How is the Mclassic?

[Digitalcat]

Hey mates, I was thinking of buying a Mclassic for my switch, since I mostly play it on a 1440p monitor, but as you all of course know unlike a tv these things don't have upscaling chips or anything to make it look any pleasant like on a tv, so Xenoblade chronicles 2 kinda just looks like blurry playdoh smeared on the screen, I mean it does already by default regardless what you use, but I mean more than usual.

But since Mclassic costs about a 100 dollars, I was wondering what everyone else's experience has been with this device, is it any good for upscaling/smoothing images on computer monitors? (Not TV's) or does it barely do anything? Reviews are kinda useless for me since so far I can tell people are hooking it up to tv's and such, and since those already have upscale chips I kinda can't really trust the result. Anyone have similar experiences to what I want to do with it?

 

[Hayato213]

Think you only get 1080p even with the upscaler.

 

[Digitalcat]

Think you only get 1080p even with the upscaler.

Nah, it scales any ress to 1440p at 60fps if the display requests for it, I made sure to check that, maybe the old cable thing they had only does 1080p?

 

[Hayato213]

Xenoblade 2 is 720p when docked, so you get the next highest resolution if you used Mclassic. Frame rate is around 30 I believe.

 

[Digitalcat]

Xenoblade 2 is 720p when docked, so you get the next highest resolution if you used Mclassic. Frame rate is around 30 I believe.

You sure? btw I used the wrong term, shouldn't have used FPS, but Hz, switch always outputs 60hz signal, so according to this chart from Marseille it'll do 720p 60hz to 1440p 50/60hz.

 

[Hayato213]

You sure? btw I used the wrong term, shouldn't have used FPS, but Hz, switch always outputs 60hz signal, so according to this chart from Marseille it'll do 720p 60hz to 1440p 50/60hz.
View attachment 310215

Xenoblade 2 is 720p when docked, and 30fps so you won't get 60 fps when you are playing on a modded unit, Hz is refresh rate no frame rate.

 

[zfreeman]

I wanted to mention 4K Gamer Pro as an alternative. I'm just not sure if it works on 2k screens, or if it's only 4k and up.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-instantly-upgrade-your-nintendo-switch-to-4k

 

[Digitalcat]

Xenoblade 2 is 720p when docked, and 30fps so you won't get 60 fps when you are playing on a modded unit, Hz is refresh rate no frame rate.

I never said HZ is frame rate, hence I said I used the wrong term, I never meant FPS but HZ instead, I know Xenoblade is docked at a internal game res of 720p, I know it runs at 30 fps, however the signal the switch outputs to the display when playing the game or doing anything docked is 1920x1080/60HZ thus it should upscale to 1440p, to verify this start up your switch and open your tv or displays OSD and check HDMI input signal info that is coming from the switch.

I wanted to mention 4K Gamer Pro as an alternative. I'm just not sure if it works on 2k screens, or if it's only 4k and up.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-instantly-upgrade-your-nintendo-switch-to-4k

I saw that, sadly estimated delivery time is august of this year at the earliest, so not really much of a option atm for me, thanks for posting it tho!

 

[Hayato213]

I never said HZ is frame rate, hence I said I used the wrong term, I never meant FPS but HZ instead, I know Xenoblade is docked at a internal game res of 720p, I know it runs at 30 fps, however the signal the switch outputs to the display when playing the game or doing anything docked is 1920x1080/60HZ thus it should upscale to 1440p, to verify this start up your switch and open your tv or displays OSD and check HDMI input signal info that is coming from the switch.

But that doesn't have anything to do with you wanting to run the game at higher resolution, doesn't matter if you output it to a 4k monitor. How you going to upscale it to 1440p when the game docked is 720p, so next highest is 1080p with the mclassic.

 

[Digitalcat]

But that doesn't have anything to do with you wanting to run the game at higher resolution, doesn't matter if you output it to a 4k monitor. How you going to upscale it to 1440p when the game docked is 720p, so next highest is 1080p with the mclassic.

It doesn't scale in-game res, it scales the signal, it's a HDMI passthrough dongle, that takes the 1080P signal the switch sends, and then upscales it/processes it, when playing xenoblade it's not sending a 720p signal to the display it's still a 1080P/60HZ signal, then check the chart in the input/output graph and then you can see it'll scale a 1080p/60HZ signal to 1440p Signal and so on.

None of these dongles do anything with the internal game res, it's not what they can do, they just act as a processer pass through between HDMI signals and than does it's upscaling magic/allgorithms to provide a higher res signal.

 

[emcintosh]

Hey mates, I was thinking of buying a Mclassic for my switch, since I mostly play it on a 1440p monitor, but as you all of course know unlike a tv these things don't have upscaling chips or anything to make it look any pleasant like on a tv, so Xenoblade chronicles 2 kinda just looks like blurry playdoh smeared on the screen, I mean it does already by default regardless what you use, but I mean more than usual.

But since Mclassic costs about a 100 dollars, I was wondering what everyone else's experience has been with this device, is it any good for upscaling/smoothing images on computer monitors? (Not TV's) or does it barely do anything? Reviews are kinda useless for me since so far I can tell people are hooking it up to tv's and such, and since those already have upscale chips I kinda can't really trust the result. Anyone have similar experiences to what I want to do with it?

I used to use a 1440p monitor with the mClassic and was very happy with the results. It does indeed upscale to 1440p on a 1440p monitor (unless your source is already 4K or 120 Hz or interlaced).

Have a look at reviews to see whether you like the effect - you can tell that it's upscaled rather than true 1440p.


I 'upgraded' to one of those implausibly cheap Seiki 4K TVs, and am enjoying the increased screen size, but the mClassic isn't adding as much of an improvement as it's only increasing the resolution to 1080p. This does scale exactly 2x in each axis to 4K, so it's not being blurred. To improve things further I would need to be able to force the Switch to output 30 fps games at 30 Hz rather than repeating frames to make 60 Hz, in which case the mClassic would scale up to 4K. I can do this from my computer, but am not aware of a device that will do it for Switch.
Update: you can get devices that downconvert signals to 30 Hz: https://gbatemp.net/threads/upscaling-games-to-4k-if-60-fps-is-not-possible.614838/

Other 4K TVs may have HDMI 2.1 rather than 1.4 and might benefit from the PhotoFast 4K Gamer + / Pro, which does a similar process to the mClassic, but specifically for scaling 1080p to 4K, even at 60 Hz.

 

[Digitalcat]

I used to use a 1440p monitor with the mClassic and was very happy with the results. It does indeed upscale to 1440p on a 1440p monitor (unless your source is already 4K or 120 Hz or interlaced).

Have a look at reviews to see whether you like the effect - you can tell that it's upscaled rather than true 1440p.


I 'upgraded' to one of those implausibly cheap Seiki 4K TVs, and am enjoying the increased screen size, but the mClassic isn't adding as much of an improvement as it's only increasing the resolution to 1080p. This does scale exactly 2x in each axis to 4K, so it's not being blurred. To improve things further I would need to be able to force the Switch to output 30 fps games at 30 Hz rather than repeating frames to make 60 Hz, in which case the mClassic would scale up to 4K. I can do this from my computer, but am not aware of a device that will do it for Switch.

Other 4K TVs may have HDMI 2 rather than 1.4 and might benefit from the PhotoFast 4K Gamer + / Pro, which does a similar process to the mClassic, but specifically for scaling 1080p to 4K, even at 60 Hz.

Thanks for the info! Yeah, I was never expecting a true looking 1440p, I was just hoping for something more processed since raw 1080p signal on a 1440p display kinda looks hella yuck, especially when the games run at a lower internal ress, as no doubt you'll know since you've used a 1440p monitor. I'm just hoping to clean up the image a bit with the Mclassic/ with some smoothing and sharpening here and there.

I heard there isn't much of a improvement when using the Mclassic in cases the signal is already being processed, but yeah I hope that the effect is at least more profound on a monitor, how many inches was your 1440p monitor if I may ask mate?

 

[dsrules]

Xenoblade 2 is 720p when docked, and 30fps so you won't get 60 fps when you are playing on a modded unit, Hz is refresh rate no frame rate.

not sure if this the the right one

 

[emcintosh]

Thanks for the info! Yeah, I was never expecting a true looking 1440p, I was just hoping for something more processed since raw 1080p signal on a 1440p display kinda looks hella yuck, especially when the games run at a lower internal ress, as no doubt you'll know since you've used a 1440p monitor. I'm just hoping to clean up the image a bit with the Mclassic/ with some smoothing and sharpening here and there.

I heard there isn't much of a improvement when using the Mclassic in cases the signal is already being processed, but yeah I hope that the effect is at least more profound on a monitor, how many inches was your 1440p monitor if I may ask mate?

You could try setting the Switch to 720p, so your monitor can show it at 2x scale, rather than 1.33x, as I am doing with 1080p on my 4K TV - blocky rather than blurry. If you like that, you might not even need to spend money on the mClassic.

I used an Asus VH24AX - 24 inches 1440p, now have Seiki SE39UY01UK - 39 inches 4K.

 

[Hayato213]

not sure if this the the right one

I saw the video, I mean you can decide if you want to get it or not, as emcintosh said it only set resolution to 1080p

 

[emcintosh]

I saw the video, I mean you can decide if you want to get it or not, as emcintosh said it only set resolution to 1080p

I can report that my mClassic does output 1440p, not just 1080p, to a 1440p monitor, even if the signal from the Switch is only 720p (or 480p from Wii U vWii…), as they claim in the table above on their website. What it doesn't do is force 1440p to 4K screens - Marseille made a video of a version they made that did, but it's not a feature of the current mClassic.

 

[Digitalcat]

You could try setting the Switch to 720p, so your monitor can show it at 2x scale, rather than 1.33x, as I am doing with 1080p on my 4K TV - blocky rather than blurry. If you like that, you might not even need to spend money on the mClassic.

I used an Asus VH24AX - 24 inches 1440p, now have Seiki SE39UY01UK - 39 inches 4K.

Imma try your tips, I might do blocky for now until I get a mClassic, thanks for the info fam you've been really useful!

I saw the video, I mean you can decide if you want to get it or not, as emcintosh said it only set resolution to 1080p

No fam, that's because he is now using it on a 4k TV, the mClassic can't process a 1080p/60hz signal to 4k, it can only do that with 1080p/30hz, which the switch doesn't send.

 

[Hayato213]

Imma try your tips, I might do blocky for now until I get a mClassic, thanks for the info fam you've been really useful!


No fam, that's because he is now using it on a 4k TV, the mClassic can't process a 1080p/60hz signal to 4k, it can only do that with 1080p/30hz, which the switch doesn't send.

Don't think it make a difference if it is 1440p monitor or 4k tv, don't forget that emcintosh said "but the mClassic isn't adding as much of an improvement as it's only increasing the resolution to 1080p."

 

[Deleted member 194275]

I do have a mclassic for a long time now and I don't recommend it to Nintendo Switch. I also play on a 1440p monitor.

Reasons:

- The effects are negligible for 3D games. The upscale is indeed a higher resolution signal, but feels like it just added a little of anti aliasing. The game that benefits most is Pokemon Sword/Shield, and even there is not much.

- It makes new 2D games very slightly worse (almost unnoticeable). Notable game here is The Touryst.

- If you power it on switch dock, it will drop the signal sometimes (as the dock usb sometimes stop delivering power for some reason). It is quite rare but when it happens annoys a lot and may ruin your life on a game, and that lead to the next reason:

- You need an external power, not the dock, witch makes more volume to the wire mess on your table.

If you still want it, well is your money, Its not my concern, but I can tell what I like on it, and none is related to the Nintendo switch:

- It pairs greatly with cheap upscalers for classic 3D consoles

- the effects on PS1, PS2, Gamecube and N64 are amazing. I don't have a dreamcast, but I believe that it brings good results there too

- It makes 480i and 480p incompatible TVs compatible.

- it has aspect ratio correction, that some cheap upscalers lack

 

[Digitalcat]

Don't think it make a difference if it is 1440p monitor or 4k tv, don't forget that emcintosh said "but the mClassic isn't adding as much of an improvement as it's only increasing the resolution to 1080p."

No, just for one moment just read the whole thing, what you are quoting is him talking about the 4K tv, 1440p and 4K are two complete different resolutions, saying 1440p or 4k doesn't make a difference between each other is like saying 1080p and 1440p have no difference. The resolution is only going up to 1080p on his 4k because the mClassic does not support 4k, which is what his TV is requesting from the dongle.

I do have a mclassic for a long time now and I don't recommend it to Nintendo Switch. I also play on a 1440p monitor.

Reasons:

- The effects are negligible for 3D games. The upscale is indeed a higher resolution signal, but feels like it just added a little of anti aliasing. The game that benefits most is Pokemon Sword/Shield, and even there is not much.

- It makes new 2D games very slightly worse (almost unnoticeable). Notable game here is The Touryst.

- If you power it on switch dock, it will drop the signal sometimes (as the dock usb sometimes stop delivering power for some reason). It is quite rare but when it happens annoys a lot and may ruin your life on a game, and that lead to the next reason:

- You need an external power, not the dock, witch makes more volume to the wire mess on your table.

If you still want it, well is your money, Its not my concern, but I can tell what I like on it, and none is related to the Nintendo switch:

- It pairs greatly with cheap upscalers for classic 3D consoles

- the effects on PS1, PS2, Gamecube and N64 are amazing. I don't have a dreamcast, but I believe that it brings good results there too

- It makes 480i and 480p incompatible TVs compatible.

- it has aspect ratio correction, that some cheap upscalers lack

Thanks for the info, I'll keep that in mind, I have seen quite an impact though on some games in pics and vids, especially ones that run low game resolutions, but for stuff like splatoon 2 I doubt it'll make much difference. I guess it all really depends what games you play, maybe I can score one for cheap second hand.