WickedHD Video Converter YPbPr to HDMI review: input lag, upscaling and deinterlacing issues

The Goal: zero lag

This device takes YPbPr (component) video and converts it to HDMI. It is a simple signal digitizer,

with no deinterlacing or upscaling applied; it passes the resolution and refresh rate given to it directly to your TV or monitor leaving the display to do whatever upscaling or deinterlacing required. The upside of this approach is that it adds very little lag (I measured at most 0.5ms of extra lag using the PiLagTesterPRO). Think of it as an ultra-budget alternative to the OSSC, especially if your display does a good job of upscaling and/or deinterlacing. Many computer monitors in particular use BOB deinterlacing, so a device like this might be a good way to get YPbPr into your computer monitor, displaying your retro consoles with very low lag, nearly as fast as those long-out-of-production CRTs.

How it performs

It supports 480i/p, 720p, and 1080p inputs, passing them along more or less unmodified. The only consistent issue is that the color space output over HDMI is very dark on my PC monitor (aka black crush). On my TV, however, it looks right, so I suspect it's an issue of using the "video" color space.  Since I intended to use it for my computer, that kind of ruins it for me. 

There's a 2nd problem as well: There's something about the original Xbox video output that cause the signal to intermittently drop out when displayed via this device. It doesn't happen at all during the first 10 or so minutes that it's being used but eventually the screen will briefly go blank. With time the frequency of this starts to go up significantly; once it has been on 20 minutes it happens every couple minutes, making the device useless.

I suspected that it was overheating (the device does get warm) so I strapped a heatsink to the case (no improvement) and also tried taking the cover off (also no improvement).  More likely, it's an issue with the 1st Gen Xbox video output being out of spec, because I have another radically different looking adapter, the ozsc-3, that has this issue.

What's inside

Since I had the cover off I decided to snap some photos so I could identify the chipset and board revision.

The HDMI output comes from the MacroSilicon MS9282N-AVA (also marked N8SKQ 1350).  The spec sheet suggests it does the conversion work too.

There's also a STC microcontroller, an 11L16XE/35I-LGFP44G which has flash memory built in. It seems to have the same instruction set as the ozsc-3 that I tested that also had xbox issues, suggesting that they might run similar firmware, though this device can handle 480i so perhaps this is the better version.

It would be very interesting to see if you could hack this to make it work better. The signal digitization is excellent, with low noise and the right amount of crispness and softness. If it were not for the black crush/color space issue and xbox incompatibility it would be a pretty nice converter. 

All this is so close to being an excellent solution to my needs that I got a 2nd one just to make sure I wasn't suffering from a faulty unit, but it performed identically. 

 How to recognize it in the stores 

These kinds of devices get packaged in all kinds of generic boxes so it's going to be hard to tell what you are getting from the box alone. So pay attention to the device itself . One thing that is somewhat unique is the two status lights in the back (one for power, one for signal). The board itself is marked HY-202-B2-VO VGA&YPBPR to HDMI. There's no VGA port on the board but it looks like there's a spot for it.

The manual also is upfront with how this device works, stating "This converter box is without scaler function and the output resolution is the same s the input one."(typo's theirs).