On October 24th 2016, we gave this talk to the NERP (Not Exclusively Raspberry Pi) group at Pumping Station: One in Chicago. Below you can find the video of the talk as well as the slides from the presentation. There are some small gaps in the video footage due to the fact that we used a camera with a 10 minute maximum capture limit.
And below, here are the slides from the talk for your scrolling pleasure.
**** Update 26 June 2017 ****
We have updated our third-party products page to recommend a UL-listed adapter now so that we don't have to worry about the internals changing on a whim. Please visit that page to see our various recommendations, and disregard the blog post below.
**** Update 12 July 2016 ****
After hearing some reports of poor performance from the Genesis 2 adapter we recommended, I decided to purchase another one to make sure there was no manufacturing inconsistencies. What arrived was not the same as I previously tested. Turns out that Amazon sells a completely different Tomee product now in different packaging, which contradicts the photo on their product page. This new one is of awful design, and has circuitry similar to the 3-in-1 adapters we recommended avoiding entirely. I informed Amazon via telephone and they said they would review updating the listing to differentiate between the two. I updated the link in our post to point to another supply that we verified previously and is also affordable. Apologies to everyone who purchased this "revised" version without knowing it.
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This was originally from a Kickstarter update, adapted for this website:
Something we have had our eye on for a while now is the use of new 3rd party power supplies (aka AC adapters, transformers, etc.) when powering Super Nintendos, Sega Master Systems, and Sega Genesis's. We have noticed that when using high quality component video, such as RGB or YPbPr, the power supply is a very important factor in determining the final picture quality. Poorly designed power supplies can introduce visible noise into the video outputs. The interesting thing to note is that this noise, while visible when using YPbPr, might not always be present when using composite video due to differences in how the signals are processed between the two formats. As such, someone experiencing this issue after upgrading to our component cables from standard composite cables might immediately pin the blame on our product instead of the power adapter they are using. Therefore, we are bringing this to your attention ahead of time.
We have tried and tested several different models of affordable 3rd party adapters. Not only did we verify that the video was free of noise, but Ste also disassembled each unit to confirm that the electrical and mechanical engineering of the adapter was solid and didn't have any safety concerns. We want to avoid recommending something that performs well, but is not safe on the inside.
As of right now, these are the most affordable 3rd party power adapters we currently recommend for use:
Sega Master System / Sega Genesis 1 / Sega CD:
Sega Genesis 2 / Sega Genesis 3 / Sega Nomad / Sega 32X (UPDATED: 12 July 2016)
Super Nintendo (NOTE: Make sure part# is 7-38012-14010-9 and matches photo below)
Also, for multi-console setups, although it costs more money and isn't as available, we recommend the RetroDC.
Recommended 3rd Party Power Supplies
We also want to highlight the adapters that you should stay away from. These two units are 3-in-1 universal supplies which are the most common and are carried in many local video game shops too. In fact, when selling you a console, they might bundle one of these along with it. It's our recommendation that you try asking them to leave the adapter out of the package and have them discount the console instead. Then you can use that saved money to buy a decent power adapter on your own. The only thing these units are good for are salvaging the SNES DC connector and splicing it onto a good power supply.
Poorly Designed 3rd Party Power Supplies
One last thing to mention is that this analysis only applies to new 3rd party AC adapters that can be easily found and purchased these days. The official Nintendo and Sega adapters that shipped with your consoles are perfectly fine and have no issues. We will also post more recommended power supply options as we discover them.
For those of you who didn't get the pleasure of seeing me spam promotional announcements on social media, we were invited to sit on a panel at the first annual RetroWorld Expo in Wallingford, CT this past weekend. Other than Ste missing his flight - and thus forcing me to pick his sorry self up from the airport 8 hours later - things went very smoothly for us. The panel was given by us and Robert Neal from RetroRGB, and it was titled "Ultimate AV: Getting the best video from retro consoles." Robert's cousin was kind enough to record and upload it to YouTube for us, and so here it is for those of you who weren't able to attend.
Giving the talk was tons of fun! Our crowd was a pretty decent size, and we had some great questions at the end there. If we didn't run up against the hour, we probably would have had even more questions coming. Thanks again to everyone who came! After the panel, we sat on a podcast with Second Opinion Games, which I believe will be coming out Wednesday. If you're interested, follow us on Facebook or Twitter as that's where I'll be posting a link.
The rest of the convention went off without a hitch, and it was hard to believe it was the first year they did this thing. The guys from RetroWare TV really nailed it. There was the usual vendor fare - including some with reasonable prices, an arcade room with consoles and cabinets and a tournament zone, and a main stage where 3 main acts played after an all day DJ (kudos dude, I don't know how you stood up there that long!).
If you're curious about the slides we were showing, I've posted them below so feel free to flip through.
Hey, everyone. We at HD Retrovision wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year. We hope you have a great 2015.
I also wanted to post some information regarding the Twitch.tv live stream we had set up during our Kickstarter campaign to demo the component cables in action. Because we scrambled quickly to get everything set up, it looked like a hopeless mess of wires. But now looking back, it wasn't all that complicated. I drew up the following diagram which details our setup almost entirely:
The main component that needs additional explanation is the YPbPr capture device. This particular USB capture card is a rather affordable item. It works well, but does have a few caveats. The first is that since it's not specifically designed for game streaming, it has no passthrough to allow for simultaneous connections to both the computer and the television. The distribution amplifier is there to perform this function by splitting the video and audio signals to the respective devices.
The second thing is that I had trouble getting the Open Broadcasting Software (OBS) to activate the audio input on the capture device. I found that I had to load the custom software that came with the device just to trick the audio driver into activating itself. I avoided that annoyance by connecting the audio directly into the computer's sound card.
Lastly, while the picture looked flawless on the television, we noticed there was a minor greenish tint to the colors in the captured video stream. I was able to adjust the video parameters for the capture device to get a much more accurate picture. It still wasn't 100% perfect, but it was much better. In case anyone is interested, here are the settings we used:
Brightness: 6006
Contrast: 5694
Hue: 5070
Saturation: 5694
Some of our streams had split-screens with both the component video and composite video running at the same time. We accomplished this using a special prototype which has both video connections brought out from the console. This is the same prototype we used to record the split-screen content on this website. The composite video went to a 2nd capture card (AVerMedia C027) internal to the PC. We didn't use the split-screen that much during the stream, so for the sake of simplicity I left it out of the diagram.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to find a YPbPr component video capture device that supports 240p video signals used by retro consoles. I have tested a good deal of them over the past two months, and you can see the results here. Due to its popularity, several people have contacted us regarding compatibility with the Elgato Game Capture HD, but that unit does not support 240p on its component video input. I reached out to Elgato informing them and asked if they could do anything about it. They were definitely interested in exploring a solution, and said they will keep me posted if they are able to do anything.
As always, feel free to contact us with any questions/comments/concerns via our contact page. Enjoy the new year!
After a whirlwind of a couple months, the Kickstarter is finally over! Thanks to your support, we are fully funded to produce our first products: component cables for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. It was a fast paced month with little sleep and lots of time networking on social media, and we wound up with 697 backers. Outstanding! Rough estimates right now are that we have obligations for about 1000 cables.
I have already gotten emails from several people expressing to me how they missed the Kickstarter and still want to be able to be a part of getting us off the ground. We discussed this internally and decided not to pursue any other funding platforms (like Megafounder) for the time being. We instead want to focus our efforts on finishing the product development and getting the manufacturing process in line, rather than adding any additional complexity to our lives. Those who are still interested in getting their hands on some cables will be able to buy them from us after they are produced and become available.
We've also been asked about the stretch goals we did not meet. We're polling our backers to see what products they're most interested in. Initial polling data suggests the HDMIzer is likely to be the most sought after item, but we'll wait to see what everyone has to say. Our first obligation is to backers, and since we didn't hit stretch goals we don't have enough extra resources to fully pursue our next product in parallel. However, we will put whatever spare cycles we can towards whatever people seem most interested in as a future product.
Finally, for those interested, here's some observations about Kickstarter:
That's all I've got for now. Surveys have made their way out. Please make sure to fill them out ASAP so we can start placing orders!
Cheers,
Nick
