Does anyone know what the state of CRTSwitchRes is on Lakka now? I have a RPi4B setup with composite video output via the AV minijack. There’s no option for CRTSwitchRes in the GUI but other threads on the forum seem to suggest it could be enabled via an ini file. However, I’m not sure those people were using the AV minijack. I’d rather not use RGB/VGA adapters because I want to preserve the composite artefacts and the port is right there. 
There’s no way to control the video output from the AV/composite jack via software beyond the couple of basic settings provided by the firmware (that is, NTSC vs PAL, 480i vs 240 doublestrike, etc.). This isn’t enough control to do switchres, which requires setting all values of the signal.
I see, that’s a shame. Thank you very much for letting me know. Since the AV port is not usable, what’s the best alternative? I’ve heard about hdmi to vga adapters and adapters that use the pins on the board but I don’t know any specifics so a point in the right direction would be helpful. Thanks again. 
I’ve used basic ones like this: https://www.amazon.com/Gold-Plated-Compatible-Projector-Chromebook-Raspberry/dp/B075GZ8DX7/
but if you’re going to a consumer TV, you’ll have to convert from VGA to something else, and the good versions of those tend to be fairly expensive.
You can try some of the gear from RetroRGB’s amazon list: https://www.amazon.com/shop/retrorgb/list/IP72N6BL06SV
Specifically, the HDMI to YPbPr box. I had one of these at some point and I recall it worked with some devices but not others. I don’t remember whether my RPi3s were in the ‘working’ group or not.
1 Like
That’s a good place to start. Thank you very much!
1 Like
@hunterk Alright, I finally got together the hardware and have an image on my crt via one of the micro-hdmi ports on the RPi4B. However, I’m now having a lot of trouble finding what settings I should change in the retroarch config file. Is there some documentation about this?
I’ve found and enabled the CRTSwitchRes settings in retroarch.cfg but my hdmi output in the menu and in games is always a horizontally squashed 480i. I did find Lakka’s documentation on CRT output, https://www.lakka.tv/doc/CRT-Screens. I tried adding the hdmi_timings line to my config.txt but it didn’t make any difference. Assuming I put it in the right place. The documentation doesn’t mention where that line should go. I’m now starting to wonder if my choice of adapter is the problem. I went for a cheap hdmi to composite adapter and maybe whatever conversion that’s doing is the problem. My CRT only has composite/RCA input so YPbPr would be no use to me. Not sure what to do now…
Many X-to-composite adapters indeed hard-convert everything to 480i (640 or 720 width, usually).
Sorry for the late reply and thank you very much for your advice. I’ll shop around for something better.
@mr-falafel if you are still interested running Lakka with composite output, check out this news article:
3 Likes
I tried the RPI 3 Lakka image on Pi Zero 2W (essentially a Pi 3 underclocked) and works like a dream on Composite hack. At least the preinstalled Cave Story etc work perfectly 240p. Stunning stuff, sticking with this SD card on Pi zero 2w for now.
3 Likes
Thank you both! I’ve had this project on hold but this has rekindled my interest! I’ll most likely give it a try, today or tomorrow.
1 Like
Yeah really stunning job, for anyone who cares the pi zero 2w with this lakka image (the Pi3 one) runs PSP, PS1 pretty well, tried some Dreamcast too, the 240p suite works good, tried Ikaruga and it hangs after a while. All with scanlines etc, real 240p on 20" CRT, scanlines cut like a knife 
.
USB wirelless keyboard works, a cheap bluetooth ipega gamepad on wired mode works as XBOX 360 controller. All Amstrad-Spectrum-C64-Amiga-ST i tried work, smooth scrolling on NTSC mode, for the moment i didn’t change any setting to jump to PAL.
All consoles PCE-MD-SNES etc work perfectly well. And this little thing costs 20 euros heh
This is what you do to pi zero 2w to get composite
2 Likes
Great news! Do any latency reduction techniques like Run-Ahead/Pre-Emptive Frames work as well with those systems?
1 Like
Haven’t tried, I never noticed any latency problems on retroarch so I never switch on these. Now I have to test n64, Parallel works really well, full speed on a 2013 htc one phone so there is hope this little thing can do it too. Even now it is incredible what it does. Already love this little thing lol
1 Like
Cool, have you seen any of these projects?
1 Like
It’s so small you could even design a custom case and use some small 4:3 lcd. It has 21 gflops gpu so it could do some light shaders too. Size is around 5 cm wide, 2 cm high.
Edit: 65mm x 30mm
1 Like
So i tested PAL, it opens a 720x288 screen if you request on “Video-output”, just set it and forget it on “overrides-save core overrides”.
Amiga emulation that is one of the hardest runs perfectly with UAE4ARM, screen mode size is almost as in real Amiga on RGB CRT (i have a real set to compare). Picture quality is stunning, 80-90% of RGB. Man i love this lakka and pi lol
Any info if it works with usb audio cards? I tried a cheap one, no sound. It is named as “default:CARD=Headphones” on Audio-Output-Device. Perhaps need to change something in config.txt etc? Works on MX Linux and Retroarch normally.
You probably have to change that to something else in Audio - Output - Devices. The value with headphones is preconfigured for the analog jack on RPi3. if you can log in via ssh, check the output of aplay -L if you see the device there and then use that value instead.