MiSTer FPGA Forum

I was meant to post this some months ago but got caught up in other things, and now with dual RAM not being needed anymore (at least for now) and the PWM cores outputting 24 bit color, Direct Video doesn't seem to be much relevant anymore. But I'm posting this anyway because this still could help some people.

The objective of this post is to present a way to be able to connect your Mister to 2 or more video outputs by using Direct Video and to easily switch between them without having to keep connecting and disconnecting the cables. For example, normally if your Mister have a dual RAM build and is connected to a LCD TV, if you wanted to play on a CRT TV you'd have to unplug the HDMI cable from the Mister, then connect a HDMI-VGA adapter to the HDMI port of the Mister and a VGA-component cable to the adapter and to the TV. However, with the method below you'd just have to load an alternative mister.ini and press a button on the HDMI switcher, no cable swapping necessary, since they will all be already connected.

This is only my personal experience, so there might be other methods to achieve the same thing that I'm unaware of, I'd love to hear input from everybody.

The way to be able to have more than one form of output with Direct Video is using a combination of HDMI-VGA adapters and HDMI switchers connected to one another and alternative mister.ini files, each configured with the desired video mode. The switchers must have at least 2 outputs, which seems to be pretty rare, the only ones I found were bi-directional "1 in 2 out - 2 in 1 out" switchers. The preferred switcher imo is this one, since it has a USB-C port for connecting it to an external power source, because without using an external power source you can't connect two or more switchers together, limiting how many video outputs you can have: this one from Vention (The "8K HDMI 2.1" model)

The required materials are (more detailed information on all the products I tested at the end of the post):

• HDMI cables
• Vention "8K HDMI 2.1" switcher
• HDMI-VGA adapter (refer to Kuro Houou's spreadsheet for the best models)
• Optional: MikeS Y/C adapter, RF modulator, composite cable, VGA-component cable, coaxial cable

So, how to do it?

• Connect the HDMI cable coming from the Mister to the input port of the switcher, and connect the HDMI cable that goes to the TV and the HDMI-VGA adapter to the outputs of the switcher, also connect the USB power cable from the switcher to a power source (wall outlet, a USB port on the Mister, etc)

• Configure the main mister.ini and the alternative ini files for direct video and the output types you desire (HDMI, RGB, component, etc)

• Any time you want to switch from HDMI to CRT or vice-versa, just load the correspondent ini file and then press the button on the switcher, that way you'll be able to easily cycle between the various output modes.

• You can connect multiple HDMI switchers and HDMI-VGA adapters together, creating multiple levels of adapters. Here's an example of a simpler setup and a more complex (and a little convoluted) one:

I tried two other models of HDMI switchers/splitters but didn't get good results. The full list of the models I tested were:

1 -

Vention "8K HDMI 2.1" switcher - worked perfectly using an external power source.

2 -

Vention "New HDMI 2.0" switcher - worked perfectly with the HDMI and one HDMI-VGA adapter, but when I connected 2 or more HDMI-VGA adapters the image started having signal degradation. So, if you just want to especifically connect the Mister to a LCD TV through a HDMI cable and to a CRT TV through component/composite, this switcher will be good enough.

3 -

Vention "1 in 4 out" HDMI splitter - this would be the perfect solution since it would output to a modern TV and a CRT at the same time, but I got no video signal for the analog outputs whatsoever, and couldn't get HDR and VRR to work on the LCD TV.

Came here only to say thank you, this guide helped me a lot, I was able to follow it and now I can switch between LCD and CRT monitors.

Allejo wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2024 8:31 pm

normally if your Mister have a dual RAM build and is connected to a LCD TV, if you wanted to play on a CRT TV you'd have to unplug the HDMI cable from the Mister, then connect a HDMI-VGA adapter to the HDMI port of the Mister and a VGA-component cable to the adapter and to the TV.

Is this only for dual RAM setups? I’m using a single RAM build and normally connect my Mister to a CRT TV via VGA from the IO board, but I can also hook up an HDMI to a modern TV and have both displays showing the MiSTer at the same time.

16Bittt wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2024 10:28 pm

Allejo wrote: ↑Thu Apr 11, 2024 8:31 pm

normally if your Mister have a dual RAM build and is connected to a LCD TV, if you wanted to play on a CRT TV you'd have to unplug the HDMI cable from the Mister, then connect a HDMI-VGA adapter to the HDMI port of the Mister and a VGA-component cable to the adapter and to the TV.

Is this only for dual RAM setups? I’m using a single RAM build and normally connect my Mister to a CRT TV via VGA from the IO board, but I can also hook up an HDMI to a modern TV and have both displays showing the MiSTer at the same time.

Its basically for any Mister not using its build-in analog out. As you noted its pretty trivial to switch or even use simultaneously one analog and one HDMI video source with an analog I/O board. However there are many reasons why you wouldn't have analog out, don't want to pay/attach an I/O board, want to use dual RAM, or want to use 24-bit analog video without the PWM cores or the newest I/O boards.