I'm Impressed With TV-Cable Out Of The Pandora

[Hồng Thất Công]

I've seen a number of videos on this forum as well as on the world wide web showing pandora video output to TV/LCD.  They all look good in those videos, but boy I'm even more impressed seeing it in real life in front of my TV.

I've had the official TV-Out cable for quite sometime now, but I never gotten a chance to hook it up to my TV until now.  The other day, I picked up the 32" SAMPO Multi-Media Monitor for $50 bucks.  The place that sells used furniture wanted to get rid of if so I got a really good bargain here  .  I hooked it up to the Pandora, and after that I couldn't stop playing for 5 hours straight!  Panmame, PCSX-ReArmed, Picrodrive, Snes9x4P, gpSP, DraStic, and others work perfectly (and I mean perfectly on this TV).  The video output quality of the Panfora is so good.  I don't know how to describe it but it is so good.  I've never once imagined Gameboy Advance look like real console game on TV.  I have the original old Neo-Geo console, but I can tell you that you don't need this expensive and modded Neo-Geo console to play high-quality Neo-Geo games.  Neo-Geo, CPS1, and CPS2 on Panmame on Pandora using TV-Out cable (S-Video for me on this monitor) is just as awesome or better (due to scaling ability of Panmame) than the Neo-Geo console itself.  One thing I'd like to see retained in Pandora successor is this TV-Out connection type (perhaps in addition to the new HDMI or whatever P2's gonna have).  The reason is retro games look like shit on LCD through HDMI unless you're willing to spend $300-$500 for a good upscaler.  So retaining this TV-Out of P1 on P2 will allow retro games to play on old CRT monitors/TVs the way it meant to be.  Yeah, I'm really impressed with the TV-Out quality of the current Pandora.  It was a long wait for the cable but worth it.  Kudos to whoever made the decision to use this odd TV-Out connection for the Pandora.  Well, the pandora is an odd/strange/out-of-this-world device to begin with so who gives a F#$#$@k about another strange thing on it  .

Here are some vids (Panmame, DraStic, and PCSX-ReArmed) I played on my Rebirth Pandora recorded on my BlackBerry (even Rebirth emulates all these perfectly).  As this is my first time ever trying to record a, cough, "professional" video, they don't do Pandora TV-Out capability any justice.  If any bad about the videos it's my BlackBerry.  Things like flickering, blurriness, and jagged edges you see in the vids are just reflection of the TV screen and my BB video recording and none of these existed in real life.  I wish you were here in my house to see these on my real TV!  

Spoiler

http://youtu.be/5I32yQJsaDU

I'm sure I will be called fanboy after this, but I don't give a F#$#$@k.  I give credits where credits are due  .

 

[hedwards]

Awesome. I just ordered my cable from Link a couple days ago, so hopefully I'll have mine on Tuesday. Glad to see I made the right decision.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Awesome. I just ordered my cable from Link a couple days ago, so hopefully I'll have mine on Tuesday. Glad to see I made the right decision.

I recommend you use an old CRT TV for it.  LCD TV is not bad but CRT TV is way better.

 

[jameswilder]

Thanks for the update, I will look into that... were you able to connect a gamepad?

 

[hedwards]

Awesome. I just ordered my cable from Link a couple days ago, so hopefully I'll have mine on Tuesday. Glad to see I made the right decision.

I recommend you use an old CRT TV for it.  LCD TV is not bad but CRT TV is way better.

Not mine. Mine is kind of old and it's gotten rather blurry because it's like a 28" or so screen. So, it's hard to read things like the baseball scores on it during the game because they're illegible.

 

[levi]

Since the switch to digital TV they've slowly been shrinking the text particularly in things like sports coverage, so those of us still on SDTV are disadvantaged, but I guess at least get a bigger view of the action along with HDTV users.

I find this odd, as widescreen TVs have been around for even longer, yet the BBC still leaves a widescreen gap on the left of its news ticker, wasting an eighth of the screen width.

 

[F_Slim]

I used it on my Flatscreen-TV and it is ok, but on an old CRT it just blew me away! Using composite, because it has no S-Video, it still looks so much better! You can really tell that the games were made to look good on those screens ...

 

[TrashyMG]

I agree Flatscreen LCDs look okay, but kind of washed out IMO.. CRTs look great, but on my DLP projector beamed on a 120" screen it look awesome.. especially when using SVideo out in PAL mode, it's almost as good as component video. 

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Awesome. I just ordered my cable from Link a couple days ago, so hopefully I'll have mine on Tuesday. Glad to see I made the right decision.

I recommend you use an old CRT TV for it.  LCD TV is not bad but CRT TV is way better.

Not mine. Mine is kind of old and it's gotten rather blurry because it's like a 28" or so screen. So, it's hard to read things like the baseball scores on it during the game because they're illegible.

Mine is 32" CRT.  I used S-Video and none of the blurriness you have exist on mine.  I can see all the texts ultra-sharp and clear and down to the retina of my fighters!  No joke.  Just perfect!

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Thanks for the update, I will look into that... were you able to connect a gamepad?

Tried it but with no success.  Has anyone tried the PS3 bluetooth controller using Master Control?  I couldn't get it to work.

 

[TrashyMG]

^ I play a lot of console games with TV out and external controllers, I've even had 4 USB controllers hitched at once. Outside of the ICP I haven't used bluetooth much, PS3 controllers can be funky to work with because even the buttons act as analogs.. however most USB gamepads work well.. you will need a USB 2.0 hub for them to work properly as they are pretty much all USB1.1 devices.   

My setup I usually use n64 controller with the Adaptoid, SNES controllers with the retrode2 and I have a couple old USB Gravis gamepads that pretty much like the PS1 controller minus analogs.

 

[Asmo]

I used it on my Flatscreen-TV and it is ok, but on an old CRT it just blew me away! Using composite, because it has no S-Video, it still looks so much better! You can really tell that the games were made to look good on those screens ...

One day soon, fingers crossed, someone is going to produce a low-cost laser projector (or something similar) that syncs with old signals and produces an image just like CRTs did! I'll be one of the first in line for it!

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

I'm 2nd right behind you

 

[levi]

And that might even work with old light-guns!  I'm third in line!

 

[F_Slim]

There will probably be a comeback of CRTs someday, just like for vinyl or tube amplifiers.

 

[ekianjo]

just like for vinyl

Vinyl never really came back.

 

[Fzero]

Vinyl never really went away

 

[hedwards]

Vinyl never really went away

 Well, you'll always find hipsters and luddites that refuse to acknowledge the obvious superiority of newer technology. Every once in a while there's an exception like CLIs being better than GUIs for anybody that cares about productivity and isn't engaged in graphic arts. But as far as vinyl goes the notion that there's something desirable about it has long since been debunked. It's mostly people who only listen to over compressed pop and those that have come to vew the pops, crackles and other audio problems from vinyl as desirable that want more vinyl.

There will probably be a comeback of CRTs someday, just like for vinyl or tube amplifiers.

With the exception of light guns, I have a hard time coming up with a single thing that CRTs are superior to flat panels at. And even the light guns could be made to work, it's just that none of the current crop of emulators has managed to create support. The scanlines are criticl to the process and AFAICT, nobody has been willing to give up the graphics quality necessary to get the light guns working. Especially with newer innovations that have come along since then.

 

[Asmo]

With the exception of light guns, I have a hard time coming up with a single thing that CRTs are superior to flat panels at.

Displaying legacy interlaced signals correctly*, without lag?

(* without the use of an additional external scaler)

There's the basic appeal of the shadowmasked rastered image too, not so much a benefit over modern TVs, more a desirable trait for the full retro experience.

 

[F_Slim]

Low resolution on a CRT still looks great, on a flatscreen it just looks like ... well, low resolution ... washed out ... simply not nearly as as pretty.

If you can provide a high resolution image, flatscreen will win of course. If not it will always look better on a CRT.