Hi all!
I've just created my account here, looking for some help. I hope it's ok to directly post something like this.
Recently a friend told me he had bought a retro console. I got curious, since I hadn't heard anything of "Raspberry Pi" before (yeah, I'm living under a rock) and he agreed to lend me that wonderful box over the weekend. It consists of a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ in a Retroflag case (Superpi) with Recalbox version 18.07.13 on a Micro SD card. My friend even allowed me to fool around with the box a little, and since I had an unused Micro SD card lying around, I downloaded the latest Recalbox version (7.1.1. reloaded), plugged it in and everything was fine.
In fact, I totally fell in love with the idea of having such a retro console myself and decided to build my own, so I did quite a research (or at least I thought so...) on the web and finally ordered a Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB and a case which seems to be considered one of the best cases at the moment, the Argon One case. It is the V2 version, which means there is a black module you have to connect to the Pi itself and which kind of converts the two micro HDMI ports of the Pi 4 into two regular sized HDMI ports.
So far, so good. I connected everything the way the manual told me to, formatted my SD card, installed a fresh version of Recalbox 7.1.1 reloaded (this time, the Pi4 version) on it, inserted it and started console.
But in spite of the console clearly booting up, I didn't see anything. I tried a few times, then I read online that the two HDMI ports of the Pi4 work differently. This time, I plugged the HDMI-cable in the second HDMI port and in fact, there it was, the Emulation Station menu. BUT:
- No sound (regardless of the settings in the ES menu)
- The overall resolution is horrible, compared to the (older?) Pi and Recalbox version of my friend.
I decided to focus on the sound problem first and I found the information online that only one of the Pi 4's HDMI ports supports sound by default. But since there was only one functioning, but obviously silent port and neither sound nor any image on the other port, I re-opened the whole console, removed the black Argon platine which converts the micro HDMI to regular HDMI, and used a micro HDMI adapter to link the naked Pi 4 directly to the TV instead. This time, I got an image on both ports, and sound + image on the first port. However, the image quaity still is miserable. I don't get this, because on my friend's box, with my own SD and Recalbox 7.1.1, the resolution immediately was perfect.
So, all in all, I have a Raspberry Pi 4 which is either mute and ugly or simply not working at all when stuck in the case, or a naked Raspberry whose image quality still is a mess.
I tried to find a solution for this or similar problem postings, but this specific case just seems to be perfect for everyone else, it just seems to be plug and play: unbox the Raspberry, unbox the case, plug them together, cables, there you go, perfect image, have fun.
Am I missing something? Like... do you first have to install something ONTO the Raspberry Pi itself to be able to properly use the HDMI ports? I mean, in my friend's case, he had a functional console and all I did was exchanging the SD.
But the Recalbox instructions also say: Install on SD, plug SD in, play.
Could it be that my Argon One case or the module is broken?
It is so annoying, I did read so many reviews for different cases, and the Argon One just seemed to be the best choice.
Do I have to change something in the config files? Which ones? Which changes?
Any help would be appreciated, I just wish to get this tiny, but great thing to work
Cid