The CARBY: An Excellent GameCube HDMI Adapter + Comparing to a $15 Upscaler

[@zillmc]

Great video, picked up a Carby recently and wanted some more info on it and this was super helpful! You mentioned you wish it had a smoothing effect, you should try the mClassic + Carby in conjunction with each other, it looks amazing!

[@RetroBoost]

Thanks! I’ve heard that before, would be curious to try that. I’m also really curious to see what madness I can produce by running the CARBY through the RT4K (if I ever get one).

[@dracojoule]

I have the retrobit prism and it works great, looks like the Carby is identical so should be just as good. Really nice to get great video quality from the gamecube simply and cheaply

[@RetroBoost]

It is pretty amazing how good the output can be. I definitely think the price for both the CARBY and Prism are fair considering the quality jump and additional features such as scanlines, profiles, and more, it’s awesome.

[@spaztekwarrior]

I have the Carby and an mClassic. The mClassic gets hated on quite a bit, but I have to say that if you have a GameCube with a Carby, the mClassic will improve graphics further. This assumes that you are playing a GC game with 480p. Pretty impressive actually.

[@RetroBoost]

@@spaztekwarrior I’ve heard of that combo before, whether it be with the CARBY, Prism, etc. I’ll have to try it sometime.

[@spaztekwarrior]

@@RetroBoost When a 480i GameCube game is started, the Carby (by default I think) sets to line doubling. The mClassic will interpret this as 480p and improve the graphics as well. If you turn off line doubling on a 480i games through the Carby, the mClassic does nothing. Should be noted though, a 480p game will look better through an mClassic Carby combo, than a line doubled 480i game mClassic Carby combo. Still the latter scenario looks decent, and better than the Carby alone. :)

[@spaztekwarrior]

@@RetroBoost BTW With the combo, I use the Carby’s settings to adjust brightness and saturation. Yes you can do it with the tv, but then you have to undo it for other things like regular tv viewing for cable and movies.

[@GeekVincent]

Thanks for this! I bought a cheap upscaler because I got rid of my Plasma and bought a 4K TV and it looks horrendous. It looked so much better with regular cables on the Plasma. It’s not sharp and none of the colors are right! There is no red at all it’s a grey geen yellowish tint. I’m super disappointed. I wanted to replay pokemon games. Thanks again. Didn’t know this existed.

[@RetroBoost]

You’re welcome. Your situation is the biggest reason I make these videos: the help spread the awareness. I’ve always been into retro gaming, but didn’t know this stuff existed for the longest time either!

[@MIAMI_VIBES_]

This product is the competition to the retro bit HDMI converter that also allows you to use scaliness, how the this stands out compared to the retro bit one?

[@RetroBoost]

Virtually Identical. All these GameCube HDMI Adapters use the same open source firmware, GCVideo DVI. With the products that use GCVideo, the differences in price (should) reflect the hardware itself. The more expensive models have multiple video outputs, optical audio, stuff like that. I haven’t seen any differences with the firmware and OSD between them personally (definitely not between the CARBY and the Prism at least). The CARBY and the Prism are the same price, and have all the same features, so it really comes down to brand preference. I was shown a CARBY by a friend at a game shop, that is how I found it and why I got one.

[@SirRandallDoesStuff]

Upscalers are a waste of money. I always try to get a native HDMI option when I can. CARBY is a great device for that.