Retropie on a 4K tv?

Dalrint

So I had been planning to build one of these for a while and kept putting it off for one reason or another, and in the interim I picked up a nice 4K tv. And I was just wondering, is anyone else playing with this on one of those?

How does it look? Is it worth it? I don't mean 'can you play in 4k' I just mean, is the picture still, you know, decent on the large screen? I remember when I used to plug my SNES into my HD tv and it did not look great...

Darksavior

I enable bilinear filtering, scanlines, and I choose "output" instead of "config" so it outputs at 1080p. It's fine. Oh, and enable game mode on your tv or the input lag will be pretty bad.

Dochartaigh

@Dalrint

What looks bad on your TV right now? Like 99% of content out there is barely 1080p (if that, most is well below), so I honestly wouldn't worry about it.

Plus, the most common, and extremely limited source of 4K content right now is providers like Netflix, Amazon and the like. And when Netflix screws up left and right when streaming mere 1080p content to my TV (even when I have an extremely high bandwidth 150mbps internet connection), again, I wouldn't worry about it.

Also keep in mind that the original Nintendo is like 256x240 pixels. Playstation 1 (about the max the Pi can handle) is barely 480i (640x480). 4K is a monstrous 4096 × 2160 pixels...you're going to see all the imperfections no matter what. I still enjoy it on my 60" 1080p TV - especially with CRT scanlines turned on with shaders.

herb_fargus

@Dochartaigh not to mention the pi can't even stream 4k so its kinda irrelevant at this point. (Personally I see 4k as just a gimmick. Give me my retro pixels!)

obsidianspider

I can't comment on the 4K aspect, but I play my Pi 3 on a 65" 1080p tv and it's gorgeous. I love me some sharp pixels.

Dochartaigh

@herb_fargus said in Retropie on a 4K tv?:

@Dochartaigh not to mention the pi can't even stream 4k so its kinda irrelevant at this point. (Personally I see 4k as just a gimmick. Give me my retro pixels!)

Yup ;) and I've always been curious how RetroPie upscales all these games actually. They're really pretty decent at 1080p (especially with scanline shaders turned on). All the "true" hardcore retro guys (i.e. using actual consoles) buy like $400+ upscale boxes to get the best quality they can on a 1080p TV for example (well, when they're not pulling out their 250+ pound CRT TV's of course ;)