VGA Box
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noiseredux
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Re: VGA Box
I don't know much about this sort of thing, but I'm guessing I just got lucky with my setup. I use the Innovation VGA box going into a 15" widescreen monitor. Text is perfectly readable. No bleeding. Colors look great. The only thing I've encountered is some sort of verticle lines in especially dark areas of Gamecube games (say Resident Evil) which is basically an affect of the standard TV dimensions being stretched to fit the widescreen monitor. GBA games played through the GBPlayer however look perfect as the widescreen dimensions of the monitor seem to be much closer to the dimensions of the GBA screen.
Re: VGA Box
Interesting. I was using a pretty good Samsung Syncmaster 15" screen, however I think the critical thing is, this is a dedicated VGA adaptor for the GC. It is probably taking RGB direct from the console's video out, I assume the picture is very close to the Dreamcasts VGA output, which looks really good on my 42" Viera.
I'm talking about general purpose VGA boxes, and so is the OP. These things are universally crap. A lot of people on these forums who have had experience in them, as attested by previous threads on this very topic, say that they are crap as well. Most of them only accept composite or s-video input. Plus the consoles he wants to use, the Genesis, Saturn and PS1 only output s-video at best (we have RGB SCART for Saturn and PS1, but the Mega Drive only outputs RGB after a mod I think). That's problem you see, you are used to seeing a possibly progressive signal in RGB without a lot of upscaling. These little VGA boxes (XRGB aside, since that actually does a pretty good job of upscaling these low quality video signals, aside from a little input lag of course) simply stretch a 480i (at best, the MD, PS1, Saturn have quite a lot of games that don't even get close to hitting 480i) signal onto 800x600 (which is SVGA and not VGA, another annoying little misnomer these poor quality boxes use) resolution.
I'd definitely say that those sub £100 VGA boxes are little more than a last resort. The ones I've seen and the one that I used are definitely poor quality and definitely don't offer an enjoyable experience.
I'm talking about general purpose VGA boxes, and so is the OP. These things are universally crap. A lot of people on these forums who have had experience in them, as attested by previous threads on this very topic, say that they are crap as well. Most of them only accept composite or s-video input. Plus the consoles he wants to use, the Genesis, Saturn and PS1 only output s-video at best (we have RGB SCART for Saturn and PS1, but the Mega Drive only outputs RGB after a mod I think). That's problem you see, you are used to seeing a possibly progressive signal in RGB without a lot of upscaling. These little VGA boxes (XRGB aside, since that actually does a pretty good job of upscaling these low quality video signals, aside from a little input lag of course) simply stretch a 480i (at best, the MD, PS1, Saturn have quite a lot of games that don't even get close to hitting 480i) signal onto 800x600 (which is SVGA and not VGA, another annoying little misnomer these poor quality boxes use) resolution.
I'd definitely say that those sub £100 VGA boxes are little more than a last resort. The ones I've seen and the one that I used are definitely poor quality and definitely don't offer an enjoyable experience.
Marurun wrote:Don’t mind-shart your pants, guys
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noiseredux
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Re: VGA Box
Niode wrote:I think the critical thing is, this is a dedicated VGA adaptor for the GC...
...I'm talking about general purpose VGA boxes, and so is the OP.
agh! True. I think I sort of missed the point by going off on a GC tangent.
Re: VGA Box
Ahh see i've even created this thread before and never got so clear a response, but the situation doesn't really permit for putting in my old tv or a crt monitor. Live in a tiny studio apt now, so I don't even have anywhere to put something like that.
The option is pretty much the box or bust, but it seems the box isn't even worth the money to make the attempt. Guess I'll have to depend on xbla conversions and dreamcast emulators for my fix.
At least dreamcast does the atari decently.
The option is pretty much the box or bust, but it seems the box isn't even worth the money to make the attempt. Guess I'll have to depend on xbla conversions and dreamcast emulators for my fix.
At least dreamcast does the atari decently.
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Gennss
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Gennss
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Re: VGA Box
Yeah, your best bet is to get an Xbox and softmod. The xbox emulates everything well, apart from N64 (certain games are fine, but some are just unplayable) onwards. I don't think it does Saturn tho, I've never seen an emulator anyway. I use my xbox in place of all my retro consoles since I just don't have the space in my bungalow (plus my fiancee would kill me if I had any more systems under the TV). However I'm not aware of a dedicated VGA adaptor for the xbox though...
So yeah, other option would be to invest in an XRGB, which essentially future proofs you in case you buy a HDTV down the line, then you can use your old consoles with it. If you are going to get a VGA box, I wouldn't spend a lot on it. I really haven't seen any of them do a good enough job to warrant a price of more than £30 or $50. It seems it's XRGB or bust these days, it's a shame there has been nobody else to challenge em to a retro-gaming VGA solution.
If you're into it, you could always get a banned Xbox 360 for cheap, then do the homebrew mod with XBreboot. You can then run emulators on that once they are ported. There's already a SNES emulator ported to the 360, plus the 360 supports a native VGA adaptor and high resolutions.
The guide is here: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=698328
So yeah, other option would be to invest in an XRGB, which essentially future proofs you in case you buy a HDTV down the line, then you can use your old consoles with it. If you are going to get a VGA box, I wouldn't spend a lot on it. I really haven't seen any of them do a good enough job to warrant a price of more than £30 or $50. It seems it's XRGB or bust these days, it's a shame there has been nobody else to challenge em to a retro-gaming VGA solution.
If you're into it, you could always get a banned Xbox 360 for cheap, then do the homebrew mod with XBreboot. You can then run emulators on that once they are ported. There's already a SNES emulator ported to the 360, plus the 360 supports a native VGA adaptor and high resolutions.
The guide is here: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=698328
Marurun wrote:Don’t mind-shart your pants, guys
Re: VGA Box
Or an alternative, you may want to look for a cheap TV/capture card(just make sure it has no onboard encoding, as if I recall correctly, that is the function which introduces lag and which is why most of the current cards are not recommended). I got one and currently using it with Dscaler to play my Saturn. So far colors are ok(certainly not as nice as CRT tv) and no noticeable lag.