Question RVL DD vs. standard driver board

[JBmodz]

While planning my first portable, I stumbled across the RVL DD and wondered how much of a difference it really makes compared to the standard driver board included with the Ashida IPS panel. My current standpoint is just to use the standard driver board to simplify things and stick to the budget, but I want to know if there really is a big difference that I'll be missing out on.

 

[loopj]

Video quality is similar to VGA, but the RVL-DD is smaller, has fewer wires and a tighter integration with RVLoader (brightness control, etc).

 

[Xenii]

It is also more compatible. Some PAL GameCube games are not compatible at all with VGA. Some aren’t compatible with DD either, but it’s less common

 

[YveltalGriffin]

RVL-DD "power user" benefits:

• Pixel-perfect image on every Wii. No need for the "480p fix", which only works on some AVEs. No AVE revision lottery or smeary high frequency content. It's the sharpest possible image you can get.
• Automatic image centering and horizontal scaling. With VGA screens, you have to re-run the driver board's autoconfig occasionally
• Aspect ratio control on 800x480 screens, letting you switch between 4:3 and anamorphic widescreen
• Button combos for controlling brightness
• Guaranteed zero lag (no framebuffer)
• Zero delay on startup, meaning custom boot animations like Supertazon's are always visible in their entirety. No blue "no signal" screen on power-on.
• Works with the Wii System Menu, unlike the VGA patches
• Works seamlessly with 240p, 480i and 480p content, with no black screen or dropout on mode changes, which means 240p Test Suite, Megaman X Collection, DBZ Budokai, Neo Geo Virtual Console, and other content which can't be forced or patched to progressive all work fine, unlike with VGA patches.

 

[kolenot]

RVL-DD "power user" benefits:

• Pixel-perfect image on every Wii. No need for the "480p fix", which only works on some AVEs. No AVE revision lottery or smeary high frequency content. It's the sharpest possible image you can get.
• Automatic image centering and horizontal scaling. With VGA screens, you have to re-run the driver board's autoconfig occasionally
• Aspect ratio control on 800x480 screens, letting you switch between 4:3 and anamorphic widescreen
• Button combos for controlling brightness
• Guaranteed zero lag (no framebuffer)
• Zero delay on startup, meaning custom boot animations like Supertazon's are always visible in their entirety. No blue "no signal" screen on power-on.
• Works with the Wii System Menu, unlike the VGA patches
• Works seamlessly with 240p, 480i and 480p content, with no black screen or dropout on mode changes, which means 240p Test Suite, Megaman X Collection, DBZ Budokai, Neo Geo Virtual Console, and other content which can't be forced or patched to progressive all work fine, unlike with VGA patches.

• I want to fight the automatic centering since not all PAL versions center vertically. I had to get the NTSC version for about 30% of the PAL GC games.
• For the aspect ratio, I would suggest to decide for yourself if it's important and also note that some games actually have a 16:9 aspect ratio mode which improves the visibillity. (so even if it matters, sometimes 16:9 is better than 4:3)
• The brightness control is important to me since the screens seem to have the ghosting effect pretty easy (30 min of gaming and it's already visible for me)
• (No blue "no signal" screen on power-on.) true, never saw a bluescreen when turning the ashida on

If you're thinking that you can afford the RVL-DD, I would go for it. You'd still need to buy the screen, but you won't need the normal driver board.
And the RVL-DD has a simpler connection than the normal screen since it's 1 big cable compared to +-8 smaller wires and it has some big solder pads. You can solder 30 gauge magnet wires to the pads instead of 34 gauge to the via's (you'll still need to wire 3 to via's but they are short wires for DI/CK and 3.3v and the 3.3V is 30 gauge)

 

[JBmodz]

• I want to fight the automatic centering since not all PAL versions center vertically. I had to get the NTSC version for about 30% of the PAL GC games.
• For the aspect ratio, I would suggest to decide for yourself if it's important and also note that some games actually have a 16:9 aspect ratio mode which improves the visibillity. (so even if it matters, sometimes 16:9 is better than 4:3)
• The brightness control is important to me since the screens seem to have the ghosting effect pretty easy (30 min of gaming and it's already visible for me)
• (No blue "no signal" screen on power-on.) true, never saw a bluescreen when turning the ashida on

If you're thinking that you can afford the RVL-DD, I would go for it. You'd still need to buy the screen, but you won't need the normal driver board.
And the RVL-DD has a simpler connection than the normal screen since it's 1 big cable compared to +-8 smaller wires and it has some big solder pads. You can solder 30 gauge magnet wires to the pads instead of 34 gauge to the via's (you'll still need to wire 3 to via's but they are short wires for DI/CK and 3.3v and the 3.3V is 30 gauge)

Ok, so is there no way to access brightness or screen settings without the DD?

 

[JamesPi]

Ok, so is there no way to access brightness or screen settings without the DD?

You'd have to set up keybinds to access the OSD menu for a stock driver board screen. A lot of people use Z2 to open the menu since it doesn't work in RVLoader yet, and the BT sync button at the bottom for the other menu button.

 

[kolenot]

I would keep the bt sync button if you want to use bluetooth. Since I had to resync after trims everytime.
But I'm thinking of having start on the Z2 button instead of on the bottom and having reset on the bottom instead.
Since that location is a bit annoying to reach for a start button. But Z2 might be too easy XD.
I just wish they would add Z2 just to map it. We have the chip to connect it installed, so it shouldn't be hard to add a mapping option in rvloader itself. But hey, I haven't looked at that code (or any code outside of themes), so I don't know how easy or hard it is.

 

[JamesPi]

Hmm I see your point. I've never had issues with the bottom button being start though, it comes quite naturally to me actually.
On the note of the bt sync, JBmodz already said they're not installing MX, Bluetooth or WiFi, that's why I recommended the Bluetooth sync button.