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I am planning to order the DC vga box.

Currently I just have a 32inch LCD hdtv, but I would like to pick up a small monitor as I'm sure the DC will look better on 17-24 inches than 32+.

My question is:
Would the DC look better (and properly display) on a 4:3 monitor as opposed to a 16:9? I can easily find a 4:3 monitor on Craigslist for dirt cheap. I could be wrong but on any 16:9 monitor the image will be stretched, on a 4:3 it will in the original aspect ratio and therefore look better...Like I said, I could be wrong.

Any help would be much appreciated!

aja329 wrote:I am planning to order the DC vga box.

Currently I just have a 32inch LCD hdtv, but I would like to pick up a small monitor as I'm sure the DC will look better on 17-24 inches than 32+.

My question is:
Would the DC look better (and properly display) on a 4:3 monitor as opposed to a 16:9? I can easily find a 4:3 monitor on Craigslist for dirt cheap. I could be wrong but on any 16:9 monitor the image will be stretched, on a 4:3 it will in the original aspect ratio and therefore look better...Like I said, I could be wrong.

Any help would be much appreciated!

most wide TVs should have an option to correct the aspect ratio.

vlame wrote:

aja329 wrote:I am planning to order the DC vga box.

Currently I just have a 32inch LCD hdtv, but I would like to pick up a small monitor as I'm sure the DC will look better on 17-24 inches than 32+.

My question is:
Would the DC look better (and properly display) on a 4:3 monitor as opposed to a 16:9? I can easily find a 4:3 monitor on Craigslist for dirt cheap. I could be wrong but on any 16:9 monitor the image will be stretched, on a 4:3 it will in the original aspect ratio and therefore look better...Like I said, I could be wrong.

Any help would be much appreciated!

most wide TVs should have an option to correct the aspect ratio.

Thank you for the reply. I am familiar with the settings on the tv, but I would like to play without black bars or stretching. Which is why I am thinking 4:3, unless the stretching on 16:9 is minimal and still looks really nice (referring to pc monitors).

unless the signal is a 16:9 signal which the dreamcast doesn't do there will either be black bars on the sides or stretching...

You essentially repeated what I just said in my last post.

So I will interpret this to mean that yes, the DC will look better on a 4:3 monitor as this is the "signal" that the hardware outputs.

Out of curiosity though, does it still look crisp and clear stretched to 16:9 on lets say a 20-22 inch widescreen monitor? Does anyone have experience with this?

aja329 wrote:You essentially repeated what I just said in my last post.

So I will interpret this to mean that yes, the DC will look better on a 4:3 monitor as this is the "signal" that the hardware outputs.

Out of curiosity though, does it still look crisp and clear stretched to 16:9 on lets say a 20-22 inch widescreen monitor? Does anyone have experience with this?

the dreamcast will look the best on a 4:3 CRT.

aja329 wrote:Out of curiosity though, does it still look crisp and clear stretched to 16:9 on lets say a 20-22 inch widescreen monitor? Does anyone have experience with this?

It will totally depend on the scaling hardware in the monitor. DC is 640x480 so you should first check any monitor you're considering to make sure it will even accept a 640x480 signal. Some LCD monitors will not. Next, you should try to see what a 640x480 looks like on the monitor. It doesn't matter if this is a computer image sent at that size, you want to see if the monitor scales it without making it into a blurry or simply doubling pixels and making an ugly chunky mess.

As far as stretching it to a widescreen, yes it will look bad for most games. Anything with round circles will have flat ovals. Fighting games will have squashed fat characters. Since you are looking to hook to a monitor, if it will be a widescreen one you should look if it is possible to set it to pillarbox (bars up the sides) when using it with the DC. If you are only going to use the monitor with the DC, I'd definitely go for a 4:3 screen.

I use the VGA adapter with a Component converter that also upscales if I want it to. At 480p my Dreamcast has looked nearly as good as the HD remakes on XBLA on both my old 40" 1080i RPTV and my new 40" LCD HDTV. I prefer upscaling to 1080i for the anti-aliasing but at 480p everything looks great.

I convert VGA to component as well (no upscaling). Looks amazing on the DC.

best vga box with pros and cons? im looking at the performance brand one.