So we get to the big question - who is this for? Well, we've already ruled out PC and 4K console players - quite frankly the benefits for them are too small to mention. And unlike what you may have thought from some of the marketing, this isn't a perfect 4K upscaler for your 1080p devices, it's closer to a 1080p upscaler for your other full-HD-and-below devices. If you regularly play on a base modern console, the PS4 or Xbox One, or a Nintendo console, such as the Switch or Wii U, or anything with an HDMI port, then the mClassic is sure to offer a boost to the image quality of 3D games, while the way it smooths over pixel art in 2D games will be down to preference. Starting with the PS3 let’s take a look at Red Dead Redemption. I’m actually not all that impressed with the quality we’re getting here and it’s not really down to the actual upscaling but the fact that the mClassic is making things too dark. This isn’t too noticeable in the outdoor areas but if I go inside, the mClassic makes this so dark that it’s taking away from the experience and you’d be better off playing without it. The effect you get from older systems is going to vary dramatically based on what console you’re using. I tested it with PS1 and PS2 games and there’s literally no difference in the majority of them.

mClassic’s patented technology redraws every single pixel on the screen on the fly at 120 FPS with near-zero latency, eliminating jagged edges that are smoothed over by the company’s advanced anti-aliasing algorithm. Well, I would, but I’d definitely say that this is a bit of a niche product aimed at perfectionists who want to get the absolute best video quality they possibly can from very specific consoles and games. A similar effect can be seen in this scene, with Samus collapsed on the floor after her encounter with Raven Beak. Again, zoom in for best results. However, if you play a lot of games in 720p especially on the Switch which is where the mClassic seems to shine, this does legitimately make a difference. But less noticeable does not mean entirely unnoticeable. The mClassic only bumps the resolution to the next output value. This means that a 720p signal can only go up to 1080p. A 1080p signal can only go up to 1440p. The mClassic doesn't magically post-process an image from 720p to 4K. Doing so would likely require much more horsepower and special upscaling algorithms.

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That’s pretty much all there is to it; it’s an extremely simple setup process and, once it’s plugged in, turned on and in its default processing mode, you theoretically wouldn’t need to touch it ever again.

games also look far cleaner using the retro mode. I couldn't help but test an old classic like Super Mario 64 (the PAL 50hz version, unfortunately), and as with all of the other games mentioned here, it was considerably smoothed over. On these much older 3D games the point about a softer image doesn't really apply - all of the post-processing provided by the mClassic on N64 games makes the image quality look better, there really isn't an argument to be made to the contrary like with 2D games. So first I wanted to look at The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD because not only is it one of the best looking Wii U games, but it’s also one of the few Wii U games that hasn’t been ported to the Switch. The retro mode switch is really where the mClassic finds its niche. Right off the bat it forces a 4:3 aspect ratio on all content, which is helpful in a majority of cases - though you can revert to the regular processing mode if games have 16:9 support. The key here is that the upgrade is far more pronounced. As you'll see in the video, I used Power Stone on Dreamcast as a test case, sending a 480p signal via HDMI using a Toro VGA box connected to an OSSC - which simply passes that 640x480 resolution through to the mClassic over HDMI. From there, colour saturation is boosted vividly compared to a playthrough with processing disabled. It's a huge difference. sprite work suffers especially. Taking OutRun as an example, the Sega Ages port on Saturn is given the works; sharpening, intelligent focus, and even anti-aliasing is applied to its 2D pixel art. It creates a smudged, rounded effect on some corners, and at points the stair-stepping is evened out to a straight line. It's the mClassic doing its job, but it sadly undoes the aesthetic of the game; those pixels are meant to be shown raw. This is where the passthrough mode comes in handy, but even 3D titles like Panzer Dragoon don't look all that attractive when the mClassic is enabled. The image is filled with noise from the scale to 1080p, while segments are treated with AA for a few frames at a time. It doesn't have the consistency Dreamcast games do, and I suspect feeding it an upscaled 240p signal doesn't help. It's an interesting experiment then, but given the bulk of titles on Saturn gave 2D the spotlight, it's not an ideal fit. To begin with I’m keeping things simple and setting the Switch to output at 1080p which is it’s maximum resolution. Mario OdysseyJourney was another game which I would probably say looked better with the mClassic. It’s subtle, but it does look a bit sharper and it almost looks a little bit more dynamic with the colours being slightly more vibrant. Now comes the not-so-great news. The mClassic doesn't support HDR, at least in my tests. If you connect it to a PS4, Xbox One X, or PS4 Pro, then you'll have to live without the better colors. While some games on the PS4 are sub-1080p, many support HDR so it'll have to be a personal preference. Do you prefer vibrant colors or a smoother image? The mClassic really does work to smooth out the pixelated areas of various video games. Many of the changes I saw on the Nintendo Switch were relatively subtle but did make the images prettier to look at. Just be warned that depending on how close you sit to your screen, the kind of display you have, and the HDMI cable used, you may or may not see much of a difference. The gold standard for the mClassic would be an onscreen interface you can use to see performance metrics and tweak what effects the mClassic applies and how it applies them. A silver medal would go to the mClassic if you could simply connect it to a PC via USB and change its settings in a piece of software. Either way, having control over your image is what I’m after, and even if the mClassic doesn’t get more effects, just the ability to tweak the ones it already comes with would be a massive win.

This is where the mClassic HDMI upscaler comes in, created by a company called Marseille and kindly sent to us for the purposes of this review. This is an upscaler which converts a HDMI signal and (at least according to the box) adds a depth of field effect, anti-aliasing, and sharpens the image. Then the third and final option is the ‘Retro Mode’, turning on a blue light on the device and as far as I can tell this is exactly the same as the ‘Processing On’ mode but forces the image to be a 4:3 aspect ratio. That’s pretty handy if you’re using this with a retro console and your TV doesn’t have the option to natively display 4:3. So wait a minute… Why is it that we’re getting different results depending on the game we’re playing? How Does The mClassic Handle Resolutions?However, if we move over to the Dreamcast, there’s actually a fairly big difference. Here’s the raw video from the Dreamcast and here’s the video from the mClassic. The mClassic is pretty dramatically improving the image in terms of sharpness, contrast and it’s doing a great job at cleaning up the jagged edges. So let’s ignore that and move on to a game which runs at 720p with the original Splatoon! Once again the mClassic shows what it’s capable of with a 720p signal because here you can see some level of improvement. It looks a bit sharper overall with the mClassic and if we zoom in to my Inkling’s glorious hairline, we can see that the Wii U’s video output is much more jagged than the mClassic output. Once again it isn’t a huge difference, but it does definitely look better. Source: Windows Central This is a close-up image of Rage 2 on Xbox One X without the adapter. The image quality is exactly the same as with the adapter. (Image credit: Source: Windows Central) Here, there's a general blurriness to Samus. Look at the areas in which blue meets with white on her armor. There's a slight smear to the image. And take a look at the orange glow from her arm cannon. When the mClassic is off, the light source looks angular, as if it were from a 3DS game.