Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?

[Dongzo]

@mitu said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

The image is so washed out I can't see properly the output of tvservice -s, though I can distinguish a [NTSC 4:3] in the string - can't see what resolution is shown there though.

Can you run uname -r and post the output ? There are constantly improvements in the Raspbian provided kernel/firmware, so I'd like to check what version are you running.
Can you try with disable_overscan=1 in your config.txt ?

I tried the disable_overscan=1 and it still squished. I was able to get a more clear picture of the resolution.

ran uname -r 4.19.83 v71
ran tvservice -s -r NTSC 4:3, 720x480 @ 60.00hz, progressive.

[mitu]

@Dongzo said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

ran uname -r 4.19.83 v71

OK, that's a recent enough kernel.

ran tvservice -s -r NTSC 4:3, 720x480 @ 60.00hz, progressive.

I think that may be a problem, I doubt your CRT can do 480p (few CRTs do, at most you can do 480i). Can you post your whole /boot/config.txt file ? (or the config.txt file you see when you put the sdcard on your PC, it's the same file).

[Dongzo]

@mitu said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

Can you post your whole /boot/config.txt file ? (or the config.txt file you see when you put the sdcard on your PC, it's the same file).
https://pastebin.com/cw3XQ0Tq

[mitu]

@Dongzo The config file seems ok, although tvservice reports 480p, it seems like the encoder only outputs half of the vertical lines so the results should be 240p.

[Dongzo]

@mitu said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

@Dongzo The config file seems ok, although tvservice reports 480p, it seems like the encoder only outputs half of the vertical lines so the results should be 240p.

I really appreciate all the help you are offering me, I thank you for that.

it seems like the encoder only outputs half of the vertical lines

Does that mean that it something wrong with how RetroPie interacts with the Pi4 ?

[mitu]

@Dongzo said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

Does that mean that it something wrong with how RetroPie interacts with the Pi4 ?

No, that's just the explanation for why tvservice reports NTSC 4:3, 720x480 @ 60.00hz, progressive, but it actually outputs 240p.
The video settings in /boot/config.txt are applied by the Raspberry Pi firmware before RetroPie starts, Emulationstation will use the resolution set by the operating system.

Did you use the Raspian Lite version or the Desktop version when installing ? I see in your screenshot that you have started the Desktop - are you running Emulationstation from within the Desktop session ?

[Dongzo]

@mitu said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

Did you use the Raspian Lite version or the Desktop version when installing ?

I ended up using the full Raspian version.

are you running Emulationstation from within the Desktop session ?
I have set RetroPie to start from boot and it does the same thing as when I boot into the desktop.

[Dongzo]

@mitu

So I found out that when I set "hdtv_mode=16" my resolution goes to 720x240 which is why half my screen is gone. I read somewhere that if i disable "dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d" my screen goes back to 720x480 with no flicker to RetroPie or the desktop, but when playing games causes screen tearing. So it looks like something with "dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d" isn't letting me set "hdtv_mode=16" when its enabled.

[mitu]

@Dongzo said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

So it looks like something with "dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d" isn't letting me set "hdtv_mode=16" when its enabled.

That's too bad, because the Pi4 needs this enabled in order for the GPU to provide 3d hardware acceleration. I don't have a composite cable around, but I'll get one and test this to see if there are options that can be set.

[Dongzo]

@mitu said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

I don't have a composite cable around, but I'll get one and test this to see if there are options that can be set.

I would really appreciate that a lot. Is that a setting issue that I have or just something that is because of the new pi4 hardware not compatible fully with RetroPie?

[mitu]

The only settings are the ones in the config.txt file, RetroPie just picks up the resolution and runs with it. I've noticed that in the screenshot you posted on the RPI forums the A/V ports in the front are not connected - do you have another set of ports in the back where you plugged in the composite cable or do you use an adapter/converter ?

[Dongzo]

@mitu

I use a av switch that connects to the back of the tv. I have tired without the switch and i have also tried the front ports all with the same effect of the screen splitting in half

[mitu]

I have reproduced your problem - it seems to happen only for the 'progressive' video modes. If you set sdtv_mode to 0 (i.e. Normal NTSC), you'll get a fullscreen image.
Seems to happen for KMS/DRM applications, the DRM connectors cuts the vres in half when a progressive mode is requested.
I'll commend on your topic on the RPI forums, before looking into opening an issue.

EDIT: it looks like you've already have a reply on your topic. I've tested the workaround and it works, though I think there might be some problems running the emulators.

[Dongzo]

@mitu Thank you for all the help, and I will try your suggestion and report back with the results. Thanks again for all the help, and its great to see that it has been acknowledged but a raspberry pi engineer.

[Dongzo]

@Dongzo said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

,

So I was able to get it to get full screen with setting it so "0" with "fkms" enabled. But I'm just back to my original issue with the screen flickering in retropies UI, the desktop UI and in mame games because its running in 480i. Setting it to "16" is supposed to enable 240p if I'm correct which takes me back to the split screen. So from what I understand from the reply over at the raspberrypi forum is that progressive is an issue with the firmware on CRT screens? So the only option as of right now is to stick with the flickering UI and set the games in mame to run in a progressive lower resolution so I don't have a stroke from the flickering screen ? Is that possible to do? Will telling mame to run a game in 240p override the desktop always pushing 480i ? Sorry for all the newbie questions but still learning.

[mitu]

The suggestion in the forum to get 240p was to either

• use xrandr to add a 740x480 video mode and switch to it, in the desktop environment.
• add the following fragment at the end of cmdline.txtfile

video=Composite-1:720x480@60

Note that cmdline.txt is on the same folder as config.txt, but make sure that you add that at the end of the existing line. This worked for me and got the video mode to 240p.

EDIT: here's the contents of cmdline.txt - remember it's all on one line

dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 root=PARTUUID=93bcc6bb-02 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline fsck.repair=yes rootwait quiet plymouth.enable=0 vt.global_cursor_default=0 video=Composite-1:720x480@60

[Dongzo]

@mitu said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

use xrandr to add a 740x480 video mode and switch to it, in the desktop environment.
add the following fragment at the end of cmdline.txtfile

I have never used xrandr before so that's something I will have to learn. So I did go into my cmdline.txt to add that code and made sure its all on one line. I also left sdtv_mode to 0. With those 2 settings retropies UI goes to 240p. But when I start an emulator like mame or retroarchs config it goes back to my screen splitting in half. Is that because I still need to the 740x480 video to the desktop mode?

[mitu]

@Dongzo said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

Is that because I still need to the 740xx480 video to the desktop mode?

Probably, there's also a bug in RetroArch that picks the wrong resolution.
You can edit the retroarch.cfg configuration file from /opt/retropie/configs/all and set the resolution manually

video_fullscreen_x = 740
video_fullscreen_y = 480

[Dongzo]

@mitu said in Retropie's Ui 240p? what am I doing wrong?:

RetroArch that picks the wrong resolution.

video_fullscreen x and y was set to 0. So I changed it so 740x480 and I'm still getting a split screen when I launch mame or retroarch. Ill learn how to use xrandr to set the desktop to 740x480 this weekend and ill report back on the results. Thanks for all the help.

[mitu]

@Dongzo It's probably because you're using X.org. Try ditching the desktop env and run Emulationstation directly from the console.