Mr. Video RGB-to-NTSC Converter

[danman123456]

Great news just let me know where and what to pay   thanks!

As Sock said, I'm putting these together as fast as possible. So far I've got five completed. Test equipment is due to arrive on Saturday and then I can start mailing them out. I appreciate everyone's interest and patience. 2019 will finally be the year of Linux on the desktop direct capture.

[Sock Master]

Now that I have a few Mr. Video boards put together and tested I figured I'd post a sample of captured frames.

Both were captured using the same generic GV-USB2 capture device.
On the left is a captured frame using a composite video connection.  On the right is a frame captured using an svideo connection.

Composite looks a bit better in motion than this single frame but it's not as sharp as using an svideo connection.  Both Mr. Video and the GV-USB2 device support svideo, just have to use an svideo cable to get the sharper image quality.

[ChrisP]

I'd actually be interested in this not just for capture, but simply as a way to easily output to a standard VGA monitor (with the RCA or S-Video cable going into a VGA adapter like this).

IMO, you might actually end up selling more of these to Nintendo cab owners for THAT purpose rather than for capturing. The ability to connect a Nintendo PCB to any CRT or LCD computer monitor that has VGA-in is an item on a lot of arcade folks' want lists. It's just a helluva lot easier than dealing with the Sanyo 20EZ. In fact, you might want to consider a future edition of this card that skips the RCA/S-Video out entirely and just have a direct VGA or HDMI out instead (though obviously outputting digital video via HDMI would be a whole ball of wax).

Also very excited to not have to use the awful, awful buzzy sound amp on the Sanyo 20EZ. It's almost worth it for that alone.

I'll try doing more tests when I can, and maybe it does work fine with other video capture devices, but for now it seems maybe it won't work with Popeye.

nooooooo.....

[danman123456]

Absolutely but the audio would be an issue wouldnt it? Still im seriously just considering this vs trying to recap my monitor and all that. HDMI has to be licensed IIRC but yeah Svideo to VGA is something im strongly considering as well vs trying to use the GBS-82xx or my RGB to NTSC.

 

I'd actually be interested in this not just for capture, but simply as a way to easily output to a standard VGA monitor (with the RCA or S-Video cable going into a VGA adapter like this).

IMO, you might actually end up selling more of these to Nintendo cab owners for THAT purpose rather than for capturing. The ability to connect a Nintendo PCB to any CRT or LCD computer monitor that has VGA-in is an item on a lot of arcade folks' want lists. It's just a helluva lot easier than dealing with the Sanyo 20EZ. In fact, you might want to consider a future edition of this card that skips the RCA/S-Video out entirely and just have a direct VGA or HDMI out instead (though obviously outputting digital video via HDMI would be a whole ball of wax).

Also very excited to not have to use the awful, awful buzzy sound amp on the Sanyo 20EZ. It's almost worth it for that alone.

I'll try doing more tests when I can, and maybe it does work fine with other video capture devices, but for now it seems maybe it won't work with Popeye.

nooooooo.....

[mameshane]

im interested in getting one of these also. whats a good capture card to use with it?

[Lyriell]

That S-video looks sexy.

[Flobeamer1922]

im interested in getting one of these also. whats a good capture card to use with it?

A popular capture card among retro speedrunners is the GV-USB2, which can capture both composite and s-video output.

[mameshane]

thanks flo that looks perfect. can use that for consoles too

[bh]

Hey, just wanted to update everyone. I spent about two weeks laid up with a horrible flu, which put a cramp in things. The parts I was waiting on finally came in from China. Thanks for your patience, we're building the cards as fast as we can.

[bh]

It's been a while and I know folks are excited to get their hands on a card. Where are we at? If you've messaged me, you're in the list and will get a board as they become available. I got a DK board yesterday (thanks, JC), but I'm waiting on a power supply. I just burned my face on molten metal and plan on taking a few days off from tinkering.

[Majesticone]

Thanks for keeping us informed. I ordered all my cables and capture card so I'm ready when I get the message my card is ready!

[JAM]

Looking forward to getting my hands on a couple of them.  Thanks for doing all of the work on this.  It's funny how everyone on Twitch always thinks direct capture is MAME.

[jimbodeanny]

Any plans to make something like this that would work with Nintendo VS boards? Would love to have something like this for my Red Tent!

[YesAffinity]

Got my Mr. Video on Thursday.  Immediately pulled my cab off the wall, ripped out the bundle of wires and boards that was my previous direct feed solution, and plugged on the Mr. Video with much greater elegance.  Initial tests were unsuccessful with with a Magewell Pro HDMI internal capture card and a crappy $20 USB capture card from the local electronics store (probably 5 years old at this point).  On the magewell, the image shakes up/down significantly.  On the crappy usb device, there is significant snow and interference in the image.

This is nothing to be faulted toward the Mr. Video.  We all (those of interested in such things) should know by now that the Nintendo game board frequency and sync is a bit messy.  Great when confined to the analog world, but gets a bit dicey when transitioning that signal to a digital world.  It was always hit or miss with my jrok-based direct feed setup, having tested across many different capture devices and other intermediate scalers/mutlipliers (like the OSSC, which simply would not properly handle the signal - via jrok transcoding nor direct RGB).

So, I ordered the GV-USB2 which others have confirmed to work.  And, great success:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/423420784

Never mind the mediocre gameplay...I'm rusty.  But now I've got a new toy in the mix and new incentive to rededicate some time.

One question which I'm wondering if others have had any luck solving: The GV-USB2 handles the incoming signal as 480i.  As such, it then deinterlaces the signal which of course results in undesirable combing (compared to what could be a very clean native progressive signal).  Has anyone had any luck forcing the GV-USB2 to treat the Mr. Video output as a true progressive signal?

[Sock Master]

One question which I'm wondering if others have had any luck solving: The GV-USB2 handles the incoming signal as 480i.  As such, it then deinterlaces the signal which of course results in undesirable combing (compared to what could be a very clean native progressive signal).  Has anyone had any luck forcing the GV-USB2 to treat the Mr. Video output as a true progressive signal?

Yes - and it took me a while to figure it out because it's really not intuitive..  If you right click on GV-USB2 in OBS's list of sources then set 'deinterlacing' to 'Yadif 2x', it will process the incoming video into 60fps progressive.  The default 'disabled' setting counter-intuitively results in 30fps deinterlaced video full of combing artifacts.