DREAMCAST VGA QUESTIONS! come here for everything VGA w/ DC.

[CRTGAMER]

Kudos to racketboy. I purchased the VGA cable a few days ago and it came already.

I would not hesitate to purchase from racketboy. And yes, the cables make the Dreamcast look great .

Congrats, good move getting that adapter. You can use the Dreamcast Lightgun with VGA too.
See my signature link for more info .........

[Joe-dan]

Hello, just joined, this site is right up my alley. Anyways, my box produces an off center picture on both of the lcd monitors ( a 32 inch olevia lcd tv and 21.5 acer computer monitor in case it matters) in my house. I searched the forum a few times and didn't see another mention of it, but do you know what could be causing this?

[CRTGAMER]

Hello, just joined, this site is right up my alley. Anyways, my box produces an off center picture on both of the lcd monitors ( a 32 inch olevia lcd tv and 21.5 acer computer monitor in case it matters) in my house. I searched the forum a few times and didn't see another mention of it, but do you know what could be causing this?

Most computer monitors have an auto adjust in the Monitor and TV Menu Settings. There are also manual Horizontal, Vertical Center Shift and Zoom adjustments in the Monitor and TV Menu.

[Assman]

Well, I finally got that VGA to HDMI converter from Monoprice to hook my DC up to my HDTV. Works great! I just wish my TV gave me more display options through the HDMI input (overscan would be nice).

For anyone else who has LCD TV with a bastard VGA input like I do, I can't imagine getting much better bang for your buck. Who knew 480p could look that good?

[CRTGAMER]

Well, I finally got that VGA to HDMI converter from Monoprice to hook my DC up to my HDTV. Works great! I just wish my TV gave me more display options through the HDMI input (overscan would be nice).

For anyone else who has LCD TV with a bastard VGA input like I do, I can't imagine getting much better bang for your buck. Who knew 480p could look that good?

Good for you, I may have to go this route on my Sony CRT. Does that Dreamcast 640 x 480 fill the screen on your LCD?

For anyone who has tried the Monoprice converter on a Tube TV. How about a Dreamcast lightgun, any luck of it working?

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

For anyone else who has LCD TV with a bastard VGA input like I do, I can't imagine getting much better bang for your buck. Who knew 480p could look that good?

Good for you, I may have to go this route on my Sony CRT. Does that Dreamcast 640 x 480 fill the screen on your LCD?

For anyone who has tried the Monoprice converter on a Tube TV. How about a Dreamcast lightgun, any luck of it working?[/quote]
I just had a stroke of an idea last night.

I was thinking and then realized, don't both VGA and DVI plugs have interchangeable Analog or Digital input/outputs unless it's a DVI-D connector?

If so shouldn't it be ppossible to connect a Dreamcast to any HDTV with a DVI input as long as you have a DVI to VGA adapter and a compatible DVI input?

My HDTV doesn't have a DVI input so I'm unable to check, but if someone on here has a DVI to VGA adapter and an HD-CRT with a DVI input and can check then this could mean a cheap and easy way to use the Dreamcast in VGA on older or a much wider array of HDTV's.

[CRTGAMER]

Well, I finally got that VGA to HDMI converter from Monoprice to hook my DC up to my HDTV. Works great! I just wish my TV gave me more display options through the HDMI input (overscan would be nice).

For anyone else who has LCD TV with a bastard VGA input like I do, I can't imagine getting much better bang for your buck. Who knew 480p could look that good?

Good for you, I may have to go this route on my Sony CRT. Does that Dreamcast 640 x 480 fill the screen on your LCD?

I just had a stroke of an idea last night.

I was thinking and then realized, don't both VGA and DVI plugs have interchangeable Analog or Digital input/outputs unless it's a DVI-D connector?

If so shouldn't it be ppossible to connect a Dreamcast to any HDTV with a DVI input as long as you have a DVI to VGA adapter and a compatible DVI input?

My HDTV doesn't have a DVI input so I'm unable to check, but if someone on here has a DVI to VGA adapter and an HD-CRT with a DVI input and can check then this could mean a cheap and easy way to use the Dreamcast in VGA on older or a much wider array of HDTV's.

My Sony has the older DVI input, have DVI to HDMI conversion cable for video. Separate regular RCA audio cables for sound.

Jump over here another member may have found a cheaper way (then regular transcoders) go VGA-Component.
http://racketboy.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 57#p231657

[Assman]

Good for you, I may have to go this route on my Sony CRT. Does that Dreamcast 640 x 480 fill the screen on your LCD?

Almost. If I go "dot for dot", obviously, I get a teeny-tiny picture, but normal mode leaves me a few pixels (literally, like 3 or 4) short at the top of filling the screen in-game (the white screen with the DC logo does fill it, oddly enough). In 16:9, it comes several more pixels short of filling the screen on the left and right side (not that it matters as I'm not going to stretch games that don't have a 16:9 mode).

It's not a dealbreaker, but that's why I really wish I had an overscan option. That border at the top is just so damn small.

[CRTGAMER]

Good for you, I may have to go this route on my Sony CRT. Does that Dreamcast 640 x 480 fill the screen on your LCD?

Almost. If I go "dot for dot", obviously, I get a teeny-tiny picture, but normal mode leaves me a few pixels (literally, like 3 or 4) short at the top of filling the screen in-game (the white screen with the DC logo does fill it, oddly enough). In 16:9, it comes several more pixels short of filling the screen on the left and right side (not that it matters as I'm not going to stretch games that don't have a 16:9 mode).

It's not a dealbreaker, but that's why I really wish I had an overscan option. That border at the top is just so damn small.

Thanks for info sounds like just about a full screen beiing utilized. Don't know if you can manually set your TV resolution but at 480p without hitting any of your zoom buttons how is the screen size? My link on my previous Reply shows another member who has tried a VGA to Component, about 80 percent of screen real estate being utilized before zooming. The problem with my Sony HD CRT is there are no zoom capabilities in the service menu. The VGA to HDMI looks to be the best price, so still debating which way to go. A side issue I am looking at (though probably will not work) is getting the Dreamcast Lightgun to work after VGA conversion. Still unresolved, but I did personally confirm that DC lightgun does work with a VGA CRT computer monitor. My signature link has review.

[Assman]

Actual dot for dot 480 without any zooming/stretching only takes up maybe 50% of the screen at best (native resolution for my LCD is 1080). It's tiny. I guess it'll depend on the resolution of your CRT, but if it doesn't automatically stretch the image to fit the screen, yeah, that'd suck pretty hard.

Since you mentioned having an analog DVI input in your CRT, though, I'm pretty sure that you can just buy an ordinary passive VGA to DVI cable to get things running as the poster above theorized. I don't know this from experience, but I have read on other retro gaming sites that it does indeed work that way. Honestly, for the priced of a cable, I'd try that before anything else.