Morph 4K – Complete Firmware Overhaul

PixelFX have just released a beta version of their upcoming v4 firmware for the Morph 4K. This is a massive update with tons of additions and changes. If you’d like to try it out yourself, simply connect your Morph 4K to WiFi, then go to System\Firmware\Update Channel. Change the channel to “preview” and hit OK on the remote to save. Then just back out, check for updates and run the firmware update process. As a note, you can always go back to a main channel update as well. PixelFX plans on porting this firmware to the Morph 2K at some point in the future, as well as their RetroGEM products. They’ve also opened pre-orders on the next round of M4K’s, which will ship early next year, however the M2K is currently in stock and ready to ship. More info below the links:

Morph 4K: https://retrorgb.link/morph4k
Morph 2K: https://retrorgb.link/morph2k
Full Blog Post: https://www.pixelfx.co/post/morph-4k-firmware-v4-simulating-the-physics-of-retro-video

There’s so much to go over that I don’t really know where to begin. I’ll try and summarize the blog post, but there’s no way I can do it justice. If you’re someone interested in this stuff, it’s absolutely worth reading…but here’s the short-short version, for someone looking for the basics:

PixelFX have basically re-written the entire software that runs the Morph 4K, with the goal of processing the input signals similar to how CRT’s would. Every aspect of the signal is being approached differently, with the goal of more accurate CRT emulation on every level. There’s even the ability to load custom bezels (beware of burn-in!) and emulate Composite and RF, even with HDMI or RGB inputs.

As a quick example, here’s a screenshot Wobbling Pixels was kind enough to send me – On the left is RGB input with a consumer CRT profile WP quickly created. And on the right is the same thing, but with composite video simulation added as well. PLEASE NOTE: These are SDR captures (like I would use), so they’ll be MUCH dimmer than what it looks like in-person (just like with other scaler’s CRT mask screenshots). I didn’t want to alter the images, so I just cut-and-pasted them side-by-side and figured I’d leave it up to you – click for a full-sized view:

There’s also a completely revamped deinterlacer, including a smoother that looks very good. And a new Super-xBR mode that has the potential to clean up early 3D graphics. They’ve also added the ability to rotate the signal for TATE games. And an IVTC “film mode”, designed to work with 3:2 pulldown content like 24p on DVD’s, as well as 480i games locked to 30 frames per second.

Once again, this post is just an over-simplification of everything they’ve done – Definitely check out their blog entry for visual examples and the full story. I’ll definitely be borrowing a M4K soon to test these out myself!

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