Using RetroTINK 4K Scaler with Retro PC

[@youtubewzd2196]

Scaling Mode: AutoPhil

[@philscomputerlab]

😄

[@ffwast]

An auto Phil setting would make retro computing a lot easier wouldn't it 🤔

[@nrg753]

This comment preconditioned me to hear it that way 😆

[@webfischi]

It's amazing how many techtuber in the retro space got that device, everyone covering just some part of what that device can do, it's stunning how many features have been crammed into that little device. It's covered by so many, no wonder it's sold out, despite the high but understandable price tag. It's really just missing HDMI 2.1, if people already ok with buying it for that price tag, why not go the extra mile and charge a few bucks more.

[@guspaz]

Unfortunately HDMI 2.1 would be significantly increase the cost. HDMI 2.1 uses a completely different signaling spec (FRL vs TMDS) and cost a lot more, but it would also require big boosts to the FPGA and RAM performance. I'm sure that some people would pay several thousand dollars for such a scaler, but it's probably too niche.

[@n646n]

"understandable" it's $750 USD...

[@erikmerchant567]

I just managed to buy a RetroTink 4K and I am so glad to find that Phil had made a video to guide a new user like myself. Thanks for a wonderful video sir! It has calmed my nerves considerably and I'm much less intimidated. I'm also so glad you covered a whole spectrum of cards and setups. Bravo!

[@rodhester2166]

Thanks for all you have done for the retro community. cheers.

[@philscomputerlab]

You bet!

[@dubesinhower]

Thanks for this video, I haven't taken the time to make profiles for my RetroTink 4K for my retro computers yet, but now I have no excuse!

[@cosmickatamari]

Dude stop watching videos I do... :D

[@RetroTinkerer]

It's so crazy to me that you could pull out this video and the picoGUS one in a row, hat off to you Phil.

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Phil's makin my retro gaming clearer than ever!

[@worldgate989]

But retro anything looses its charm when it's clear enough to see every pixel. D:

[@Heru3005]

Honestly its a fantastic piece of tech. The *only* issue i have is the price. The 5x was pushing it already, but this thing is the price of a high end graphics card. Everyone makes their own determination of whats "worth it", I simply can't justify that much dough for a video scaler no matter how good it may be.

[@ozzyp97]

The upside is that it'll be useful for a long time across a multitude of devices, and will almost certainly hold it's value much better than GPU. It's a lot of money of course, no way around that.

[@Skull_Gun]

Until a better priced competitor pops up i'm really happy with the OSSC for upscaling DOS/9x resolutions.

[@GreySectoid]

I think the hardware inside it is pretty pricey as well, it's not that they are upping the price just for the sake of it. Not to mention the insane amount of engineering that has gone into this.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@initial_kd While high end scalers *can* cost several thousands of dollars, that doesn't mean all high end scalers cost that much, especially considering the vast majority of the high end ones are meant to deal with SDI video signals, which are only used in professional video.

[@ndaniel80]

Great! I have been waiting for your review since I learnt about this device existance (which I did from other viewer here in the comments after the DosBox retro shader video few weeks back :))

[@19crossbone85]

Great Video! can‘t wait for my tink4k for some retro pc action. Your step by step tutorials surely help to get quicker into the action 👍🏻

[@appwraith]

This is a brilliant piece of kit... I wish I could get one. Thanks for the review!

[@a_h_adl]

Still waiting for it to get back to stock, good to see a review from you Phil!

[@Chris-yc3mm]

I've watched a few of these and not one covered the pc, so thanks for this Phil, very much appreciated. Hopefully future versions can get cheaper and for me I would prefer a displayport out over hdmi.

[@nicknorthcutt7680]

Wow, the difference it makes is incredible!

[@Aldranis]

Another great video Phil! Looking forward to ordering mine when they come back in stock. I'm sure I'll be referencing your video many times while setting it up.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

I'm glad to see some more awareness around RetroTink. I love my RetroTink 2x.

[@mesterak]

Awesome device although a bit expensive. Thanks for the in depth coverage!

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you 👍🙏

[@Grus0]

I'm so excited I'm posting before even watching.

[@madson-web]

Looks insanely good!

[@BloodiTearz]

Great video, I just received my retrotink 4k to test with windows 98 :-)

[@sofakng163]

Hey Phil - Great video as always!

[@MiguelCorreiaDaCunha]

Oh, I know that Samsung with 16:10 res! You've inspired me with it to build a retro XP gaming machine using 1600x1200, years ago. 😊 For this purpose I recommend a modern Asus Proart WUXGA monitor. A little on the costly side, but worth it.

[@philscomputerlab]

Nice! That one has HDMI so likely it will work just fine. Meaning you can game at 1600x1200 but also have 800x600 integer scaled!

[@efpcvintageplanet3406]

Amazing device. Thanks for sharing 🤩🤩🤩

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Gotta get one of thise for my retro gaming space

[@steevf]

I've been on their waiting list for awhile now.

[@andersondrezende]

Awesome device and the best review of it yet

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you!

[@MiguelCorreiaDaCunha]

So Mike Chi reached out to Phil. A legend reaching out to another legend, it is only natural but still impresses me this legendary level of legends!

[@andystandys]

I think I need to get one of these. It looks sharper than my OSSC!

[@andystandys]

Yikes… I just saw the price tag!

[@XennialGeek]

The OSSC or RetroTink 5x is more than enough. This device only makes sense when you use it with a a big and really good 4k, like OLED TVs.

[@andystandys]

@@XennialGeek Yeah, I’m pretty happy with my OSSC. I couldn’t see myself spending $750 USD on this…

[@therealjpster]

70 Hz comes from the 400 line mode. Standard VGA has a fixed 31,500 lines per second (including vertical blanking). If you have fewer lines per frame you get more frames per second. 480 line mode is 525 total lines. 400 line mode is 450 lines total. 450 x 70 = 525 x 60. The text mode as you said is 720 pixels across. This is so each character gets 8 pixels plus a 1 character gap to make 9 x 80 = 720 pixels. The ‘gap’ is either blank or a copy of the eighth column, depending on the character. Given this, I would expect 900 samples to be perfect, but I guess there might be some small timing errors.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes 900 seems the spec! I'm working with a laptop at the moment and 900 was spot on for that one.

[@r00lz]

Amazing guide. Thanks!

[@tigheklory]

Thanks Phil for doing this video! I hope you will do the same thing with some 8 bit computers too!

[@Super123456789Kuba]

2:46 I would say "Lanchos" like you would say in Polish, just for fun xD Dang, It's nice to see such a beast like this one, that can improve scaling for you on these LCD/OLED (and so on) Monitors, since CRTs are becoming harder to find and also expensive.

[@davidp4456]

Thanks Phil, an interesting review. As a retro PC fan I’m not too sure about the direction of travel of this piece of kit. Maybe this is because I still don’t have anything with resolutions above 1920x1080. I can certainly see the need for users of high res monitors however the level of manual adjustment and creation of profiles seems overly demanding when I’d rather spend the time using by retro hardware. Smarter detection and auto functionality should be the way to for such a sophisticated bit of kit. I’m pleased to see that it is a popular solution and I’m sure that monitor manufacturers will sit up and take notice. If demand is sufficient the likes of LG, Sony and Samsung will be integrating similar scaling technologies into their flagship TV’s and monitors so that Sega, Nintendo, Sony PS fans and PC enthusiasts can use their old consoles on modern screens.

[@guspaz]

If you don't mind generic sampling (somewhat softer image), then you can just use it with minimal configuration, and just hit the auto-crop and auto-gain buttons on the remote as required.

[@philscomputerlab]

There are plenty of scalers that are cheaper and do not have these adjustments. The adjustment is what makes this scaler so good!

[@fancycat3360]

I like your method of recording content. I feel like I'm sitting next to you haha

[@worldgate989]

EDID (not eh did) is an acronym for 'Extended Display Identification Data'.

[@emmettturner9452]

Yeah, I’ve never felt compelled to say it as a word and hearing “ID” somewhat conveys the function. Team Eee Dee Eye Dee here.

[@philscomputerlab]

Like EDIT with a D at the end 😅😅

[@Pidalin]

I need this thing!

[@johnnovak1979]

Nice video, Phil. It's a lovely (but quite expensive) piece of hardware. I had high hopes for the CRT emulation options, but I'm underwhelmed. The scanline + mask method is very simplistic and was "state-of-the-art" in DOS-era emulators in the '90s and maybe in the early 2000s, but we have far surpassed that since GPUs became commonplace. I guess there's not just enough processing power in this little device to implement proper shaders. The bloom, glow, and variable beam size emulation are really missing to get convincing results. I'd like to have a box that does the VGA->HDMI upscaling and applies DOSBox Staging like CRT shaders to the upscaled output. I'd buy that box in a heartbeat! This is an important step in that direction, but we're not there yet.

[@philscomputerlab]

There are more options and presets but they are all geared for consoles and home computers and haven't had enough time to dig deeper. I do want to follow up at some point, a sort of conclusion after having used it with a wider range of hardware.

[@johnnovak1979]

@@philscomputerlab I'm looking forward to it. I was able to find a few videos that showcase those presets with low-res 200-line content, but what I'm really interested in is how it fares with 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 resolutions.

[@antivanti]

If you have a monitor that supports 120 Hz and VRR you can run those DOS games like Doom that run at 70 Hz (35 fps) with perfectly smooth playback. The VRR support also solved the issue I have with my PAL SEGA MegaDrive being modded but still has the original oscillator so it outputs a non-default 59.4 Hz. Without VRR it stutters on modern displays but VRR on the RT4K solves that

[@masejoer]

Biggest issue I have with this thing is HDMI 2.0 - no 70Hz upscaling to UHD (preferably integer). There's insufficient bandwidth for full chroma. I saw the comments in Discord from Mike that he never plans on doing HDMI 2.1 due to the complexity involved. Upscaling to 1080P then leaves you with the display's own horrible built-in upscaling, although often better than trying to go to 1440p, then having a UHD display mangle that up even more. I would have spent $750 on this if it handled DOS resolutions and refresh rates upscaled to 3840x2160, with integer scaling and black bars when needed. For retro Windows stuff, 60Hz is fine. It's still the best upscaler out there imo, for sure.

[@antivanti]

@@masejoer yeah the fpga and hdmi 2.1 chips needed to support 4k 120 would have made it absurdly expensive

[@TekTherapy]

But does the RetroTink improve KZbin Compression.. 😅 Fun aside.. great Video Phil been wondering on how a RetroTink 4k would work in the typical RetroPC usecase.

[@unrealdevon]

Yes!!! About damn time someone shows us what this thing can do! Still the focus here is 60hz, i prefer playing my games like Unreal,SiN and Quake at 85-120hz. I mean its all fine and dandy having a good image, but the motionflow will be limited at 60fps or even 75 for that matter. How does that work with the retrotink?

[@filipetmarcal]

Retrotink is a good scaler

[@MrRetrostage]

Pro Pinball Timshock! in 1600*1200 would be an awesome use case. ❤

[@angieandretti]

I was considering dropping a lot of money on this as a Retro PC CRT replacement, but thank you for showing me that it's just not there yet. I'll agree it's the best option yet, but my requirements are excellent CRT filters (check) plus fast switching between multiple resolutions (check) plus 100% automation once it's fully configured (FAIL.) I'll tolerate lots of tinkering up-front - although if a website can spit out the ideal horizontal pixels per resolution and refresh rate then why isn't that formula pre-programmed into the RT 4K?? - but I will NOT tolerate having to manually press extra buttons to switch between profiles once it's configured... EVER. For $750 I think I'm allowed to be spoiled like that. I still really wish I could play around with one of these, like how good do you think I could I get it dialed-in under the premise that I'm never willing to touch any buttons afterward? What if my Voodoo2 was set for 75hz on all output resolutions but my GeForce2 was set for 72hz - could the RT then tell the difference between the two without switching profiles? No idea how I could automate a fix for that DOS text scaling mess at the end though, that's a problem.

[@philscomputerlab]

We haven't found a way, yet. But never say never....

[@middle_pickup]

I've been wondering about this use case for the retrotink products.

[@kwinsch7423]

The CRT effects show their glory on 4K OLED computer monitors and TV's. You can enable HDR and compensate for the lost brightness in the RT4K settings.

[@philscomputerlab]

The upgrade cycle, now I need an OLED screen 😂😂

[@lloydieization]

Hi Phil, chatted to you before some time back, but would love if you could test out Baryon (DOS Game) and Z (Bit Map Brothers) with the RetroTINK ... Baryon being the worst by far to get working with my selection of LCD (4 x) monitors, Baryon uses 3 different screen resolution and or refresh rates and this seemingly breaks the majority Video Card and Monitor combinations . Only my ATI 9250 Card via DVI (my preferred connection due image clarity) works with this game using my primary (IIyama) monitor. Baryon will only work with my Voodoo 3 with its VGA output going trough an Extron Scaler (but the Extron fails auto center correctly), but then Z (picture is dark with red tint on screen) etc...is broken, My Nvidia 5200,5700 and 6600GT cards only works via VGA with Baryon, their DVI output causes Baryon main game play screen to display one and half times (over draws) for some odd reason. Basically if the RetroTINK can handle Baryon it's on the right track.

[@philscomputerlab]

It's not so much about "can the RT4K handle it". It's more about, can you program it with all the different resolutions and adjust it all? You won't have test patterns, don't know the sample rates, all of which make it very difficult.The CRT monitor had the same issue though, the image would shift position and size at every different resolution, so it wasn't immune against issues with changes of resolutions. So I'm sure it can be done if you're motivated enough to fiddle around with it :)

[@Uhfgood]

I don't remember "scanlines" on dos games on a crt monitor (I know a crt has it, but for some reason, it seems they were clearer or something). I know we thought that console graphics on a crt tv looked better because of the blending and color bleed. But I don't really remember that with computer monitors.

[@gamagama69]

does the 4k -> 1440 downscale mode that this monitor has look good for this? idk i never had any reason to use it except when some game decided that it was doing to force that resolution (battle front 2 thank you for that) also i didnt know about the 4k 4:3 70hz mode thats pretty cool

[@drfunkenstein2k]

I am waiting for the next stock.... this is gonna be good!

[@user-kd1ho7gm7i]

Now that you've got a Retrotink, why not some retro-console reviews every now and then? 😉

[@philscomputerlab]

😂😂 No there will be MORE Retro PC content.

[@gianthamster6782]

thanks for the video phil. I'd like to join the discord server, but the link you provided wont work for me. cheers.

[@cesaru3619]

Looks like we are going to review retro scalers like those retro crt console geeks.

[@THU31]

Really great piece of tech for retro hardware. I'd actually like to use this with modern consoles to play backwards compatible games with integer scaling, but unfortunately the HDMI input is only version 1.4, which means 4K60 pass-through is not possible, so I'd have to physically switch the cables depending on what kind of game I want to play, or get some kind of HDMI switch with two outputs. That's a lot of hassle considering the device is already very expensive. How much higher would the price be if they included an HDMI 2.0 input?

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

It would probably cost 1 grand.

[@THU31]

@@BrunodeSouzaLino Really? With all the chips and connectors in that device, upgrading the HDMI input just for pass-through (no signal processing) would increase the cost by $250?

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@THU31 Since this device uses FPGA instead of off the shelf components, you'd either need more programmer time or a better FPGA.

[@THU31]

@@BrunodeSouzaLino But the device already has an HDMI 2.0 output, so it can already process a 4K60 signal. All it would have to do is route the 4K60 input to the output. It can't be that difficult. There are capture cards with HDMI 2.1 that can pass-through 4K120, but they can only capture 4K60. Pass-through is the simplest thing, you're just routing the signal. And they're not much more expensive than HDMI 2.0 models.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

@@THU31 But the device uses a generic purpose chip programmed to performed the function, not an off the shelf part like those capture cards you've mentioned. For example, the Elgato 4k60 Pro card uses a Silicon Image SII9777CLUC HDMI transmitter along with other components to do what it does. This is a 32 dollar part that can be bought in bulk for further discounts. The FPGA used in the Retrotink costs around 200-300 per unit even in bulk.

[@Nukle0n]

Need something like the "240p Test Suite" for those Voodoo cards.

[@RonHelton]

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@duskomarincic]

Great video (as usual). I got one, but hasn't been shipped yet. Have you figure out a way for it to automatically switch to text mode instead of having to use the remote to select the profile?

[@philscomputerlab]

1 is text mode, and 2 is DOS games, this works great for me :) AFAIK there is no way to distinguish between these two modes as the vertical resolution is identical. The same happens with a CRT monitor, the image will shift in position slightly. Have you found anything?

[@duskomarincic]

@@philscomputerlab thanks, I'll check once I receive mine, I just bought it. I downloaded your edid file, thanks for sharing it. You should open a rt4k section for in your website 👍

[@duskomarincic]

@@philscomputerlab I bought it last week and hasn't been shipped yet. I was just curious about it. BTW, you should add a RT4K section in your website 👌

[@GreySectoid]

I've seen reviews of this scaler praising how well it works with consoles, but I always wondered what it could do with PC, well no need to wonder any more, thank you Phil for answering all my questions regarding to this scaler. It seems pretty much perfect for DOS gaming (well apart maybe of the lack of 4k@70 support but maybe the 4:3 hack can circumvent it). Did you try non-uniform 5x/6x integer scaling to retain non-square pixels, or was the better solution to set decimation factor to 2 and adjust the samples per line accordingly? I must admit my VGA knowledge does not quite reach this far yet to understand the difference. Anyway, thank you again for such an in-depth technical review, I'm sure it was exactly what a lot of us needed.

[@philscomputerlab]

You mean integer scale the 640x400 to 1600x1200? Yes that should be possible.

[@GreySectoid]

@@philscomputerlabYes, I was thinking setting the sample rate already does that but "natively" emulating CRT VGA signal instead of just scaling up by different factors, but I am not quite sure if the custom sample rate it retains non-square pixels of the original intended signal. I'd need to play around with the settings to understand how it works. Anyway the image looks crisp to my eyes.

[@xan1242]

16:27 funny you mention this while showing Unreal. One can technically draw the test pattern as a texture and display it on the UI. It's actually not too difficult to do that in Unreal.

[@guspaz]

Dedicated test patterns like that are not actually required. Any image that has some decent high contrast vertical edges should work, and some pure white patches. Opening mspaint isn't even necessary, there's a bunch of pure white on that Windows desktop already, in text and the system tray.

[@BrunodeSouzaLino]

One of the biggest disadvantages of this device apart from pricing is that you're not gonna find it for sale if you live outside of Europe or the US, which leaves you no other option but the usual AliExpress/Amazon scaler which may not be the best, but it is available for purchase anywhere.

[@stuarthughes3314]

What options are there for plebs like me with no money and some retro PC's???? 😞

[@Kopi83r]

What would be the best chepest GPU (AGP) for Pentium 3 866?

[@wasd____]

At $750, it is unfortunately still FAR more economical (and more period-authentic as a fringe benefit anyway) to just buy an old CRT monitor. Even at the stupid prices CRT monitors sell for these days, you could get a pretty good 17" Trinitron, the cream of CRT monitors, and still come out so far ahead that you could use the leftover cash to buy a lot of interesting retro PC parts to experiment and game with, which is probably way more value for your money than blowing it all on one scaler. RetroTINK 4K is undoubtedly a great scaler, but I just can't make any sense of it for the price. Once again, as so often happens in the retro hobby, a few people inexplicably willing to massively overpay for questionable reasons hurts the hobby as a whole. :(

[@JendaLinda]

There are fan made video scalers, sound cards, flash storage solutions and even entire motherboards. However one piece is missing, AFAIK there's no ISA video card with DVI/HDMI ouput. That would be amazing for getting pixel perfect output from really old PCs.

[@guspaz]

With an analog video card that has decent quality output, you can get pretty much the same image quality as DVI/HDMI if you use optimal sampling (that is, dial in the exact samples per line and phase).

[@philscomputerlab]

There are projects, or at least plans, for using feature connector to do exactly this!

[@JendaLinda]

@@guspaz But analog is just too fiddly, there's so many variables. Also high quality ADCs are expensive and the cheaper ones provide barely any settings.

[@JendaLinda]

@@philscomputerlab I thought that would be possible. There are digital video ouput solutions for old game consoles already acvailable. Making a new graphics card from scratch would be possible as well, they put Raspberry Pi inside Amiga to do exactly this.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@JendaLinda Imagine am ISA graphics card with HDMI output!

[@ApolloniosIX]

könnte man die Profile für Standard Grafikkarten nicht hochladen? Voodoo 1/2/3/4/5, TNT 1/2, Matrox, etc?

[@philscomputerlab]

No as there might be variances, you really need to dial this in yourself for best results 🙂

[@aaronsoldier]

How does this perform with resolution switching (I know for older consoles it works like for 240p/480i), but for PC gaming where sometimes a cutscene will be 320X240 but then gameplay will be 1280X1024 (for example, Settlers III), a much more extreme "switch"?

[@philscomputerlab]

You calibrate both resolutions one time and save profile, then it switched automatically.

[@daedalus547]

I kind of like your older setup. In this video the text in DOS especially the letter "M" seems to be brighter than all the rest of the text. (Maybe that's just the video?) Your older setup with the VGA2HDMIPRO already supports hardware scaling (laggy) but if you are just capturing seems to be a better setup, 1 button to center the image, no playing with settings, or profiles.

[@BonkedByAScout]

If you look at the BIOS revision number for that FX5200 when you first boot you can spot 42069 in it

[@retroanderson]

what happens if you use it on an even older PC? like a 5150.

[@philscomputerlab]

VGA? Same as what's shown in the video! EGA you need a convertor to VGA.

[@BladeRunner21577]

Phil How does this compare to some of the professional scalers on the market?

[@philscomputerlab]

No idea.

[@BladeRunner21577]

@@philscomputerlab Youve never tried a scaler before?

[@DataDashy]

We will simply have no choice with these new 4k 8k 16ksoon?!😮 Monitors. Those who have experience with many of these ultrawide dells already know they wont even give out a picture for lover than 800x600. This box will be a MUST to have for retro enthusiasts just like those cf to sd adapters when all ide dies out 🦕

[@jonathanoxlade4252]

Be great I need this if I plan to drop £600 on a 20tb preloaded drive that has all the old pc games old arcade games old games in general and have all console and hand helds consoles upto ps3 ps2 ps 1 xbox 360 xbox originally I can't wait but probably need to spend money on actually trying to upscale these games at there best anyway

[@Nukle0n]

Not a relevant thing for me but any way to hook up a 9-pin RGBI signal? like from a CGA or EGA card?

[@philscomputerlab]

Those are digital signals!

[@Nukle0n]

@@philscomputerlab so is DVI which you cover in this?

[@philscomputerlab]

@@Nukle0n Not compatible unfortunately. Try connecting EGA to HDMI...

[@Nukle0n]

@@philscomputerlabYou could probably do it with some kind of level shifter board for the VGA port.

[@dallesamllhals9161]

3:50 Erh, so a Home Computer cannot be a x86 pc. Pretty sure that C64 and Amiga were/is personal computers?

[@Conradlovesjoy]

Ahcktually….

[@kajurn791]

Would be cool if at some point this became more affordable. Great piece of hardware no doubt.

[@Crazymoai]

Great video! Sadly it convinced me to NOT get a scaller. There is too many manual settings needed per VGA resolution I was expecting something more seamless. Also some DOS programs use slightly off the spec resolutions as they changed the CRTC manually so they would need yet another profile for each.

[@philscomputerlab]

Well what's the alternative? If you have a CRT monitor, that's good. You can use LCD monitors, but 320x200 will look off, because LCD monitors interpret this resolution as text mode. You have zero control over this aspect. The RT4K gives you that control. So what you see as not being seamless, is actually giving you control over something that LCD monitors don't...

[@Crazymoai]

@@philscomputerlab fair point

[@heilong108]

900px/line is the correct sample rate for VGA text mode

[@philscomputerlab]

Thanks I will keep that number in mind when working with more graphis cards!

[@Mystic-Voyager]

Great video as always! As a cheaper alternative, can you do a video with the RetroTink 5X Pro?

[@philscomputerlab]

Is that one suitable for the PC?

[@Mystic-Voyager]

@@philscomputerlab it doesnt have a direct vga port but using the scart port and a vga2scart adapter its possible example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5zOiX2qfNaUsK8

[@blizzzilla]

The 5X is not really suitable for IBM PCs. It does not support 70 Hz input and aside from 640x480 (and maybe 800x600 through component), most PC resolutions aren't accepted. The OSSC Pro would be an interesting alternative in that price range. There's not a lot of information out there about it yet.

[@Mystic-Voyager]

ok I see so the retrotink 4k is the only suitable option … its an amazing device but that price is a bit difficult to swallow

[@antivanti]

Using some ASCII characters meant for graphics would be even better for calibrating text mode. I'd think a full row of "low density dotted" ░ would probably be the best option. ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

[@philscomputerlab]

Great idea! I'll try that with the next project 🙂

[@JoaoSamouco]

What is the highest resolution the vga input can take can you test it?

[@philscomputerlab]

Without trying anything, it was 1920x1080 for me!

[@JoaoSamouco]

@@philscomputerlab Thank you Phil. I was wondering If was possible to use resolutions higher than 1600x1200

[@philscomputerlab]

I'll add it to things for a follow up video in the future at some point!@@JoaoSamouco

[@JoaoSamouco]

@@philscomputerlab That would be great! Thank you Phil

[@redavatar]

I expected the CRT filter to be a bit more realistic - the pixels still look way too sharp compared to a real CRT of the early to mid 90's. I've seen much "better" screenshots of the RetroTink with CRT filters that look closer to a real CRT so I wonder if it's just a case of using a different filter?

[@philscomputerlab]

There are many different masks, you can even create your own!

[@guspaz]

It all comes down to the configuration. For a realistic CRT look, you're going to want generic sampling with one of the softer horizontal interpolation settings (important for the shape of the beam transitions), exponential or gaussian scanlines, with the modulation setting used to change beam width depending on pixel brightness, with a mask overlay applied as well. You may also want to add some red bleed and red/blue misconvergence, because real CRTs were not perfect and a very slight amount of imperfection goes a long way to making it look more real. On an OLED display, enabling HDR also helps make the beams pop more like they did on a real CRT (and compensate for the brightness loss). You may also want to apply some colour space conversion to simulate the CRT colour profiles. In other words, just slapping on a mask overlay and basic scanlines is not enough to get that CRT look, and when you see those hyper-realistic CRT screenshots of the RT4K, that's from people going the whole nine yards. As a starting point, there are a bunch of CRT profiles included (in the "_CRT Emulation" profile folder) designed to simulate various models or styles of CRT monitor. People often ask how they can combine console (or PC/resolution) specific profiles with CRT profiles, but there's a lack of understanding there: CRTs are the ultimate generic samplers, and you didn't recalibrate your TV when you switched from your Super Nintendo to your Sega Genesis. CRT profiles use generic sampling and so the idea of "console-specific" profiles doesn't make sense there.

[@philscomputerlab]

I'm reading the comments and making notes for a follow up video, and for sure I will improve on CRT look for that one!

[@redavatar]

@@philscomputerlab I think it would make a great video on its own since I think many people want an alternative to CRTs that have become hard to find in good condition.

[@XennialGeek]

Great video, too bad this device is so ridiculously expensive. Every major Retro KZbinr got it for free so hardly anybody talks about it. For the price you can get several TVs, Monitors, including PVMs plus cheaper Scalers like the OSSC. The price is hard to justify if you don't have loads of disposable income.

[@jcfb1470]

Honestly this is great for those who don't have the space for crt monitors, can't find one or simply want to use an LCD, but for those who have the space and have access to a bunch of cheap crt monitors this is simply not worth it IMO. I could never justify paying 750$ for something like this when i can buy a 19" crt for 15€ on OLX.

[@wiwingmargahayu6831]

wow

[@ccalhoun3908]

750$ is bit more than what I would want to pay, it's still a awesome device though.

[@nikolaievans2432]

Yeah it has better quality than those rca to hdmi adapters

[@gklinger]

It's a great bit of kit but you need a Ph.D to use it.

[@MiguelCorreiaDaCunha]

Try using an OSSC first, this is going to look foolproof.

[@guspaz]

Easy to learn but difficult to master: you can get far using just basic/generic settings and pre-made profiles, but if you want to tweak and customize, you've got tons of dials and knobs.

[@emem666]

As I don't play modern games I have no reason to spend too much money on my main machine. I'm fine with 125$ refurbished Ryzen laptop. Back to retro computing it is freaking 750$ and it's just a tool, addon. I understand how good it is but price is absolutely ridiculous.

[@jrclad2964]

Pity it lacks DisplayPort !

[@damian9303]

I can only recommend these for early 3D games bottlenecked to 640x480, but even then I am having doubts if it’ll play nicely with the 256 colors

[@quajay187]

its a great device... but still WAY too expensive. 600 at the most is what i would pay

[@canaldrive_r]

750 dólares? Hum.. O dólar a R$ 4,97 vai dar R$ 3.728,47 + R$ 3.430,20 de impostos de importação + uns R$ 120,00 de frete = R$ 7.278,67... acho que vendendo meu carro vai dar pra comprar. :) Agora me diz como é que eu posso gostar desse meu país chamado Brasil?

[@MiguelCorreiaDaCunha]

Se não fez o L tem todo o direito de reclamar. Retrotink 4K só trazendo de viagem, infelizmente.

[@kajurn791]

É proibido ser feliz nesse país infelizmente.

[@TrevorM1992]

These things would be great if they weren't so overpriced.

[@kunka592]

That implies the hardware inside is cheap and the guy is making bank on each one. No, I don't think so. The FPGA inside is expensive and the production volume isn't quite high enough to have economies of scale like something a large company would release. Also, this is so specialized, who else is going to put in the R&D to make it in the first place? He needs to be paid for his time.

[@philscomputerlab]

Just buy a cheap scaler, there are plenty. But then you don't get features and quality...

[@spitalul2bad]

$750 and it doesn't have HDMI 2.1? Nothing over 4K60?! not worth it.

[@nooboard]

Thats a lot of configuration for a 300$+ Hardware to be done before it even does a good job. ^^ I stay with my CRTs. Even a 17" no name 50$ CRT looks better than any simple crt effect on a flat screen. Flat screens cant do that job. It's that easy. Maybe with 8k and oled and some heavy post processing. But not such a simple device on any current available flatscreen which hasn't a price point above a good CRT. And it also looks ugly to show a 4:3 on a 16:9. It's so wrong. 😀

[@philscomputerlab]

Not so much "to be done" but "able to do". This is why the price is so high... Yes agreed CRTs don't need any of this 🙂

[@worldgate989]

Meh, gonna be unpopular to say but you can't trust a review from someone who got a 750 dollar piece of hardware for free over someone who paid for it themselves. But also, never trust just 1 person's review.

[@emmettturner9452]

I don’t think that’s why Mike sent it to him. Mike sent it to him for feedback to improve retro PC support. It’s a collaborative community effort. It’s not like there is really an alternative (yet) anyway.

[@kunka592]

@@emmettturner9452 Micomsoft XPC-4, and the OSSC can somewhat do what this can, but not nearly as well (I have both).

[@emmettturner9452]

@@kunka592 I don’t think you are familiar with what distinguishes the RetroTink 4K from the RetroTink 5X and everything that came before it. The upcoming PixelFX Morph is the only thing that might compare when you have all the right modules.

[@worldgate989]

It's not like I got any animosity towards the creator here, i just find it amusing that their sold out everywhere except for the free ones people keep getting and giving glowing reviews for. Now either, this thing is magical and does it all and gives you a bag of chips, or their just reading the notes sent along and making sure to hit all the points. At least, to give him credit, he did admit he got it for free from another person, and didn't make like he picked it up on a whim for shits and giggles.@@emmettturner9452

[@philscomputerlab]

What discrepancies have you seen between my review and feedback from those that have purchased one?

[@fernandobernardo6324]

Geforce FX 5200 was the worst card ever produced by NVIDIA.

[@philscomputerlab]

Comeback as retro card! Also it has amazing AF that later card couldn't reach for ages.

[@slpkenney]

I hate being the one to say this. Getting this for nothing and it being extremely expensive and always out of stock is disappointing. Oh well I’m not a KZbinr.

[@philscomputerlab]

"For nothing" is shortsighted. I've been doing a weekly video for over 5 years now. Hard work 💪

[@alessandrosurdo2870]

TVS AV ou HDMI ruim porblemo jogos coisas LED HDR UHD LCD SDR feios pior Composite FAIL Ruin só fraco difícil feios viu não gosto 👎 (cego on) TVS RGB PASS Off AV bem verdade rápido ganhar Jogos AV Luz limpar ótimo limpar RGB CRT até gosto bonitos muito Super Nintendo AV 240p👌CRT👌 limpar só Off ganhar 4.3 é 16.9 deixar 👌😘👍 $750 pior roubar Retro Tink 4k🤦‍♂️😡 R$3.500.00 🙎‍♂️🤦‍♂️😡 AV2HDMI bem Ruin composite pior ON cego pablema R$45.00 até Retro Scaler 2x On limpar bem 😂 AV ou HDMI R$100.00 😂Scaler 2x😂