Marseille mClassic Switch Upscaler - Plug-and-Play 1440p/4K HDMI Gaming Upscaler To Boost Graphics - Works With Playstation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox & More - Zero Lag & Maximum FPS

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And I think that’s the story of the MClassic. It can have a huge impact on the image quality for some games, but you may not notice it at all in others. games also look far cleaner using the retro mode. I couldn't help but test an old classic like Super Mario 64 (the PAL 50hz version, unfortunately), and as with all of the other games mentioned here, it was considerably smoothed over. On these much older 3D games the point about a softer image doesn't really apply - all of the post-processing provided by the mClassic on N64 games makes the image quality look better, there really isn't an argument to be made to the contrary like with 2D games. The benefits of the upscaler really are shown in full when the device is given more rough edges to work with. And that remains true when we go into even lower resolutions, such as 480p. At 480p the mClassic works aggressively, but still upscales and outputs at a full 1080p. As such, the Retro mode included with the mClassic might convince retro fanatics to upgrade their set up. In the above video, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch is running at 720p on one side. On the other side, however, the MClassic is up-scaling that 720p signal to 1440p. This is a really impressive demo, but keep in mind that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe actually runs at 1080p on Switch. Marseille actually turned the resolution down in the Switch menu. So while the demo shows what the MClassic is capable of, it’s not actually indicative of real-world results. So it seems that the improvements you’re going to get from the PS3 will be fairly inconsistent. Some games are negatively affected by the way the mClassic handles colours and brightness and then other games actually end up greatly benefiting from it. So while it’s very hit and miss here, it might be worth trying it out on a game by game basis. Xbox 360

Arabian Prince and Chabane noted that a big appeal of the mClassic is playing retro games from the seventh console generation on the Nintendo Wii U, Sony PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 (the Wii U is arguably eighth-generation, but I argue it's seventh along with the Wii). That generation started over a decade ago, and has plenty of classic games even if I'm loath to call them "retro." The mClassic won't work with older game systems that use analog video outputs like RCA and S-Video, but Chabane indicated they are exploring the possibility of a retro gaming upconverter that can handle legacy inputs. But then I tested some 720p games like Halo: Anniversary which to me looks exactly the same, Dead Rising maybe looks ever so slightly darker through the mClassic, but as far as I can tell it looks exactly the same quality-wise and then I did one last test with Halo 3: ODST and again, surprise surprise, it looked almost identical. Switch between three modes for all preferred methods of play: Scaling Off, Scaling On and Retro Game Mode. The most important question is, can the mClassic deliver what Marseille promised? Let’s find out. So many use casesI had been using the mClassic for about a year on my 55" LG OLED C9 TV. It's an excellent TV, but with a 3840 x 2160 resolution, lower scale content can end up looking blurry. When playing games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Splatoon 2, my eyes grew tuned to the smoother edges the mClassic was helping output.

But let’s get into the reason you’re all here. You’re hungry for some footage comparisons aren’t you? Well then, let’s dive in to some gameplay! mClassic Gameplay Footage Comparisons Hopefully the clip and image sliders above help better demonstrate what the mClassic can do for lower resolution content. When it comes to actual gaming, I noticed zero lag or latency issues. Metroid Dread, Splatoon 2 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate feel as smooth with the mClassic off as it does with it on. Arabian Prince also provided input for the gaming experience, and how the mClassic could be made more appealing and useful to gamers than the mCable Gaming Edition. In addition to his rap career, Arabian Prince worked in game development at Fox Interactive. He helped develop the SNES The Simpsons games Bart's Nightmare and Virtual Bart (which were terrible) and the GameCube/PS2/Xbox game The Simpsons Hit-and-Run (which was excellent, and needs an HD remaster). However, the upgrade to visual quality with the mClassic engaged isn’t night and day, either. That isn’t to say it’s not a meaningful, worthwhile upgrade, though. For Animal Crossing, even some relatively light anti-aliasing and upscaling significantly cleans up the image and cuts down on jaggies. Considering the game is generally fairly minimalist aesthetically with lots of clean edges and bright colors, the increase to color vibrancy makes the whole world pop, while sharpening effectively brings out some extra detail from textures. September, 2023, Birmingham, United Kingdom / Silicon Valley, USA – The world leader in video processing, Marseille Inc. partners up with Centersoft to officially bring mClassic™ to video game enthusiasts in the UK. The world’s first plug-and-play graphics processor for video game consoles, mClassic™ upscales the graphics of any video game improving the video quality and the overall gaming experience. This must-have video game accessory will take your most loved games to the next level.But less noticeable does not mean entirely unnoticeable. The mClassic only bumps the resolution to the next output value. This means that a 720p signal can only go up to 1080p. A 1080p signal can only go up to 1440p. The mClassic doesn't magically post-process an image from 720p to 4K. Doing so would likely require much more horsepower and special upscaling algorithms. We are so excited to offer Xbox fans the ability to experience at best the amazing collection of Xbox360 games and more on modern screens. After 25 years in the video processing industry, it is mind blowing to witness the anti-aliasing performance in real-time.”, President and CEO of Marseille Inc. Now, weirdly throughout my testing of the PS3 with other games, I never encountered this darkness issue to this extent ever again. This could be a very contextual issue which has something to do with Red Dead Redemption specifically but it is definitely something to consider if you were planning on using this with the PS3. Source: Windows Central This is a close-up image of Rage 2 on Xbox One X without the adapter. The image quality is exactly the same as with the adapter. (Image credit: Source: Windows Central) While we've found the mClassic to work great for the Switch and retro Nintendo consoles, your mileage may vary based on which console and TV you're using. That said, regardless of which console you play on, the mClassic will certain help display crisper textures and a clearer picture for retro games, making them highly playable on modern TVs.

Now, the mClassic is technically capable of upscaling beyond 1080p. It can output a 1440p and even 4k signal, but these come with a few massive caveats. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is already a gorgeous looking game. Probably to this day it still has the best graphics I’ve seen in a Switch game, so what can the mClassic do here?

What you won’t like

The 4k Gamer Pro is a newer device that's just getting into the wider market. It works the same as the mClassic, but upscales to 4k while sacrificing the antialiasing. Can we improve visuals on consoles - modern or retro alike - with an external graphics processor? Marseille's mClassic is a new and improved version of the mCable Gaming Edition we covered a couple of years ago. Advertised as a kind of external graphics card, many claims are made for this product, especially across social media where we've seen it described variously as a 4K upscaler, a 1440p upscaler, a means to improve retro gaming graphics and even as a Switch Pro-like upgrade. These are claims that demand testing. For the uninitiated, the mClassic is an older device that plugs into the Switch's (or any console's) HDMI port. It can upscale games to 1440p (although myself and others have struggled to get it to go above 1080p; at the very least your TV or monitor needs to support 1440p), sharpens the image, adds some antialiasing, and enhances colors and depth of field effects to the feed with no lag. So what does the mClassic actually deliver? We focused on Switch as that's where the majority of Marseille's marketing is targeted. Firstly, it's a shame that there is no actual 4K upscaling. Given the rise of UHD TV sets it would have been useful, but at least, the other benefits of the mClassic do show up, even at the peak 1080p output. Side-by-sides show very subtle tweaks in colour depth, as well as the added sharpening on character outlines. There's a crisper presentation all round thanks to the contextual sharpening, though the effect is again subtle at its peak 1080p output. The downside is common to most sharpening filters: ringing artefacts. These manifest as a faint white halo effect around high contrast points, though it's not overly obtrusive.

Marseille recruited old-school rapper and NWA founding member OG Arabian Prince, who was a fan of the mCable, to be a designer and consultant. In a surreal conference call with both Arabian Prince and Marseille CEO Amine Chabane, the artist also known as Professor X said that he was interested on getting involved with Marseille because he wanted to find a way to cut costs and get the mCable’s postprocessing effects into more peoples’ hands. Yes, I’ve gotten my “six degrees to Dr. Dre” down to one. Then I got rid of the raw 720p footage and replaced it with the raw 1080p footage, and the 720p mClassic footage was actually better than the raw 1080p footage. This implies that the mClassic definitely prefers a lower resolution signal to clean it up and rescale it to 1080p rather than taking a pure 1080p signal where it can’t do as much with it.

Indeed, in many games I often prefer to play on the actual Switch's screen itself, as while that is not anywhere near as big, as it condenses everything down it does make images on the Switch look sharper. Well, I would, but I’d definitely say that this is a bit of a niche product aimed at perfectionists who want to get the absolute best video quality they possibly can from very specific consoles and games. Here, there's a general blurriness to Samus. Look at the areas in which blue meets with white on her armor. There's a slight smear to the image. And take a look at the orange glow from her arm cannon. When the mClassic is off, the light source looks angular, as if it were from a 3DS game. The result was that it was suddenly as if I had installed a new, more powerful graphics card in my Nintendo Switch. It was the Switch experience that many gamers have been crying out for for a few years now, a more powerful Switch that could display Nintendo's awesome selection of games in their best possible light.