The colour palette for the C64/128 is fixed in firmware 1.11. It also includes support for NES Lumacode! Unfortunately c0pperdragon has had to cease sales on all Lumacode products until 2025
The good and the bad. I missed getting his latest firmware by 2 days update before my LumaCode board shipped. Glad I was able to get *any* board though.
Very nice! I ordered the lumacode-boards for all my retro stash after your last video, and now I need to update my OSSC as well. Thanks for the explanation and video capture of the menus on how to actually get the signal nice and sharp.
DVI can carry audio. It’s not part of the spec so we call it “enhanced DVI” but the HDMI device on the other end is none the wiser. 1.5 or earlier OSSCs with didn’t do audio either whether you got the HDMI or DVI version. The only difference was that you needed assemble your own DIY OSSC kit for HDMI back then since the creators didn’t want to run afoul of HDMI licensing. Neither DVI nor HDMI OSSCs supported audio until we got new firmware with a mod board from Borti4938 (Peter Bartmann). Obviously, they rolled the upgrade into 1.6+ versions of the OSSC when they also started selling them preassembled with physical HDMI ports, but it was never tied to that port. You really could get an HDMI OSSC with no audio before they started selling 1.6.
That said, my OSSC is DVI (1.5) with Borti’s upgrade board and the new 1.8 LumaCode modifications. Instead of using a DVI to HDMI dongle I use a long, braided, DVI to HDMI cable. As long as I never disconnect the DVI end I never even have to think about it being DVI. It is for all intents and purposes an HDMI unit.
This and your prior videos are actually the first demos of lumacode I've seen so far. Very awesome! Wonder if there is any way the audio could be digitised along with the video? That would be amazing.
I literally subscribed to you when you NES video came out, anticipating this video, and even shared that one around… only to see this as “recommended” instead of in my subscription feed. Sure enough: I wasn’t subscribed even though I’m 1,000% sure I subscribed before.
The OSSC does crop the top and bottom of the image in 5x mode but I doubt it will cut off anything useful. I deliberately used Wizball at the end of the video as it draws outside of the standard C64 border and nothing got cut off. 2x mode on the OSSC can also be used if users want the whole image
Do you know if LumaCode can be run through an AV switcher? For example if I wanted to have multiple digitizer modded consoles hooked up to a switch which then outputs to the OSSC - would that work okay? I’m sure it would for a dumb mechanical switch but I’m really interested in integrating this with my Extron matrix switches I am already using.
From what I've found LumaCode is very susceptible to external interference. It may work if you use good quality shielded cables but I can't say for sure
I made some changes on my device and now I have HDR, VRR, 1440p, and the Shadow Mask effect, which is cool. However, I haven't quite figured out the new HDMI VIC functionality yet. Whenever I change it, the HDMI output starts acting strangely. Do you know what the HDMI VIC is supposed to do?
It's a compatibility feature rather than a feature feature. From the junkerhq wiki: Default HDMI VIC Selects Video Format Identification Code (VIC) which is indicated on HDMI AVI Infoframe for preset modes which do not have VIC specificed. Can be used to work around devices (switches/displays) that do not accept default VIC (0) indicating unknown mode. 0-31: VIC value. Try setting 2 (480p60) with problematic sinks. [default=0]
@@TheRetroChannel Thank you for your reply. I'll look forward on junkerhq. Another thing I perceived, was the green LED. Now it does not stay on all the time, but blinks. It just stay on at the test screen.
I have those machines but they are not supported. Every machine (or video IC) requires a custom digitizer board and c0pperdragon has not made one for the TED.
Hi, I built one of your rf modulators and installed it in my 1986 breadbin 64 with longboard 250425. It improved composite video, but there is a lot of colour smearing at the s-video output. I tried 2 different tv, 2 different cable, and 2 different psu, but all of them had the same effect. What did I do wrong, and what should I check for?
Hmm ok. Double check the component values are correct in the chroma path - they are the two resistors on the left side of the board, and the 3 capacitors and 2 resistors nearest the transistor in the middle of the board. If everything is correct, then you could try removing the 330pF capacitor
@TheRetroChannel I crosscheck component values with an empty pcb I had. All of them were fine. I removed the 330pF capacitor and it made screen so blurry so I installed it back. I noticed something odd, I'm using a lcd tv for testing, and sometimes it detects the output of 64 as black and white, not colour. I have an oscilloscope, so you can tell me the things I could check. Also my transistors are 2n2222A, could this be the problem?
The 2n2222a is the same as a 2n2222. First thing to check with the scope would be the chroma output. It should be around 300mVp-p with the machine powered on and s-video connected (I assume you're using the svideo connector and not the C64 din connector?). You can measure it at the top side of R1. Btw, if you use discord, there's a link to mine in the video description.
Am I correct in concluding that Lumacode will not be coming to the N64 because it's only suited to low-res & low-colour depth outputs (which the N64 would exceed)?
Is that additional signal the only difference between old on OSSC and new one? What wonders me is why the jailbars are no longer present. BTW. Do you have by chance workig upper head for C128? Mine have that flexible support broken.
Doing the wire mod does disable the 2nd LED on the OSSC. Its functionality is restored on the v1.8 boards, but apart from that there is practically no difference. There are no jailbars as the video (Lumacode) is grenerated by the VIC-IIe digitizer. The OSSC or RGBtoHDMI is required to decode (and scale) the Lumacode signal. And no, no spare drive heads sorry.
@@TheRetroChannel Thank you for your reply. At first i thought that VIC-II-dizer just encodes analog signal from VIC-II, (thus my surprise) but it seems i was wrong.
@@TheRetroChannel No spare heads? I meant a head with only upper one working and lower one bad, unless it's possible to move coils between them. I think i saw such one in your video about fixing 1571, but if you don't have it anymore (lower bad, upper good), it's fine. I'm going to mod my OSSC to according to your video, although i have V1.6. I wonder if i would find out about lumacode feature if not for your video. Pleasant, educational and useful stuff you're making here.
Oh yeah, that drive went towards fixing another (I didn't do a video about that repair). But I can say there is no way to swap the heads themselves between upper and lower.
The washed out color palette is not so nice. Hopefully therell be an update. Thanks for the video that this is now possible with the Ossc. Wouldve missed it 😮
The colour palette for the C64/128 is fixed in firmware 1.11. It also includes support for NES Lumacode! Unfortunately c0pperdragon has had to cease sales on all Lumacode products until 2025
The good and the bad. I missed getting his latest firmware by 2 days update before my LumaCode board shipped. Glad I was able to get *any* board though.
Are you talking about the OSSC firmware? You need to update that yourself
@@TheRetroChannel No, the LumaCode firmware. Sorry for the confusion.
I think that's the cleanest, most jail bar free, C128 screen I've seen. Love this.
That LumaCode output is so impressive in how clean it looks! It looks so perfect that it might as well be coming out of an emulator.
Very nice! I ordered the lumacode-boards for all my retro stash after your last video, and now I need to update my OSSC as well. Thanks for the explanation and video capture of the menus on how to actually get the signal nice and sharp.
Nice. Just don't forget to save those profiles
Northern Hemisphere view. That's gold Jerry, Gold!!!!
Thanks Bania
DVI can carry audio. It’s not part of the spec so we call it “enhanced DVI” but the HDMI device on the other end is none the wiser. 1.5 or earlier OSSCs with didn’t do audio either whether you got the HDMI or DVI version. The only difference was that you needed assemble your own DIY OSSC kit for HDMI back then since the creators didn’t want to run afoul of HDMI licensing.
Neither DVI nor HDMI OSSCs supported audio until we got new firmware with a mod board from Borti4938 (Peter Bartmann). Obviously, they rolled the upgrade into 1.6+ versions of the OSSC when they also started selling them preassembled with physical HDMI ports, but it was never tied to that port. You really could get an HDMI OSSC with no audio before they started selling 1.6.
That said, my OSSC is DVI (1.5) with Borti’s upgrade board and the new 1.8 LumaCode modifications. Instead of using a DVI to HDMI dongle I use a long, braided, DVI to HDMI cable. As long as I never disconnect the DVI end I never even have to think about it being DVI. It is for all intents and purposes an HDMI unit.
This and your prior videos are actually the first demos of lumacode I've seen so far. Very awesome! Wonder if there is any way the audio could be digitised along with the video? That would be amazing.
alright, thanks for showing the way!
v1.11 firmware was released today (16 July).
I literally subscribed to you when you NES video came out, anticipating this video, and even shared that one around… only to see this as “recommended” instead of in my subscription feed. Sure enough: I wasn’t subscribed even though I’m 1,000% sure I subscribed before.
Shouldn't the top and bottom borders be "thicker" with a PAL system? Your example C64 and C128 screens look more like NTSC.
The OSSC does crop the top and bottom of the image in 5x mode but I doubt it will cut off anything useful. I deliberately used Wizball at the end of the video as it draws outside of the standard C64 border and nothing got cut off. 2x mode on the OSSC can also be used if users want the whole image
@@TheRetroChannel Good to know. Thanks.
Do you know if LumaCode can be run through an AV switcher? For example if I wanted to have multiple digitizer modded consoles hooked up to a switch which then outputs to the OSSC - would that work okay? I’m sure it would for a dumb mechanical switch but I’m really interested in integrating this with my Extron matrix switches I am already using.
From what I've found LumaCode is very susceptible to external interference. It may work if you use good quality shielded cables but I can't say for sure
@07:10 I'm confused Balena Etcher is also available for Windows ... so what is your reason to use a complete other program?
12MB vs 172MB installer.
I use Win32DiskImager although annoyingly I have to quit google drive otherwise it freezes.
@@TheRetroChannel Ah ok so the Win32 installer is way smaller. OK got it.
Amazing work, video, and product! So you think there will be an upgrade where you can save the settings, or did I miss that? Thanks for sharing
You must have missed it. I saved the settings after setting up the 128
@@TheRetroChannel oh, will have to rewatch and give it another thumbs up! Thanks!
I made some changes on my device and now I have HDR, VRR, 1440p, and the Shadow Mask effect, which is cool. However, I haven't quite figured out the new HDMI VIC functionality yet. Whenever I change it, the HDMI output starts acting strangely. Do you know what the HDMI VIC is supposed to do?
It's a compatibility feature rather than a feature feature. From the junkerhq wiki:
Default HDMI VIC
Selects Video Format Identification Code (VIC) which is indicated on HDMI AVI Infoframe for preset modes which do not have VIC specificed. Can be used to work around devices (switches/displays) that do not accept default VIC (0) indicating unknown mode.
0-31: VIC value. Try setting 2 (480p60) with problematic sinks. [default=0]
@@TheRetroChannel Thank you for your reply. I'll look forward on junkerhq. Another thing I perceived, was the green LED. Now it does not stay on all the time, but blinks. It just stay on at the test screen.
Do you know if it works with the Commodore 16 or Plus 4 series? Do you have either one of those you could test it on?
I have those machines but they are not supported. Every machine (or video IC) requires a custom digitizer board and c0pperdragon has not made one for the TED.
@@TheRetroChannel oh ok. Thanks for the update. Cheers.
Hi, I built one of your rf modulators and installed it in my 1986 breadbin 64 with longboard 250425. It improved composite video, but there is a lot of colour smearing at the s-video output. I tried 2 different tv, 2 different cable, and 2 different psu, but all of them had the same effect. What did I do wrong, and what should I check for?
V1 or V2?
PAL or NTSC?
@@TheRetroChannel V2 and PAL
Hmm ok. Double check the component values are correct in the chroma path - they are the two resistors on the left side of the board, and the 3 capacitors and 2 resistors nearest the transistor in the middle of the board. If everything is correct, then you could try removing the 330pF capacitor
@TheRetroChannel I crosscheck component values with an empty pcb I had. All of them were fine. I removed the 330pF capacitor and it made screen so blurry so I installed it back. I noticed something odd, I'm using a lcd tv for testing, and sometimes it detects the output of 64 as black and white, not colour. I have an oscilloscope, so you can tell me the things I could check. Also my transistors are 2n2222A, could this be the problem?
The 2n2222a is the same as a 2n2222. First thing to check with the scope would be the chroma output. It should be around 300mVp-p with the machine powered on and s-video connected (I assume you're using the svideo connector and not the C64 din connector?). You can measure it at the top side of R1.
Btw, if you use discord, there's a link to mine in the video description.
Am I correct in concluding that Lumacode will not be coming to the N64 because it's only suited to low-res & low-colour depth outputs (which the N64 would exceed)?
Correct.
Is that additional signal the only difference between old on OSSC and new one? What wonders me is why the jailbars are no longer present.
BTW. Do you have by chance workig upper head for C128? Mine have that flexible support broken.
Doing the wire mod does disable the 2nd LED on the OSSC. Its functionality is restored on the v1.8 boards, but apart from that there is practically no difference.
There are no jailbars as the video (Lumacode) is grenerated by the VIC-IIe digitizer. The OSSC or RGBtoHDMI is required to decode (and scale) the Lumacode signal.
And no, no spare drive heads sorry.
@@TheRetroChannel Thank you for your reply. At first i thought that VIC-II-dizer just encodes analog signal from VIC-II, (thus my surprise) but it seems i was wrong.
@@TheRetroChannel No spare heads? I meant a head with only upper one working and lower one bad, unless it's possible to move coils between them. I think i saw such one in your video about fixing 1571, but if you don't have it anymore (lower bad, upper good), it's fine.
I'm going to mod my OSSC to according to your video, although i have V1.6. I wonder if i would find out about lumacode feature if not for your video. Pleasant, educational and useful stuff you're making here.
Oh yeah, that drive went towards fixing another (I didn't do a video about that repair). But I can say there is no way to swap the heads themselves between upper and lower.
Hi do you offer services to do that mod to a ossc?
No sorry
The washed out color palette is not so nice. Hopefully therell be an update. Thanks for the video that this is now possible with the Ossc. Wouldve missed it 😮
Yeah the palette should be fixed with the next OSSC firmware update
2.5mm? Do you use powered IEMs? That's the only reason I have those plugs around.
Thanks for showing all the troubleshooting.
They were probably in a random box of parts that I've picked up over time
You think they could also do the same for the XRGB-Mini ? I don't really need to be buying another Upscaler ?
The Framemeister? No chance
Sadly my OSSC lasted about 2 weeks before it gave up the ghost while Playing Ultima IV on the Amiga 500 😩
Ouch
How come this video is in 4:3?
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@@TheRetroChannel Didn't get the notification until I got off the phone. My life is in shambles now 😢
You're forgiven, this time