Pre-orders for the first 100 units are now open on the GBS-Control All-In-One project. These pre-orders are for fully completed units, that include a power supply, pre-programmed GBS-Control, clock generator and an HDMI output all pre-installed; This is a turn-key solution for someone who wants to jump right into all the features the GBS-C project offers.
Get yours here for around $125 plus shipping, due to ship this month: https://zerohimself.com/collections/all/products/gbs-c-aio
Plans are in place to open source the full kit and custom AIO board after the first initial run of production has sold. The custom AIO board itself offers quite a few features as well. Let’s take a look:
The switches in front allow a few options to be toggled. First, the HDMI switch toggles the output between the dsub connector and the HDMI output board. The circuit is designed to completely cut the signal from the HDMI ADC when set to the off position, which ensures there won’t be double load put on the output. As with all 8200 installations, its recommended that you only connect one output at a time, regardless of the switch position!!!
Next, the YPbPr / RGBHV switch toggles the resistance of the output signal, should you decide to use a “VGA to Component” cable on the analog output side, instead of the HDMI out (good for connecting to RGB monitors and consumer grade CRT’s for downscaling). This switch is to tweak performance to match the signal output, but there’s no safetey issue at all – The worst thing that can happen if you set this switch wrong, is the quality is slightly less than it could be.
As a note, you’ll need to make sure you’ve selected “VGA” in the GBSc wifi interface for the HDMI port to work. This is the default setting and you’d only need to worry about that if you’ve manually changed it to output component video.
Lastly, the “Off / STRIP” switch toggles the sync stripper for the SCART input built into the side. It should be safe to leave on at all times, but I usually only turn it on if there’s a problem:
While the GBS-C AIO can support SCART, Component Video and VGA (RGBHV or RGBs) inputs, you can only use one at a time! Like the outputs, you shouldn’t leave more than one connected at a time either, as the inputs will interfere with each other.
Overall performance seems really good and is very close to the OSSC in generic mode. These captures on the left side were taken via the GBS-C AIO’s HDMI output, with no post-processing done other than (nearest neighbor) scaling and cropping. The pictures on the middle and right are the OSSC set to both generic (top) and optimal (bottom) so you can compare quality. Click for full-sized:
Here’s another capture, this time utilizing the GBSc’s manual zoom and scaling feature to allow the image to fill the 1080p screen vertically – A feature not available on most other retro gaming scalers! Even when put next to the OSSC’s 5x optimal timings mode, it performs very respectably!!
I also wanted to test this new GBS-C AIO kit against the captures I took when creating my video on the GBSc and the quality is noticeably better:
I’m not sure if the difference is a result of the quality kit + ADC, if I did the 8220 video fixes wrong, or if there’s just a wide swing in quality between different GBS products. All of the above are extremely plausible and all three might even apply!!
Overall, the GBS-C AIO is an excellent choice for people looking for the most fully-featured GBS-Control solution! My conclusion in the original overview / review still stands: I love the GBS Control project, as it allows one device to do a very wide variety of things. If you’re looking for a quick, turnkey solution for GBSc, this “AIO” version has everything you’d need!
For more information on the GBS Control project, please check out my full video on it below, which includes lag test results. Spoilers: It’s fast 🙂
Also, you might want to check out the main GBS-C open source software page…and feel free to buy the creator Rama a coffee if you’re a fan of the project.
Donate to Rama: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ramapcsx2
GBS Control Page: https://github.com/ramapcsx2/gbs-control
