these digital out devices for old systems are great, I’ve a few. but also since the retrotink 5x came out, I’ve just defaulted to running everything through that
great for archival work and probably streamers/video creators, maybe less useful for the general retro enthusiast these days
Yeah, this is convenient for not having to swap cables, but for pure image quality it’s almost certainly better to just run older consoles through a good RetroTINK with upscaling. I bought a (somewhat pricey) Dreamcast HDMI mod that I’ve yet to install, but may just end up using a RetroTINK 4K instead, once that’s released.
But I’m still tempted. Even though I’ve had the HD cables for it since I bought the system.
for pure image quality it’s actually much better. it’s a digital -> digital system, so tapping the digital video data before it hits the ADC. if you want a pin-sharp, perfect representation of what a console produces. then these digital->digital hdmi mods are how you do that.
if you want something that feels more authentic and doesn’t require you to mod all your consoles - retrotink 5x is the way to go
I think the question is, setting aside TV upscaling, whether upscaling to 4K (via the upcoming RetroTINK 4K) and increasing the resolution by 24 times versus 480p or nine times versus 720p is a bigger difference than a raw 720p digital feed.
The RT 4K looks to be very, very good, so I don’t know that the question is necessarily as cut and dry as you say. Especially when official HD cables (the inputs to an upscaler) already produce an image that’s nearly as good.
The HD mod is certainly cheaper and easier to keep plugged in in a modern receiver, though.
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