20th August 2020, 8:05 PM
(16th August 2020, 8:07 AM)Dark Jaguar Wrote: A small correction:I'm sure you are right; I am not knowledgeable about video technology and such like I am about videogames. I probably should change that to say "RGB (240p)" instead of just RGB, since that is what I meant that category for. I have not heard of any console using a VGA cable for that type of output, though I guess it is possible with conversion. The difference would be that a 9-pin RGB cable, SCART cable, or such isn't capable of resolutions as high as 15-pin VGA, yes? They are different, even if VGA can also do 240p RGB, sort of like how component cables are very much like HDMI cables at the resolutions they support, but HDMI now supports resolutions higher than component can.
VGA is RGB. Well, RGBHV. It's the best quality you can possibly get short of BNC connectors with HV.
The only issue with VGA is it doesn't support i signals, only p. Now, it's just a cable so you can still PASS a signal through that kind of connector, but VGA connections on monitors have no idea what to do with an i signal because it's not part of the spec.
Quote:For my part, I've got a Sony Trinitron from 2003. It has component connectors but doesn't support progressive signals. I could probably mod it to support straight RGB, but it's risky on a CRT. It's actually a good thing it lacks progressive. Not because there's a problem with it but because most home-brand CRTs built with p support also have post processing added. This breaks light gun compatibility. So, I have the newest home model I can reasonably get that still works with light guns. Beyond this point, I'll need to go with the studio sets. Those things are crazy good looking CRTs that support p signals without post processing. The side effect? They're TINY! That's to be expected considering their use but still...Yeah, my (19") Philips CRT is very much like that, it's a SD, not progressive scan, CRT with a component input on the back. I had never used that component input before very recently, but it's cool that it is there because the picture looks amazing.
For now though that is as much as I want; I am not tempted by PVMs and BVMs, their screens are miniscule and the absolute perfection of their pixels is DEFINITELY not what those games were intended to look like. Component on a SDTV like mine is sharp, but it's not BVM sharp and from what I've seen of comparisons online I'd lean towards saying that that is a good thing; the PVM/BVM look is pretty cool, but no way would it be worth the expense, given their tiny size, lack of internal speakers, and that that extreme sharpness sometimes actually makes things look worse, I think. The pixels are SUPPOSED to blend together somewhat on older systems!
Quote:Anyway, I finally entered the rabbit hole of console modding. First I modded my Famicom for AV. That was done out of necessity due to the different standard for US channels on RF.At that point why not just get an AV Famicom? I know they are expensive, but modding the original one sounds like a lot of work...
I've stuck with my US NES because really the only reason to want a Famicom are for the Famicom Disk System, the couple of games with expansion audio chips, and games which need the FC's fronnt accessory port. Those are very real issues which make some kind of FC system slightly interesting to be sure, but for a vast majority of titles a US NES is equal or better. And plus, I love the look of it... I did get a cart port replacement a few years ago, though, since the original "ZIF" connectors are of course horrible. The replacement works great but holds carts very tightly. I got this: https://www.arcadeworks.net/blw (I got the first run of these. I hear later ones improve on its overdone death-grip, which would be nice.)
Quote: I may go the full distance and RGB mod it. (I don't intend on HDMI modding my retro consoles due to, again, light gun compatibility.) I recently modded my PS1 (not PSOne, a 5501 model PS1) to have distinct sync signal that wasn't being pulled from composite. Not only does this provide a clearer RGB signal (OSSC is a godsend) it also makes the light gun slightly more accurate. (The Guncon independantly pulls a sync signal, and it normally has to deal with pulling it from a composite signal but now I can feed it a pure cync without all that unneeded noise.)The size restrictions on the X360 are kind of annoying, but its support for two 2TB external drives very much more than makes up for that its internal is limited to only 500GB. The PS3 doesn't support external drives AT ALL, after all! And internals are limited to 1TB, if I recall. The 360 wins storage in a landslide! Yeah, the speed limitations on both systems are unfortunate, keeping them from being able ot easily upgrade to faster drive alternatives, but it makes sense; as you say, consoles are designed with a specific environment in mind, so I would think that things might mess up in games if suddenly the game was accessing data twice as fast...
I've also been modding my XBox and PS2. Both required unique OS mods but the end result is I have 500GB SSDs in place of their hard drive solutions and can store and play all my games that way now. These were rather simple mods. The hardest will be soldering in extra RAM in my XBox to support certain arcade games. In fact, I intend on using "virtual disc drive" mods on all my optical media based consoles. I can just rip the disks on my PC and play them all on SD cards, which will be far more reliable going into the future. There's also the potential for faster load times but especially on older consoles there's a limit depending on how some games are coded. Some break if the load times are too fast, but fortunately these disc drive emulator mods take that into account and can slow down access speeds to match the original drives. The PSIO for PS1 is... rather disappointing but there's a new one out there that actually properly loads the data through the optical drive port instead of the rear port and thus has far better compatibility. My PS3 and PS4 didn't really need to be modded in that you can just slot in an SSD and gain those advantages, but my XBox 360 is a different story. It ties EVERYTHING to specific firmware instructions on Microsoft approved HDDs. This sucks for a variety of reasons, but the end result is that while the MS OS doesn't care at all if you load a game on a USB device of any kind, the SATA connection can never be upgraded. I'm tempted to flat out remove the HDD from that system and swap it for a USB flash drive at 1TB as a full replacement, but unfortunately while USB 2.0 is decently fast in terms of load speeds compared to SATA 2, it has built in latency which SATA doesn't have to deal with, so there's a tradeoff. Still, ultimately I'm going to have to do it anyway since HDDs are destined to die and soon. At least in my XBox One I can more easily swap HDDs so long as they fit within a specific range of capacity. This has nothing to do with file system limitations (again, external devices have no such limit), it has to do with a hard coded restriction to detect if an unapproved drive has been inserted. So, I can have either a 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB SSD installed, and ONLY those specific sizes, none other.
As for ODEs I do not have any currently as I would much rather use the real discs, but they are a potentially interesting option for otherwise working consoles whose disc drives have unfixably broken, sure. I do have a couple such consoles, including a Japanese 3DO (the model with the 240p mode switch on the back, instead of the system's usual 480i) and my original-style PS1.
Quote:(As an aside HDMI is MUCH more complicated than you're giving it credit for. They've been doing multiple revisions and once you take into account the sound carrier upgrades, well now you've got a jungle to handle.)I have not yet had to worry about an HDMI cable seeming to be plugged in, but not working; to an HDMI cable falling out of the connector I had plugged it into, repeatedly; to having to wiggle an HDMI cable in order to try to get it to read; to wondering whether the audio portion of the cable is broken or not pluggin in right; etc, etc. These are all problems I have a lot of experience with with composite and component.
So yeah, I'm sure HDMI has some complexities and it does have revisions, but as far as I have seen it's a dramatic improvement over the mess of wires, and potential failing connections, that is component. FIVE plugs on each end is just asking for trouble!