Thursday, September 28th 2017
Marseille Commercializes the mCable Gaming Edition: HDMI-embedded Anti-Aliasing
Marseille has introduced what they call the mCable Gaming Edition, an HDMI cable that promises to mitigate aliasing problems of 3D rendering - particularly in games. This may sound like those snake-oily audio and HDMI cables that strut the usage of rare metals like gold or silver, or even something as exotic as diamonds, as a way to improve transmission quality. In marketing talk that might elicit memories from those other less than recommendable products, Marseille are saying their mCable provides "Contextual anti-aliasing, adaptive resolution scaling, high frame rate support (up to 120 FPS @ 1080p), and sub-1 ms lag".
However, apparently, there's slightly more than meets the eye to the Marseille mCable: it features a picture co-processor that applies a post-process anti-aliasing algorithm to the image before it is presented on your screen. And they say it does so without any load on your graphics card. Granted, this might be secondary for us PC users, since we now have access to some "free" post-process AA methods, like FXAA, which mean the performance impact isn't as much of a concern. However, I think fondly of my XBox 360 exclusives that can now be played through backwards compatibility, remember the jagged edges I used to see while gaming, and think: man, if this was true, I'd have loved this.
Now yes, I stood extremely skeptical of this piece of tech; really, free AA via HDMI? The interesting part here is that PC Perspective's Ken Addison thought so too, until he put the Marseille mCable through its paces. The connectors do feature source and output-specific ends - which would be rendered (eh) important, considering the existence of an image processor. His testing with Hitman, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Unreal Tournament 2004 show, beyond doubt, that there is some AA magic happening through the Marseille mCable compared to regular HDMI cables. Likewise, their testing found that there was also no additional lag introduced by the image processor. The mCable also requires being connected to a USB port for extra power, though, so keep that in mind.
Ken tested the cable in the best environment possible -the PC - where we can control whether or not AA is being used in the rendering pipeline or not. This is the best way to test Marseille's claims; however, and this is the way the company markets its mCable, it would be much better to pair these HDMI cables with your gaming console of choice; particularly for games being rendered in 720p or below 1080p. Free AA to clean up those jagged edges on my favorite games? Sounds too good to be true. But apparently, it isn't. The Marseille mCable does cost in greenbacks what it doesn't cost in processing power, though, with a 3-feet (30 cm) version being available for $119; 6-feet (182 cm) and 9-feet (274 cm) are also available for $129 and $139 respectively.
Sources:
Marseille mCable Product Page, PC Perspective
However, apparently, there's slightly more than meets the eye to the Marseille mCable: it features a picture co-processor that applies a post-process anti-aliasing algorithm to the image before it is presented on your screen. And they say it does so without any load on your graphics card. Granted, this might be secondary for us PC users, since we now have access to some "free" post-process AA methods, like FXAA, which mean the performance impact isn't as much of a concern. However, I think fondly of my XBox 360 exclusives that can now be played through backwards compatibility, remember the jagged edges I used to see while gaming, and think: man, if this was true, I'd have loved this.
32 Comments on Marseille Commercializes the mCable Gaming Edition: HDMI-embedded Anti-Aliasing
The edge detection/sharpening theory sounds the most plausible.
Whether it's worth the $150 is of course up to you guys.
We are talking about chaining two lossy processes for negative gains.I think the question we should be asking here is whether whatever technique used in this cable can be implemented in software, or even incorporated directly to drivers. Freesync/Gsync kinda scenario.
Very informative video, though. The cable does remove the jaggies well, but on the other hand, it amplifies temporal aliasing. And boy, does it screw up colours!
Sure, you could probably find a set of pixels on the screenshot that are actually different, but to call it vastly improved or even 'visibly improved' in the case of Hitman, no. Look at the curb of the street in the back, for example. The most obvious jaggies, and the most disruptive ones, remain.
But yes, with 3/4x zoom on top of the monitor, its distinguishable. I just dont watch my content that way. It still is impressive dont get me wrong.