XRGB Framemeister

Hi Troy,

Your test screenshot actually looks pretty good! Your capture device (as I understand) uses compression, so while it is good quality, it will further look slightly better if you plug the HDMI

directly into the TV rather than the elgato, as you've probably noticed. Plus you've noticed the delay of compression of course.

From what I can tell from the youtube video, that 'Framemeister' product is scaling the video but without 'interpolation', because the resultant video (to me) looks sharp but blocky.

In other words, the resultant video looks like the original game creator intended, but on a larger, HDMI screen.

This would be fine if the screen was viewed from a distance, but nowadays screens are physically much bigger and often people sit just as close to the TV as before.

So, the blockiness is more apparent than it was in the past.

There is no easy solution. One option is to use something like the product in the video and just live with the blockiness, and be content that it is what the creator intended if

people did sit far away from the TV.

Another approach (which is what I suspect TVs do) is 'interpolation'. There is an example of bilinear interpolation here, about half-way down the page. The image of Tintin is

scaled but with interpolation. Basically calculations are used to create new pixel. As an analogy, if you know a car is at position A at time 0, but at position C at time 1,

then you could guess that the car might have been at position B at time 0.5. Its not a perfect guess. This results in sometimes a fuzzier edge, but could be considered better if you're

watching from close-up since you won't see as much blockiness. I don't know what games players prefer though (I'm not knowledgeable in this). But notice when they show some examples, in some circumstances the

video from that product actually looks worse. Here is an example where the left side is claimed to look bad. But on my PC monitor (i.e. I am up close to the screen), the right

side looks worse because the arm looks so blocky because it is stretched at 45 degrees. I would prefer the left side image in this instance. But it is subjective, so others would disagree with this.

Also, interpolation can be done at high speed (i,e. unnoticeable). Whether it is, I don't know. It would depend on the algorithm and the TV's capabilities.

I'm not sure spending $300 for trying to improve component video or RGB is worth it, since component or RGB quality is already actually not bad for analog, and they are better options than composite.

There was even a time when there was HD analog video in some parts of the world at more than a decade before HDMI, so analog doesn't necessarily mean bad.

Everyone has a different understanding of value, so $300 for that product might be worthwhile for some. However, it might be possible to just buy a monitor that can support these

connectors if one prefers the interpolated images, for the same price.

I have a monitor that accepts composite, SVideo, RGB, HDMI, DVI and computer style VGA connections. (There is one on ebay for $49 although it may be missing the

power supply in which case it is useless..).

Pick up a Sony Trinitron from someone doing it away having RGB Scart. The best picture imaginable and a near free solution. Check up on your local craiglist or ebay.