RetroPie on a 50" Screen

nicksonic

Hi, i'm currently running RetroPie on a 50" 1080p screen and mainly playing SNES games. Things are relatively blocky and I noticed that when I switched between regular TV to the Pi the resolution and refresh rate changed from 1080i/50Hz to 740/60Hz so I forced the Pi into accepting the optimal settings for my TV (hdmi_mode=31). This changed the resolution of the command line etc but didn't alter the appearance of games.

Am I missing something in terms of the optimal settings for my set-up or am I expecting too much given that i'm using such a large screen? Would I be better off getting a smaller, dedicated monitor?

Thanks for your help!

Arcuza

@nicksonic I'm running on a 60" TV. Initially, no complaints about the graphics. When I disabled all video enhancing features to cut input lag (or screen lag actually), it didn't really look that nice anymore. So I enabled scanlines overlay and now I'm really happy with the result. Both authentic and beautiful.

nicksonic

Thanks for the reply.

Would you mind going into a bit more detail about your settings?

nicksonic

Actually I think shaders are where I want to head for, would be interested to hear any other tips for improving the quality of game visuals.

obsidianspider

If I recall correctly, out of the box, Super Nintendo had 256x224 resolution, so it's inherently blocky. I run RetroPie on a 65" screen and I like it pixelated, but that's just a personal preference. I've also stretched everything to 16:9 to fill the screen.

dankcushions

crt-pi shader

davej

@nicksonic said in RetroPie on a 50" Screen:

Hi, i'm currently running RetroPie on a 50" 1080p screen and mainly playing SNES games. Things are relatively blocky and I noticed that when I switched between regular TV to the Pi the resolution and refresh rate changed from 1080i/50Hz to 740/60Hz so I forced the Pi into accepting the optimal settings for my TV (hdmi_mode=31).

hdmi_mode 31 runs the screen at 50Hz. Pretty much all the games are designed to be run at 60Hz so you're better off changing the hdmi_mode to 16 (1080P @ 60Hz).

herb_fargus

@nicksonic video smooth on

nicksonic

Thanks folks, I'll look forward to trying all that out later :)

Arcuza

@nicksonic Since my Sony Bravia KDL-60W805B have very lousy "game mode" result, I have gone back to default settings and using the crt-pi. I only run certain PS1 games and PSP games in 16:9. It's like going back to basic, having it look like it did back in 93. And actually, I now prefer playing A Link to the Past in 4:3. One month ago I ran all settings to get full screen (minimizing black edges)

BuZz

@Arcuza What do you mean by lousy ? Visual or ? lag is great on that green at only ~23ms or so in "Game Mode". If you mean the picture quality isn't great, you should be able to improve it from the settings (I have a tv in the same series and quality seems fine in game mode - under Scene Select on our tvs)

Arcuza

@BuZz By lousy I mean there are color artifacts around high contrast objects. It's like back in the days when you received bad antenna receiving signal on a CRT TV.

If you have "game mode" settings that make picture better, please share. Now I'm using scanlines to obfuscate bad picture.

BuZz

@Arcuza Maybe due to Reality Creation switched on or something ?

My settings are quite simple - first of all I run in 720p video mode. All the processing settings are off on the picture settings and the second page (advanced settings). I think I also tweaked white balance a bit.

Backlight: 4 (light sensor off in settings)
Contrast: 90
Brightness: 50
Colour: 50
Hue: 0
Colour Temperature: Neutral
Sharpness: 55
Reality Creation: off
Smooth Gradation: off
Motionflow: Off
Advanced Contrast Enhancer: Off
Gamma: -1
Auto Light Limiter: Off
Clear White: Off
Live Colour: Off
Detail Enhancer: Off
Edge Enhancer: Off

BuZz

I also use the crt-pi shader. I also fiddle with the above settings now and again (eg if using the Wii over scart)

Floob

@nicksonic Here is a short vid of scanlines and shaders.

I tend to use one or the other to give it a nicer feel, sometimes in conjunction with video_smooth option.

Here is all 3 at once (albeit with a shader that isnt the best example).

nicksonic

Cheers, things are looking a lot better (unsurprisingly).

PetroRie

In your retroarch.cfg add:

video_smooth = true

That did the job for me, I didn't like the blocks at all. This will smooth it out and it will look pretty nice. Just try it out. BTW I'm playing on a 40 inch tv (Sony KDL-40EX500)