Introducing The RetroTINK 4K - Sous-titres bilingues
Later this year,
Mike Chi will be releasing the next generation of his retro-tank scalars,
and this one will go all the way up to 4K60 and feature an HDMI input.
That means any console, modern or retro, as well as internal HDMI mods can all be scaled to the native resolution of most people's TVs.
It should be up for sale by the end of the year, but for now, allow me to introduce you to the RetroTINK 4K.
Before we get to the RetroTINK 4K's awesome features,
I gotta start out by saying the TINK 4K is kind of like a first-class plane ticket.
The cheaper seats will get you to the exact same destination in the exact same time,
but as someone who's accidentally been bumped up to first class a few times could vouch for, first class is way better.
If you've got the budget, I would highly recommend it.
And that's exactly what the RetroTINK 4K is,
a luxury item that you don't need, but after seeing an action, you're probably going to want it.
So I'd like to start by doing the opposite of what I would normally do in these videos
and mention alternatives first in case this is out of your budget.
This way you could choose whatever fits your budget now, as well as plan ahead, or just keep whatever awesome solution you want.
So, let's take a look.
If you're watching this video,
I'm assuming that you're interested in gaming on flat panels, so my next recommendation is also a RetroTINK device, the RetroTINK 5X.
This awesome device accepts basically every analog video signal, and can even accept VGA via the use of a small cheap addition.
adapter.
It's currently,
at least until the 4K is released,
the best video game console scaler on the market and has received consistent,
completely free software updates with tons of new features added since launch date.
At just over 300, the 5X isn't cheap, but it's absolutely fair for what you get.
If your main use is retro PCs,
or if you only use higher-end cables like RGB Scar and component video,
the open-source scan converter is an excellent choice and it's about The OSSE is a line multiplier created by Marcus Heinkari,
and when it was released, it was the first zero lag device that could scale that high.
And like Mike, Marcus has also provided us with free software updates throughout the entire life of the OSSE.
Heck, the didn't even do 1080p at launch, but somehow figured it out, and even
today it's still a great device that I would highly recommend.
If you primarily use composite or S-video,
the RetroTINK 2X device Only the 2X Pro is currently in stock,
and is about the same price as an OSSC,
but a better choice of those with the cables you already own and are connecting, as the OSSC doesn't support Composite or S-Video.
If you just like a plug-and-play solution, the Rad 2X cables are zero lag and work great.
I did an entire video series on these, but there's one really important thing to remember.
Stay away from almost every other HDMI plug-and-play solution for old consoles.
almost everyone adds a ton of lag and processes the image wrong.
I've done many videos explaining that as well.
And this list wouldn't be complete without the awesome do-it-yourself solution, the GBS control.
The developer, Robert, aka Rama released a completely free software update to the mediocre GBS boards.
Without software,
they're fine,
but with some minor mods,
you could flash it with Rama software and end up with a device that could upscale,
downscale, motion-adaptive deinterlace, and even just convert signal types.
All for under 50 bucks if you do it yourself.
I did a video on that too if you're interested.
Lastly, while the 4K Gamer Pro CAN scale to 4K, its purpose was only to scale 1080p inputs.
And sure,
you could use it to make the RetroTINK 5X output 4K,
but that's a totally different price point and use case, so I'm not really going to be comparing that.
Now, multiple 4K gaming scalers have been rumored for a while now, and one even had two official
product announcements,
yet at the time this video was uploaded,
none those other ones had even shown footage of the scalers powering on,
let alone showing what they could do, so speculating on anything else would be absolutely unfair to everyone.
This video promoting the new Tink 4K, which I've had a lot of hands-on experience with.
So finally, let's jump in and start showing that.
The RetroTink 4K has every input you'd need.
In the back, there's RCA Jax that handles component video and audio, and they could even accept a composite video signal.
over the green connector as well.
Next a VGA input with 3.5 millimeter audio jack.
That port can accept all signals, VGA, RGB, composite, and S-video.
There's also an optical audio in that could be assigned to any input.
and an HDMI input.
That's right, you can now have a true digital-to-digital scale of any signal up to 1080p 60.
In the front are dedicated composite and S-video inputs hidden behind a sliding door.
And on the side is an RGB SCART connector that can also accept every signal, except VGA.
You could route RGBs, component video, composite video, and even S video through this input should you choose.
Just for the record, the Tink 4K that will be shipping to customers will have an injection molded shell.
While this one here has a prototype 3D printed shell with finalized input.
I wanted to use this instead of much nicer looking 3D renders just to show that the hardware is real and working.
And just for fun, here is the retro Tink 4K prototype that I've had since late 2022 that I've spent countless hours testing.
So now that I finally get to show these to you, let's jump in and see how some of this stuff works.
When you first power on the Tink 4K, hit the menu and you'll see some basic options.
Start by selecting which input you'd like, and remember each input could handle multiple signals, so just choose whichever one you're accessing.
Then set your output resolution.
The default is 4K60, so you could skip that if it's your target resolution.
If you'd just like to jump in using the RT4K and mess with advanced settings later, you really don't need anything else.
That said, there's a ton of advanced features that allow some amazing things to be done.
There's no way I'll have time to show them all in this video, but I definitely want to showcase a few.
Let's start with a new profile system.
Firebrand X has been hard at work at creating custom profiles for each console.
These are pixel perfect and use the power of the RT4K's chips to dial in an even more exact scale that's console and resolution specific.
Crazy, right?
In order to previously get that kind of perfection,
you'd need to jump through a lot of hoops But this is amazing just by pressing a
button Now you don't need to go any further,
but if you'd like you could tweak it a bit more Fire up the 240p test suite and load up the checkerboard pattern
Just a quick note compression makes this pattern look crazy
So I'm so sorry if this looks weird when you're watching the video then go to advanced settings and enter the ADC menu under acquisition.
Scroll to gain under auto calibrate and hit the right arrow on the tinks remote.
Give it a few seconds and when it's done, do the same for phase.
As you saw before, phase was totally fine already, but why not just test and tweak?
After that's done, back out to the advanced menu.
If you're using an alternative audio source, set that now.
Go to Audio Input and scroll down to Input Override.
If I was using an SNES digital audio mod, I could set that to Spidif and take advantage of a full digital audio solution.
I'm just getting audio through a shielded RGB Skark cable though, so I'll leave that off.
Then, back out to the main menu, go back to Profiles and hit Save Current.
Then next time you use this console, just load that profile and it will be fully tweaked and automatically switch to the current.
Now, if you've never seen custom profiles dialed in before, this seem like a bit of work,
but anybody who's done this before on previous scalers knows what a game-changer this is.
This is so much easier, and just backing up and restoring your profiles is as easy as copying files to and from an SD card.
Here, check this out.
I'll insert the Tynx SD card into my PC and copy the profiles directory to my desk
That's how easy it is to back them up.
Now I want to make a copy of that profile with some changes in it.
You could do this entire process on the RetroTINK 4K itself, but I'm a nerd, so I'm going to start by using my PC.
I'm just going to copy and paste the profile I just saved on the tank,
and then rename the copy with SL in the name for scaling.
Now I'll eject the card,
go back to the tank,
and load the newer profile,
which is currently exactly the same as the one we copied, but now I'm going to add my favorite CRT filter.
and please remember that TV size,
panel type,
and distance from the screen makes a big difference so whichever settings you prefer will all be based on your setup and there's no wrong answer it's whatever your eyes prefer.
And as a note streaming compression ruins the look of scanlines but stick with me for a moment just so I could finish my point.
Now that I've picked out my scanlines I'll go back to the profile menu.
And now I can toggle between perfectly dialed in SNES with and without scan lines just by flipping between those two profiles.
Please keep in mind that enabling HDR will compensate for any brightness differences you might see here,
but I don't have the skills to mix HDR and SDR into my videos.
So, I'll show some examples in a second, but I need to pause for a moment and tell you
all about some experiments I've been running ever since Mike sent me the original retro Tink 4K prototype.
I wanted to see if people,
especially non-nerds,
would prefer the look of Mike's really awesome CRT emulation filters on older content,
stuff like 480i TV shows and movies with lots of film grain,
so I would sit people down in front of my OLED TV and play them something in about 15 minutes in and ask what they thought.
And almost everybody said just about the same thing, looks good but let's turn it off and see what it's like normally.
And then I would use the same methods that you would normally use to scale older content to flat panel TVs,
good methods mind you, and everyone was always blown away at the difference.
Some people don't.
the original on,
a few people didn't care at all,
but most people were really impressed at how the CRT mask cut through the image and made it really look like a CRT.
And something that people that were using CRTs growing up forever,
always kind of took for granted,
is mask that we saw basically became invisible to our eyes because we were just- so used to seeing it,
that's what TV looked like.
But now that we're scaling that content to flat panels, it definitely changes the way that video looks.
And some kind of mask that's accurate to original CRTs that cuts through that data does help quite a lot.
Now, I'm going to be showing video game examples here, and all totally subjective.
Whatever you prefer is the right answer.
I just wanted to make the point that a lot of people,
especially the non-nerds,
really loved these scanline filters and didn't even know stuff like this existed,
so I wanted to tell you the positive side before internet streaming compression ruins what I'm about to show you.
Well, let's take it.
Here's a video taken with a macro lens of my thousand TVL Sony BVM D32
Arguably the best CRT ever made and most CRT enthusiasts holy gra- Keep in mind,
this thing hasn't been color braided in years, so the colors might be way off.
And of course,
this isn't how it looks with your eyes at a normal viewing distance, this is just a CRT mask comparison with a macro lens.
Now, check it out next to one of the RetroTINK 4K's CRT emulation filters shown on my 4K OLED,
once again taken with a macro lens.
While ultra zoomed shots like this always look dark and kinda weird,
from an analysis point of view, this demonstrates the closest comparison ever shown between an OLED and a CRT.
That is,
until Marker John shows footage on their OLED, If you'd like more examples of the scanline filters and other options, please check out wobbling pixels.
They post awesome stuff on both YouTube and social media, and you'll find a lot more of these really cool comparisons there.
Now here's another feature the RetroTINK 5X didn't have.
input.
This could be used to scale any HDMI signal up to 1080p60.
I strongly recommend subscribing to Digital Foundry as John Liniman should be putting the RT4K to the test with
modern HDMI outputting consoles as well as HDMI modded retro consoles.
John will do a much better job than I can, but there is one HDMI feature I'd personally like to show.
Let's connect the Mr.
FPGA project to the Tynx HDMI in port and switch to its direct video mode.
This will output basically the same resolution as each original console core but via 100% digital audio and video.
Connecting this to the RT4K's HDMI input should allow for some of the cleanest retroscaling possible,
all while taking advantage of the RT4K's BFI and CRT emulation filters.
The result is so sharp you almost don't need custom profiles for this either,
and you could just set the scaling to however you prefer, which is of course 4K 10x for me.
I did an entire video about why 1080p 5x is by far the closest way to recreate the look of a CRT's overscan,
while filling the most space on a widescreen TV without changing the aspect ratio.
All the things I said in that video stand true for 4K 10x, it's basically the same, but doubled.
I'd absolutely love for the Mister team to add some kind of metadata to the HDMI signal,
so the RT4K could automatically detect what core is loaded and switch to a 9x or 10x integer scale.
And while yes,
you could just use the RT4K to double the Mister's already awesome 1080p 5x integer scale mode,
scaling the original resolution will allow for the more accurate 4K scanline filters.
Imagine if loading a core on the mister would automatically set the RetroTINK 4K to whatever profile you had to find for it?
I don't even know if something like that's possible,
but if anybody were to ever figure it out,
it would be the mister devs, One other thing I'd like to mention is modern retro games.
The RT4K is able to downscale the input resolution,
so you can do something like downscale a new retro-styled game, then re-upscale it to 4K with accurate scanline emulation.
Imagine playing Sonic Mania as if it was a 90 Sonic game?
My life in gaming will feature quite a bit about that,
as well as some other cool stuff in their RT4K video, but I wanted to at least mention it here.
definitely make sure you're subscribed to them and check out their analysis on it as well.
Also the Tink 4K will be even more compatible with arcade boards than the 5X.
I swung by the amazing arcade Brooklyn a few months ago to work with Jose,
tech, and testing a bunch of boards that previously had compatibility issues with multiple scalers, including the 5x, and almost everyone we tried now works perfect scaling all the way Joe from Game Sack will be
digging deeper into arcade boards in his video, as well as some more audio analysis and a bunch of other cool things.
So that's another channel you'll definitely want to make sure you're subscribed to and keep an eye open for their video as well.
The Tink 4K isn't just about 4K scaling.
Anyone out there have 120Hz gaming monitors or projectors?
You can set the RT4K to output 120Hz at 14K.
power.
And if you set the HDMI output to frame lock,
you could unlock black frame insertion or BFI options even with an LCD Saver mode on by default to protect panels like this one.
Just turn this off if you're using an OLED or DLP projector.
I'm going to set it to 1080p 120 and enable BFI for some smooth scrolling.
Now let's check out how it looks side by side with four cases.
The BFI side is definitely a bit dimmer, but the motion is so much smoother.
In fact,
even though the 4K output is sharper when there's no motion on the screen,
as soon as the motion starts, the BFI side feels sharper since there's much less motion.
I'm not sure this 60 frame per second footage is really doing this justice though.
I think in person,
everyone would agree turning up your brightness to compensate for BFI is a small price to pay for smoother motion, even on cheap LCD panels.
And the way,
Mark Rehan of Blurbusters and Test UFO helped Mike with BFI, as well as some other options that I'll talk about in a future video.
And I'm just going to say, how freaking awesome is it that Mike's consulted with freaking blur busters?
Nobody else has taken the time to do that, so thanks to both Mike and Mark for bringing us all this awesomeness.
Anyway, back to it.
Even if your OLED TV already offers BFI options,
you still might want to check out the ones the Tink 4K has to offer for a few different reasons.
And here's one great example.
Here's a 24 frame per second video I shot and added a frame counter to.
I know showing a screen capture of me walking through frames isn't fun to watch,
but this is a great way to demo this so please just stick with me and pay attention to both the
counter I embedded in the video and premieres counter that confirms I'm advancing one frame at a time.
Now, here's that same exact file scaled to 4K60 using 3-2 pull down like all TVs out there do.
You can see as I stepped through the frames, they're repeated 3 times, then 2, then 3.
Also, the 24 frames can fit even
This results in the judder that annoys many people that has been happening since the dawn
of TV when 24 frames per second movies have been tried to fit into 60 Hertz signals.
Now, setting the TINK4K's output to 1080p 120 and turning on frame lock mode allows the
TINK to scale each of the 24 frames 5 times each to allow an even scale to 120.
This allows for smooth motion and no 3-2 pull down jutter at all.
Now that alone is awesome,
but if you set the output to 1080p 100 and then set it to frame lock mode,
that enables a BFI option that takes it a total step.
This plays each of the 24 frames twice with a black screen inserted between each one.
While this adds a tiny bit of flicker,
and you're using a DLP projector, you'll do some color data, it actually does a great job simulating how a film projector works.
Of course,
your display type in eyes will determine if this is good for the 24p content you watch,
but after turning on this mode when watching an old movie on my DLP projector,
the film grain went from looking like digital noise to actually looking like film grain.
Now I wouldn't use this mode for all 24p content,
but this is the only way I'll watch movies with a lot of film grain from now on.
Honestly, BFI, high frame rate and how it applies to different sources and displays could
fill up an entire series of videos, so allow me to just oversimplify for a second.
If your display could support higher than 60Hz refresh rates,
just start messing around with a Tink 4K and see if you like what it does.
Maybe you love it, maybe you already like it exactly as it does.
By way,
it's definitely worth trying, even if it's just because you're trying to run your panel closer to its native refresh rate for less latency.
Well, this wouldn't be a retro RGB video without a lag test, and Mike made this really
easy for us because there's a lag meter built right into the menu.
So let's start by lag testing that just to verify its accuracy.
I'll start out by using a lag testing device set to 1080p plugged directly into my flat panel monitor.
As you can see, the latency at the top left of the panel is about 2.6ms.
Now let's run the lag tester through the tank in frame lock mode and read what it says on
screen versus what the lag tester says.
I set the tank to output 1080p just to keep this in apples to apples comparison.
While it's hard to keep my hand perfectly still,
I'm getting a reading of about 4.6ms from the lag device and the Tink 4K's menu shows about 2.3ms at.
Adding the original 1080p 60 reading of 2.6 to the 2.3 the TINK is adding gives us a
total latency of about 5 milliseconds.
So it seems the TINK's lag meter is accurate within half a millisecond.
So let's just stick with that so we don't have to keep watching a flashing screen through these.
Oh and let me put the menu back to where I'm used to it's sitting.
So, now we know we can trust the Tink's lag meter, let's check out latency in different
modes, starting with its default setting of triple buffer.
This mode guarantees compatibility with basically every HDMI display out there,
but with a trade-off of a rolling buffer,
just like the Tink This will vary the latency between less than 2ms and a full frame of about 16ms.
If you're using a decently fast panel,
this latency shouldn't be noticeable at all,
but let's check out how long the tank takes to process the image in its other modes, which are the recommended ones.
We can see the same latency of just about 2ms as last time, but what happens if we zoom the image?
a bit.
I do like my 10x scaling, you Looks like the added latency is just about a millisecond.
That's awesome, so feel free to make all the custom profiles you'd like and never worry about lag when you zoom in.
Let's check higher refresh rates though.
This is a really interesting thing to test as there needs to be some buffer to hit higher refresh rates.
Panels can run a few milliseconds faster at higher speeds though so maybe it's a trade off.
Looks like there's about half a frame of lag running in 120Hz mode.
That's pretty awesome and once again, this might save a few milliseconds in panel latency making it even lower.
I was really curious about BFI though.
When I tested BFI on an LG CX OLED, it added a full frame of latency.
And as you can see here, it's about the same half a frame.
So that's really interesting.
Not does the Tink 4K offer BFI for displays that don't have it built in,
but it might be a better choice for gaming than your current panel's BFI.
That's definitely something you want to test yourself, but this is a really cool option.
Now, I'm sure people are going to run into scenarios where they find more latency,
but I wanted to make sure to demonstrate a typical setup for something like this.
Classic games being scaled to 4K60 or 1080p1.
I think the most important thing to note is that there's no other scaler on the market that
has a feature to latency ratio like the RetroTINK 4K does.
It's impossible to have a perfect product, and even the awesome RetroTing 4K has things about it that I wished were different.
And the first, of course, is price.
In a perfect world, this thing would be $99, just like in a perfect world, everyone would be flying first class everywhere they went.
But the fact is,
this is an expensive product to make, with chips that cost more than any other gaming scaler out there, including the other upcoming 4K scaler.
Well, Mike hasn't determined the exact price yet, it'll definitely be under $1,000 and he's hoping to get it as low as possible.
The next thing I'd like to see is an HDMI 2.1 input that allowed for 4K60 Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision.
Now, that's equally as unrealistic as asking for a cheap 4K gaming scaler, but that does
pose a few issues that you'll have to work around.
First, if you have a Dolby Atmos compatible surround sound system, you'll either need
to run your devices through the AVR first, then into the Tink 4K, or just get a cheap HDMI audio extractor.
This will allow you to send atmos to your AVR and video to your TV.
Next, what if the devices you're connecting sometimes output 1080p and other times output 4K?
I think the best example of this is my 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player.
I want 1080p 24 Blu-ray as running through the Tink to allow for 96p with BFI,
but I'd also like to pass 4K content through to my The TINK can't do that.
The resolution it could accept is 1080p60 on the HDMI input side.
But an easy way around this is to just use an HDMI matrix switch.
This would allow you to choose if a device outputs directly to your TV, or first through the TINK 4K, and then to your TV.
You could also use an HDMI Matrix switch to send audio to one device and not the other,
however, those are a bit pricey for just audio extraction.
And the last thing I would have liked to see is an anti-aliasing filter.
While the M cable is mostly snake-oiled, peddled by YouTubers who are paid to shill it, it does have some excellent use case scenarios.
Imagine if I could implement that type of technology to fork I'd be willing to bet it would even improve 1080p from non 4K,
Xbox, and PlayStation releases.
Who knows, maybe eventually added that to another firmware update.
Unlike my other ideas, at least this is actually feasible.
So that's it for now, an overview and introduction to the best scaler I have ever used.
I'll continue to do live streams demoing new features,
but definitely subscribe to Digital Foundry, My Life in Gaming, Game and Wobbling Pixels for some much more detailed analysis.
Also, please keep an eye on RetroRGB.com as we'll let you know the moment the Tink 4K goes on sale.
And if you liked what you saw here, please consider supporting the channel.
possible.
The monthly support services are what keeps all the videos,
podcasts, and the scenes research going, but also just using affiliate links to buy the same stuff you were
going to buy anyway at the same price is also a massive help.
Thanks a lot for watching, and I'll see you next time.
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