I have the orange McBazel GBS-C box from Amazon and it works great. I feed it with a component switcher that switches between my PSOne (via a SCART to component converter), PS2, Wii and XBox 360 (passthrough at 720p). I use it as a line doubler to 960p, and a tripler (with scanlines) for my PSOne. The one limitation is you can’t use the component and SCART inputs on the device simultaneously. The audio will default to the component input if it senses a cable is plugged in, so I had to unplug the component cable every time I wanted to use the PSOne. So instead I just converted the SCART output to component with an inexpensive converter (also from Amazon) which solved the problem. Resolution switches in-game are seamless too in my experience with the PSOne.
Could be my luck of the draw, but I've purchased three of the GBS 8200 series upscalers in the past, and all three of them had quality issues ranging from jumpy images, to occasionally outputting the same frame 4x in a row. Only suitable for a desktop PC that doesn't run video games or have any type of realtime interaction.
Ah that's a shame, I've honestly not had that issue with any of the 3 units I've built for myself. The only problems I've had is that one was especially noisy, no matter what mods I did. I know the unmodified GBS-8200 boards are a bit rubbish on their own without the custom firmware but I've not heard about the frame repetition problem. I hope you manage to find a solution for your setup. Could an OSSC potentially work for you?
@@tunnotron3000 I use dedicated retrotink units now, great image quality, and none of the faffing around with timings that are the hallmark of the OSSC.
@@tunnotron3000 I will still likely use it with a good VGA CRT that I have, a Samsung Syncmaster 957MB. I presume I can get the GBS-C to line-double to 960i, and presumably the monitor will handle it just fine. Will be interesting to compare the image I get with that versus using the GBS-C's deinterlacing solutions. Whether I play on my Samsung, or my LG C2, it certainly looks like the best option below the RetroTink 5X. I have seen some problems with people losing sync over component cables, but hopefully that won't be a problem with RGB SCART. Hope you have a good day, mate!
Built mine from scratch, was fun. I kept the wireless farther away from how the others do it and designed my own case. Looks great. I have only used PS2 and XBox both on component and it looks great! Three days ago I lost my wireless GUI and can no longer connect to it. Still haven't figured that out. Overall, if you can build it, you should. Was a fun project and works well.
I've never had any success with the WiFi on the GBS and just use the Access Point mode. It was generally ok with 960p but for 1080p it dropped altogether. Have you tried reflashing the firmware? I think there's a way to remove the WiFi settings in the Arduino software but I can't remember how off the top of my head.
@@tunnotron3000 I have been reading the last couple of days. I still am not sure what AP Mode is? Is that in the Arduino interface or when connected to a computer? It is weird you mentioned 1080 and the Wi-Fi dropping out. For hours yesterday I read about this happening as the ESP couldn't handle all the tasks together - scaling and hosting. The weird thing is that is still works, I just cant access it. Yes, I have thought about reflashing the firmware. Took me a while to get it the first time but I saved the image because of things like this.
Access Point is the mode that the GBS initially goes into when there are no WiFi details stored. What I did was turn off my router, when the GBS can't connect, it'll revert to Access Point mode. You should then be able to log in on your phone etc and remove the WiFi settings. Hope this helps!
@@tunnotron3000 As in log into the GBS-C's local network from your phone, correct? That eliminates the typical house WiFi and allows to connect directly to the GBS-C. Yup, I can't even do that any more. So odd.
Game credits/names would be great! Good stuff, but I’m not familiar with every game. Should pro’lly make a point to cite your sources (especially with non-public IPs on RU-vid), anyway, but that’s a separate FYI... Names would be helpful and likely bring me back to this video, to check/reference them, too. 🍻
I have been using the GBS-C for few years now, hooked up to a Fujitsu CRT Monitor, oh boy it is really something else. Specially devices that output Component video, such as PS2, GameCube, Xbox, Wii, I swear it is insanely crisp compared to anything that I have ever seen, I highly recommend it to anyone! Plus building a Gbs-c is a blast!
Tbh it is the funniest part of the whole process. The only small downside I noticed was how the device handles RGB signals from different consoles, namely has some issues with the different types of Syncs that requires either a Sync Stripper circuit or a way to be able to change the voltage of the Sync based on which console is outputting RGB. PS1, SFC require a 560-680 Ohms resistor in order to displayed correctly, while MegadDrive, PC Engine and the others an 100 Ohms resistor.
Yeah it can also vary between each board. The current one I'm using drops sync briefly when the screen flashes white with a standard 100ohm resistor but previous models didn't do that. The sync stripper on the scart2vga alleviates this though. I think what you save in money with the GBS you lose in ease of use. As a hardcore tinkerer, it's no issue for me lol
@@tunnotron3000 I actually just built a little Sync stripper circuit following the diagram GBS-8200 SCART Circuit v1 found on the gbs-c wiki page, and all my sync issues are now gone, no matter what RGB capable console I throw at the gbs-c it always delivers!
I have a few things to add that you might want to know: The audio issues with the Live Gamer 4k go beyond the GBS-C. It also has weird popping noises on SNES with a Retrotink 5x in Framelock and 1440p modes in certain games: Super Metroid is the easiest one to test. I have a GBS-C AIO and it plays well with all my consoles except a Genesis M2 VA1.8 with a 3BP V2+ board installed. For some reason the screen shakes up and down randomly. It doesn't like the sync I guess. There's a lot of posts on the github about this issue with other consoles / games as well. I have tried the 10NF cap replacement but it didn't fix the issue. I will be building some GBS-C boards soon and I will be testing different things to see if I can find a fix. It's too bad it doesn't see updates very often.
The SNES just seems to be a bit of a pain in general! 1440p is an experimental mode with the 5X and compatibility isn't a guarantee so I always chalk up any issues I come across to that. I stick to the 1080p modes almost all of the time and haven't had any issues. I've noticed that I don't have any sync issues with the model I built here when using the SCART2VGA adaptor with it's sync stripper. If I do the classic 100ohm resistor trick and turn the sync stripper off, I lose sync on white flashes. The biggest issue is that the GBS boards themselves are cheaply mass produced so the QA can be all over the show. My first board was great, second was very noisy though.
That's right! Voultar has been working on it for a while and is in the stages of making sure it's compatible across all SNES models before it's released. I'll probably get one but I'm also wondering if I might get nostalgic for that blur!
hey thanks for the video! i know "open source" nature of the hardware made a great material for chinese reproductions, which debatable for having it stolen cause it has no credit whatsoever, but people forgot country like mine don't have too much money for both the product AND shipping. retroscaler gbs-c is using their own modified firmware for their hardware (and also they built it from scratch, not from available gbs). it has SCART in and HDMI out atleast (and weird saturn video out port for some reason?) and i don't think they modifed so much that it feels too different from original, so it should have similar performance and compatibility. that being said, honestly there are some problems especially when you try to stretch; it has glitched vertical lines like it was too stretched to fit into it's intended frame, so i had to adjust to closest thing it can before getting glitched (oh but atleast it only happens when you stretch it horizontally. vertical is very fine). ofc this might be mitigated by just doing it on software (like cropping on obs) but doing this in the upscaler is pain and some stuffs you do in the upscaler can be resulted in some artifacts (like video noises and some things i mentioned earlier) that can be fixed by restarting the whole thing (fun). this maybe the fault of the modifed version and maybe bit faulty on what i got, but i prefer to save money and buy retrotink5x. tho, for what it is and the price tag, i still gonna recommend it to anyone (atleast the retroscaler version, tho it does not have composite in, but am fine as i bought it for SCART in and component) but please be patient about it and get used to some of their artifact (also for retroscaler, this has first updated firmware on april 2024, and it deletes the config. please backup before update)
I have to wonder how it handles the Sync on Green output the PS2 uses in RGB mode for 480p and higher? I know the Ratchet and Clank games, God of War 2, and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology can output 480p. I may have to eventually get a prebuilt one, for testing with my Amigas, Atari STE, and my DOS machines. I know those have some odd timings. The last challenge for a GBS-C, is gonna be Atari 2600 (via a 7800 using a GameDrive cart). Certain 2600 games (even from Atari themselves) were rather notorious for using extremely out-of-spec resolutions and refresh rates. Even the RetroTink 5x Pro in buffered mode struggled (most notably Battlezone and Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom).
As far as I'm aware, the GBS doesn't support the PS2's weird sync for 480p over SCART but it supports regular 480p over component. The Ratched and Clank footage was running in 480p, as was the Outrun 2 footage at the end of the video 🙂. Yeah the older consoles were literally running on pure dreams sometimes!
@@tunnotron3000 yeah, a good few of the 2600 games that even give the RT5x issues had to be patched to constantly run at a proper 262.5 lines NTSC just to work without creating sync issues.
Hm I'm not sure. I think I did see some posts saying that it was possible but the issues with those boards is they don't deal with audio at all. That means you'd need to find a way to inject the audio into the hdmi out. I've found the shmups thread in the GBS to be pretty helpful!
@@tunnotron3000 Yeah, but that's really just a general issue with those boards, not really mod related. - A couple of years ago I did manage to find an active DVI to HDMI adapter with 2 RCAs for injecting audio. It was a bit hard to find since adaptors for extracting audio for some reason are far more common, so you kind of drown in hits on those instead. I have obviously forgotten the brand and model of it, and can't find it at the moment either. But at least I can confirm that they do exist... - It's likely in a box with accessories for my Checkmate 1500+ A1200 build, since that was what I bought it for.
It was an eBay seller, I just messaged them the dimensions and they made a private listing for me. I think it was less than £10 for the two pieces including shipping so not bad!
Any recommendations for a prebuilt in the UK. Wanted a retrotink 4k but holding out for the Mars FPGA now as it’s going to be built in anyway so this should get me through till release.
I don't have any experience with the pre-built ones, sorry! You can check the shmups GBS control thread to see if any names pop up there. There seems to be one main model (blue, not orange) that I see a lot, I'm wondering if they've worked out the quirks now.
Good video friend, a question I have is if it can be solved so that the black backgrounds do not look gray. Sorry if you mentioned it in the video but I don't speak English well, maybe I missed it.
I'm not sure about that one, sorry! It could be an issue with a full/limited range mismatch. If your TV/capture card has the option to change the range, it might be worth toggling that. You can also try toggling the auto gain calibration option in the GBS menu 🙂
Your best bet is to follow the the link to the project page in the description. You can also check out the video from Voultar and Bob that I mentioned which have components listed. A lot of the components can be found on eBay and AliExpress but the listings change so often it's not worth linking to them.
@@oakley2001 I didn't make an easy list for myself lol! Mega Drive: 1 - Gunstar Heroes 2 - Mega Turrican 3 - Valis III SNES: 1 - F-Zero 2 - Kirby's Dream Land 3 3 - Donkey Kong Country Saturn: 1 - Sonic Jam 2 - Pandemonium 3 - Panzer Dragoon Zwei PS1: 1 - Silent Hill 2 - Rage Racer 3 - Tekken 3 PS2: 1 - Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore 2 - Ridge Racer V 3 - Zone of The Enders 4 - Ratchet and Clank Going Commando Hope this helps!
@@tunnotron3000 Thank you! I'm interested in all 3 since they are run and gun styles I like from that era. I grew up on the SNES and now I'm catching up on the great Genesis library.
Unfortunately CRTs aren't a convenient solution for everyone. I picked one up a few years ago and it was nothing but a pain to manage with the space I had available. I was glad to be rid of it in the end.
