Can The mClassic Really "Upgrade" Your Switch?

[@RetroDodo]

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[@konsumer]

JUST EMULATE IT YOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

[@NicVandEmZ]

What happens if you plug mClassic into a mClassic that is already plugged into a console

[@samza9622]

No one ever mentioned that the color grading it does looks like reshade.

[@samza9622]

There is a disc rare to find that makes it so you could output every ps2 game in 480p works really well. Can't remember the name of it, it's somewhere in my closet.

[@Sagegabs]

Min 4:25 Dude you're such a liar, Super Mario Odissey doesn't look as bad as you're showing 🤣🤣🤣 It's a shame you have to do this just for a sell.

[@meILM]

I wish there was a mode that had the processing but didnt mess with the contrast

[@RetroDodo]

Same.

[@wobblingpixels3921]

That is the trickery of the mclassic. It's not a great upscaler but it applies higher contrast, saturation etc and makes you believe the image looks so much better, while it's crushing black color and details. e.g. the billboard has some smaller details (looks like a dot mask) which are missing in the mclassic image. You can try it for yoruself: take the footage of the mclassic and adjust contrast, saturation, brightness in video editing software. What you get is an almost 1:1 image with little anti-aliasing of the mclassic. Without the anit-aliasing filter I would call it snake oil.

[@Arcanineisthebest]

@@wobblingpixels3921 You know how they say that some classic consoles look much better in CRT devices and in modern 4k OLED screens they look super washed out? I think, it aims to fix that with a filter and some basic AA sharpness. It's not great but in my experience it makes it a little better. Now, everything PS3/360 forward will have problems because it's not really a sRGB limited to full range converter, it's just a cheap filter.

[@WllKiedSnake]

​@wobblingpixels3921 After owning one and using it for a few years now I'd say it's not snake oil. It does exactly what they say it does. You only see the differences you speak of if you zoom in 400% to see the discrepancies. Sitting back away from the TV you wouldn't notice these things. And the black crush you speak seems to be an issue on cheaper TV's you use it with. Use it on a better TV or and OLED and your good. And they have to do the colour saturation stuff as when upscaling you lose some colours. The Mclassic adds this back with what you see colours wise. It's one of the best affordable upscalers out there.

[@wobblingpixels3921]

@@WllKiedSnake I have an OLED LG C9. You don't need to increase any saturation or contrast when upscaling. That is not what a good upscaler does e.g. OSSC, Retrotink 5x. The reason why mclassic does it is to make the image appear "sharper". It's ok if your are happy with the product but it still not a good upscaler.

[@FrostyBrows]

To prevent darkening on ps3 and 360, you must change colour range to “limited” since it will crush your black levels if the source device is using “full” or extended RGB range.

[@Wobble2007]

Bingo, the blacks were being crushed in Mario Kart too, hence why the logo was invisible.

[@Doc_Valparaiso]

@@Wobble2007 I'd bet on some of the games you could just tweak your tv's picture settings. Not the end all-be all of solutions. But, doable for some games at leaat.

[@stevesquick92]

This exactly!

[@WllKiedSnake]

That's just the PS3 in general. It's always had a darker gamma curve. And 360 for me is usually of a different gamma curve. It's brighter for me for example. Where PS3 is darker.

[@Wobble2007]

@@Doc_Valparaiso You can, but this often ends to giving you the see-saw effect, you fix one problem, only to cause another, gamma is a tricky one to get right.

[@kwok57]

I’m a very satisfied mclassic owner but I use it mostly to upscale Nintendo Switch to 1440p on my desktop monitor (sitting very close to the screen). I have also used it for Nintendo Wii and PS2 consoles with budget hdmi dongles, which works great for the price (sitting much further away from the screen). I think these are the best use cases for the mclassic. I wouldn’t bother using it with my switch on my living room tv.

[@smdba368]

I use it on my 22” 1080p Pinball FX3 cabinet with the Switch. It already looked decent with no MClassic, but the antialiasing noticeably improves the experience from that distance. I agree that it’s only useful where raw pixels would be distracting.

[@MikuCobraCole]

I'm a mClassic owner and I would advise everyone to avoid it. - It would make your games a bit less blurrier applying some AA and upscaling (not in a proper way, I'll get into that later) your image, that's all for the pros. Now for the cons, it will (and I swear it) crush the blacks and whites, they advertise it as an enhancement, like "more vivid and colorful image", bullsh*t, this thing can't do a proper scaling and that's why it crush everything. The mClassic will break the contrast on every system you plug it in, on Switch you should turn color range to limited on system settings if you want to have a decent experience, on older systems this will be even worse lacking any settings at all. Finally, not all the TVs can handle the way it works, you will have your screen flickering on and off with the mClassic changing resolutions on the go, and that's another problem, some older games that uses workarounds like dynamic resolutions (re2 on 64) are totally incompatible with this thing, I can't stress it enough, please, do you a favor and save some money, it's not worth a single buck.

[@TheMysteryDriver]

And it's $100. Wtf

[@NicB-Creations]

Exactly what I thought, thanks!

[@TheSlySyl]

This has not been my experience at all. I've used mine mostly daily for years and across multiple systems. Never had any flickering. Possibly it's TV dependent? As for crushing the Blacks and Whites, I configured my white values post Mclassic (for my TV you can configure the picture per input device) and that solved it.

[@brandonvillamizar1216]

"I'll get into that later", why not explain it right there? Why waste some characters when your explanation is like just a couple of sentence away?

[@pennyandrews3292]

That's really not surprising. While looking at the image, I got the impression that the "original" footage looked way more washed out than the actual Switch looks, and the mClassic was trying to create a fake HDR effect by crushing blacks and whites, which is the only way to do that with a non-HDR signal... a lot of people do like the way it looks and will buy TVs with terrible contrast because the "colors pop," for instance. It's also why so many people swear by IPS panels despite the poor contrast ratio compared to VA panels, and why Plasma didn't last... not enough people cared about contrast, they were all focused on having colors pop. Color was always good at fooling the human eye into thinking it sees more resolution, that's why NTSC got away with 480i color signals being lower resolution than black and white for so long. I did think the anti-aliasing looked cool, but honestly not sure if it's really worth it unless you're playing on an absolutely huge display, and most displays large enough for it to make a big difference would be 4K, which as they mentioned it doesn't handle well.

[@pokepress]

In general, the logic used by the mClassic works best when it has access to the output of the console at the native rendering resolution. You can really see this by using it with a GameCube at 480p via a digital out adapter (I know you wanted to use just the mClassic, but the uplift is really worth it in this case). As for the contrast issues, it does appear that the mClassic does occasionally misidentify limited vs full range RGB, and you may have to fiddle with the settings occasionally. This obviously makes it less simple, but that seems to be the only real way to deal with it.

[@smdba368]

One thing to note is that the MClassic does not support interlaced resolutions- I think that is why certain systems didn’t look different with it on (because it wasn’t actually on). I discovered this when trying to get it to work with my Wii, and realized it was outputting 480i. When I switched to 480p it was a night and day difference.

[@WllKiedSnake]

If you combine it with a device that converts a interlaced signal to a progressive one it will work. The best way to do this is use a Retrotink.

[@LRM12o8]

And there gpes my hope it would fix deinterlacing artifacts on my PAL GameCube, lol. Modding with Swiss/Cubeboot it is! It also doesn't seem great for the Switch, so I can finally stop being curious about this expensive, but dubios thing! 😁

[@PixelShade]

I would say that the darkness on the X360 could just be a mismatch between Limited RGB and Full RGB. If you send Limited RGB from the X360, and the mclassic treats that signal as Full RGB, you will get a much darker image.

[@TheZoenGaming]

I ordered a mClassic back in 2020 for my Switch and Wii U, and I love it. Xenoblade Chronicles X benefitted a lot. Of course, back then, it didn't come with an extension cable, but I didn't need one since I'd done a portable dock swap. When I bought a Switch OLED, I had to get a cable for it. As far as the X360, it was only applying sharpening and anti-aliasing to the images, which was more noticable in ODST, although a couple of colors looked better in Dead Rising.

[@Killertamagotchi]

The video signals look more colorful depending on the game and in some cases darker because the adapter is not able to process full range RGB but only limited range RGB However, consoles with HDMI usually output full range RGB as standard. If you set the output of the consoles to Limited Range RGB, the signals are no longer dark, but the colors are the same as if you connected them normally. The loading screen on MK8 is what happens when full range RGB comes in but only limited range RGB is processed for context full range RGB = 0-255 limited range RGB = 16-235 With limited range RGB, black is not really black and white is not really white

[@theespers5263]

I vaguely remember that Microsoft introduced a software upscaler to the 360 at some point, so even though the vast majority of titles run at 720p or lower, the signal received by the mClassic is technically 1080p. My guess is the device sees that and says "Ope. There's nothing to bother with here." Edit: I said "the Microsoft"

[@gellister]

Yeah. I got better results if I manually turned the output to 720p on my 360 with this device. Upscales to the 1440p monitor shockingly well. Played an old copy of RE0 on it and was shocked how good it looked. The device works best when it is fed lower native resolution that it has to upscale otherwise it really only gives some free anti-aliasing.

[@AndrewCoyte]

For me, it looks like it’s just blowing out the contrast and sharpness values to make the “image” look more vivid to “show” its doing something, hence losing the Mario kart load screen background. As others have said, you can just adjust the brightness and contrast through the TV itself.

[@Sirkingx]

the LG C3 AI Upscaler does a really great job all by itself with the switch. Glad I decided to fork up the money.

[@ClearLampOil]

I almost chocked after hearing the calmest person in England tell me this thing cost approximately 400 freddos.

[@st3ddyman]

There must be something wrong with your eyes at 9:11. Just look at the text on the van in the background. Unreadable almost on the mClassic, but clear as day on the native 1080p switch output.

[@lyteedge]

I got an mClassic specifically for the Nintendo Switch and haven't had any issues with it, but it seems to really shine on 1440P displays. Its effects don't seem as noticeable on a 4K TV.

[@sogero2]

I don't know if it works with all games, but Shin Megami Tensei V has some framerate problems, and you might want to try this trick I found with it. Next time you're on the 4K TV, set your Switch's output to 720p and let the mClassic clean up the image. I got an improved framerate with a more than passable picture out of it.

[@ZarzenLetsPlay]

With the Mario Kart Loading Screen I have observed something interesting. On KZbin Desktop with my non-HDR screen I can't see the pattern anyway; but when you move the mouse and the KZbin control elements display there is a faint black gradient that is displayed that mave the image at the top an bottom borders just dark enough to see the pattern which doesn't happen with the mClassic footage which makes your observations even somewhat reliably confirmable haha

[@awesomereviews1561]

I like the “4K gamer pro” better. It doesn’t mess up the contrast and has a sharper look. The con is that there is no anti aliasing on it shows on some games. You can daisy chain it with the mClassic to get an antialiasing but then it gets expensive. Edit: 7:30 most games do not run at 60 fps on switch, the vast majority run at 30 fps ( if even)…

[@WllKiedSnake]

Combining the Mclassic with the 4K Gamer Pro is the way to go.

[@5h0ckblock]

For the 360 games from what I can tell only the anti aliasing changed, but not for every object. The improvement is most noticeable on hud elements, for example the ammo count in Halo.

[@retrobear9367]

I've had mine for a few years now. I put mine on an hdmi switcher for retro systems. I feel like it cleaned up that signal nicely while playing on my 55 inch 4k tv

[@braddl9442]

Yeah, it really helps bringing forward some of the older systems to the bigger TVs, many of these older systems were only thinking in terms of 32 inch tvs. But now we have 48 and 60 inch TVs as standard and it really helps.

[@epicmaster46]

9:02 weird how you didn’t catch the fact that the 720p upscale MClassic image is absolutely worse than the base 1080p when you even zoomed in and made things like the news van, signs on either side, and trees more visible. It’s definitely not better.

[@WllKiedSnake]

And you won't notice these things unless you zoom in 400%. Sitting back away from the screen these things aren't noticeable.

[@epicmaster46]

@@WllKiedSnake except for the part where I absolutely did notice it before he zoomed in, on my phone screen.

[@WllKiedSnake]

@epicmaster46 So you weren't sitting away from your phone screen when you seen it? Like a few metres away. And you must match a games native resolution for the Mclassic to work correctly or get as close as possible. Or you will have issues.

[@epicmaster46]

@@WllKiedSnake stop trying to argue semantics, TVs are dozens of times larger than a phone screen. If it doesn’t actually do anything, then what’s the point of trying to use a retro upscaler on Switch? There isn’t one. This is an accessory for RETRO CONSOLES. That’s how it was marketed. Honestly at this point, both you and the maker(s) of this video are employees of the company that made the MClassic as far as I’m concerned, considering how far you’re willing to bend over backwards to defend it.

[@WllKiedSnake]

@epicmaster46 I have one and it's really good. So of course I will defend it. If you don't know that you must match a games native resolution or get as close to that native res it's on you. You must know a games native resolution for the Mclassic to work correctly. And if you zoom in 400% of course you will see things you can't normally see. And it's not about screen size. It's about how far you are sitting back. If you are sitting right infront of a monitor or screen you will see things in an image you wouldn't see if you were sitting back. And there are many reasons to use the Mclassic on a Switch. Add sharpening so the isn't as soft. Apply AA to games that have non like Skyward Sword HD or Mario Kart 8. Upscale to 1440p. It's like using early FSR it's that impressive to me. I've seen people say it's Snake oil. I've had it for years. I use it on all my older consoles and Switch. Even used it on the PS4 Pro. It's a great affordable product compared to other upscalers. You can even combine it with things like the Retrotink and a 4k Gamer Pro. It's a cool little device.

[@sir_christmas_leopold_duckson]

PS3, XB360, and Switch all still look fabulous to me.

[@MrMegaManFan]

I've never seen a single review that convinced me I need the mClassic, and this one doesn't either, so thank you for the honesty.

[@RetroDodo]

Glad we could help!

[@WhateverWhenever888]

Honesty? Did you see the thumbnail?

Also worth noting the mclassic doesn't actually do any upscaling it adjusts the sharpness and increases the contrast which does make it look less jagged and more contrast feels like more details are available but any modern tv already has these options available in tbe menu.

[@user-io9hj9ip2d]

yup, you can pretty much achieve this "upscaling" on any modern TV by just adjusting sharpness and contrast honestly you're better off doing that than wasting $100 on this

[@markwebster4996]

That’s not completely accurate, the MClasic cleans up edges better than a TV adjusting the sharpness. It’s visible side by side

[@Bigdaddyperp]

If you want upscaling gonna Wana use yuzu or ryujinx nothing will top mario kart in 4k with fsr and sma

[@vladyslavsingur9979]

⁠​⁠@@markwebster4996 Every tv do the same thing, Mc classic doesn’t improve resolution. It’s just upscaling and sharpening. Setting that you can adjust on tv. I can have much better results even tv from 2013.

[@WllKiedSnake]

Well that's not true. The Mclassic does apply AA. And every TV has a resolution remaster feature or super resolution feature. Issue is it adds latency. The Mclassic doesn't.

[@andremichaud8080]

what about PS1-PS2 games running on the backward compatible version of PS3?

[@Spectarium]

I realized something that no matter if it was upscaled or not I usually preferred the one with darker colours even if it wasnt upscaled

[@Akitektur]

What you didn’t really mention outside the darkness are the negative effects. Theres often a bit of a dealy or wave effect. It’s really noticeable on the pillars in journey and in the GTA clip around 17:50

[@Gilbeezyskit]

I wish they made this with the input and output flipped, so I could plug it into the HDMI port on my tv, and then connect any console into that. It would make it more ideal for switching between consoles and I could even connect a switcher into that and have multiple consoles always connected and ready to go.

[@No_True_Scotsman]

Couldn't you achieve this with an HDMI extension cable (one end female, not a normal HDMI cable with both ends male)

[@kulilin3104]

The mClassic works extremely well on the output of my HD 1080p reciever. I have all of my retro conoles hooked up to the composit/component inputs on it. I see a huge uplift on my Wii connected to the reciever via component and set to 480p. Especially when playing Gamecube games through it.

[@sogero2]

I have only used mine with Nintendo Switch, and I concur the color was a little darker in some cases. Colorful games like Mario stuff seem to benefit the most. I'm playing on a 75" 4k tv, so I can see pixels very well up close, and I have flipped the switch on the mClassic to switch between passthrough and back to see the enhancement. It doesn't always live up to the claims on the box, but it generally looks better and less jaggy, or else it appears about the same. No, it's not as good as a $350 scaler like retrotink 5x, but I'm satisfied with this for Switch use for less than 1/3 of that. I'm sure if one could "tune" it, it would make for better picture quality, but this is effortless without anything to configure. Definitely a different product with a different purpose. Also, I found a neat trick with Shin Megami Tensei V to get better framerate: Set the docked resolution to 720p to get an improved framerate (still dips at times) and the mClassic will clean up the picture enough that (to me) it feels like an upgrade instead of a tradeoff for fps at lower resolution.

[@Sweetaccord]

Agree on a 65" or larger TV it not worth the money. Better to get a pc and go via emulators as you can play games from other consoles and upscale like crazy and have way more control.

[@thenintendude]

Speaking from my own experiences, I will say that the mClassic DOES deliver on an impressive upscaled look for Switch! My setup is unlike most others who play their Switch, being hooked up to something more extreme with my Apple Pro Display XDR and using the recently released Elgato HD 60X hooked up with Elgato's own 4K HDMI cable and sitting a matter of about a meter or two away. (I'm also doing this on my iPad, which is something that, until recently with iPadOS 17 would've been crazy to even think about!)I have my capture settings set to 1440p 60 fps and I can see more detail in the picture with less jagged edges, which makes for an overall cleaner look! Even for games like F Zero 99, things looked a little more vibrant and sharp, despite maintaining SNES graphics to keep that retro feel. I recently just got this for this setup, but I've been an owner of mClassic for a couple of years, using this on my LG 4K OLED display and, even from farther away, I can STILL see an improvement, again maintaining the 1440p output settings. I do agree with Retro Dodo that games like Mario Kart don't see as much of an improvement, but it's still there nonetheless. And, when you do play games that take advantage of the upscaling, the difference justifies the cost! My own take: As mentioned in this review, if you have the TV that can display a 1440p signal or higher, make your Switch look its best and get a taste of what a more powerful Switch Pro-like console would be like until Nintendo finally update their aging current lineup! I can't wait to see how other games look like with this, like Smash and Super Mario RPG!

[@KatZak.]

Really clear video + love the Little Big Planet music at 10:54!

[@Yipper64]

ive been using the Mclassic for a while now and I think its great! It works really good for games that have graphics with heavy outlines, like the Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxue remake, but also as said here, is very good at upscaling things from a lower resolution to HD. Very good with my wii games. I also have a TV that takes 1440P signals so I see a difference in most games.

[@SAGERUNE]

Windwaker HD does appear to have one benefit, sharpening through the blur caused by the bloom. Makes the Bloom a little less damaging to the overall image.

[@WllKiedSnake]

I noticed this too.

[@Oceanandskylinevidss]

Yea Nintendo went ham on the bloom for both HD Zelda remasters on the wiiu. It made some people just play the original.

[@RectWizard]

You ALWAYS need to run your consoles in either 480p or 720p allowing the mclassic to do the full upscaling to 1080p allow the mclassic to do the work. If the console is already running in 1080p then the mclassic won’t do much other than color correction and anti aliasing. Go into your systems setting and set them to 720p or 480p

[@OwOLink]

can't wait to stumble across one at a thrift store in 20 years

[@foznoth]

I may look at this for my Steam Deck, off load the upscaling to this instead of FSR. It may not be any better than FSR, but doing the processing externally may mean a few extra FPS.

[@braelighty6212]

You should be able to upscale from yuzu, on my onexfly I’m able to do 1.5x resolution with no performance loss

[@Gaming_Legend2]

FSR in yuzu does wonders for anime /bold sharp looking games, the rest im not sure so yea this is a better option, if it was FSR 2 or 3 it would be better but it is what it is

[@Bigdaddyperp]

Agreed anyone who is stupid enough to buy this product that doesn't know about yuzu and ryujinx having awesome upscaling shame on you .

[@markwebster4996]

The manufacturer has videos explaining the limited range and setting the Switch output to 720p or lower. They explain all of this and why it’s necessary. Many people misunderstand this and that’s why they don’t like it. It’s a good device for WiiU and Switch

[@Bluhbear]

With Dead Rising, at 13:55, it definitely looks darker on the left, with the raw footage. Especially if you look at the background. It's also _slightly_ crisper on the right, but not so much that I'd be bothered without it.

[@haunter4764]

The blowing out of the image is due to RGB set to full on Switch, doesn't jibe well with mClassic, set RGB to Limited, and it's fixed

[@kevin_lee_music]

The problem with most of these is that you're relying on the games rendering resolution and not the resolution the console is putting out. 720p and below is gonna show a lot more, but the system has to be set to 720p or below. If it's set to 1080p, the rendering resolution doesn't matter AT ALL to the mClassic. It's strange because you even discovered this with the Switch and then went back to having systems set at 1080p

[@WllKiedSnake]

All you gotta do is try match a games native resolution.

[@sitedel]

The processing looks like the effect of a Lookup table (LUT), with a little bit of FXAA anti-aliasing.

[@rubenssz]

What’s that?

[@WllKiedSnake]

It uses SMAA.

[@sitedel]

@@rubenssz A lookup table is a color and tone correction preset. By altering colors in a controlled and cohesive way you can keep all details and contrast but change the mood of the scene through color curves: more yellow and you will get a "golden hour" look, more blue and you get an "Hollywood night" scene....

[@rubenssz]

@@sitedel thanks

[@markwebster4996]

You must lower Switch to limited RBG range as well as 720p output in the console settings when the game is not natively 1080p. Mario Odyssey is but many other games like BOTW are not. Let the M Classic do the scaling from 720p to 1080 or 1440p that’s where it’ll show. The MK8D issue you are having are because you have the console on Auto or Full RBG

[@braddl9442]

I have used one for years and love it. It really helps if your using a bigger TV.

[@ghoulie11]

The raw input footage for the Switch and PS3 games looks like there's a grey filter put over the top of the image, like the brightness is set just a little too high on the console. Same with the Dreamcast games.

[@mattunwin]

I have done extensive testing with the Mclassic. It's not well understood at all, so I will help try and clear things up here a bit. First, The upscaling algorithm inside the Mclassic ignores Vertical Resolution and only works off of Horizontal Resolution. The resolution check happens with the Horizontal, so for instance if you have a 1920x480p signal, like from the Retrotink 5x, you will get ZERO upscaling and it will just apply a slight anti-aliasing and do zero upscaling if your final output is 1080p, since it believes the incoming image is 1920x1080 and it's skipping the 480p information. Second the amount of anti-aliasing and processing is tied directly to the upscaling factor. So you will see a much more aggressive anti-alias when going from 480p to 1080p than you will from 720p to 1080p. This means going from 720p to 1440p will give you an even more anti-aliased and processed result than 1080 to 1440p. Going from 1080p to 1080p gives you only a slight bit of anti-aliasing since is no upscale happening. Basically, the more you upscale, the more you anti-alas the image. These two things considered, you want to aim for the most upscaling while also considering the cleanest image you can. If lowering your console to 720 makes the image look less detailed and more jaggy it will could actually hurt the image quality as now the Mclassic has a worse incoming image to clean up. In some cases it could be better to go from 1080p to 1440p to get the best image. But if going from 720p to 1080p gives you ZERO improvement in actual image quality because the game is actually being rendered in 720p no matter what (many games are like this) then it's best to set the console to 720p. If you are using something like the retrotink 5x, you want to have the most upscaling you can achieve, so the lowest output resolution you can choose is 720p as that will trigger the upscaling, where as 480p will be seen as 1920 and skip the upscaling entirely. Once you understand how the Mclassic works, it's can be used well to achieve a nice image. Forcing it to 1440p with an EDID emulator will give you a lot more room to play with as well. It can look really nice on Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Xbox, PS3, and Xbox 360 games when you dial in the the output settings correctly for each system (or game in some cases). For the gamecube a carby will get you a 480p output that works really well. For Wii, the Retrotink 2x Pro M on pass through gives an amazing image, the cheap HDMI dongles scale to 1080p which hurts the Mclassic scaling, you really want 480p for the Wii. For OG Xbox, a decent HDMI dongle that will do 480p and 720p can be great, this console needs the most per game settings as you can get higher res games out of it. For PS2, the Retrotink 5x (and upcoming 4k) are great at 720p. PS3 and X360 can do 720p just fine via HDMI (minus the non HDMI X360s which you need a scaler for). You could even use this with the PSTV and PSP! I know many people think that the TV upscaling + some TV settings are enough to match what the Mclassic is doing, but that's not entirely the case. Keep in mind that MANY TVs have terrible upscaling and NONE of them anti-alias the image. Also, many TVs don't see 480p and 720p correctly and they add a BUNCH of latency to the output treating them like an interlaced signal. The Mclassic might be the only way for some people to get a low latency upscale to the TV without buying a whole new television.

[@Rebelshifter]

I've taken the time to read the entirety of your post. You, sir, have done a commendable service on informing everyone about the inner workings of the mClassic. While it's meant to be a more practical, plug-and-play device, it's also best to take full advantage of it either via the source's settings or the value settings on the TV or monitor that receives it. I already shared my experience on a comment above which advises everyone to steer clear from using this device because of how much it crushes the colors and blacks & whites on their end. Much on the contrary, the mClassic helped me revive the coloring and clarity on a display that would otherwise appear very poorly unless using a setting other than Game Mode (which was, of course, not good for latency). It goes without saying that the upscaling and especially the antialiasing features are much welcome improvements as well. Personally, however, I've tried setting the output to 720p on both my Switch and Wii U for games that would natively display such resolution and I've found that the overall quality appears blurrier rather than smoother on my end. I may admit that it's perhaps due to the TV I use, but in my experience I obtain better results and definition leaving my consoles at 1080p, even with 720p games. I have yet to try the mClassic on a console that would output a maximum of 480p, though, which I still believe would be a best case scenario for the full array of the mClassic's features to take place. So far I'm very happy with the mClassic's results, especially after further tinkering with my TV's settings for an ideal image quality, contrast and all. But, prior to watching this video review I had no idea about the existence of such EDID devices that further bump the resolution (another comment also mentioned them as a benefit), which have sparked my interest because I know the mClassic will only output 1440p and I've always kind of been like "yeah, I wish I could get a true 4K resolution". On the other hand, my satisfaction with this device has me not wanting to mess it up any further. Does an EDID truly help improve the end result of the mClassic's definition as opposed to what you get with it as is? If so, what exact model would you recommend using?

[@mattunwin]

​@@Rebelshifter I too have similar experience with some games looking better at 1080p vs 720p output. For the most part WiiU Games and Switch Games benefit more when set to 1080p because the overall output is cleaner before hitting the scaler. This isn't the case though for some older consoles and even running the Wii U in Wii mode benefits from being set to 480p vs a higher scaled output. So setting the Wii U to 480 before you run the Wii mode can help. Cheap hdmi dongles for the Wii are much the same issue... most run at 720p or a bad 1080p output, so getting a true 480p output via a retrotink 2xM is the best case for a clean wii image. Even the retrotink 5x isn't an upgrade because pixel perfect wii games for the most part look bad, the wii games look better with a softer pixel edge before the hit the Mclassic. The EDID trick only works if your TV supports 1440p in the first place. Some tvs EDID show as 2560x1440 120hz which will not trigger the 1440p output of the mclassic. You need an EDID specifically listed as 2560x1440 60hz for the Mclassic to scale to 1440p. My tv the LG CX does not have this EDID so I had to get an emulator to force it. I then also had to copy the EDID list from my LG PC gaming monitor which does list the proper resolution. I copied the EDID list to the device and the Mclassic now scales to 1440p on my TV. It is a massive improvement for 1080p outputs. Much like going from 480p to 1080p gets more improvement. Going from 1080p to 1440p is a lot nicer. The EDID emulator I am using is expensive, but I did order the one from Ali-express to see if that works as it is much cheaper but I haven't confirmed it working yet. I have tested cheaper ones off Amazon and they did not work. If you are interested, I have some more information about the EDID emulator I am using on my website, find me on twitter @thesunnymachine and message me :)

[@impheris]

looks like it is using contrast sharpening or other filter that uses contrast to detect edges to aply AA... that is why (maybe) it makes the image way darker

[@mrchiledonut]

The raw 1080p image looks better than the 720p mClassic as it's a cleaner, less muddled image as you can see with the lettering on the MKTV truck in the background. The one thing it improves is anti-aliasing, especially to shadows.

[@erinzaharris2162]

14:14 look at the ammo counter on the gun. def getting less jaggies on close up objects. however its very subtle

[@plugpulled]

If you already own any modern LG OLED panels such as CX and above they already have a superior built-in hardware scaler for content below 4k.

[@WllKiedSnake]

Which adds latency. The Mclassic doesn't add latency.

[@TheSlySyl]

I've had an mClassic for years, My main TV is a 75inch 4k TV and it clears up the jaggies quite a bit. I *highly* recommend getting an EDID spoofer that forces 1440p. It makes quite a bit of difference, and if you're already spending $100ish on the mClassic, the extra $20 for the 1440p EDID spoofer isn't much. A great game to use to see the difference on Switch is, surprisingly, Animal Crossing: New Horizons which is extremely jaggy without it.. I got the mClassic during the animal crossing hayday and it was an immediate benefit. Something else I love about the mClassic is that you can put it on the output of a switcher and it will improve the image quality of everything before the switch. I have a Gamecube -> HDMI , Wii U, Switch, PS3 and a (hacked) SNES Classic hooked up to my mClassic this way. It's also fantastic to hook it up to my 1440p monitor when I'm streaming, and you can put the capture card after the mClassic and stream with less jaggies too!

[@RetroDodo]

Thanks for the reccomendation!

[@jaypong5517]

I just use my gaming computer and emulation these dayz to max out the graphics on any retro/console system there is no beating this method haha.

[@Nitsua16]

The reason why the 360 doesn’t look any different is that the 360 upscales the image before it gets to the TV. It was a major strong point between the PS3 and it, making games look a lot better. That and the special 32mb of RAM it had that was used to provide AA over what the PS3 could do. The upscaling though would be what is making the MClassic not able to make a real difference in the 360 games.

[@erugi2357]

Exactly! I was supposed to write this but firstly wanted to check the comments. Mclassic will do some enhancing once X360 is set to display 720p output. The same goes to ps3.

[@WllKiedSnake]

You need to set the 360 to 720p. With the Mclassic you must match a games native resolution.

[@jazzimel]

I must say I've been pleased with the MClassic, BUT the only issue I have is that if a texture is purposely pixelated or jagged, it tries to blend and smooth it, thus interfering with the effect or making certain small details indistinguishable. This only happens sometimes but worth noting. Not at all a deal breaker, in fact if you're playing Batman Arkham Asylum on PS3 it makes the 720p graphics look much better and the 2D hud elements look much more crisp and graphic like a comic book illustration.

[@calibomber209]

i heard marseille say that its best to use their gaming hdmi cable. have you tried and noticed a dif? they are so expensive but luckily the mclassic is cheaper now.

[@Doc_Valparaiso]

These devices are fascinating because they're doing some of what DLSS, FSR, XeSS, and TAAU do. Not to get too off topic/technical. But, I really hope the next Switch's rumored SoC keeps the extra ai cores. Those could provide a huge boon for even better upscaling. Especially >1080p.

[@luisbenitez5708]

One of my favorite facts about the m classic is that Arabian Prince, founding member of NWA, helped get it to market

[@Ohverture]

You can definitely see the lack of detail in the Mario Kart 720 switch up scaled compared to the 1080 switch footage, even if the lines are a little smoother.

[@Bigdaddyperp]

Mario kart yuzu 4k sma fsr multiboxing local play

[@WllKiedSnake]

Mario Kart 8 is a native 1080p game. So you should have the Switch at 1080p then have the Mclassic do it's thing.

[@ICharlyl]

Not testing the GameCube is a crime!

[@DementedBeast]

The thing with upscaling 720p is it just has to triple or maybe quadruple each pixel. I forget I don't remember the algorithm off the top of my head. It's one of the 2.; With 1080 -> 4k there's some stretching involved. There's none of that with 720 so you get a much cleaner upscale especially if it's something animated and not live action.. Trying to upscale live action shosws and movies usually doesn't work as well as animation or games

[@Bossman207-g7x]

Man. You missed testing 720p totk. I would love to see how the game would look but getting the 720p performance gains.

[@rehaansiddiqie]

Does TOTK gain better performance when forcing on 720p in TV settings?

[@Wobble2007]

I'd love a native VGA/component version of the mClassic, would be amazing for so many 480p+ systems and games. Also, I bet this mClassic is amazing for Wii games in 576p ED mode, being upscaled to 1080p.

[@LRM12o8]

They exist and go by the name RetroTink

[@Wobble2007]

@@LRM12o8 Only the Tink 4K is going to have native VGA output, though the adapter needed isn't out yet afaik, but that is hundreds off £$, the mClassic is only 70-90 £$, the mClassic is also very different, it actually has a type of GPU core, which is able to use AA and actively repeat pixels, it's very clever and no one else has quite cracked the same technology as yet, and rumour has it Marseille is baking something new, perhaps with BFI or raster-scan emulation, and with a native analogue RAMDAC, if they can develop a second generation version of their GPU core based scaling tech and combine it with raster-scan emulation, I would buy several of them and pretty much use it with every console and PC I own, something like that would be incredible with the new OLED displays.

[@AimeeRose1997]

What a lot of reviews of this device fail to mention is that it gives the rest results when you have your TV's sharpness settings at zero. For the first two years I used this device, I had my TV's sharpness settings at 20 and was often doubtful as to whether my device was actually doing the job as intended do you how underwhelming a lot of the results were. After setting my TV's sharpness to zero, every game I've played using this device looks better than ever before.

[@yavorchernaev39]

I suggest holding off buying mclassic for the moment. Marseille themselves said new products are coming next year.

[@Pureshadow]

You are aware you can just use filters in OBS to do the same thing?

[@user-io9hj9ip2d]

honestly looks like it just sharpens and then slightly smooths the image with a slight change in contrast you can literally achieve this on any TV made in the past 10 years the device is not worth the hype, let alone the absurd $100 price tag when again any modern TV can achieve the same effect for free.

[@solonepeon5805]

@Retro or anyone else that has just the mclassic. If you can get your hands on a 4K gamerpro then try to daisy chain it with the mclassic & you will be very amazed at better 4k resolution with amazing results. Note tho some games will need to either be in 1080p or 720p on the mclassic, then when the 4k gamerpro will output the resolution in 4k. So not all games will need to be set to 720p, Monster Hunter Gen is a 1080p game so set the mclassic on 1080p & daisy the 4kgamepro with that setting. Definitely both of these devices used together will definitely enhance your visuals on Switch games.

does it work on computer / laptop plugged to monitor via hdmi?

[@tomlee80]

Bizarrely when viewing this video on KZbin with my PC my monitor ALSO displayed a plain white background on the Mario Kart 8 loading screen at 6:18 when you were showing the comparison shot from the raw feed! I remembered that HDR was switched off on my Windows 11 HDR settings so I switched it on, replayed that part of the video and I could see the background graphics. I wonder if there's similar processing going on with my display? I'm using a 4k Samsung LU28R550UQRXXU monitor.

[@tsmith4361]

Any chance you can try the wii u? I still play it for the exclusives and would love to see what it can do to the even older wii games.

[@dissidentworkshop8851]

I'm sorry, what? Did you just say that the processed 720p video of MK8 Delux is better than the native 1080p? When you zoom in, you can clearly see a distinct issue with the processing, causing blurring around the edges of semi-distant objects, while the native 1080p outputs a clearer video.

[@dissidentworkshop8851]

It's quite literally just an HDR filter with antialiasing! It's just a post-processing trick that's not genuine upscaling. This is why shadows & dark areas in games are darker. The HDR filter is increasing the contrast.

[@dissidentworkshop8851]

You could get the same effect with a TV that has an HDR filter & by decreasing the sharpness setting in the TV.

[@snakysnail42]

On Halo 3 ODST if you look at the yellow line on the edges of the assault rifle you can see that the anti aliasing is way better

[@KhoaNguyen-dg6yp]

most of switch games always look hazy & dreamy

[@matthewscottshea]

I run my Switch at 1080p. I have an mClassic with EDID adaptor to force 1440p at all times. The image difference is noticable on all games, including MK8. Must have accessory in my opinion.

[@mazor13]

This thing with a ps2 and a specific ps2 adapter, dirty cheap adapter look really good. It looks better than my up converter with deinterlacing. And it’s still better than my up converter plus the mclassic. Extremely surprised by your results with ps2. The ps2 was my best experience. But if you used an up converter that explains it.

[@wingedhussar1453]

What adapter

[@Mrtyjr]

I appreciate the time you've put in making this video though it would have been even better if you also used the 1440 adapter in your conpatisons as that should give further improvement over 1080. The company behind mclassic should actually offer those adapters themselves.

[@LocWolf]

For anyone who has an Xbox one x plug your switch into the extra HDMI port at the back of it (HDMI in) then put your Xbox into tv broadcast. That the mode that activate the Extra HDMI. Xbox will take your switch broadcast and out out it into a higher resolution. Texture will be smoother and colours more vibrant.

[@garyhay6771]

The question we should be asking is, after 10 minutes play time, will we notic3 or care about this slight if any upgrade?

[@WllKiedSnake]

Yes.

The mclassic needs a hardware mod to work properly. The micro usb port does not provide enough current for it to run smoothly, remove the casing, unplug the doughter board and direct solder to the positive and ground point, cut a small notch in the case for the wires to route through. Reassemble and power from a 5v 2a supply. Everything runs smoother now.

[@FrostyBrows]

What do you mean by running more “smoothly” ? Were you having reduced frame rates? I have not experienced any frame drops on my mClassic…

[@Ohverture]

Is there a "disable processing" button on the mClassic?

[@pokepress]

You can move the switch on the device to set it to passthrough mode.

[@pixelsrnautded9286]

I have never thought the mclassic was a good solution. I notice that it causes ringing on the edges that is confused with sharpness.

[@arcaderacer586]

Great video, the upscaler clearly works on the switch. price tag of $99 seems high.

[@RetroDodo]

Thank you for watching and commenting!

[@MaavBR]

Wait, does the Switch actually *output* at 1600x900 for ToTK or does it *render* at 1600x900 then outputs a 1080p signal? Dynamic resolutions in games usually work like the latter -- they render lower resolutions, present the resolution you're supposed to send to the display, and output that. Considering most TVs will black out for a few seconds when changing resolutions, I would personally bet on the latter as well. In case it's the latter, the fact that the mClassic works better on Super Mario Odyssey than Mario Kart 8 @1080p has nothing to do with the resolution of the signal it's getting, because it's receiving a 1080p signal either way, even when Super Mario Odyssey is rendering at 720p internally.

[@WllKiedSnake]

Tears of The Kingdom uses FSR to hit 1080p. So set the Switch to 1080p. And the Mclassic will do its thing. You must match a games native resolution or get as close as possible. If you can only upscale with the Mclassic to 1080p in 900p games for example. Set Switch to 720p. And Mario Odyssey can go down to 540p even. Its one of the games you should play at 720p with the Mclassic.

[@pauldijkstra6173]

Why didn’t you try to third option on the stick for the ps2 and such ? That could work

[@leburgue]

I need to know, this works with dynamic resolution? This make fps constant on switch? Or at least resolution will be lock at 1080p?

[@khatharrmalkavian3306]

Okay, so the aliasing was worse on the mClassic frame when you were talking about it. Also, you can't do DoF in post-process because it requires depth information and that information is not provided by an HDMI signal. Moreover, it's unlikely that they're doing any kind of intelligent processing in less than 16ms, given that it requires decomposing the image back into digital pixel data, then processing it, then converting it back to HDMI, so there is at least one (probably just one) frame of lag.

[@AndyRaze]

If you set the Switch to 720p in docked mode you get much more consistent frame rates, and way less slowdown in the Zelda games. It's hard to tell the difference in a static-ish picture when you have the Switch set to 720 with mClassic upscaled to 1080p vs 1080p without it on.

[@justinrowan4539]

I get a weird glitch at the bottom of my tv(bottom inch or so of the entire tv). This is “apparently” an issue with my Samsung tv per Mclassic

[@eyeball226]

There seems to be a big misunderstanding in this video. If the Switch is set to 1080p, then it's outputting a 1080p signal even if that's internally upscaled from a lower resolution. The mClassic cannot tell the difference between a native 1080p image and one internally upscaled by the Switch, so it'll be doing the same thing in both cases. Some stuff you say in the video implies you think it can do more to a 1080p signal if the game is rendering at a lower res and it just doesn't work that way.

[@WllKiedSnake]

Yeah! He must try match a games native resolution.

[@Derelict_Doug]

I have a 1440p monitor and Bayonetta 2+3 run at locked 720p. mclassic kicks ass in this scenario. From unplayable, to being similar to a 720p native panel.

[@DementedBeast]

The thing with the switch is most games output at 720p no matter what even docked. Some of the more AAA titles run 1080 like Mario kart 8, smash bros, etc. But kbky a handful compared to most games out there for the switch

[@TheseAreOurGames]

To explain the upscaling from 720p to 1440p on switch, it seems that they skimped on a HDMI2.0 connector and/or license, meaning they're capped to 1440p60. The upscaling always happens in integer steps, so in order to scale to the max res of 1440p, it needs an 720p input. Frankly this alone makes this a no-buy, as your average 4ktv will do an okay enough job scaling an 1080p input to 4k anyway ( and the niche of console players on 1440p have better options anyway)

[@randysalsman6992]

Why are you saying the h in hdmi so weirdly for?

[@RubenRyb66]

You can lower the resolution on the wii u down to 480p in its settings. Or does that just effect the system menu and games do their own thing regardless of the resolution you set?

[@dallelama8874]

One of my friends got a Samsung 4K tv. Am I right this tv ned the EVanlak HDMI EDID Emulator Passthrough to change the resolution to 2K instead for 1080p ? I guess you need a PC monitor to run 2K or have a really old 1440p tv, right ? By the way, pretty awesome video you made here, thank you for that 🙏

[@Chris.P.Bacon7]

Does it work for Switch Lite?

[@Cotivity]

This device seems to add the processing that LG oleds have available already. Not ground breaking but it does clean things up a bit.

[@WllKiedSnake]

The LG's add latency.

[@BBoyEMA90]

This device can also works on a monitor with max resolution of FullHD? Because my problem it's a little bit tricky. I have an xbox one series S and I want to plug on a very old Asus 27" Screen, but the only native resolution detected from the console is 1080p and it's kinda shitty. With this special device can I transform the signal and hope that my Series S can detect the fake 4K signal, but on a 1080p monitor? In this way maybe some detail can be more beautiful to see... Unfortunately I cannot channge the monitor because it's my Gaming monitor pc linked on DP port and set on Full HD at 144 Herz, but I have one HDMI free port so i'd like to use it for the console!

[@AWeekLastTuesday]

what about the retro releases like snes mini?

[@pragaooosuperplayertrabalhao]

Peace is priceless Super John Jump.