UPDATE (10/21/2017): A Redditor asked me to check how the mCable handled the WiiU's Wii Mode when set to 480p. The results were great. Photos of 480 mode have been added. They are listed as an update following the original Wii Analysis.
Preface:
Preface:
 |
| The Box it Came In |
When I was a kid, I used to
imagine what the future would look like. Nothing too out there, just the usual
stuff. One of the big things I remember looking forward to was the idea of the
flat screen TV. When I finally got one, it was a pretty amazing moment. I came
home from Costco, beaming obviously, with a brand new 20 inch Vizio. The
resolution was 1080i/720p. It was only about 3 inches thick. Even back then, it
was not top of the line, but I didn’t care. It was mine and I had bought it
with my own money. I had officially entered the future.
A future that, as I soon
learned, made the past look very ugly. The first thing I did when I got home
was hook up my PS2 to the new Vizio. Right away I noticed a problem. The games
looked terrible. This couldn’t be right, I thought. There needed to be
something I could do to improve the picture. As the years went by, I purchased
various products in the hopes that they would make my old games look good
again. I had moderate successes but have never really been pleased with the
solutions that I found.
Enter the mCable. After seeing a
thread on Neogaf, I figured that this might be the silver bullet I had been
waiting for. I searched online for reviews of the cable but found very few of
them. Worse still, the ones that I did find (though well done) focused almost
entirely on the benefits that one could get while playing current generation
games. Nowhere did I see images of what the cable could do for PS2, or even
PS3, games. It was clear that in order to get the information I was looking
for, I was going to have to actually buy the expensive mCable for myself.
The following review is here to
help add to the overall knowledge of what the cable is capable of. It is not as
in-depth as something that would come from the brilliant minds at Digital
Foundry, but I have done my best to craft a thorough exploration of the cable’s
performance as it relates to a variety of titles from multiple generations.
This review was conducted using the following equipment:
1)
mCable Gaming Edition (the new black version
available directly from Marseille’s Network Inc.’s website)
2)
40 inch UHD TV – Samsung UN40JU7100 in Game Mode
with post-processing options turned off.
3)
PS2 Slim hooked up via Official PS2 Component
Cables.
4)
OSSC – Open Source Scan Converter used to help
the PS2 output a 480 progressive HDMI signal. The OSSC was connected to the TV
using the official PS3 HDMI cable and the mCable for comparison.
5)
WiiU hooked up with the official WiiU HDMI cable
and the mCable for comparison.
6)
PS3 Slim (first revision) hooked up via the
official PS3 HDMI cable and the mCable for comparison.
7)
Disney WOW Bluray Disc was used to calibrate the
TV before testing the mCable to try and mitigate any drastic color, contrast,
or brightness differences.
8)
Rock Band 3 for the PS3 for testing video delay.
9)
Samsung NX300 Camera w/16-50mm OIS lens was used
to photograph the TV’s screen.
10)
Sega Nomad hooked up via OSSC and HD Retrovision
Cables
11)
N64 w/ RGB mod hooked up via OSSC and HD
Retrovision Cables
An analysis of each set of
games will follow the included pictures. Each picture may be right-clicked in
order to see a full-sized version. It should also be noted that the choice of
games was very deliberate. I tried to include mostly “middle of the road
graphics” titles. The mCable, after all, is most likely best suited for games
that have not aged well.
The mCable:
The
mCable that I reviewed was purchased directly from Marseille’s website. It is
the newer black gaming edition that seems to not yet be available from 3rd
parties. The cable is available in 3 sizes. There is a 3-foot cable that
is 120 dollars, the 6-foot cable is 130 dollars, and the 9-foot cable is 140
dollars. I purchased the 9 foot cable and after tax, I spent about 150 in
total. Thankfully, the shipping was free.
The
cable comes in a nice box with a window flap. I wonder if that means that their
hope is for this the cable to show up in stores. I hope it does. It’s a neat
piece of tech. The cable itself seems to be well made and does not feel cheap.
Installation is fairly easy. The cable comes with two ends which must be
plugged into specific ports. Unlike traditional HDMI cables, there is a side
specifically for your TV and for your output source. Other than that, there is
also a USB cable attached to the TV side that must be plugged in to power the
processor built into the cable. In short, set-up is a breeze.
According to the website, the cable offers the following
improvements:
·
Contextual anti-aliasing: removes jaggies
without noticeable blur.
·
Contrast
and detail enhancement: increase perception of depth, sharpness and contrast.
·
High frame rate support: support frame rates up
to 1080p120.
·
Sub-1ms lag: game at your dreamed speed.
Display Lag:
Though
I know it’s not the best way to test video lag, the only option I have
available is Rock Band 3’s calibration screen. The official guitar actually has
auto-calibration tools, but they don’t seem to play nice with my 4K TV +
Soundbar combination. I think it’s because the TV has its own audio delay
setting and it’s conflicting with Rock Band 3’s calibration system. In order to
get this to work, I had to use the calibration’s manual mode while having my
TV’s audio delay set to zero. Afterwards, I turned the audio delay on my TV
back on and then manually added the extra delay back into Rock Band 3. I know,
it’s hardly ideal, but at least it gives a very general look at what kind of
video lag we might be seeing.
With
all that said, according to Rock Band 3, the video delay I’m getting from the
TV via the PS3 and the official PS3 HDMI cable is approximately 60ms. While
using the mCable, the video delay is approximately 70ms. So, there is a 10ms
difference based on my very basic test.
Color, Brightness, and Contrast:
As
stated in the equipment section, I used Disney’s Wow disc to calibrate my TV
after plugging in the mCable. This was done to mitigate any
color/brightness/contrast correction that the cable might introduce. Boosting
contrast is a usually a cheap way to make an image appear to be more crisp and
it’s really for the best if this kind of effect is minimized.
There
are likely to still be some variations, but I tried my best to eliminate these
changes in order to provide for a more fair comparison of what the mCable is
really doing. One last variable to consider is that the camera I used was in
auto-mode and the camera itself introduced adjustments to the images. Obviously,
the off-screen photographs will never accurately recreate the image quality
that one would see in person.
With
all that out of the way, let’s look at what the mCable is capable of.
Scaling and Anti-Aliasing:
I’ve
seen some confusion around whether or not the mCable will scale video content
and my tests have given me a pretty conclusive answer. Yes, it will. In most
cases, the cable took input signals and output them to my TV as 1080 60p regardless
of the incoming resolutions. That said, using non-standard resolutions on the
OSSC did cause the cable to error up. It would be wise to stick to 480p, 720p,
and 1080p signals. Interestingly though, when the PS2 via the OSSC sent out
either a 480i signal or a native 480p signal (on games with progressive scan
support), the mCable did not seem to enable any post-processing effects and
left the image looking as it would have with a normal HDMI cable. When the OSSC
deinterlaced the PS2’s 480i signal, though, and sent it out as 480p w/ bob
deinterlacing, the mCable worked just fine. Needless to say, there is definitely
some wonkiness to be discovered. On the whole, though, the mCable did just fine
with most anything I threw at it.
The
anti-aliasing provided by the cable works. Sometimes it works really well.
Sometimes it looks terrible. What it seems to do is to blur the edges around
polygons. This blurring is able to easily handle very fine aliasing but seems
to struggle when it comes to more pronounced aliasing. For certain games, those
with high resolution but poor built-in anti-aliasing, the cable does a
phenomenal job of cleaning up the image. For games with more pronounced
aliasing, the cable still does a decent job at minimizing the amount of
jagginess in the picture.
Coupled
with the anti-aliasing, the cable also blurs and sharpens the image as a whole.
This blurring/sharpening is probably necessary to retain a crisp image. The
effect reminds me of the kind of over the top DNR (dynamic noise reduction) you
see in some older blurays. There is an almost watercolor/oil painting/waxy look
to the processed image. To be clear, this is not a desirable effect. Depending
on the title, sometimes the effect seems very heavily applied and sometimes
very lightly applied. The sticking point, I think, for the use of this cable
lies in the question of what looks better. Does the heavily processed waxy
image look good? Most of the time, no. Does it, however, look better than the unprocessed
image? Most of the time, yes. Certain titles and consoles fair poorly with the
effect, and we’ll get to that later, but the cable usually provides a more
pleasing, albeit over-processed, image.
N64 Game:
I
don’t have much in the way of N64 games, but the one that I tested was fed
through to the OSSC using HD Retrovision’s SNES cables. The game was output
using the 240p X2 mode. The pair of photos is as follows:
1)
N64 to OSSC to HDMI
2)
N64 to OSSC to mCable
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
N64 Analysis:
What
else can be expected? The N64 may have looked okay in its day. Some even think
it looked great. The unfortunate truth today, however, is that it simply puts
out an ugly smeary image. The mCable’s post-processing effects do little to
soften the blow.
Genesis Games:
The
Genesis games were played off of a Sega Nomad and connected to the OSSC using
HD Retrovision’s Genesis cables. The OSSC output the games using the 240p X2
and X3 modes. Sadly, the mCable didn’t support the X3 240p mode so it was only
tested with the X2 mode. The trios of photos are presented in the following
order:
1)
Sega Nomad to OSSC w/X2 240p to HDMI
2)
Sega Nomad to OSSC w/X3 240p to HDMI
3)
Sega Nomad to OSSC w/X2 240p to mCable
 |
| 240p X2 HDMI |
 |
| 240p X3 HDMI |
 |
| 240p X2 mCable |
 |
| 240p X2 HDMI |
 |
| 240p X3 HDMI |
 |
| 240p X2 mCable |
 |
| 240p X2 HDMI |
 |
| 240p 3X HDMI |
 |
| 240p 2X mCable |
Genesis Analysis:
Unlike
the N64, the Genesis can still push out a nice clean signal when given the
right cables. Unfortunately, the mCable only serves to degrade the quality of the
16-bit pixel art. The OSSC’s line triple mode is clearly the way to go with
older 2D sprite-based titles.
PSX Games:
The Playstation games were all
tested using the PS3’s backwards compatibility. The games were photographed in
both 480p and 1080p modes. I honestly don’t remember which ones are which
because, for most games, the difference was negligible. I even tested the image
quality using the PS2’s emulation and the results were similarly disappointing.
Each pair of photos is presented in the following order:
1)
PS3 to HDMI
2)
PS3 to mCable
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
PSX Analysis:
Like
the two before it, this one is a bust. The mCable ruins the picture quality of
sprite-based titles and does very little to improve the quality of the
polygon-based titles. For Playstation One titles, you’re better off just
upscaling with the PS3 and leaving the mCable elsewhere. That said, even the
subpar performance of the mCable is better than the PS3’s terrible PSOne “Smoothing”
option. Never ever turn that on.
PS2 Games:
The
PS2 games were all tested by having the PS2 output via official PS2 component
cables. The cables were plugged into the OSSC which digitized the 480i signal
and sent out a progressive 480 signal with “bob” deinterlacing. Each pair of
photos is presented in the following order:
1)
Component to OSSC to HDMI
2)
Component to OSSC to mCable
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
PS2 Analysis:
We
finally start to see some silver linings with the mCable. The mCable does a
decent job at smoothing out a few rough edges. A lot of minor aliasing is
corrected and the odd waxy look that is added is not particularly worse looking
than the signal that we were originally getting from the PS2. The only downside
with this is that the marginal improvement comes at a pretty high cost since
the only way to make use of it is by having the mCable plugged into a device
that will convert the PS2’s 480i signal to 480p. If PS2 games are your
priority, I believe that most people would recommend the XRGB Mini Framemeister.
If, however, you already have an OSSC and are getting the mCable for a separate
reason, the marginal improvement on PS2 titles is a nice bonus.
PS3 Games:
The
PS3 games were all tested by having the PS3 connected via the official PS3 HDMI
cable. The PS3’s output was set to 1080p however most PS3 games will only
output a 720p image. The only game tested that outputs in 1080p is Lego Star
Wars the Complete Saga. Each pair of photos is presented in the following
order:
1)
HDMI cable
2)
mCable
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
It’s
really shocking how poorly some PS3 games have aged. I was disheartened when I
saw how ugly Lords of Shadow, Infamous, and Ratchet and Clank had become since the first time I experienced them. What I remembered as being pristine had
become grainy, pixelated, and soft. Thankfully, the PS3 is where the mCable
really started to shine. Ratchet and Clank, Lego Star Wars, and Last of Us saw
very little improvement, but Lords of Shadow and Infamous were revelatory. The
mCable saved the image quality of those two titles. Lastly, Assassin’s Creed
Rogue, which was always the ugliest game ever, remained just as ugly using the
mCable.
Wii Games:
Wii
games were tested using the WiiU’s Wii Mode. They were tested in 1080p only.
There are 2 photos for each Wii game. They are presented in the following
order:
1)
1080p HDMI
2)
1080p mCable
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
Wii Analysis:
There was not much of a change
in the Wii software. There was some minor jaggedness in the image that was
reduced, but on the whole, the differences were nothing spectacular. I think I
would use the mCable with the Wii in the future, but only because it's already hooked up that way and it would be a
hassle to reconnect anything right now.
Wii Games (10/21/2017)
UPDATE:
The same games were re-tested under new conditions. The WiiU is
still outputting via HDMI, but it is now set to 480p instead of 1080p. The
mCable photos are in 1080p due to the mCable’s scaling. The photos are shown in
the following order:
1)
480p HDMI
2)
1080p mCable
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
WiiGames Analysis
(10/21/2017) UPDATE:
Simply amazing. It’s nice to see
the mCable doing some heavy lifting here with the Wii titles. Tatsunoko vs.
Capcom no longer looks as jagged and messy as before. Lots of aliasing has been
minimized and there’s an added sharpness to the overall image. Likewise, the
changes in Skyward Sword are just as positive. It’s a shame that changing the
resolution for just the Wii mode isn’t an option on the WiiU, but with results
like these, it is clearly worth it to go through the annoying menu system in
order to play your Wii titles at their best.
WiiU games:
WiiU
games were tested while the system was set to output 1080p. Each pair of photos
is presented in the following order:
1)
HDMI
2)
mCable
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
 |
| HDMI |
 |
| mCable |
WiiU Analysis:
Much
of what I saw with the PS3 titles was replicated here with the WiiU titles.
They both looked amazing with the use of the mCable. Lego City Undercover, in
particular, almost looked like a Remastered version of the same title. It’s
hard to see it in the picture, but when it was in motion, it was something
special.
Final Thoughts:
It’s
an expensive cable. Does it work? Yeah, it does. Does it work well? For certain
machines and titles, it’s a game changer. Is it worth the money? That’s a tough
one. If you’re a big fan of the PS3/WiiU/Xbox360 generation, and you still like
to go back and play those old titles, then you might want to consider picking
up Marseille’s Gaming Edition mCable. That said, if you don’t mind the way
those games currently look, then you might not really need one. It’s a really
tough product to recommend. Even when it’s at its best, the post-processing
effects that it uses could prove to be divisive. Whether the oil pastel look,
minus the aliasing, is preferable to the alternative is very much a matter of
personal preference and if the look doesn’t appeal to you or turns you off then
there’s not much sense in ever considering an mCable purchase.
For
what it’s worth, even though I very much mind the oil pastel look, I mind the
grainy/blurry/aliased look of the standard output much more. I am glad I
purchased the cable and I will most likely continue to use it with my PS2,
WiiU, and PS3.
