Hardware

Hey Friends! Sometimes I do things that make little to no sense and this mornings post is going to be one of them. I write about them because they can serve as a lesson for others, and occasionally they work out fairly well. You may or may not know what the mCable or the mClassic are, because you may not run in the same informational circles that I do. However what it promises is a magical dongle that upscales a video signal being passed through the device and attempts to improve the image quality in the process. This device normally retails for $100, but I managed to find it on sale for $80 a few months back and which piqued my interest enough to make a purchase. Again… I do dumb things sometimes so you don’t have to.

A lot of the press surrounding the device claimed that it could take a 720p input signal and scale it up to 4k, and in theory that is a thing that is within the realm of possibilities but you have a lot of caveats. So if that 720p signal is only 30 fps then sure enough you can get a 30 fps 2160p aka 4k signal out of it… pending you are using cables that support HDMI 1.4 and that all of the devices in the chain also support HDMI 1.4. If you have a input signal running at 60 fps… the highest thing you can get out of it is 1440p, which is very rarely supported by televisions and as a result you get 1080p instead. So the scaling seems to work but only in the most optimal of conditions and only if you hold your mouth just right.

So something you have to understand before we get into this… I had watched a number of reviews on this product… the vast majority reported minimal improvements. Yet I still do this thing, in part because the Nintendo Switch looks awful on a 4k television, and anything to clean up the image would be a great improvement. I have a nonsense setup where everything pipes into a very nice 8 port HDMI switch, then goes into my Elgato Pro video card which in itself is only capable of capturing a 1080p image, but the pass through port is capable of passing along a 2160p signal just fine. Originally I had the mClassic in line so that it was processing every signal passing through the HDMI switch, but the results were not amazing.

It seemed to actually make a lot of my experience with the PS4 considerably worse. One example that I sadly don’t have video evidence of is on the FF7 Remaster, the chain link fence at the train station was reduced to just a grid of shiny points with most of the wire itself being smoothed out of existence. On the PS3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One it seemed to make absolutely no difference at all. I ran numerous tests, not really seeing any perceivable benefit. Where I did see benefit however is on the Nintendo Switch, which seemed to have a decently improved image. The annoying part about the cable is that it requires a separate usb power connection, and since it connects to the console and not the television… you can’t simply do the reach around to the USB trick easily. I decided to remove it from my entire set up and instead connect it straight to the Switch dock, where I thankfully still had free USB ports.

The core challenge I have had with this device is that the benefits are subtle. So much so that I am never quite certain that I am actually seeing any tangible benefit and are instead just WANTING to see a benefit thanks to spending $80 on it. As a result I devised a test, which is nowhere near as expansive as some of the reviewers I have already linked above. I have my Switch running through my Elgato capture card, which in theory is receiving the full benefit of all of the image processing. At the same time if I take a screenshot on the Switch itself, it has no idea that the mClassic exists and takes an image of what the hardware is actually producing. So yesterday I did the very fiddly method of taking a screenshot on the console while at the same time hitting my capture button on the PC, and then merging the two images to try and discern if I was actually seeing a difference. Today we are going to go over the results.

The first game I tried this on was Diablo III, which looks absolutely horrible in docked mode on a 2160p display. The methodology I used was to drag both images into photoshop, layer them on top of each other, and then slice down through the layer at key points trying to get some side by side comparisons. First off like I said the difference is subtle, but in this example it is absolutely there. The image coming out of the mClassic appears more vibrant and sharp and seems to refine the muddy textures. One of the big places I notice this is in the Blacksmith’s stand where the mClassic absolutely appears to be improving the texture quality. Another place that I found surprising was just how much it seems to be improving the text. Is it $80 worth of improvement? I am not sure… but it does seem to be making a difference.

Once again the image here for Breath of the Wild appears more vibrant. This is going to be a theme for most of the comparisons in that when you look at the original it almost seems like there is a haze on it. The biggest place where I notice a difference is in the grass texture, which seems to be significantly more defined on the signal coming from the mClassic. Once again it also seems to be sharpening up the HUD elements which is nice.

I opted to test out Monster Hunter Generations X in part because it is a game that is already extremely vibrant. The end result almost seems over-saturated to the point of starting to lose a bit of detail in the shadows. The textures are absolutely improved as is the overall quality of the models. I did a slice on my character to show the difference and you can similarly compare the two palicos.

I wanted to try out some overly dark games and opted first for Astral Chain. Similar to Monster Hunter it seems to increase what is already going on with the game. So to me it seems like it is actually darkening much of the game and pushing away a lot of the subtle mid tones. The thing that I find most interesting is how it seems to almost remove the glowing effect on my character’s eyes. Just like the other examples it does a good job of sharpening textures so they feel like they have more depth, but I am not sure about the overall experience.

Finally I wanted to test this out on a fairly dark 2D game, and as a result I went with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. This is the example that I see the least difference in. There is a bit of sharpening to the textures but it is extremely subtle. Additionally there seems to be an improvement in vibrancy, but it mostly just has the effect of darkening the image slightly.

So in the end… I am still deeply torn about the actual benefit of this device. I believe that it is in fact doing something, but I am not sure if the something that it is doing is worth the price tag. The part of it that is being touted the hardest is the promise of taking a 720p or 1080p signal and turning it magically into 2160p for your shiny new 4k television. Yes it does this thing, but it feels like there is a mountain of legal small print that comes with it and the understanding that it only does this in the most specific of circumstances. The only system that I saw a visible improvement with was the Nintendo Switch, and even there you can see by the examples I have provided that it is subtle.

So in the end… would I recommend this product to anyone for the price point? Probably not. Am I disappointed that I purchased it? Not really, because it does make some improvement to the worst offender on my television and I am fine I guess knowing that. Like I said I had watched a dozen or so reviews on this product before purchasing, so I knew what I was getting into. The claim the device makes is tantalizing, but unfortunately in my experience not nearly as magical as it sounds.

Hai Friends! I apparently lied this morning when I said I probably was not going to sit down and write a blog post. Some events transpired between then and now, and quite frankly I would rather write a long post today than try and do it tomorrow morning when I am hopefully returning to work. I slept in until around 8 am, which is massive considering I normally get up at 5:30 am on the dot. I still feel horrible but I am feeling like a better version of horrible. Hopefully tomorrow morning I will feel significantly better. Today we are going to talk about the Nintendo Switch and alternate “joycon” options.

I love the Nintendo Switch. It has rapidly become my system of choice over the last few years, especially when it comes to any sort of RPG or Platformer. I love the use case of being able to dock the device and play it on my 43 inch 4k display, and then picking it up out of the dock and taking it to bed with me to play until I fall asleep. As idyllic as this sounds, there are some significant problems. Most of the images you are seeing in today’s post are pulled from Amazon product listings. This is a picture of someone playing the Nintendo Switch with very small hands.

This friends is what the exact same joycon looks like in my hand. I’ve written before about the plight of a large handed gamer, but the Nintendo Switch is probably the worst case scenario for a controller failing to function in my giant paws. I CAN play a switch in handheld mode with joycons attached like it was intended to be used, but it is not comfortable and the fact that the joycons are more or less flush with the back of the unit just feels awful. Any time I was called upon to hit the shoulder buttons, it was just a level of frustration beyond explaination. As a result, until december of last year I spent most of my time with the Nintendo Switch in docked mode, with a pro controller connected to it.

The Hori Split Pad Pro

With the release of the Nintendo Switch game Daemon X Machina, Hori also released a custom set of “Joycons”. I use Joycons in quotes because there are some issues with them that I will get into shortly. Essentially the Hori Split Pad Pro feels like you took a Xbox One controller, sawed it in half, and then attached them to the Switch rails. As a result you get full sized Analog sticks, DPad, Buttons and proper controller feeling triggers and shoulder buttons.

The original Daemon X Machina version that I got is starting to get a little hard to find in stock. However today I found out that they are releasing a Blue, Red and Black version, with the last one looking fairly similar to the model I have minus red thumb sticks. Though now that I look at it… the original one looks more dark grey than black. If you are really curious you can check out my original review as I talk about the positives and negatives, but for the sake of today’s post I am going to do an abbreviated rundown.

Hori Positives

• Much larger controller that feels physically better in the hand. It has a more standard controller grip and as a result your hand isn’t trying to double back on a flat plane.
• Rocker style D-Pad which feels significantly more true to the controller experience than having four disconnected micro switches.
• Traditionally springy buttons which have a decent amount of travel and a tactile feel when pushed.
• The controller has two back buttons that can have actions mapped to them.
• It ends up making the switch lighter, because while large and chunky the controllers don’t really weigh much of anything and wind up reducing the total weight of the unit.

Hori Negatives

• Remember how I kept referring to them as Joycons in quotes? Well they aren’t actual joycon replacements and cannot function disconnected from the main unit.
• When attached, they make the total unit extremely wide, and it feels like your hands are really far apart which could be a significant problem for someone with smaller hands. Spacing wise It feels like you are holding an iPad horizontally.
• They lack any support for gyro which means games like Legend of Zelda a Breath of the Wild that require gyros for solving some of the puzzles are going to require you swapping to another controller.
• They lack rumble, which is a net positive for me but I found out yesterday that it apparently is something folks seek out on purpose.
• They lack any support for NFC so no ability to use your Amiibos/Cards.
• Possibly the most annoying one for me is the fact that you cannot turn on the console by hitting a button on the controller. You have to press the power button to turn the console on first before any input is registered.
• While I said there are buttons on the back for mapping abilities to… the can ONLY map abilities from the same side meaning the left button is largely useless unless you really want quick access screen shots.

ViveFox ????

I am going to be honest here… I have no clue what the name of this product is other than the fact that it is manufactured by a company called ViveFox. I found out about the product through a video from Spawn Wave and decided to order one of the controllers to test out. When I say that I do not legitimately know what it is called, it is due in part of the fact that the Amazon listing has the same sort of word salad approach that all Chinese third party products seem to have. I had no planned on writing a post today, but by 9 am I had this sitting in my hand and over the last several hours I have been testing it out.

The package is a pretty simple cardboard box with two joycons contained within a traditional clear plastic molded tray and connected with a cross piece that serves the same role as the switch “dogface” controller. Underneath the tray is a very simple manual, a weird cable that splits from a USB Type A to two USB Type C for the purpose of charging the joycons and something labelled “Myterious Amiibo Card” that has a packing list and customer service information… and is labelled on the back with an acorn icon. To break the suspense the Mysterious Card turned out to be a clone Marshall Amiibo Card for Animal Crossing. For more information on how clone Amiibo cards work, I wrote a thing about that you can find here. For the sake of this not taking forever, I am going to give a similar break down as I did for the Hori above.

ViveFox Positives

• They can turn on the console! This one doesn’t seem like that big of a deal but it really is. It is annoying to have to hit the power button each time you need to turn on the device.
• The ViveFox joycons are significantly more comfortable to hold in the hand than a normal joycon. They have a decent shape on the back and the shape for some reason reminds me of holding a Dualshock 4.
• Has a proper D-Pad but maybe not as nice of one as the Hori. It has a distinct feel of four separate micro switches under it so I agree with Spawn Wave in that it feels very similar to the D-Pad on a 3DS/2DS.
• There are significantly better thumb sticks than you get with the default Joycon, but it is a hard plastic and I would have rather had something rubbery. They are a bit on the small side and very reminiscent of the thumb sticks on an Xbox One controller.
• They are REAL joycons, which is a massive positive. You can use them detached in either hand and are wirelessly connected back to the switch.
• They have a gyro which allows you to use them for motion controlled games or anything that requires a tilt sensor.
• Turbo and Macro Recording… and I guess technically the Hori also has Turbo but I don’t really find it that beneficial?
• The bracket connects the two joycons at a comfortable angle, making it feel more like a traditional controller rather than one specifically designed for very tiny hands. I could see actually using this as an alternative to the pro controller if I was in a pinch.
• They have rumble, which again is a positive for some folks and a negative for others. These have old style rumble and not the Nintendo “HD Rumble”… whatever that nonsense means.
• They don’t really increase the width of the unit by a noticeable amount and as a result it still very much feels like you are using a handheld system.
• While they don’t have a very satisfying click… they attach really solidly to the device and it feels like you are using a solid unit rather than something attached by a flimsy rail the way that the legitimate joycons can sometimes feel.
• The joycons charge while attached to the Switch like normal Joycons, so you will likely never need the goofy cable.

ViveFox Negatives

• They got really close to having nearly full parity for actual joycons, but they don’t have an NFC censor which is odd given that they included an NFC card.
• They are chonky lads… and are a bit heavier than the default joycons meaning that as a whole it will increase the weight of the unit.
• The buttons are micro switches and as a result they don’t exactly have a satisfying feel. There is not a lot of travel in them and they are a bit on the small side. Once again I am going to break out the reference to a 3DS in both size and feel other than the fact that they are inexplicably square rather than circular.
• The layout feels a little cramped. They are worlds better than the original joycons but nowhere near as roomy as the Hori pads. I noticed some weirdness with the thumb stick getting in the way as I was using the D-Pad while playing Bloodstained, which might get annoying.
• The charge ports are on the bottom side of the grip and depending on where you hold the joycons they might be annoying. I found a comfortable way to hold them, but my fingers normally would have rested on top of this nubbin sticking out.
• The bumper and trigger buttons are not really comfortable. They are probably slightly better than the original joycons but again they are not the massive improvement that the Hori controllers had.
• The underside of the controller is slick plastic, and doesn’t have any sort of a grippy surface. I think I can probably fix this by applying something rubberized. They don’t slip out of my hand, but I would have liked them to have some sort of grip to them.

The Takeaway

The truth is that both are really good alternatives to the original joycon, depending on what your use case happens to be. I probably find the Hori option more comfortable, but there are absolutely annoyances for not having them function like normal. Firstly with them attached they are going to be way the hell too large to fit into almost any case designed to hold a Nintendo Switch, whereas the ViveFox does not add a lot of size. They are both in the $40-50 ball park and at that price are probably worth it.

For me personally… I am probably going to keep using the ViveFox for awhile. There is going to be an adjustment curve but I think once I get used to them I am going to like them better. Essentially other than Amiibo support they offer everything I care about in a Switch Joycon. We have a switch dock hooked up in the game room at work, and I never liked the thought of needing to either use the base Joycons or bring a separate controller with me in order to partake of some lunch gaming.

For now I am pretty happy with them, the only real negative that I have not addressed is that it might be hard to find at a later date. These Chinese word salad listings seem to come and go from Amazon, and I already noticed that the original listing is completely sold out… with only option available being a market seller with a 22% positive rating. At the time of writing this I am not finding any place else online to purchase them including AliBaba or Wish. So sadly I am writing about what appears to be a really solid product, that currently appears to no longer be available.