Type: Decimate
Setup required: No setup
Cost and availability: Very high cost to benefit, nearly impossible to find
The Genius Box II, successor to the original Genius Box, was made and sold by MIMO Enterprise until their supply started to dry up around 2018. It is an upscaler AND downscaler that can handle a number of PC resolutions including XGA (1024×768) and 480p/VGA (640×480). Similar to the Ultracade uVC, its downscaling prowess may appeal to owners of Candy Cab Arcades that can display the downscaled resolutions EGA (640×384, 24KHz) and CGA (640×240 15KHz ie 240p).
As it decimates lines to achieve 240p, line-doubled games can be ‘restored’ back to 240p with every asset falling into place on each scanline. The picture controls shift the pre-downscaled image so that line-doubled assets can divide perfectly to each scanline and look just like the source material. Line-decimation does not translate well for non-line-doubled content, particularly for vertically-scrolling 2D games with repetitive patterns like wall tiles, which results in shimmer. The picture controls are adequate enough for minor adjustments, but when m extraneous stretching is required, can wreak havoc on the scaling. The Genius II has an image auto-adjust feature but it does not perfectly scale the horizontal axis, and if it is not manually scaled to perfection, it can also produce horizontal shimmer for 2D side-scrolling games. As decimation strips away resolution, movies and detailed 3D games can have ‘jaggies’ on linear outlines, and it is recommended to output 480i in these scenarios, which unfortunately the Genius II cannot.
Most scalers have some degree of lag, but the the Genius II’s biggest pitfall is variable lag that can drastically jump from 0, to 1, to 2 frames at somewhat regular intervals. 2 frames of lag may not hinder some players, but if a button press occurs when the lag suddenly increases, it could potentially break the enjoyment of a timing-sensitive precision platformer. Even if not bothered by lag, the inconsistent frame buffer manifests in the downscaled video as frame skips and/or screen tearing.
The Genius II was a versatile product for its time when there were very few devices that could downscale to 240p; once revered as a top-tier downscaler, but now highlights the growing pains that lead us to todays exceptional downscaling choices like. The Genius II is rare, expensive, and not highly recommended compared to other readily available scalers like the GBS Control.