Lots of Media Only on DVD

There’s a lot of great media only available on DVD and most of it can be found for next to nothing at thrift stores, yard sales, and antique malls. Even brand new DVDs are pretty cheap!

I wrote at length about the different video formats on DVDs and how to pick them.

TL-DR: Modern Blu-Ray players do a pretty good job of upscaling DVDs and if you want to watch one without fuss, just pop in the disc and push “play.”

But, sometimes you want more control over the video upscaling and that’s where the RetroTINK 4K comes in. These profile settings will work with both the RetroTINK 4K and CE models.

Set Up Your DVD Player

First, you want to set up your DVD player. DVD’s are a 480i medium and a lot of modern players will deinterlace that into a 480p, or “Progressive” signal. If your player does this, be sure to turn this off. The RetroTINK does a way better job of deinterlacing.

Here’s the basic setup:

• Connect the DVD player to the RetroTINK 4k with the best quality connection available. Component is preferred, but S-Video isn’t too bad either. (HDMI is fine as long as you can send a 480i signal through it.)
• Go into the DVD player’s settings and turn off Progressive or set the output to interlaced or 480i. (Only for a component or HDMI connections.)
• Start playing a DVD

You’ll know that you are in 480i mode by looking at the bottom of the RetroTINK 4K menu. It’ll say “Mode: CP 480i.”

You can also push the STAT button on the RretroTINK 4K remote control. If Detected Mode says 480i, you are good to go!

RetroTINK 4K Profile Settings

• First, enable the default profile if it isn’t already. It’s in the Profiles menu.
• Then go to the HDMI Output menu and make sure the Sync Lock is set to Triple Buffer. (This will keep your TV from blanking out as you make changes.)

The next setup is all in the Advanced Settings menu.

• Go to Scaling/Crop Setup. Change the Aspect Correction to 16:9 if you are watching widescreen video. Use 4:3 for anything else.
• Then go to Scaling Mode. Select Proportional and change the Vert. Factor until the picture is sized to fit your screen. You can try the Auto Crop option.
• Next up is Deinterlacer/Film Mode Setup. Under Algorithm, choose Motion Adaptive.

• Now go to Processing/Effects Setup
• Set Interpolation on Vert. Kernel and Hori. Kernel to Bilinear Sharp.
• Then go down to Mask and enable. Change Strength to about 10.
• Select Load from File and browse the RGB Masks folder to find Slot Mask Dense RGB.

Adding a shadow mask filter will sharpen the image in a style like the way a CRT does. These settings worked best for me and my 55in TV. Experiment with other masks and strengths to see what you like. You can also add scanlines, but 480i signals didn’t have them and it darkens the image a lot. I’d stick with masks only.

Save Your Work!

Once you have a great picture dialed in, save it as a profile so you don’t have to do it again.

• Go to Profiles and Save Profile then pick Save as New. It will save your work with a generic profile name.
• Take the SD card out of the RetroTINK and put it in your computer. You can rename the profile file to something more descriptive, like “DVD - 16:9.”
• You can copy that profile and name it as the other aspect ratio, like “DVD - 4:3.”
• Put the SD card back into the RetroTINK. Load the new profile and change the Aspect Correction to 4:3.
• Then go to Profiles and Save Profile. This time you can Save Current.

Now you have profiles for both 16:9 and 4:3 videos. Assign them to a Shortcut Button and it’ll be as easy as hitting a number on the remote to load them!