Need more help with Pluto II HDMI, red blue color problem

[Yoadrian]

UPDATE/SOLUTION: For anyone having similar red/blue inversion problems I'll cut to the conclusion... Are you using a Pioneer AVR? I discovered that my Pioneer VSX-1121 AV Receiver was inexplicably inverting red and blue when converting the video signal. Turning the "V.Conv." feature OFF resulted in perfect colors/picture. My 'cube, Pluto II, instructions, install, HDMI cable, and TV were all fine! Lesson=Pluto II has an obscure Pioneer AVR compatibility issue, so you may need to turn video conversion off. Ok, here's the full post..

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First time poster here, be gentle...

Situation: I recently installed a Pluto IIx HDMI card into a Gamecube (item 6117 bought already loaded w gcvideo from knjn, in accordance with https://github.com/ikorb/gcvideo/tree/m ... cvideo_dvi).

Problem: HDMI output seems to be working great, EXCEPT the red and blue colors are coming through swapped! This occurs only through HDMI, not through the composite output. All blue things look reddish-pink, and red things look blueish. Composite colors are normal. See my pics and note hair, skin, sky, water colors. Nintendo logo should be blue not pink. My forum search didn't come up with anything, knjn told me to try posting for help!

Question: Has anyone seen this problem, or have ideas to remedy it? Assuming I have wired the card correctly from the GC to the Pluto II (yes, a big assumption and one that I have and will continue to verify) what else might be causing this color palette swap? I have posted pics of my mod wiring for reference.

Other data of possible interest:
- Otherwise HDMI and composite video outputs are both working, HDMI will go 480p, sound output works, resolution looks good, picture and colors are stable/not flickering or changing (though colors are incorrect on HDMI).
- GCVideo 2.3 is working fine, and its default menu colors LOOK CORRECT!
- Pluto has two rapidly flashing red leds at slightly different frequencies (3-4 Hz?), I think that's good
- tried it in two gamecubes, same problem
- tried it with both my Pluto cards (ordered at same time), same problem!
- checked continuity on all wires from GC port to Pluto, good
- I'm a moderately experienced/skilled modder and solderer so although I do make mistakes, I've checked for most of the dumb ones I might have made like crossed wires, shorts, lifted traces, bridged solder points, cracked joints, etc...

So assuming the guide is good (it has been used many times right?) I figure either I screwed something up and still don't see it, or something is wrong inside the Pluto processor where the vdata 0-7 lines are matched up to outputs... but on both of my Plutos? :-/

Hope y'all can help!

[Yoadrian]

FWIW after booting up on my work bench I checked DC voltages on the Pluto card, shown below, and double checked there were no shorted or grounded leads:

Gamecube Pluto Signal VDC
-----------------------------------
1 20 Cable detect - 3.32
3 19 Color select - 1.71
4 GND Ground - 0.00
7 16 VData 0 - 0.36
9 15 VData 1 - 0.34
10 13 VData 2 - 0.91
12 12 VData 3 - 0.92
13 10 VData 4 - 1.57
15 9 VData 5 - 1.03
16 6 VData 6 - 0.48
18 5 VData 7 - 1.60
19 98 LRCK - 1.71
20 GND Ground - 0.00
21 3 AData - 1.50
22 4 BCLK - 1.76
2 89 54 MHz - 1.77

[novenary]

It's not your red and blue channels that are swapped, but your chroma channels (as read from the GC). Most likely a problem with your CSEL wire. I'd suggest rewiring everything from scratch for now and then we can take another look.

[Yoadrian]

It's not your red and blue channels that are swapped, but your chroma channels (as read from the GC). Most likely a problem with your CSEL wire. I'd suggest rewiring everything from scratch for now and then we can take another look.

Thanks for the reply Streetwalker, will do. What sorts of things can go wrong with the CSEL wire besides the simple continuity concerns? It is a solid copper lead about 2" long, guessing 24-ish guage, and it currently has good continuity and no shorts. Can anything else "mess with" the chroma channels? I have attached an o-scope shot of my CSEL signal at Pluto's pin 19.

As you recommended though, since I don't know what's wrong, I'll try reworking the wiring and pay special attention to the CSEL connection. Wide open for any other recommendations too!

[novenary]

All that comes to mind is signal skew. CSEL switches every other clock cycle just like I2S's word select would, to indicate which chroma channel the current pixel holds (the GC uses 4:2:2 chroma subsampling, so it sends Y Cb Y Cr for two pixels).

Unseen would be more qualified to help you there, I haven't ever touched the gcvideo hardware but I've skimmed through parts of the code.

[Yoadrian]

Update: I replaced and checked the CSEL connection with a higher quality wire but no change, blues and reds still backwards.

New info: If I set the GCVideo menu color to maximum blue (99) it turns red. Red=99 makes it turn blue. See my attached photo. Doesn't that indicate the color processing is getting mixed up INSIDE the Pluto II card?

FYI I have tested the color accuracy of my TV (good display) and swapped different HDMI cables with different inputs on my receiver to rule out a cable/receiver/display problem.

[Yoadrian]

Update: I can get good color output through the card's HDMI output if I stay down at 480i AND turn off linedoubling. But if I turn on linedoubling, or if I try to switch to progressive scan 480p the colors invert again. See attached picture…

This tells me the card is receiving accurate colors, and CAN pass them through with certain settings… just not when it tries to engage the FPGA and/or software to upscale the video. Doesn't this point to a problem with the card/chip/on-board programming? Any thoughts on this conclusions, am I still missing something?

[Unseen]

Update: I can get good color output through the card's HDMI output if I stay down at 480i AND turn off linedoubling. But if I turn on linedoubling, or if I try to switch to progressive scan 480p the colors invert again. See attached picture…

This tells me the card is receiving accurate colors, and CAN pass them through with certain settings… just not when it tries to engage the FPGA and/or software to upscale the video. Doesn't this point to a problem with the card/chip/on-board programming?

With all this additional information, I would point to your display as the culprit. One of my initial theories was that the red and blue channels on the output side might be swapped, but I discarded that since the OSD appeared to have the correct color and because the display shouldn't be able to show a picture in that case anyway - DVI/HDMI transmit the sync signals as sideband data on the blue channel.

Since you get correct colors with a 480i output and incorrect colors with 480p, the current most likely culprit is your display. Have you tried a different one? I would also be interested to know what happens with a 480p output if you disable "Enhanced DVI" before switching to something that results in a 480p output (either start a 480p game or turn linedoubling from off to on while the Cube outputs 480i).

[novenary]

Fwiw, I've swapped the red and blue channels on the bad shots and that doesn't make them look right either. That's what made me conclude that Cb and Cr were swapped. But maybe gimp's color mixer isn't that trivial.

Edit: yeah, I have no idea what I did, checked again and it's red and blue that are swapped.

[Yoadrian]

Ok, I'll be 100% honest Unseen my first thought was "whatchu you mean my tv???" but I'm old enough and wise enough to lock those thoughts up and listen to those, well, wiser than me...

Spot on! I watch my Panasonic plasma all the time and it doesn't invert colors, but it is doing it with my Gamecube. I just tested the cube on my Sharp LCD and it looks perfect. So my first task was to jump online and tell you guys THANKS. I'm glad I kept testing, collecting data, and sharing it. More glad you guys chose to think about my problems and help me solve them.

My next job is to have a little chat with the Panasonic... I'm expecting wacky color settings or something, but will let you know if I learn about any "gotchas" with my set.

UPDATE: The culprit = Pioneer VSX-1121 AV Receiver. Hit "Video Parameter" button on front panel, and set "V.Conv." To OFF! Wish I understood why that setting made my receiver invert B and G... but I would rather go get a beer and toast to our success!

[Unseen]

Wish I understood why that setting made my receiver invert B and G...

Well, that's what you get for using a barely-tested signal source that doesn't even claim to be HDMI-compatible ;)

[novenary]

Well, that's what you get for using a barely-tested signal source that doesn't even claim to be HDMI-compatible

Hehe yeah, that's the catch.

Anyway, glad you solved it. Have fun.