FORT90 forum

Matt you asked me to post about it over here, so here we go...

I had my Saturn, DC and PS2 hooked up to my HD TV (early Toshiba Regza) for about 2-3 years. Dreamcast was using D-sub in (from VGA box) and image for the games that supported it was crystal clear.

I had constant problems with Saturn and PS2, colors were washed out, edges blurred, even with PS2 component video out and Saturn S-Video cable games weren't looking anywhere close to pretty / watchable / playable.

Old stuff looks good on CRT, but I knew that there were hardware up-scalers available on the market. Unfortuneatly from what I gathered on the internet good models did not come cheap and top of the line ones were released only in japan with Japanese menus and their prices were astronomical. I didn't cared that much for my Saturn and PS2.

Week ago I got new receiver for my home theater (Pioneer VSX-9040THX (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Shop/Home/AV-Receivers/Models/VSX-9040TXH)) with hardware SD to HD signal up-scaler built in. When I hooked up my old consoles to it and played with the video converter setting a bit I could not believe how great Saturn games started to look. Here are few pictures (http://img42.imageshack.us/g/img1372resizes.jpg/) I took while playing around with Saturn, keep in mind that they were taken in a dark room with no flash, and there is a bit of blur and a lot of color wash, but you can clearly see how crisp the pixels look. Especially when you're seated on the couch few feet away from the TV screen.

The biggest problem of course is a price. I got my model at J&R and their price was one of the lowest I've found when I did my research (at least 200$ less from what Pioneer website lists). Second problem is the model itself. It was produced for the Canadian market, US equivalent (VSX-21THX (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/HomeEntertainment/AV-Receivers/EliteReceivers/ci.VSX-21TXH.Kuro)) is much more expensive, because it's part of the “Elite Line”, apparently build with the better components has different color of the display, nicer faceplate, longer warranty but all the tech specs are exactly the same. But to be honest, the price is still lower from what people were charging on ebay for those Japanese upscallers a year or so ago.

From what I learned similarly priced VSX-1019AH (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Shop/Home/AV-Receivers/Models/ci.VSX-1019AH-K.Shop) is not really worth getting, because it doesn't have the same brand of HQ ST to HDTV video up-scaler that VSX-9040TXH and VSX-21THX are equipped with.

On top of that I want to add that having one piece of equipment with so many inputs both video (of which all can be up-scaled) and audio is really neat, especially when you have a lot of old consoles laying around.

Wow, those shots look pretty good.  Is there a noticeable input lag when using the scaler?

From what I've seen on Radiant Silvergun and Guardian Heroes there was none. I've played a bit of Shadow of The Colossus too and had no lag problems either, but graphics in that game aged a bit.

A good scaler will reduce lag because your HDTV has to scale the image anyways, and will probably do so much slower than a dedicated scaler. If you want a good one, look into the XRGB line. There's the XRGB, XRGB2 and XRGB2+. They're in the $200 price range, but shmup enthusiasts swear by them.

Those are nice photos though, looks like you're all set for low-res games on your HDTV!

This will be what finally gets me to get a HD set. Once I have the money... But will those upscalers you mention Dave, will they continue to hit the market and go down in the price, or will the need for them slowly vanish as the general public continues to care less about low-res content? Perhaps a silly question.

They are already off the market. You have to know where to buy them and they don't come cheap.

For those who need more technical info - VSX-9040 uses Anchor Bay (http://www.anchorbaytech.com/) VSR scaling technology (http://www.anchorbaytech.com/vrs_technology/). You can set video output from the scaler to the following settings: 480p/576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p. In addition you can control: aspect ratio, noise reduction, edge sharpness, detail sharpness, brightness, contrast, hue (red/green balance) and chroma level (saturation from dull to bright).

Here is a little bit more info on XRGB scalers (http://www.gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:micomsoft_s_x-rgb_series). I think the coolest thing about them is their ability to display artificial scanlines. Seems like XRGB3 is for sale on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/XRGB-3-Upscan-Converter-Unit-JPN-Video-Scaler-Micomsoft_W0QQitemZ300341665757QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item45edc21fdd) for $479 (with free shipping!).

Great. It would seem that I've missed the boat and am going to be sticking to SD for a very long time now!

MInor update:

I've ran some Lag tests tests as suggested on Shoryuken (http://www.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=174085) boards.

On my TV with Game mode on lag seems to be around 4MS, without game mode jumps to around 10-12. Not bad - less than a frame (17 MS).

All the testing was done with video ran through receiver.

Nice, you cannot complain about 4ms.