CRT_Emudriver 2.0 or 1.3 and ATI HD4890 TVOUT.

[Soulchip]

Hello, I have an arcade that I have been upgrading for 15 years... I live in Argentina and components are really hard to come by here.

I recently bought a Sony Triniton 29" TV and installed it on my Arcade, the upgrade is awesome and now my arcade looks incredibly good. The TV accepts COMPONENT 480i and 576i. This way my arcade has a very vivid and very nice image without color bleeding and artifacts.

Now I want to have real arcade resolutions on my TV so I decided to buy an ATI HD4890 (I previosly had an nvidia 9600 GT on the arcade) and install the last crt emudriver on my arcade. 2.0.

After trying a million times, CRT emudriver works with my card...but it does not modify my TVOUT display...it modifies my second DVI display port... After reading a lot it seems that TVOUT cannot be modified and it is always fixed at 480i, I do not believe this is 100% true since my new ati card accepts 640x480, 720x480, 720x576 and you can easily see that it is not scaling all that up on 480i..

I would make to talk with calamity, i cannot register into his forum page, is it true? TVOUT cannot be configured with resolutions? can this be done? Please tell me there is a way... it is imposible to buy a VGA to component converter here in argentina... believe me...i tried, search everywhere and nnobody has this... I wish there is a way to do this using TVOUT option ...

Is there a way to output ypbrb from DVI-A outputs without using a converter? (maybe some software)

there has to be a way to modify the TV OUT port instead of the DVI port... I cannot even buy a converter on another country and bring it here because it will not pass customs here... I hate this country...

[R-Typer]

You need a TV with a SCART input.

[Soulchip]

I live in argentina, Scart does not exist here.

[jan25th]

You need a vga / component video transcoder and a probably a dvi-vga dongle for your video card if it doesn't already have an analog vga port. A transcoder is available by contacting Johnny at contato@jasnet.com.br His webpage is http://www.jasnet.com.br/products/vgaconverter/vgaconvv1_eng_v1.html

Good luck.

[Soulchip]

I already know this, and like I said before, this is imposible to buy in argentina, it is not available and it will not surpase customs here.

[Soulchip]

Can anybody recommend a VGA to COMPONENT that does not scale resolution and has no lag?

One that sells anyplace in the world.

I have contacted this guy from JASnet but it does not seem to be good quality and if i'm going to spend so much money i prefer buying something that is high quality

[Paradroid]

Can anybody recommend a VGA to COMPONENT that does not scale resolution and has no lag?

I have a Kramer FC-14 sitting on my shelf doing nothing. I'd be willing to sell it to you for the price I paid if you're interested. They're pretty hard to find these days (I watched eBay for around 12 months before seeing this one) but many people say they're the reference standard for RGB to YUV conversion.

I tried one of the cheaper SCART to YUV converters from eBay and really didn't like the results (compared with pure RGB). I imagine the image can be improved dramatically through calibration (mine has six trimpots inside) but I have no idea how that's done. The FC-14 doesn't have this problem.

Are you any good with electronics? Your other option would be to do an RGB hack with a TV you find locally. Even better than RGB to YUV.

[Soulchip]

how much do you want for it? send me a pm if you want.

[Soulchip]

I'm still hoping that calamity reads this, i wish emudriver would work on TVOUT too.

[Recapnation]

I wouldn't hold my breath.

I never had the need so I've not tested this particular matter, but apparently you can use a sync-on-green-capable Extron RGB interface to "encode" RGB into YPP. It's by far the cheapest method, since these devices were broadly used in the USA -- I'm sure you'll end up finding one in Argentina.

These interfaces have many uses indeed as I've mentioned before, so I can't recommend them enough for anyone into CRT gaming. Just make sure it's a sync-on-green model.


Edit: Forget that; it seems you can use the device for YPP sources but not to encode RGB into YPP.

[Calamity]

I'm still hoping that calamity reads this, i wish emudriver would work on TVOUT too.

The TV-Out is completely independent from RGB outputs, they follow different paths inside the driver, etc. There's nothing that can be done, sorry. TV-out is a super lame configuration anyway. Focus on getting a transcoder. Suerte, compaņero.

[Soulchip]

Hi Calamity, thank you for taking the time to read it, I was able to find a retailer (RAM Electronics, it is a retailer linked on Audio Authority home page) that ships Audio Authority 9A60a to argentina using a safe company (fedex), I cannot buy something and send it here using normal mail, argentinian mailing system is full of people that will rip you off at first oportunity, so using safer companies is a priority (fedex, ups, dhl).

So I ordered a 9A60a from Audio Authority and it will arrive in 3 days, once i have it working I have my Hd 4890 awaiting inside the arcade already.

I will post here the results.

[Soulchip]

@calamity BTW, I tried to register in your forum and registering is not available.

Gracias por todo amigo.

[Sledge]

I have my Hd 4890 awaiting inside the arcade already.

I will post here the results.

Make sure to have a fan to remove warm air from your machine as this video card will generate a fair amount..

[Soulchip]

Yes I installed a 220v extraction fan, only one is enough to remove all hot air from the arcade since it is a very very powerfull, the arcade has been running very cool since then, I had to install it before because I changed the cpu from core 2 duo to core 2 quad and the cpu did get hot very fast.

[Soulchip]

Update, the AA 9a60 will arrive in 10 days because Ram electronics is out of stock... Jesus... I have such a bad luck... I will post again when it arrives and i'm able to test it.

[Soulchip]

Update: Fedex has my package, it will arrive in 1 week, so i will update then with a full review of how everything worked out with the new 2.0 driver.

[Soulchip]

So AA 9a60a arrived today to Argentina Buenos Aires and I was able to install it and test it for a few seconds to see if everything is OK, the 9a60a works like a charm, the image was shaking at first and rolling, but after dialing the pot inside a little to the right the image got steady and the quality is amazing, i installed crt emudrive 2.0 and it is already working, all resolutions and super resolutions are working, but groovy mame is not changing the resolution, i tried the example given by calamity (toki example given on the installation tutorial on his webpage) and toki looks all squashed. horizontally it looks ok, but vertically it looks small.

Sorry about my bad english. Any idea why is this happening? if i try all the resolutions (even the super resolutions) on arcade OSD they all look incredible with no problems, so i asume i did something wrong with groovymame configuration

[Paradroid]

Good work! Now, post a log file so there's a hope of diagnosing the problem.

Sent from my SM-A300Y using Tapatalk

[Soulchip]

OK I will reply with a log tomorrow, I was diagnosing another problem today, I am loosing a very little % of the right of the screen... I think it has to do with the pot inside the 9a60, maybe i need to move it a little more (it gives me a wide range to move it while the image is still steady, so I think this is posible. I will fix this tomorrow and post a log of groovy mame, how do i take the log?

Thank you.

[Soulchip]

So I fixed most of the problems and generated 37 working resolutions and super resolutions, they look awesome with very little overscan, I tested them using arcadeOSD, I need to understand how to fix that now, but that is not the problem... I tried groovymame again and games are not switching resolution...they are all using windows resolution (640x480i).... this is really frustrating...I want to see scanlines inside a game!! haha... OMG...

I do not know what is the problem with my groovymame... how do i make a log to post here?

How do i fix the very little overscan without touching the TV geometry ? I understand that arcadeOSD is used to fix this but I do not understand the tutorial.

[Soulchip]

I got Kega Fusion working at 320x240

Any idea why groovymame is not switching the resolution?

It looks a lot better in real life, my cellphone camera sucks ass

[Recapnation]

Did you mean this tutorial?

[Soulchip]

Yes that one, I made changes using that tutorial to my mame.ini but i'm still getting this problem where groovymame is not switching the resolution and just using windows res... 640x480i... I did get Kega fusion to work , but no luck with groovy mame.

[Recapnation]

You aren't even posting your 'mame.ini'; we can only tell you to review there every option explained in the guide. Anyway, I was asking about what you didn't understand on solving overscan issues.

[Soulchip]

Oh! ok so i need to post my mame.ini, ok, i will do that.

About the overscan, is very little and it happens only in some resolutions, how do i fix it? do i need to use arcadeosd to fix overscan? Do i need to use my service mode on the tv? i would prefer not touching that anymore, is there any way to fix the overscan without using the tv service mode?

[Soulchip]

OK this is my mame.ini

I'm using groovymame 0.169, that is the last full mame version I downloaded (full romset), crt_emudriver 2.0, ATI HD4890 using AA 9a60a and Windows 7 64bits. Directx9 EX does not give any image, I tried with directx9 and Direct Draw and they both do the same thing, use windows desktop resolution for any game and stretch it in weird ways...

Code: [Select]

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# CORE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
#
readconfig                1
writeconfig               0

#
# CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS
#
rompath                   roms
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fontpath                  .
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# CORE OUTPUT DIRECTORY OPTIONS
#
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#
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#
# CORE SOUND OPTIONS
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# CORE INPUT OPTIONS
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#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
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#
# CORE DEBUGGING OPTIONS
#
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#
# CORE COMM OPTIONS
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# CORE MISC OPTIONS
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#
# CORE MKChamp OPTIONS
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# CORE SWITCHRES OPTIONS
#
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#
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#
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#
# OSD SOUND OPTIONS
#
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# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
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#
# DIRECT3D POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
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offset                    0.0,0.0,0.0
scale                     0.95,0.95,0.95
power                     0.8,0.8,0.8
floor                     0.05,0.05,0.05
phosphor_life             0.4,0.4,0.4

#
# NTSC POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
#
yiq_enable                0
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yiq_phase_count           2

#
# VECTOR POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
#
vector_length_scale       0.5
vector_length_ratio       500.0

#
# BLOOM POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
#
bloom_blend_mode          0
bloom_scale               0.25
bloom_overdrive           1.0,1.0,1.0
bloom_lvl0_weight         1.0
bloom_lvl1_weight         0.64
bloom_lvl2_weight         0.32
bloom_lvl3_weight         0.16
bloom_lvl4_weight         0.08
bloom_lvl5_weight         0.04
bloom_lvl6_weight         0.04
bloom_lvl7_weight         0.02
bloom_lvl8_weight         0.02
bloom_lvl9_weight         0.01
bloom_lvl10_weight        0.01

#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer              0
full_screen_brightness    1.0
full_screen_contrast      1.0
full_screen_gamma         1.0

#
# INPUT DEVICE OPTIONS
#
global_inputs             0
dual_lightgun             0


[Recapnation]

Please, post it as pasted text within code flags.

As a general approach for overscan issues, steps in chapter F.1 in the linked tutorial are the way to go. For MAME, you can also try the internal adjustments through TAB menu, Slider Controls when running a game.

[Recapnation]

Change this:

crt_range0                15625-15750, 49.50-65.00, 2.000, 4.700, 8.000, 0.064, 0.192, 1.024, 0, 0, 192, 288, 448, 576

like this:

crt_range0                auto

You missed this part in the tutorial:

Through Video Mode Maker, a definition of monitor specs was set in the process of installation; it's located in the Monitor settings tab, and it can be changed by another preset and even edited at will.

I'd suggest another read of the whole guide, and don't forget there are files to also read served with CRT Tools.

[Soulchip]

I'll try that tomorrow, I'm going to sleep now.

I managed to make FCEUX, SNES9x to work too.

[Calamity]

Soulchip, you need tu run GM as admin on W7 if you're using a pre-HD5000 card. That'll fix the issue.

[Soulchip]

Hi calamity, yes, it is running as administrator.

[Calamity]

Then post a log,  otherwise I can't help you.

[Soulchip]

Change this:

crt_range0                15625-15750, 49.50-65.00, 2.000, 4.700, 8.000, 0.064, 0.192, 1.024, 0, 0, 192, 288, 448, 576

like this:

crt_range0                auto

This didnt help, it made things worst I think, now it looks very blurred and it is still using 480i. With the values on it seems to be trying to use real arcade resolution but inside 480i.

This line is added by VMM so it is not a good idea to get rid of it.

[Soulchip]

Then post a log,  otherwise I can't help you.

I asked how to do this, no body answered, I do not know how to make a log

[Soulchip]

Wow... I fixed it... I added back the crt range and while I was looking at the ini file I found out that the switchres option was on 0.... I just wrote a 1 and there you go...it works.. I do not know why this was on 0 by default.. very strange.

[Soulchip]

I have a new question now, some games are using super resolutions and some games are using normal resolutions, is it a good idea to force all games to use super resolutions?

[Calamity]

It's not 0 by default, you must have modified it at some point. Come on, the way to create a log is on the very main thread, I guess I'll need to add it to my signature or something 

Anyway, glad to see you fixed it.

[Soulchip]

Oh sorry I didnt see it, I installed groovymame over the oficial mame instalation replacing the .exe and everything inside, maybe the option is off on the oficial mame? I do not know, but i never touched the .ini, today is the first they i put my hands on it.

So all games are looking awesome, but some resolutions are a little too far to the right or too far down... how do you fix this?