Any way to make the Sega CDX look better on an LCD monitor..

[Original_Name]

All it has is VGA and HDMI ports; I have a converter so I hook up composite cables to it. Dreamcast looks like a dream with the VGA box, Saturn and PlayStation look decent, Super Nintendo is kinda meh, but the Sega CDX is insufferable. Do you guys have any suggestions, or do I need to haul the old tube back out of the storage room?

I tried using the search feature to find information, but I invariably just got links to topics about Dreamcast on VGA with the only relevance to the Genesis being people's signatures which list all the consoles they own.

[Hobie-wan]

You're going to have to mod to get better than composite, but read this to help find a Genesis without terrible video that makes you want to stab pencils in your eyes.

[Original_Name]

I'm so sorry, that was totally dumb of me. I have a Sega CDX, which probably makes this a different matter entirely. I'm gonna edit the OP now.

[Hobie-wan]

Ah see, why ya gotta lie sir?

I have no idea your options with a CDX. When I got mine I started to open it for the usual cleaning but it wasn't cooperating and I decided not to risk it. Modding a CDX is a nightmare AFAIK too since they're so crammed tight.

[Inazuma]

It's expensive and complicated but if you bought the XRGB-2 or XRGB-3 along with a DVI to HDMI cable, you could connect your console to the LCD monitor, plus have it upscaled so it would look sharper.

*edit*
http://gamerhaze.com/2009/06/collection ... art-cable/
Looks like if you bought a Mega Drive 2 RGB Scart cable, along with a Europe > Japanese converter cable, you could get RGB from the CDX. That would greatly increase the picture quality compared to shitty composite.

Bottom line, it's possible to use the LCD monitor and have the CDX look completely fantastic, but it's gonna cost you. Total price for the upscaler and cables would be around $250 - $500. You probably don't think it's worth it but I figured I'd share with you the solution I know. If you have other non-HD consoles, you could run them all through the upscaler and get more value for your money.

*edit again*
I don't know for sure if the CDX supports RGB output normally or needs to be modded. If you want to consider my solution, make sure first.

[gradualmeltdown]

Fully agree with the upscaler.

Composite output with a really nice upscaler would be the best option IMO. You could use the upscaler for all your retro consoles as mentioned before. The scaler in your TV is the cheapest possible. This is the most important step in getting a SD video signal into an HD display. This will take care of sync and scaling problems which are the most easily noticed issues. By properly scaling the incoming 480i signal I believe you would improve color depth a little as less video information will be dropped or altered incorrectly. This is stretching it considering the 64 colors Genesis can display

Using a Scart output with an upscaler would be undeniably better but maybe not worth the money considering the results. Scart output really wouldn't add resolution as Genesis video hardware outputs lower than 480i in most cases I would assume. You will get better color depth or less smearing by separating the RGB signal. All of that said this is the Genesis with all of 64 colors on screen at once. I would focus on the scaling of resolution and sync.

[jonatbaylor]

I am still working on this CDX issue, but not for a monitor, for HDTV. Besides, why not hook it up to your HDTV (assuming you have one).

I have been able to hook up the Master System, Saturn and Genesis 1, getting the best possible video connection (480p), with sound on a high-definition plasma. This will apply for any HDTV, as long as they have component inputs. These are the blue-green-red colored plugs/cables.
You need a few things, patience being the starting point. (it will probably be two weeks before all of this crap comes in the mail.). This is THE absolute best quality possible out of any Sega system.

1. A SCART cable, made specifically for your Sega system. this can be found on ebay, or the UK ebay (they didn't sell SCART in the US)
2. You need a SCART to YUV Converter (I found this on ebay for 30.00. They can be had all over the internet. Make sure it has the YUV/component output)
3. 1 RCA Cable, preferably 6' Long. (my 3' cable works fine, but I have to keep my damn system super close to the TV. Its irritating) This has the 3mm jack on one end, and two plugs on the other, white and red. They are pretty cheap, get gold tipped. Mine was like 3 bucks shipped from ebay.
4. Component Cable. 4-6' is usually plenty, depending on where you want to place your console. With some googling most of these cables can be had for a decent price.

With any system, you hook up the SCART sega cable to the back of the console, then the other end to the SCART-YUV Converter. (you cannot screw up how to hook up SCART. It is like putting a square peg in a square hole. Except this cable is more of a parallelagram.)

Then you hook your component cable from the converter to the back of your HDTV (or whatever component tc you have).

Most SCART converters will use a European power supply, which doesn't work here in the states. You either need an adapter, but ideally you need a 12v american power supply. I tried using an adapter from radio shack and it didn't power up things properly, (it was jsut a small plastic thing, where the european prongs plugged into this, then you can plug this into a standard 110v american outlet) unfortunately. Maybe I had the wrong adapter? But in either case, I had an other 12v supply laying around with the correct plug size, by chance.

Then, you take your RCA cable and plug it into your Genesis 1 front jack, and run the white end only, into the appropriate input on your TV in the back. For the Master system and Saturn, you need a SCART splitter, since the normal SCART converters do not pass sound and these systems do not have any external audio jacks. This splitter is a 5-7 dollar part. For those systems, just run the RCA cable from that splitter, to that TV.

Whew! It sounds like a lot, and it is to some degree. BUT, you will have the absolute best possible video output you can imagine. All total, I think this all cost me 60.00-70.00. Much cheaper than any place that may mod any of these systems to get you a similar, but probably much poorer, quality.

This is better than:
RF
S-Video
AV Composite
Anything else out there. I guarantee it! The quality of this SCART-YUV trumps even S-video quite easily.

Do NOT use any of those AV-HDMI converter boxes. 1, they are effin expensive. 2, your Sega console can NOT put out hdmi signal! You are wasting money. I have seen a guy hook this all up using an HDMI box and the dude thinks he gets HD video out of his Sega...sorry bro, that is not how it works. If your console can only put out 480p, or 720p or whatever it puts out, you cannot magically turn it into something better.

There are 1-2 videos on youtube that show this setup, I think the guys name is phonedork. However, it lacks a bit of detail, he assumes you know certain things. Like he doesn't tell you specifically, that you need the specific SCART cable for your Sega system (those pin configurations are ALL different.) But you can at least get a visual idea about it all.

Hope that helps!

[Assman]

I think the major reasoning behind an HDMI adapter is compatibility. There's no guarantee that your HDTV is going to know what to do with the Genesis' 240p signal running through a component connection, and by the time you've spent all that money only to discover it doesn't work like it should, then you've really wasted your money. At least with the upscaling HDMI adapter, the TV's accepting what it sees as a digital 720p signal, so there should be no compatibility issues.

Also, upscaled HD normally looks a bit better than the original low-res source on an HD screen. For example, if you play Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (or any number of Genesis XBLA titles), the picture is upscaled to 720/1080p and looks fantastic. It even looks noticeably better than Sonic Mega Collection for the Xbox1 in 480p. Granted, that may not be the best example since neither of those are running on the original Genesis hardware, but I believe there's definitely something to be said for upscaling an image like that, even when the resolution was never that high to begin with.

[jonatbaylor]

I think the major reasoning behind an HDMI adapter is compatibility. There's no guarantee that your HDTV is going to know what to do with the Genesis' 240p signal running through a component connection, and by the time you've spent all that money only to discover it doesn't work like it should, then you've really wasted your money. At least with the upscaling HDMI adapter, the TV's accepting what it sees as a digital 720p signal, so there should be no compatibility issues.

Also, upscaled HD normally looks a bit better than the original low-res source on an HD screen. For example, if you play Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (or any number of Genesis XBLA titles), the picture is upscaled to 720/1080p and looks fantastic. It even looks noticeably better than Sonic Mega Collection for the Xbox1 in 480p. Granted, that may not be the best example since neither of those are running on the original Genesis hardware, but I believe there's definitely something to be said for upscaling an image like that, even when the resolution was never that high to begin with.

Maybe I am unsure of what you mean by upscale..?

Genesis puts out a native 320? believe it or not. There is no upscaling when you run its native analog 320 hrough an hdmi or through SCART In fact usually, any kind of hdmi converter is a bad idea, because you are taking the nature analog signal of the Sega dn then turning it over into a different signal, then running it out..

In fact, I have seen what the genesis looks like via an hdmi setup using Genesis hardware and its actually much worse than the SCART. Heck it may even be worse than S-Video.

However anything I am saying only applies to original genesis hardware..not anything different. Because I am not sure what in the heck else you would run it from, unless you are using an emulator on your pc/or lappy?

Oh and I think I have mistyped at least 4-5 times now 320p, I'm sure its actually 320i. oops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6xxZ3j5uiM

[Assman]

The native resolution of the Genesis is 320x224, so I'm not sure exactly how that translates to 480i. Most HDTV's will probably see it as 480i, if they see it at all, but that's a different story.

Most SCART to HDMI converters I've seen upscale the original image to 720p (since HDMI is intended to be HD and generally only supports higher resolutions). The quality of the upscaling will vary depending on the device you use, but my point is simply that not all HDTV's will know what to do with lower resolutions and different refresh rates (case in point, my HDTV will not recognize my Dreamcast's VGA signal), which could leave you with nothing but a blank screen after you've payed for all of this stuff. That's why I'm saying that an upscaling HDMI converter is not without merit; since it upscales your source to 720p, it's virtually assured that your HDTV will actually be able to display the signal properly. Going through component with the original resolution, it's hit or miss.

I get what you are saying about analog/digital conversion, but that's not really what I'm talking about here. Converting an analog signal to digital or vice-versa doesn't necessarily make it worse by default, and the thing is, your HDTV is always doing these types of conversions anyway being that it's a digital display accepting analog connections. I think the quality of the picture you're getting is more dependent on the quality of the equipment you're using than its format.