MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hi folks.

I am wondering if I have done something to damage my DE-10 Nano when transferring it into my new Ironclad Plus board. Is the 5x Vertical Crop setting when in 1080p, and also video filter brightness changes meant to show on a 240p CRT via the analog VGA out, as well as the HDMI? Even with the VGA scaler completely disabled.

I have the HDMI output going to a HDTV, and the analogue VGA output going to a PVM 20L4 (15khz only CRT, using RGBs). Everything seems to work perfectly - no issues when everything is default. However, when I change video settings that should only be affecting the HDMI output, my 240p analogue output is also affected and the image on the PVM is changing too. For example, when choosing a video filter preset such as 'Faded Tube' which obviously has reduced brightness - the brightness is significantly reducing on the PVM as well as the HDMI TV, and when choosing 5x vertical crop the picture is visibly cropped top and bottom on both the PVM and the HDMI TV.

I am nearly certain this wasn't happening a few months back when I had the regular Mister stack, and others I have asked cannot recreate this behaviour so I'm not sure if I am missing some setting, or if I damaged something on the DE-10 Nano or did ESD damage when installing the Ironclad Plus that could cause this behaviour? It's almost like the VGA scaler is always enabled to reflect setting changes, but in 240p if that makes sense?

The main HDMI resolution is set to 1920x1080p 60hz, and the PVM is receiving a standard 240p analogue signal - the issues only arise when I enable the core specific video settings that should only affect HDMI. This happens across multiple cores - Genesis, NES, SNES, PS1 etc.

Below are my troubleshooting steps tried so far:

• Confirmed the following in the mister.ini:

  • vga_mode=rgb
  • composite_sync=1
  • vga_scaler=0
  • forced_scandoubler=0
  • direct_video=0

• Tested with 2 x different power supplies, 5v meanwell for the regular IO board and a high amperage pico PSU with the Ironclad Plus.

• Tested the VGA output on both the official analogue I/O board and the Ironclad Plus board - same behaviour on both so likely to be DE-10 Nano related I guess?

• Tried 2 x analogue video cables (BNC & MD2) so it's unlikely to be cable related?

• Tried 2 x different SD cards both with fresh installations using MiSTer Fusion and update_all.

• Manually compiled an older (8 months old) mister sd card build and it's showing the same - unlikely to be a recent update issue/bug.

• Made sure both sets of DIP switches on the DE-10 Nano are set correctly as according to the recomended settings here.

Update: from playing around with the video processing filters in the core menus, it seems the only part of them that are actually affecting the 240p output to the PVM is the 'Gamma Correction' section. When you choose different gamma values, the PVM image changes brightness accordingly - maybe this is expected behaviour?

The 5x Vertical Crop is still cropping a few lines at the very top and bottom of the PVM image (but it doesn't zoom slightly like HDMI) - is this also expected behaviour, and I am just losing my mind? lol

Solved: I came across a section of the wiki here which confirms that for CRT usage:

• 'There are some settings which are the same across most of the cores, but they seldom affect the analogue output (eg Vertical Crop)' - I am assuming this means it's possible for the Vertical Crop to affect analogue output in some situations, most likely depending on how much of the overscan is visible in the CRT geometry?

• 'The global Video settings from Video Processing are mostly dedicated to HDMI users, dealing with various image filters. CRT users can however also try and apply the Gamma Correction filters here. - so it appears Gamma Correction does indeed affect the analogue output'

I hope this might be useful to others who come across the same!

AFAIK cropping settings should not affect analog output. However it is up to the developer of the core to add this functionality, so it might happen with some cores.

LamerDeluxe wrote: ↑Sat Aug 05, 2023 10:57 am

AFAIK cropping settings should not affect analog output. However it is up to the developer of the core to add this functionality, so it might happen with some cores.

Thanks! Yeah that's what I had thought alright. The overscan on my PVM is completely visible (I need to adjust the image), so maybe I am noticing it when others wouldn't. The image doesn't change aspect ratio and 'zoom' same as HDMI does, it just loses a few lines top and bottom.