Is the OSSC still a good buy?

[Soundwave]

Hi all,

I know we are all championing the Retrotink these days but they are beyond my means price wise so I'm just curious if the OSSC is still a good option worth buying for retro duty?

Thanks

Neil

[speedlolita]

For 240p, absolutely. The main benefits of the Retrotink 5X/4K are fast 240p/480i switching and 480i handling. Plus resolution stuff (scaling beyond 1080p).

[Hirst]

I still love my OSSC and have no plans to replace it, but your enjoyment is heavily linked to how much your TV wants to play ball with it. I usually have mine set to 960p and it looks fantastic, but some people struggle to get that mode to work with their TV.

[egparadigm]

I (& others) made some comments here that might be relevant:

https://bordersdown.net/forum/gaming/get-answers-games-and-tech/73015-n64-ultrahdmi-is-it-possible-to-still-get-this-done

If this prompts any questions, I’d be happy to clarify further. I have used OSSC with PS1 and Saturn mainly.

[gunrock]

I think the 1.8 model is about as it's going to get and it's easier and cheaper to source in Europe than the tink.

[Soundwave]

Thanks for the advice guys, I think I'll definitely be looking into getting one in the new year

The Tink looks great but I could just never justify it for the little use it will really get

The OSSC will be used for mostly Saturn duties to be honest as I'm dying to get back onto my one

Just out of interest as well how good would the OSSC be for using as a Component to HDMI converter?

I actually want to hook my Wii & Jpn 360 up again but as I only have Component options for both but can't use the actual Component connections on my Telly because it's wall mounted & I can't access them because they are too close to the wall lol

Anyway thanks again guys, appreciate the help

Neil

[Hirst]

Just out of interest as well how good would the OSSC be for using as a Component to HDMI converter?

Excellent - I use the Component video through OSSC for PS2 and Wii. Looks amazing. For the associated audio, you either feed the L and R into the 3.5mm audio input with a splitter (mine was £2) or you can bypass the OSSC completely for audio if you want. I do both - Wii goes into OSSC directly, PS2 I have connected to my sound bar with optical audio cable.

[wakka]

The only thing I would say about the OSSC is that while it gives great results, it can be a complete pain in the arse to get it set up. I had always used mine on my computer monitor where it gave a good picture on my Saturn. I recently decided to move it in the living room and connect the Saturn to my TV (Panny OLED). For bloody ages I couldn't for the life of me get it to display a proper 4:3 non-stretched picture instead of 16:9. I kept fiddling with settings and just getting a black screen.

I did eventually get it sorted - can't remember how honestly - but there was a lot of googling of old random forum threads of similar issues and tooth gnashing to get there.

Just do bear in mind that you might need to reach out on here or elsewhere for support to get it to where you want it to be (I'd love to volunteer but as you can tell from the above I'm clueless myself!).

From what I understand (and I might have this wrong) the Tink is more user-friendly.

With that said the bang for buck on the OSSC is very good. Once you've got the damn thing setup.

[Hirst]

My solution to that is that I just set my TV to 4:3 through my TV remote so it scales the picture appropriately. I didn’t know you could do it via the OSSC itself but I guess there’s an option somewhere!

I didn’t have too many problems setting it up, but the amount of options can be very overwhelming and there’s been a few times where I’ve ended up resetting it and going back to default settings because I’ve done something daft. There’s a big list of optimal timings for each console on Retro RGB and a great video on My Life In Gaming (YouTube), but the default ones are pretty good to get started. Once you get more confident you can then fiddle with things like drawing a black bar over those weird dots you get at the bottom of the screen on Mega Drive games, deciding if you want to use the built-in deinterlacing or let your TV handle it, etc.

[wakka]

I just know from memory Soundwave has said other times that he's not someone who's a keen tinkerer when it comes to slightly arcane solutions, so wanted to put it out there as a proviso that it is a bit of a tinkerer's gadget (no disrespect meant to you whatsoever Soundwave).

I do consider myself a bit of a tinkerer at times but I find the OSSC quite confusing. As you say though, it's highly contingent on your TV. It was pretty much plug and play with my PC monitor, but for whatever reason my TV made things more difficult. So it might be a case of giving it a try and seeing how you fare.

My solution to that is that I just set my TV to 4:3 through my TV remote so it scales the picture appropriately. I didn’t know you could do it via the OSSC itself but I guess there’s an option somewhere!

That was my first instinct, but my TV wouldn't play ball. For the type of signal it was receiving from the OSSC it would only allow 16:9 for a stretched picture. I had to delve into various timing settings to get it to display correctly. It wasn't like there was a neat 'put the picture in 4:3 option'. It does seem to be highly dependent on the set you're plugging it into and its vagaries.

To be honest I still don't really get what timings even are. I just blindly adjust them based on guides online and sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't.

[egparadigm]

If tinkering, get an SD card as this allows you to save settings with meaningful names so you can quickly load these (and back them up). With the built in memory you cannot name the settings.

[Hirst]

If tinkering, get an SD card as this allows you to save settings with meaningful names so you can quickly load these (and back them up). With the built in memory you cannot name the settings.

That’s handy - back when I started you could only do it by number. Probably all kinds of changes since. Must do an update.