About component to HDMI conversion..

[manikyath]

so..

 

last time i bothered looking into the topic at hand the general consensus was basicly "low latency conversion -- get a framemeister".

 

but a recent silly mishap at a family gathering got me to think:

my family isnt necessarily gamer-y, but handing out a controller to everyone for some "low depth" games like tetris, wii play, etc. is a defenate party starter.. so naturally i brought my recently softmodded wii to a family gathering.. and realised the TV didnt have any legacy inputs.

 

brought me back to the matter of the wii and HDMI.. there seems to be a wii HDMI mod out there, but it requires a softmod and some intense soldering skill.. and i'm not sure i wanna put my old crusty wii trough all that -- besides an "external solution" would mean my PS1 and PS2 can enjoy the same advantage.

 

i currently more or less have a proof of concept thing going on, with an old composite capture card, windows XP, and some prehistoric software.. i have fairly low latency conversion to whatever i can make the computer output. depending on if i find some better software solution i may end up building my own converter, but that quickly gets dangerously close to the budget of the framemeister anyways, and the capture card is absolute noisefest..

 

so.. comes to the question: there's quite a few options out there besides the framemeister, are they any good, and how low can a "casual" afford to go?

my requirements are simple, but specific:

- no very notable lag, i want the controls to still be responsive. on most TVs i've tried the conversion latency has been very hit and miss.. not enjoying that.

- no artefacting due to the conversion, and preferably somewhat decent deinterlacing.

- mostly plug&play. few buttons, sure, but no endless menu listings to get set up.

- support PAL - i'm in the EU, so all my stuff is PAL

- composite input, component not required but welcome. must preferably also shove audio into the HDMI signal.

i'm not looking to get some superior conversion experience that'll do better than an old TV.. its just that i'm noticing an increasing lack of old TV, and want something i can rely on to enjoy my games.

 

comes to the options i've found:

- ofcourse, the framemeister, at a cool $370

- the "open source scan converter" at £175

- the "retrotink 2x" at £100

- cheapo conversion boxes from around teh interwebz that seem to be around the €10-25 mark.

 

does anyone have any hands-on experience with these options?  i've been looking into some reviews on the vareous options.. but lets just say that results seemed to be mixed, and for some reason none of the ones i found made mention of wii or PS2.

[manikyath]

Just now, Alexsolo said:

What's the TV model?

well.. my grandparents recently got some stupidly overkill smart TV, its wide range of inputs consists of HDMI and HDMI.

 

but if my shitty eco tv finally takes a dump i'm down to either a 15 inch LCD for my old consoles, or relying on converter boxes, because legacy inputs are a dying race on a lot of TVs, and those which have it have it poorly implemented to say the least.

 

the thing is -- it's not about the specific TV, it's about being able to cut the TV specifics out the equasion.

[manikyath]

Just now, Alexsolo said:

It just surpises me there's no legacy (analog) inputs and only new digital standards like HDMI...

they can cut cost, and save those vital millimeters in the quest to make a razor thin TV.. on a stand just as big as the one on my 10cm thick brick of an LCD disaster.

 

but.. lets keep this on topic.. i'm not here for a debate on TV manufacturers.

[PlayStation 2]

Beware with the OSSC: that's meant to act as more of a line doubler, and as such, may have issues with TVs that don't like non-standard resolutions, like 1280x960.

[manikyath]

5 hours ago, Alexsolo said:

Neither am I! 

I was wondering because maybe there's an output you missed? which is why I wanted to lookup the TV specs!

 

But it would seem that a product has already been conceived for this type of issue: https://www.amazon.com/Sewell-HDMI-Converter-Latency-480p/dp/B0072JP56G

reviews for it are worryingly mixed, as well as pricing.. even in my region there's about 100 sellers selling that thing at a different price, some even with different descriptions about what the device even does.

[manikyath]

5 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

Beware with the OSSC: that's meant to act as more of a line doubler, and as such, may have issues with TVs that don't like non-standard resolutions, like 1280x960.

good mention. happen to have any info on the retrotink?