If you're serious about upscalers, then you'll already be aware of the amazing RetroTINK 4K. You might even own one, in which case you can stop reading this and return to enjoying your vintage consoles in super-crisp 4K resolution, you lucky person.
However, if you've either struggled to get hold of a RetroTINK 4K or have been put off by the premium price, then you'll be pleased to learn that RetroTINK creator Mike Chi has just launched a cheaper alternative called the RetroTINK 4K CE.
Built on the same hardware and firemare framework as the original (which has been rebranded as the RetroTINK 4K Pro), the RetroTINK 4K CE "delivers the same outstanding quality and performance you’ve come to expect—now at a more accessible price point."
Costing $475 (compared to the $750 being asked for the Pro variant), the RetroTINK 4K CE benefits from the "mature, polished firmware", which has been evolving alongside the original model. It also offers the same dazzling array of inputs, including SCART, S-video, composite, RCA, HD15 VGA, S-video, DV1 and TOSLINK Audio.
You also have access to features such as CRT Simulation, HDR and the ability to scale and crop your image.
So why choose the more expensive Pro over the CE? Well, despite sharing many of the same features, the cheaper version does miss out on some aspects, mainly due to the use of a weaker FPGA chip.
Here's the rundown, as supplied by RetroTINK:
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No Rotation Support
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Input Width Limitations: Maximum input source horizontal width is limited to 2048 pixels. (This does not affect MiSTer or other super-resolution sources decimated to a lower effective resolution).
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De-Interlacing: Linear motion-adaptive de-interlacing only without advanced sensitivity controls; no bob field offset adjustments, no edge-adaptive interpolation. First order field differences only, enhanced motion detection using second order field differences not possible.
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Inverse Telecine: No support for inverse 3:2 to de-interlace telecine content or to reconstruct 24 fps sources from 60i and 60p. No support for inverse 2:2 for PAL content and reconstructing 30 fps games output in 480i.
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No IIR Blur Support: Horizontal softening can still be accomplished by using cubic, Lanczos or bilinear soft interpolation filters.
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BFI: Basic BFI insertion of black whole frames only. No alpha bending or colored insertion.
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S-Video: No enhanced S-video support. Regular SDP decoder only.
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XBR Smoothing: Not included.
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NTSC Composite Video: No 3D comb filtering. Notch and 2D modes only.
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Auto-Phase Adjustment: Continuous background auto-phase is not available (auto console sample rate detection is still included, but users will need to calibrate and save the phase to their profile during first use). On demand auto phase (by pressing the button) is still supported.
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OSD Color Depth: Reduced color depth for the banner image from 11 to 6 bits.
"Some of these features may return in the future through firmware updates due to system-level optimizations, but as always, we encourage purchasing the RT4KCE based on its current capabilities," says the RetroTINK site. "The CE does not, and never will have, any extra features with respect to the Pro (aside from the snazzy light-colored case and red PCB)."