Converter Question

[Atari6600]

Can someone recommend me a low priced AV to HDMI converter?  This is a new thing to me so I don't know what I'm supposed to buy or how it works and such.

If you could link me to a low priced one via Amazon or Ebay (please Buy It Now only if you find one on Ebay) and tell me how the converter works, I would very much appreciate it.  I'd like to get the cables for my Genesis hooked up as soon as possible.

[Addicted]

The cheapest converter you can buy that's worth anything is the Retrotink 2x:

https://castlemaniagames....-estimated-to-ship-083118

[Atari6600]

The cheapest converter you can buy that's worth anything is the Retrotink 2x:

https://castlemaniagames....-estimated-to-ship-083118

I meant like under 30 price-wise.  I found stuff like that on Amazon itself, but I don't know which of the under 30 ones to buy.   T_T

[Ikariniku]

Try the Old Skool branded AV to HDMI boxes for a sub-$30 solution.  It won't upscale your old consoles to sharp-pixel magnificence, but they will play better than hooking up via the AV ports on the TV.  Do not buy the unbranded knock offs you can can find for cheaper.  Their quality is much worse.  All white AV to HDMI boxes are not created equal.

[MetalFRO]

Atari6600 - if you're looking for sub-$30, this is one option I found:
https://www.amazon.com/Co...pscaler+composite+to+hdmi

But keep in mind, most ultra-cheap upscalers are just that - ultra-cheap. Most of them do a terrible job of trying to upscale the video. There's this option right at $30+
https://www.amazon.com/Te...pscaler+composite+to+hdmi

But most of these devices will stretch the image from its original 4:3 aspect ration to the standard 16:9 present in new TVs. The difference with the RetroTink is that it's not an upscaler - it's a line doubler, or more correctly, a line multiplier. It takes in the original image and simply duplicates the pixels on the screen by a factor of however many it needs to, in order to reach a 720p signal or 1080p signal. This introduces no lag, and also means the picture is cleaner, generally speaking. I'm thinking very seriously about one of these for my streaming setup, especially since it will do composite, S-video, and component.

[Atari6600]

I dunno a thing about upscaling, to be entirely honest.  For the most part, I just want to get rid of that graphical issue I mentioned in my Sega Genesis thread.  As long as I can remove the snow and keep the colors from switching between black and white and then back to color every couple seconds, I should be fine to use one of the cheaper models, even.\

My other question is, do I plug the AV into one end of the converter and then the HDMI cable into the other end?  I've seen different types of converters, most of which look the same on the surface but when you check the indepth photos you find that they different cable hook ups and I could swear I saw one without a port of the HDMI unless I was looking at it from the wrong angles x.x

[Atari6600]

Atari6600 - if you're looking for sub-$30, this is one option I found:
https://www.amazon.com/Co...pscaler+composite+to+hdmi

But keep in mind, most ultra-cheap upscalers are just that - ultra-cheap. Most of them do a terrible job of trying to upscale the video. There's this option right at $30+
https://www.amazon.com/Te...pscaler+composite+to+hdmi

But most of these devices will stretch the image from its original 4:3 aspect ration to the standard 16:9 present in new TVs. The difference with the RetroTink is that it's not an upscaler - it's a line doubler, or more correctly, a line multiplier. It takes in the original image and simply duplicates the pixels on the screen by a factor of however many it needs to, in order to reach a 720p signal or 1080p signal. This introduces no lag, and also means the picture is cleaner, generally speaking. I'm thinking very seriously about one of these for my streaming setup, especially since it will do composite, S-video, and component.

Oh also, can you show an image of what a stretched screen would look like?  I just want to make sure doing so, don't actually have things disappear from the screen like say parts of the word "Rings" when playing a Sonic game.

[MetalFRO]

Here's a quick comparison:
[img width=600 height=198]https://www.soundandvision.com/images/styles/600_wide/public/110406-Stretch.jpg[/img]

The 4:3 aspect ratio is like that of a traditional CRT, which was the norm during the Genesis/SNES life cycle. Now that HDTVs are all widescreen, they use a 16:9 aspect ratio, more like a movie theater screen, so a lot of cheaper upscaling devices will stretch a 4:3 image to 16:9, making everything look wider and somewhat "squished" vertically, as you can see above. If you care about how things look, and want diagonal movement to register as a 45 degree angle, the way it should, rather than the more skewed angles you get when you have a stretched image, then you want something that isn't going to stretch the image. If you're playing a game where that doesn't matter, and you don't care about how the image looks, then it may be okay.

[Atari6600]

Here's a quick comparison:
[img width=600 height=198]https://www.soundandvision.com/images/styles/600_wide/public/110406-Stretch.jpg[/img]

The 4:3 aspect ratio is like that of a traditional CRT, which was the norm during the Genesis/SNES life cycle. Now that HDTVs are all widescreen, they use a 16:9 aspect ratio, more like a movie theater screen, so a lot of cheaper upscaling devices will stretch a 4:3 image to 16:9, making everything look wider and somewhat "squished" vertically, as you can see above. If you care about how things look, and want diagonal movement to register as a 45 degree angle, the way it should, rather than the more skewed angles you get when you have a stretched image, then you want something that isn't going to stretch the image. If you're playing a game where that doesn't matter, and you don't care about how the image looks, then it may be okay.

Well I did end up buying the 12.99 converter.  I'm not using my Switch's dock for TV play (just to hold the system when I'm not using it) so I'm hoping the HDMI cable it came with will work fine.

The stretching doesn't look to bad.  My Genesis library consists of Altered Beast, Ristar, Ecco The Dolphin, Gunstar Heroes, Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Spinball and I THINK that's all I have.  I don't think any of those games can be hindered by skewed angles.

I'll probably know more once the converter comes in though.  Gonna do a play test to make sure that fixes the graphical issues.

[blcklblskt]

I'd seriously consider looking into the RetroTINK 2X addicted posted.  Older consoles tend to look really bad on modern TVs, especially at larger screen sizes.  Line doublers like the RetroTINK help immensely at getting older consoles (especially consoles that output in 240P like the Genesis) to actually look good on a modern TV. The cheaper converters are usually low-end and don't work well at all. The mid-range $30+ models generally don't upscale or line double, which means you're running a signal meant for a 20in CRT on an HD screen meant for many times the amount of pixels, so you're kinda left with a big pile of goop.

Yes, upscalers are expensive, but they do work well.