My experience upgrading my Nintendo Switch to the OLED model

I decided to upgrade to the OLED Switch as a Christmas present to myself, allowing me to also give my cousin my old Switch. On eBay there are plenty of listings for just the OLED Switch tablet itself, and I got one with a screen protector already supplied. PROTIP: You can find plenty of parted-out Switch OLED Buy It Now listings on eBay thanks to the compatibility of the accessories of the OLED Switch with the original model.

Turns out I needed to replace the screen protector anyway because it was smaller, crooked, and it had a piece of dirt or something on the lower left corner that was actually big enough to create its own little air bubble... and when I removed the screen protector with the help of this tutorial I discovered that the mark from the dirt wouldn't buff out, all because the idiot couldn't bother to actually turn on the screen after applying the screen protector. But that's okay; I bought a pack of iVoler screen protectors for the OLED Switch a month earlier. They fit perfectly and were 100% idiot-proof. Fantastic brand and great value; the included frame for lining up the screen protector is just genius, and I still have three more full screen protectors left! And what's more, the usual tiny marks and streaks are invisible with the screen protector applied.

The account transferring on the Nintendo side was idiot-proof as well, even when one of my accounts was a Japanese account. All my saves across all accounts transferred survived. I need to especially note three things:

1. There's no getting around redownloading when moving your micro SD card to the new OLED model because your games will be deleted. I had over 300 games and I split the redownloading into two or three days.
2. There's no need to connect your micro SD to your computer at all; while the OLED Switch will make you redownload your games, it won't touch your album. Well, I'm 90% sure of this, anyway. After transferring accounts but before putting my micro SD in the OLED Switch, I copied my album to my computer. Then I put the micro SD card into the OLED Switch so it'll play nice or whatever, and then loaded the micro SD card back in my computer to copy, but the files were already there.
3. I had a hell of a time removing my SanDisk micro SD card from the OLED Switch, but the GameFAQs boards came through. I just needed to get a barbecue stick with a pointy end (I couldn't find any toothpicks) and I dragged the micro SD card out by grabbing hold of the notch, which thankfully that much was exposed at least.

So after playing around with the OLED Switch with Tetris Effect Connected, the game I'm most familiar with, I can say that the incremental upgrade was worth it. On paper, the slightly larger screen real estate didn't seem like much, but it's noticeable. The OLED screen did seem not as bright, though maybe that's because I wasn't used to such deep colors. Be sure to turn off Auto Brightness if you don't care about battery life.

What else did I need to buy in order to give my cousin a complete original model Switch? Just another right Joy-Con and wrist straps. It was my sudden realization that I already bought doubles of most other Switch hardware:

• I wanted a second dock to go in my RLSOCO Carrying Case (more on that later), so a while back I got a parted-out bundle consisting of the OLED Switch dock, HDMI cable, and power adapter. The second dock was neat to have and I figured I might as well get the newest one, and the power adapter was useful when playing the Switch in handheld mode, as my first one was already used in my dock. But I traded my OLED Switch dock with my brother's original since the OLED Switch dock barely fit in my carrying case. Anyway I didn't really need the dock or the charger because I already had the excellent Genki Covert Dock. They've since then made a Covert Dock Mini which I guess you should buy instead.
• I already had a Left Joy-Con from a failed attempt at a Saturn d-pad mod, so I got a second red Right Joy-Con that only cost me about $25 shipped.
• Joy-Con wrist straps were about $8 shipped, though as of this writing I don't believe they've even been shipped yet...

Back to the RLSOCO Carrying Case. It's the best case out there in my opinion, but while the OLED Switch dock was a tight fit in the dock compartment, the OLED Switch did not fit at all in the Switch compartment, so it's little wonder they redesigned the case. And I was just about to purchase the new one, but I actually didn't need to!

• I have no need for the original dock with my Genki Covert Dock, so I moved the OLED Switch to the dock compartment, which fits.
• Filling the rest of the space in the dock compartment, my Hori Split Pad Pro & D-Pad Controller (L) fit there nicely.
• And lastly, the Hori Compact Playstand fits perfectly in the original Switch compartment. (I love that thing; it's cheap, small, and works with Vita and 3DS too!)

I've also solved the problem of Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers turning on accidentally in transit (providing you are also using the RLSOCO Carrying Case) thanks to Nintendo's colossal failure of making every button capable of turning the controllers, and possibly the Switch itself, back on. 

1. Before putting your Switch in a bag, put it in Airplane Mode. You can do this quickly by holding the Home button and selecting it.
2. De-sync your controllers. I forget if you only need to do this once, or with every controller you have, but maybe this doesn't even matter because...
3. ...the real trick is putting something firm, yet squishy, and long but not too long where your controllers would be, specifically between where the the shoulder buttons would be if they were, oh, I don't know, stored upside-down. I like "Silicone Flexible Cable Wire Protector," or what I would just call cable strain relief, though apparently that's a different thing that didn't yield the result I wanted.
4. Lastly, put your Joy-Cons in the comfort grip and put the whole thing in the case upside-down! Put your Pro Controller upside-down too. It'll fit snugly in the RLSOCO Carrying Case with the little pouch. By putting the controllers upside-down, the only buttons that would ever be activated are the shoulder buttons, but the strain relief -- sorry, "silicone flexible cable wire protector" protects it from ever touching the carrying case.

And now that I've written all this, I'm sure the Switch 2 will come out any day now...

TESmart HDMI switcher quirks

 Back in October 2021 I purchased a TESmart 16 Port HDMI Switch 4K UHD 3840x2160@60Hz HDMI Switcher Box with RS232 LAN Port Support HDCP 2.2 × 1 straight from the manufacturer; as it was near Halloween I got a coupon, but at that point it was already cheaper than its listing on Amazon. How could I say no?

So I got it, and it does switch automatically. I'm still not sure if the switching works on a priority system like the DVDO Edge, and I'm still not exactly sure how to stop it from auto-switching and then turn the auto-switching back on. 

There were some quirks, so I'll just repost my findings from the shmups forum.

Jefferson wrote:

Just bought the TESmart 16x1 switch 4k60 switch. So far I really like it (after I disabled the beeping). I have tested the following:

N64Digital

DCDigital

PS1Digital

RetroTINK 5X Pro

All work fine, with the exception of CEC not working on my PS1Digital unless I power cycle the switch. CEC works fine for the N64Digital.

I got mine too the other day! Straight from the manufacture's website (ordered 10/23; arrived 11/10), and with a Halloween coupon code, about $50 cheaper than Amazon, and that's before Amazon taxes.

Seems great except for one major issue: no audio out of my PS4! The same PS4 settings give me audio when going from PS4 straight to the Dell monitor (it's not an actual TV, but I can't see why that would make a difference). PSVR doesn't seem to have anything to do with it. PS3, Xbox 360, and Switch work fine. :?

I tried the various YouTube folklore home remedies like unplugging the PS4 and monitor and waiting before trying again, and playing around with the audio settings; switching from HDMI Linear PCM to anything else just gave me two different flavors of loud and potentially speaker-damaging noise. The PS4 said it recognized 7.1 and gave me the option to check 5.1, but checked or unchecked, I'm still not getting audio.

Audio from the controller works as usual, and it's neat that I can choose to get all audio from that little port (not just chat), but since I work with headphones on, I kinda don't want to play with headphones on too.

Switching ports on the TESmart and swapping out my older HDMI 1.4 cables for my fancier HDMI 2.x cables didn't help either.

And although I do have an HDMI extractor that lets me do PS4 > PSVR > HDMI audio extractor (plus yet another power outlet used) > RCA to DVDO Edge (and setting the DVDO Edge to output Stereo instead of HDMI) > TESmart switch... I really don't want to do that every time, just for the PS4, especially when everything else is switched automatically.

Help?

---

EDIT: I hooked up the full setup of PS4+PSVR > TESmart (with mClassic) to my older Dell monitor that only has VGA and DVI with the good ol' Tendak and that works, so there you go. Tried it again without the mClassic and the mClassic didn't affect compatibility.

---

EDIT 2: Today I chained some HDMI cables to an actual TV (i.e. not a PC monitor) in another room and I get sound with the PS4! So I dunno why this TESmart scaler doesn't like to play nice with my Dell S2716DG.

---

EDIT 3: Today's crazy chain combo that works on the troublesome Dell S2716DG (optional components in italics):

PS4+PSVR > TESmart > mClassic (requires USB power) > Tendak HDMI-to-VGA adapter > Toodles T-SLG (VGA scanline generator) > VGA-to-HDMI adapter (requires USB power)

Picture quality still looks good, and yay, I can have fake scanlines on 1080p sources again!

---

EDIT 4: I get PS4 audio through the TESmart with my Genki ShadowCast!

---

EDIT 5: I noticed I would occasionally get no audio playing certain consoles, and while I'm not sure if it's the TV or the TESmart, here's what I do now to absolutely got-dang-guarantee I get audio:

I try to make sure the console is the LAST thing I power on. I always set the TV input first, wait for the "no input detected" screen, then turn on my USB-powered stuff (RetroTinks, gscartsw and gcompsw, HDMI splitters and whatnot) along with the TESmart, wait for the RT5X blue screen, and finally turn on the console.

---

EDIT 6: This gets me audio on a TV, although restarting after a firmware update made the audio glitchy until I put the PS4 to rest and then woke it up:

PS4+PSVR > TESmart > HDMI splitter > HDMI splitter

Although it's probably the case that only one HDMI splitter is necessary.

AutoHotkey ideas

AutoHotkey scripts using three keys (but the first one should be Shift): https://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/61408-hotkeys-composed-of-three-keys/

RAlt + Q, W, E, R, T, etc

LAlt + Y, U, I, O, P, etc

End + Q, W, E, R, T, etc (with End::Send {End} ; Make the release of End produce an End keystroke.)

Home & End::

Back to the Dreamcast

I was having trouble updating my GDEMU firmware; my Dreamcast was in a DreamCase and that meant a different power supply and an SD card extension. I'm only 50% sure I used the listed compatible SD cards (including the one that my games were on), so after putting my Dreamcast back in its original shell with its original power supply (not even with resistors added) and using the somewhat well-known SD card popular with GameCube homebrew, I was finally able to update my GDEMU firmware.

Why was I so insistent on updating the GDEMU firmware?

Turns out, the GDEMU freezes on certain sections, apparently for loading certain sections too fast. I can reliably get Soulcalibur to freeze by going to Museum > Exhibition Mode > Yoshimitsu; the game will freeze during the fade to black after Yoshimitsu's demo ends. I also learned the hard way that House of the Dead 2 will freeze after beating the game, right before you get to save your game, losing any progress you may have made along the way. I can confirm setting the GDEMU load speed to 600 fixes the Soulcalibur problem, and hopefully all other freezing problems. My characters in Phantasy Star Online 2 still loaded from the GDEMU much faster than from disc at 600, so I may just keep it at that speed.

I don't know if the GDEMU is getting any more updates, but if there are any, I'll need clear access to the SD card slot (no extensions), and I'll need to watch out for LED patterns, which not only means the DreamCase is out, but also a good number of 3D-printed trays are out as well.

Other things I've learned when swapping cases:

Generally helpful vid here. 

Not all replacement shells are equal. (I will link to a future Twitter post with pictures)

You can't do a case swap for the Broadband Adapter. The hole is a little wider and all the 3rd party shells I've seen are only big enough for the standard modem.

If your Dreamcast turns off after a while, especially shortly after turning it on, cleaning the power pins with alcohol may or may not help, but bending them towards the back of the console most certainly will. HOWEVER, THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS TO CHECK IF YOU REATTACHED THE SMALL RIBBON CABLE FROM THE CONTROLLER PORT. MY DUMB ASS KEEPS MISSING THIS!

SD card compatibility here (TLDR: up to 32 GB for SDHC; with SDXC being unsupported), and the best, largest, cheapest officially compatible SD cards here. Format in FAT32, with 64kB clusters.

Screws needed: Lists from iFixit, or just buy the screw sets here.

 Or to put it another way:

• 9 black medium screws
• 4 for the bottom of the Dreamcast
• 5 for the motherboard
• (VA0 units only) 1 for the fan 
• 9 short brass screws
• 2 for the power supply
• 3 for the GDROM drive
• 2 for the power button switch
• 2 for the motherboard
• 6 long brass screws
• 4 for the controller port
• 2 for modem
• (VA1 and maybe VA2 models only)
• 2 tiny black screws for the fan

Numbers for Genki Shadowcast and my new laptop

Lag testing

TV: Toshiba 43LF421U21 43-inch Smart HD 1080p TV - Fire TV, Released 2020

Monitor: Dell U2913WM

PC: Alienware 15 Notebook m15 R6

Nintendo Switch game with clock: Tetris 99

In-game clock displayed on TV: 00:00:56:65

In-game clock displayed on monitor (full screen while capturing): 00:00:56:58

I think I've determined that my TV in game mode has two frames of lag (need to find those pics). But the photo I took to test Shadowcast lag shows that even when I'm recording, the lag on the monitor is shorter than on the TV!

File sizes

1 hour and 20 minutes of raw 720p60 capture (default settings) by Genki Shadowcast (rounded down): 9.00 GB

Encoding with MeGUI

• 2000 kbps quick & cropped... barely passable quality (don't do this)
• 5000 kbps placebo... lossless, but takes forever (don't do this either)
• 2000 kbps / Advanced Settings: Encoding Mode: Automated 2pass, Bitrate 2000 kbps, Very Slow, Target Playback Device: PS3... very very good, damn near lossless, and although it takes a while, it won't be an overnight affair. This is the one to use, or if you're even more impatient, try the next-fastest preset at a higher bitrate. More info on presets here.

Comparing file sizes...

• 5 minutes, 39 seconds @ 720p60 capture (default settings)
• raw capture: 644 MB
• 2000 kbps... 97.0 MB (15% of original size)
• 5000 kbps... 218 MB (33% of original size)

Windows 11 annoyances, fixed

• Not getting the full 2560x1080 resolution of my ultrawide monitor (Dell U2913WM) through HDMI, from the laptop to the monitor? 
  
  At first I couldn't just select it from the menu; I had to open that little popup bubble on the right-corner that said, "This device could perform better" or something like that, where it took me to the NVIDIA settings and I was able to choose it.
  
  That was all well and good until I got my Dell D3100 dock and went back to my multi-monitor setup. Moving the HDMI from the back of my laptop to the dock, I couldn't get ultrawide no matter what, so I plugged the HDMI cable into the back of the laptop again and I got it.
  
  
• Can't change from the default Microsoft apps to view pictures and videos?
  
  The old trick of "right-click > Open With > Choose Another App > Always use this app" doesn't work anymore. Neither does the other way Microsoft wants us to use.
  
  Credit to Amdkt7 for this one. If you want to change your default app for images (e.g. IrfanView), Apps & features, scroll down to Microsoft Photos, scroll down and hit both the Repair and Reset functions, and then immediately do that old way of right-click and Open With to choose IrfanView. Similarly, if you want to use Media Player Classic for videos, you would go to Movies & TV and do the same thing.

Guspaz's pearls of wisdom

Just documenting them here before I lose them forever. More added as they come!

On Sabrent, Anker, and power adapters:

I've been quite happy with my Sabrent SSD, a field in which they've rapidly built themselves a good reputation, but when it comes to power adapters, I normally first look for Anker. If you need a 10-port charger, Anker has a 10-port charger that does 2.4A per port, shared for 12A total: https://us.anker.com/collections/chargers/products/a2133

It has PowerIQ so it should support full speed charging/power on anything you plug into it.

On high-speed HDMI cables and certification:

(NOTE: I'm going to use "HDMI 2.1" in this post, treat it as me saying "Ultra High Speed", meaning specifically 48 Gbps rated cables)

You can't use cat5e anything with HDMI 2.1, and there are no cheap yet effective solutions. The only way to do longer HDMI 2.1 runs is fiber optic, and those cables all cost a fortune.

I've been quite happy with Cable Matters' 15 meter (49.2 feet) HDMI 2.1 cable, which currently sells for $150 CAD.

HDMI 2.1 devices are very picky about cables, there are so many stories out there about people buying HDMI 2.1 cables and then not being able to do 4K120 over them because the cables aren't good enough. It's a major problem, especially for these fiber optic cables, and with HDMI 2.1, pretty much any cable longer than maybe 10-15 feet must be fiber optic to deliver the full 48 Gbps.

There are three things you should do when buying an HDMI 2.1 cable:

1) Only buy a cable that uses the specific wording "Ultra High Speed HDMI". Don't buy a cable that is labeled only as 4K or 8K or HDMI 2.1 or anything like that. If it doesn't specifically advertise "Ultra High Speed HDMI", ignore it.

2) Only buy certified Ultra High Speed cables. Make sure the cable is advertised as being certified. In the case of the Cable Matters ones, they both list "Certified" in the product entry, and advertise their certified status in the the marketing artwork on Amazon, and in the product description.

3) Once you get the cable, there will be an "Ultra High Speed" certification hologram and QR code on the box. Download the official "HDMI Cable Certification" app for your iPhone or Android phone and use it to validate the hologram. If the hologram is absent or does not pass verification, return the cable for a refund due to false advertising.

I think that if you follow these three steps, you can avoid the vast majority of issues with bad cables that fail to deliver actual 48 Gbps performance.

Bringing my Gefen Home Theater Scale out of retirement

So my DVDO Edge went up in smoke. Or rather, my first DVDO Edge went in smoke... and really, it was just the power supply, which I'm reading is a "common" occurrence (link 1, 2). Since I have a TESmart 16:1 HDMI switcher, the Edge was really downgraded to just deinterlacing and making the OSSC play nice with its more exotic modes: the PSP-specific sampling mode, Line 5x, and 480p/576p proc Line2x.

After waiting so long for the zooming/cropping modes of the RetroTINK-5X Pro, I found the OSSC's PSP-specific mode the superior one all along, and that meant an external scaler again. My long boxed-up Gefen Home Theater Scaler was perfect for this, and it did display the PSP-specific sampling mode just fine (will try 5x and 480p 2x later). 

The box-shaped remote was as crappy as I remembered, with buttons barely registering and making me question if I really needed a new battery. I tried programming a secondhand Chunghop remote and I had some success, although my programmed buttons for Up and Right didn't work. I did get a brand new controller for about $10 so I'll try again with programming.

Then for whatever reason I became interested getting a second Gefen HTS, and it was cheap enough, so I did: 

• Gefen Home Theater Scaler HDMI Untested: $41.36 shipped
• Gefen ITE Power Supply, GT-4201D-05, DC 5V 4.0A, Genuine: $20.46 shipped
• GEFEN RMT-SR-IR REMOTE: $21.90 shipped

Okay, so I should've stopped with just the second Gefen HTS itself. And wouldn't you know it: this second scaler came with its own set of problems:

• The remote didn't work, and without the remote, the second scaler was just a brick. So maybe "untested" really meant broken this time? Well, no. I remembered seeing dip switches under the battery cover, and I also remembered the "Remote" option in the scaler menu. Some searching led me to a PDF of another Gefen Remote, and while the dip switch settings weren't quite the same, I was able to figure it out for my scaler:
1. IR Channel 1: 1: down (off), 2: down (off)
2. IR Channel 2: 1: up (on), 2: down (off)
3. IR Channel 3: 1: down (off), 2: up (on)
4. IR Channel 4: 1: up (on), 2: up (on)
• Turns out this second scaler was stuck looking for Remote 2 and my square remote was set to Remote 1. That meant going through the different combinations of dip switches on the remote until it responded.
• Good news: The firmware of this new scaler was 4.8! Higher than my original one which was 2.2. The menu looked exactly the same (so no new features) except the cursor was highlighted in red.
• Bad news: I saw screen tearing! It went away after I hit Reset on the remote to return to the default settings. I hope that fixed it for good.
• I ordered the 2nd remote (now oval-shaped) before figuring out the whole IR Channel thing, but some good things came out of it:
• The battery was included!
• The buttons are much better; more tactile and responsive.
• The scaler, power supply, and remote complete the set. Or maybe I'll give the old Gefen HTS to my brother so he could enjoy 5x with the SNES or whatever.
• Update: the oval-shaped remote doesn't seem to actually work with the Gefen HTS, and I'm having even worse luck with the brand-new Chunghop remote. What am I doing wrong?
• More IR links for fun and profit:
• Replacing All My Infrared Remotes With Girder 6 and an Android Phone.
• Welcome to the USB-UIRT home page!
• Girder Automation Software
• Configuration of USB IR receiver program (Girder Ver. 3.29b)
• DVDO Documentation

All's well with the Genki Shadowcast... even on Windows

Been seeing a lot of criticism for the Genki Shadowcast, even after the update. All I can say now is, it works great.

The very first time I used it, it seemed to take up all my resources and lag and frame drops were common. Just the other day I tried it and it would crash shortly after launch. All I had to do was navigate to it through the Start Menu > G > Genki Arcade 1.5, right-click, More > App settings, enable all app permissions, scroll down, and click Reset.

Now everything's working as it's supposed to; no lag, no frame drops, and my laptop doesn't slow to a crawl! Honestly, I had no idea Shadowcast had its own capture program (I just backed it on a whim on Kickstarter), but since it captures a respectable 60.xx FPS at 720p, I don't think I'm in the market for a capture card anymore.

Just gotta make sure the source is Full RGB, not limited or automatic. Fine by me as my TESmart prefers Full RGB as well.

Downsides: there certainly is lag (just enough to make rhythm games unplayable if going by visuals alone), and the lag is, of course, worse when actually recording. And the codec doesn't seem to play nice with AviSynth even if the captures do scrub and seek fine in VirtualDub, so I always have to encode in highest XviD settings. Probably for the better; it looks like the frame rate is variable until the re-encode that locks it at a constant 60 FPS.

Endgame Vita & PSTV gaming

My interest in the newest game consoles is still zero, so I'm revisiting the Vita and PSTV. Storage is cheap and plentiful with SD2Vita adapters, but the dream of simply taking your memory card out of your Vita and continuing on the PSTV will have to remain a dream; the bubble trick of keeping similarly placed bubbles across the 10 pages using system icons to preserve icon placement across memory card swaps just never worked for me. That's fine; I didn't want to be greeted with the "rebuilding database" message with every power-on anyhow. 

So I'm just going to get a separate 512 GB SD card for my PSTV and mirror exactly what I have on my Vita. The one fly in the ointment is transferring save data (and I don't plan on keeping PlayStation Plus forever), so thanks to these threads I should be able to copy the save data (located in ux0:/user/00/savedata) directly to/from my hard drive:

• What folder is game save data in in vitashell?
• How to back up your saves with Vitashell (may be deprecated but the comment section should be worth a look)
• Where can i find a comprehensive titleID = name list for the vita?
• BombBloke's Google Spreadsheet of game IDs

A not inexpensive lesson in buying anime

(TLDR: Skip the Honey and Clover DVDs, but do get the Blu-rays.)

Got nostalgic for the last two fansubs I ever downloaded:

• Welcome to the NHK
• Honey and Clover

The budget DVD rerelease of Welcome to the NHK was cheap enough on Amazon, with the whole package coming in at six episodes per DVD and four DVDs. I have to wonder if the original releases were of better quality, but I'm not gonna do anything more about it.

The DVDs of Honey and Clover, however, were far too expensive on Amazon, so I hopped on eBay to check prices there. I saw the entire set for $30 so I had to get it. Then I felt bad because there were actually Blu-rays available, but naturally more expensive; the first half of the series alone was $40. So I thought I could at least be happy that I got the whole series for less than even that.

The DVDs arrived in great condition, and the "book" style packaging was quite attractive. Video quality was as good as you can expect from pre-HD sources. But the truly awful subtitles crushed any enjoyment I could have gotten from it. As this review and this forum post mention, if you hear can clearly hear the surname, you damn well better have that name in the subtitles instead of the given name! Not only is it confusing hearing one name and reading another, but relationships can change, and if and when characters become closer, they'll drop the surnames and call each other by their given names instead. So what what happens when given names were used all along? As a translator, you're boned. As a viewer, you're more confused than you have to be.

Not unrelated: I was almost going to blow a stupid amount of money for the rare, out-of-print physical English manga of Welcome to the NHK, but it's available digitally at both Comixology and Viz. Of course, had I known that it was on Viz from the beginning, I probably wouldn't have gotten it at Comixology first. While the reading experience is equally good on tablets, you want Viz for browser-based vertical monitor for single-page viewing; Comixology can't seem to do single-page viewing on manga other than the cover page. But if you want to view both pages at the same time on a TV, again with a browser, you do want Comixology because Viz enforces this stupid border at the top and bottom of the screen that you can't get rid of. Viz has the border in browser-based vertical monitor viewing, but that almost perfectly centers the image, making it even better than if you had hit the full screen button.

Welp, more money to splurge on the physical complete Japanese-language manga!