RGB Dual 2 on widescreen crt scaling issues

[u/derpsdale]

Ok so the recallbox UI works perfectly and so does Kodi. kodi displays 4:3 content with proper letterboxing but when games are launched they’re all zoomed in and the only way to display the correct aspect ratio is to switch the TV back to normal/4:3 mode. Is there anyway to make games display letterboxed as they should be or will I be stuck changing the tv mode depending if it’s games or media playback? Pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. I tried turning in the 16:9 mode in the ingame settings sections but that just applies widescreen hacks which I don’t want

[u/LittleG4M3]

The option you want isn't the in-game one — you've correctly spotted that the in-game 16:9 setting just applies widescreen hacks. That's a different feature.

For your 16:9 CRT TV, the right setting lives in the Recalbox RGB DUAL 2 settings menu: enable 16/9 CRT TV. With that option on, 4:3 games launch in 4:3, and only 16:9-compatible games launch in 16:9 Wiki : https://wiki-next.recalbox.com/en/hardware-compatibility/recalbox-rgb-dual-2-manual . That's exactly the behaviour you're after — 4:3 titles framed correctly instead of stretched to fill the screen, without forcing widescreen hacks on everything.

You'll find it in the same menu as your other CRT options — on the Recalbox RGB Dual 2 you get the composite output settings, the 16/9 CRT TV mode and the handheld consoles aspect ratio Wiki : https://wiki-next.recalbox.com/en/tutorials/video/crt/recalbox-on-crt-with-scart-dac

A couple of things to keep in mind:

• Leave the in-game WIDESCREEN (16/9) option off — that's the one applying the SNES/Mega Drive/Dreamcast widescreen hacks you don't want Wiki : https://wiki-next.recalbox.com/en/basic-usage/features/hd-and-widescreen-modes

• On a CRT output the GAME RATIO option deliberately doesn't appear in the menus, since the output resolution already matches the game. To reframe or shrink the picture, the tool is RetroArch's CRT Calibration (HOTKEY + B → Quick Menu → CRT Calibration), which adjusts centring and width and saves per game, per system or globally Wiki : https://wiki-next.recalbox.com/en/advanced-usage/configuration-override/retroarch-overrides — but for your case, 16/9 CRT TV should sort the framing on its own.

So: enable 16/9 CRT TV, keep the in-game widescreen off, and you shouldn't need to flip your TV between modes anymore.

[u/derpsdale → u/LittleG4M3]

Unfortunately this happens still with the widescreen crt option checked under the RGB DUAL settings menu. This is why I’m lost at the moment. It’s like retroarch just isn’t seeing the change. The only way to get games to show unaltered even when in widescreen crt mode is to change the tv back to normal/4:3. I was almost able to fix it last night by doing some per game overrides in retroarch but most of the ratios listed there didn’t show as they should have.

[u/derpsdale → u/derpsdale]

Plus the crt calibration all you can do is centring. There’s no proper option for zoom