Mike Chi has just added a new mode to the RetroTINK 5x, that tells your TV to enable HDR mode. While this isn’t converting a retro game signal to HDR, it allows for increased brightness on your TV…which means using the amazing CRT scanline emulation recently added, you can have a look that’s more true to the brightness of a CRT. In fact, John Linneman from Digital Foundry was able to test this with 120Hz BFI on an LG OLED and called it a “game changer”. If you have a TV that supports HDR, give this a try right away:
Purchase all RetroTINK Products via multiple vendors worldwide here: https://www.retrorgb.com/retrotink.html
Download the latest RT5x firmware here: https://www.retrotink.com/post/retrotink-5x-pro-firmware-updates
Update RetroTINK: https://www.retrorgb.com/how-to-update-your-retrotinks-firmware.html
Update RetroTINK Mac: https://www.retrorgb.com/update-retrotink-products-on-mac-linux.html
Here’s the full list of changes for this update:
- Added ‘Inject HDR’ option into HDMI menu. This flags the video as HDR10 to expose HDR related settings on compatible TVs.
- HDR mode requires gamma to be increased, while color saturation to be decreased in the Post-Processing menu.
- General improvements in timing closure on the FPGA.
UPDATE – Since the original post, Mike’s released one more firmware with a few tweaks to this one. All other info in this post is still currently accurate:
- Version 2.75 – Added ‘HLG’ option to the HDR injection
- Fixed bug where HDR does not get reapplied if HDM
I’d just like to politely point out that this feature came as a result of Mike testing an upcoming product and applying what he learned to the existing RT5x’s firmware. Mike is absolutely under zero obligation to back-port these features and in fact, didn’t even need to release the amazing 2.0 update as well. We should all be thankful that Mike has continued to update and support products long after their release. Heck, the 2x Pro and Mini launched as perfectly capable products, but Mike pushed those chips to the point we should consider them “maxed out”, not “no longer receiving updates”! I had a feeling Mike would continue to support the RT5x, but would have never guessed to this level…
Tested this and it’s a game changer. With HDR enabled, brightness is increased significantly. When enabling black frame insertion for improved motion clarity, the CX is now almost on par with my CRTs even with scanlines enabled. https://t.co/M3GPdnrCfW
— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) July 30, 2022
