CRT Emudriver in AMD APU? (sorry if has been asked before)

[mghty]

Awesome!, ..can now confirm i've also had success with the laptop i was struggling with...

(DELL INSPIRON M5110 (Laptop), WINDOWS 10, 1.90GHz AMD A4-3300, 8GB RAM - DUAL CORE CPU & DUAL GRAPHICS RADEON HD 6480G & RADEON HD 7400M)
- CRT Emudriver & CRT Tools 2.0 beta 15 (Catalyst 12.6) for Windows 7/8/10 64-bits
CRT TV: Panasonic TX-G10
Connection: RetroCables (Spain) VGA-to-RGB(Scart) Cable

For success with this one i needed the laptop to have 'dual graphics' enabled (which seemed odd to me at first because i thought dual graphics would cause problems with CRT Emudriver & VMMaker).
During the 'installing the driver' part, CRT Emudriver installed perfectly only when i selected RADEON HD 7400M, but from that point onwards it was just the RADEON HD 6480G that was targeted/effective.
I prob didn't explain that very well, but long story short, for me it was a case of targeting the 7400M first, and then only targeting the 6480G.
The other struggle i had was with VMMaker.... specifically the part when you install the modes... i would get lines of 'Rejected by Driver' no matter what i tried. It sucked because i knew i was so close to success.
I finally tried changing the output of my laptop to second screen only ...and success!
Thankyou Calamity and also Buttersoft & Substring for your help guys 

....and can also comment that the VGA-to-Scart cable from RetroCables-Spain is excellent, and hopefully will continue to be!

[buttersoft]

Thank you guys for reporting back This is great info, and will definitely help others going forward.

[mghty]

This thread is becoming a really handy place for new users of CRT Emudriver & VMMaker to view past user experiences and problem-solving, etc,  but is there any way we can change the title of this thread? ..to reflect what it has become, and hopefully what it will continue to be.
..Am thinking a title of something like: CRT Emudriver and VMMaker New User Experiences & Problem Solving

No worries if anyone feels it's wrong of me to ask, and not worth doing, ..but seems like it could be a worthwhile/helpful change

[K-rnivoro]

Nice to see my post was filled with very useful information!! 

[mghty]

Finished the cab! ...So thanks again guys for all your help
See pics below, and sorry the quality of pics is pretty crappy...

My aim with the cab was for it to be true to a real arcade cab, ..as in the type of cab you'd see back in the day at a funfair or whatever, so it's CRT of course, tinted glass front, tatty exterior, strong, tilted screen for better viewing angle, and so on.
Thinking of putting cigarette burns on the control panel (just kidding)... Total cost for everything was around £165

[leerjamie]

Hi folks, sorry for the necro, I registered just to post in this thread because I am having issues. I have a nice Toshiba 14af43 CRT TV that I am trying to get a signal from an old laptop running windows 10 into (VGA -> Component YPbPr). My laptop has an AMD A10-4600M with HD7660G graphics. According to the downloads for crt_emudriver, it's supposed to be compatible with the Calamity 16.2 driver, but I had no luck at first with it so I switched to the 12.6 driver as per recommended in this thread. I have the VGA out from my laptop going into a Key Digital VTCA3 transcoder, and then component cables connected from the transcoder box to the TV. I know the component port actually works on the TV as I have ran a Wii with component into it. EDIT: I thought I had the 12.6 driver installed, but it was actually the 16.2 driver. If I try the 12.6 driver, VMMaker does not recognize crt_emulator, it only recognizes it when I have the 16.2 driver installed.

I have successfully installed emudriver, it is recognized in VMMaker, I have EDID emulation enabled on the analog output. I have tried both ARCADE_15 and GENERIC_15, but the best I can get from any sort of picture on the TV is a brief flicker or flash when I am trying to detect displays, and scrolling pink lines when I switch the modes to 640x480 60hz. Windows does detect a second display when I go to display settings and that it is using the crt_emudriver. Despite VMMaker saying the modelist was installed, there is simply no 240p option in display properties, the lowest that I can do is 640x480 60hz (which causes the pink scrolling lines). I can manually change the resolution to the second monitor (the CRT) to 320x240 in windows display settings, but it still doesn't give me a signal to the TV, I figured I would at least be able to get the desktop mirrored to it but it won't show me anything. I have also tried installing super resolution modes but still the same issue persists. I have tried enabling composite sync as well.

I am at a bit of a loss of what to do, and perhaps wondering if the component transcoder is bunk, or if this APU is simply not supported. I am going to keep trying to debug and solve the issue, but wanted to post here in the meantime in case anyone had any insight into the issue.

[mghty]

Hi leerjamie, i might be misunderstanding or wrong but it says here ( https://imgur.com/a/YIvpI ) that your Toshiba14af43 component input is limited to 480i

[leerjamie]

oh no, I didn't realize! does this mean I will not be able to get the proper signal running from emudriver into the TV? wouldn't I still be able to output to 480i from the pc vga out > transcoder > component input?

[mghty]

oh no, I didn't realize! does this mean I will not be able to get the proper signal running from emudriver into the TV? wouldn't I still be able to output to 480i from the pc vga out > transcoder > component input?

tbh i'm not sure what could/should be your next step, ..but one simple solution would be to instead just buy & use one of these from retrocables spain: http://retrocables.es/tienda/index.php?id_product=55&controller=product&id_lang=4
 .....i've bought two of their 'vga to scart' cables and they work great, are simple & uncomplicated, and retrocables.es are a trusted company/safe to buy from.

But do be aware it takes at least a month for the cable to arrive after you purchase (or at least that's my experience, ..me being in the UK)

[leerjamie]

my issue is that neither TV with component that I have has a scart input, and I have already dropped money on this rgb transcoder. Even if it says it's only 480i, doesn't that mean it should be able to do 240p as well?

[mghty]

my issue is that neither TV with component that I have has a scart input, and I have already dropped money on this rgb transcoder. Even if it says it's only 480i, doesn't that mean it should be able to do 240p as well?

i checked the Toshiba14AF43 manual online to see if i could find the answer but it's still a bit unclear
( https://www.manualslib.com/manual/172109/Toshiba-20af43.html?page=9#manual )
..but from everything i've looked at i would suspect that your component input is interlaced only unfortunately.

Also, are you in the UK? ..because if so, i could simply give you a different tv (for free). They come up on Gumtree Freebies all the time in my area, plus i have a couple of spare CRT tv's at my house right now. (i'm in Bristol/Bath area). They are only scart though, not component,  but you could sell the transcoder and get a scart cable instead

[leerjamie]

Wow, certainly appreciate the offer but unfortunately I am west coast US. But that is extremely kind of you

the thing is, I can't even seem to get a 480i signal into the TV, the most I can get is scrolling static still. So this leaves me to believe I have either done something wrong in the process (which is likely though I have gone through and tried it over fresh several times now), or there is something wrong in the hardware end of the setup. Perhaps the APU doesn't work, perhaps the transcoder is bunk, maybe I need to find another component cable to test with. Too many variables and they all cost money!

[mghty]

really wish i could help, but like you say there are so many factors in this, it's hard to pinpoint the issue...

All i can really do at this stage is to say what i personally would do next, and unfortunately it would be to get a tv with rgb scart input, and also get the previously mentioned scart cable, because that's what worked for me.
 Wish i could offer better help but it's a tricky one

[Osirus23]

I setup a GroovyMAME cab with Windows 10 and a HD4550 (meaning mame64.exe has to run as Admin), as well as flashing the card with ATOM-15. There are only two instances when the screen is still out of sync using this setup:

1) During the Windows loading screen, the one with the Windows logo and the spinning white dots on startup. (This is NOT a UEFI system). The POST screen before it is fine.

2) Upon exiting MAME back to the desktop, the screen rolls out of sync for about 3-4 seconds before being stable again.

Is this behavior normal?

[mghty]

Is this behavior normal?

i hope so, because it happens to me aswell   

i've never seen it as a problem tbh
....as long as i can choose games from the list, play the games, and then go back to the list and select another game, then i'm happy.
Whatever's happening outside of that, doesn't bother me

(If it was more than 3 or 4 seconds, it would bother me though)

[Osirus23]

Well if it's normal I'm not really bothered by it. I doubt a few seconds of non-15kHz input here and there is going to damage anything. I just want to make sure I don't still have something configured wrong.

[mghty]

oh rats i hadn't considered damage may be gradually being done during those out-of-sync moments!

i can report that my older mame arcade cabinet (pc/crt), which i've used regularly for more than ten years, always is out of sync/rolling/messed-up for at least 10 seconds every time i switch it on, and despite this, the screen (a BPL brand crt tv) is still absolutely fine

[Osirus23]

Are you also running mame.exe as an Admin with a Legacy card (HD4000 and before)? I have another PC setup with Windows 7 and an HD6450 and I don't get any sync issues when exiting out of MAME back to the desktop like I do with the PC mentioned earlier.

[mghty]

Are you also running mame.exe as an Admin with a Legacy card (HD4000 and before)? I have another PC setup with Windows 7 and an HD6450 and I don't get any sync issues when exiting out of MAME back to the desktop like I do with the PC mentioned earlier.

hi again, sorry for delay in response,
i checked out my set-up and actually it seems any out-of-sync i'm having is minimal on the laptop/tv i'm using.
The laptop has dual graphics (RADEON HD 6480G & RADEON HD 7400M) and i was mistaken, in that it doesn't go out of sync when exiting mame back to the desktop, ..or if it does it only does for about 1 second.

Your issue of 3 to 4 seconds does sound not normal, ....and honestly i'm starting to think windows 10 is the problem, because the amount of weird issues windows 10 has caused me while using it for a simple mame laptop is an ongoing nightmare.
i've found it to be so intrusive, over-protective and unpredictable, and every now and then it gets bored and makes a change to something i don't want to change.  .....it's like a bad relationship! 

i'm prob gonna switch to win7 and start the whole damn thing again 

[leerjamie]

Just wanted to comeback to this thread and say that I believe the issue was the laptop I was trying to use. I'm not sure if any of the driver packages worked with that particular APU (A10-4600m with 7660G graphics). I managed to throw together a new rig with parts I had lying around and found an HD5450 for cheap and got everything going with virtually no issue, outside of the image being ever so slightly cropped horizontally on both sides which i am trying to fix. Just wanted to add that here incase anyone comes googling for the same issue.

[WindMaster]

Hello guys, sorry to bring this thread back to life, but I'm having a very annoying issue.

I installed CRT Emudriver lot of times before without issue, and also made CRT Swithcres for Retroarch work on Linux lot of times also.

I received for free today a Lenovo Thinkcentre with an AMD A8-5500 APU, that is a improvement over my last PC (AMD E-350). I have a VGA to component transcoder that works like a charm.

The issue I'm having with this computer is that interlaced resolutions do not work, the screen is completelly black with some garbage, the lower resolution to work is 320x200, and also the resolution switching is failing, both on Windows with CRT Emudriver and Linux.

Do you have any possible fix for this?