Mike Chi has released a new firmware update for the RetroTINK 4K scaler that added an HDMI auto-crop feature which works with MiSTer’s Direct Video mode. That means after you game is loaded, you can simply hit the “AUX1” button on the remote to auto-scale to full-screen. Even games like Star Fox that had a black border on CRT’s will work this way!
Sorg has also updated the main MiSTer code to allow core developers to send metadata through the HDMI port that tells the scaler what core is loaded. Once each core is updated, this will allow fully automatic auto-scaling. While the current “AUX1” solution is near-perfect, not needing to touch the RT4K remote at all for auto-full-screen is even better! Check out the quick video above to see a beta demo and there’s more info below the links:
Firmware Update: https://consolemods.org/wiki/AV:RetroTINK-4K#Firmware_Updates
Support Sorg & MiSTer: https://www.patreon.com/FPGAMiSTer
Purchase the RT4K: https://retrorgb.link/retrotink4k
This is a massive feature upgrade, for both the MiSTer and RetroTINK 4K. I mean, even without this feature, setting MiSTer to Direct Video and connecting it via an HDMI cable gets you a perfectly clean, full-digital scale of the core’s original resolution. I think most people underestimated the difference that makes, but everyone’s who’s seen it in person has been impressed. The only downside is before this firmware update, you’d need to manually scale each core’s resolution how you’d like it and save a profile for each. Not really a big deal, but it’s still something you’d have to do once each time.
…but now with this feature, it’s a one-button-solution! Plus, once all cores have the proper metadata added, you get the same results simply by loading the core. Also, since it’s using the RT4K’s sharp bilinear scaling, you don’t really need to worry about integer-scaling when going to 4K. Of course, you can still create custom profiles tweaked however you’d like and I’ll keep using my razor-sharp, 10x profiles for my favorite games. But overall, I’m just going to let the RT4K do the work for me and spend more time enjoying my games!
This firmware also has a few other cool tweaks that are noteworthy. Here’s the full list of changes and if you’d like more info on the RT4K, please check out my introduction video below:
- Added MiSTer DV1 support for auto-decimating and auto-cropping video output from cores
- Enabled Auto-Cropping for HDMI® input sources
- Scanlines and masks are automatically rotated correctly when the video is rotated
- Added additional LCD effects including RGB and BGR subpixel layouts
- ‘Wide Tolerance’ sync mode added for sources with poor sync signals such as NEOGEO and Atari 2600/7800
- 1080p60 -> 1440p120 CVT-rb fixed
- Fixed file handling to ignore ‘.’ files introduced by Mac OS X
- Improved audio compatibility with some displays and Atomos capture devices
- Various bug and stability fixes
