OSSC and Line 5x

Thursday may have been Thanksgiving but it felt like Christmas. Turns out my DVDO Edge is capable of doing OSSC Line 5x with NES and SNES after all! Well, mostly.

I never had any trouble using Line 5x with my other consoles (Genesis, PS1) or with my supergun, but Line 5x with NES and SNES remained incompatible with my setup. I played around with sample options and timings, none of which I ever understood, and I never really got anywhere. Turns out, trying different cables even at this point still proved effective. Before I always used a cable like this. Then I tried another cable, which looked super-plain (so I doubt it was advertised as 4K-ready), and to my surprise, SNES Line 5x now worked with my PC monitor (remember, my chain is: source > DVDO Edge > Monoprice Item 5369 + 2029 > HDfury (VGA out) > monitor).

The "bad" cable according to its specifications has a "10.2Gbps data throughput." I don't know what the specs are of that first cable that worked, but as I was looking for other cables on Amazon, I found one of the cables that my brother had given me and the description of that one says "Supports the latest HDMI 2.0b Standard - 4K, UHD, 3D, Audio Return Channel (ARC), Category 2 Certified,18 Gbps / 600 MHz Refresh Rate, 2160p, 1080p, 48 Bit Deep Color, Ethernet and is backwards compatible with earlier versions."

Takeaways:

1. If SNES in Line 5x doesn't work, but most of your other consoles do, keep trying different cables anyway until you get SNES Line 5x to work. 
2. You want at least a high-speed cable. Apparently that's not just a marketing term; it actually means 18 Gbps. More than enough for standard 1080p, but the OSSC demands yet more. (By the way, ultra high speed cables are much more expensive at $30 for a 6-foot cable, but they boast 48 Gbps.)
3. No need to replace all of your cables (though it couldn't hurt). For this purpose, the only HDMI cable that really matters is the one going from the OSSC to the display (or in my case, the DVDO Edge).

I had less luck with NES in 5x mode with the OSSC going to the DVDO Edge hooked up to a 2009-ish Bravia. The dropouts, while not super-frequent, were still enough to make me switch back to Line 3x. SNES on the other hand was solid.

And for some reason, Tetris & Dr. Mario on the SNES didn't work with any of my setups at Line 5x. I suspect the game has a weird resolution; you can notice on the title screen that the overscan is different.


UPDATE: I found some new things and posted them at shmups. Long story short, to get NES and SNES Line 5x to work without drops, switch from Line5x format 1920x1080 to 1600x1200 and back to 1920x1080. I'd suggest leaving those settings for 5 to 10 seconds before switching.

Or better yet, just get the 48 Gbps ultra high speed cable. I haven't had any problems with it so far.

No more 32-bit apps on iOS 11... and that's OK?

Today I bought the remaining Cave game I didn't already have from the App Store at full price. And I can play it because I'm still on iOS 10.3.3.

Am I curious about iOS 11? Sure. But my iPhone 6s is pretty old now, and eventually my phone will be too old to run the latest iOS anyway. So why not stop at the latest iOS that allows you to run both 32-bit and 64-bit apps? Heck, I can even play Aka to Blue on my 6s as well. And I can listen to it all through my headphone jack, which now all smartphones are getting rid of.

If I'm really hard-up for 32-bit apps on a tablet, I'll just get an iPad with Retina display (iPad 4) which cannot run iOS 11, so I don't have to worry about "too-high" firmware when buying used.

Will I ever buy a new phone? Sure... in another 10 years or so. Then my iPhone 6s will be used like an iPod Touch.

Weird-ass dream (2017-11-18)

Had a dream where Subway had a deal for five subs for five dollars. That is a good deal!