profiles for square pixels in each Genesis game, though? Am I crazy?

[Whatever]

Sounds amazing. I am going to purchase a fram sometime soon.
Will be pretty sweet loading some profiles to get a good baseline.

Hows the fram do with Ps1/saturn? Is it as good as emu's?