How is your Dreamcast gaming going on?

[stickem]

Ive never seen a crt tv with vga ports though.

[marurun]

Old PC monitors, dude!

[stickem]

Oh is that what there plan for these were. Thats just not practical lol.

[marurun]

A lot of HDTV CRTs also had VGA. The VGA cable was a niche product, and it allowed people with PCs but no TV to have some high res goodness.

[stickem]

Gotcha. Hell i have a hdcrt, of course no vga input.

[Tanooki]

Like my boy DJ Jazzy Jeff always says, no prob bob.

From the VGA box you will want to run these two cables from the box into the HDMI converter:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=85
Any length will work on these just make sure it has two male ends. 6ft is probably overkill for sure

Audio Cable:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=644

Said HDMI converter:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=6191

This is pricier than when I bought mine. I think mine was $25 at the time. While it might be pricey I can vouch for the quality and ease of use.

From there its just a simple HDMI to the TV.

The TV options I have now don't have VGA, but the one my kid cracked 2 years ago (a 10~ year old Panasonic Viera had it.) So in all you're into it $35+shipping, then price of that retrobit/haig box (another $50~) so around $90 in the end for an improvement. High but not insanely unreasonable. It's really the only way to go too as I own VGA blacklisted games, not many though as most seem to be SNK arcade titles I have a legit MVS cabinet for.

And yeah all those old 800x600 and under old VGA monitors ran on a vga cable, perfect for the DC (I recall an EB in my area left their DC on plugged into one until it was terminated.) I do recall also those early HDTV behemoths having those too.

[stickem]

I have a 10 year plasma Panasonic Viera also, but no vga port. Still has a dam good picture though.

[CRTGAMER]

I have read that the Dreamcast VGA box outputs a slightly non-standard signal. Some LCD displays won't accept it. No CRT monitor should reject it, though. A lot of HDTV CRTs also had VGA. The VGA cable was a niche product, and it allowed people with PCs but no TV to have some high res goodness.

VGA of course the standard on CRT Computer Monitors. It is the way to go for House Dead Lightgun capability, the exclusive VGA Lightgun mode of the Dreamcast. Certainly worth a hookup considering how inexpensive VGA CRT PC Monitors are at the thrift stores.

A VGA input port on an HD CRT very rare, I have yet to spot one. True on the signal of the Dreamcast VGA Box or Dreamcast VGA Cable, the lower resolution (VGA 640x480) not supported by many newer LCDs and LEDs which display a higher resolution (SVGA 800x600 or higher). Throw in that most the flatscreens on the market today do not even have a VGA input. The VGA to HDMI conversion a mixed chance result.

@ stickem - Hang on to that Plasma! A flat screen that is very forgiving of SD signals, bet yours even has an SVideo input perfect for the Dreamcast! Though not VGA, a very decent picture.

@ Tanooki - Cable conversion alone will not work, as mentioned a VGA to HDMI box needed to convert the VGA analog to HDMI digital. The same applies for the Dreamcast analog audio to HDMI. It can be done, good luck on the VGA to HDMI Scaler Adapter.

[marurun]

Actually, 640x480 is the original VGA resolution. The VGA connection is named after the video adapter that introduced that resolution. But I have read several places that the Dreamcast actually outputs a nonstandard 720x480 resolution that most systems interpret as 640x480 and then end up squashing down to 640x480. I have. I have no means to test this.

Ah, here is the info. Read back in our own VGA thread:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=723

[miked]

I have always heard of people having problems with VGA ports on LCD TVs and the adapter but I have never encountered it. I have hooked mine up to 5 different models over the years(two my own and 3 at friends houses) and its always been good. Lucky I guess.

No joke that getting a VGA setup for dreamcast is expensive nowadays. I have been rolling the same Blaze VGA box for about 12 or 13 years now. Bought it for $20 back when DC stuff had pretty much zero market.