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Here are some picture examples of of what the UVC looks like, both in 15kHz and 24khz. There are more pictures available in this thread and lots of information.

The Universal Video Converter:


DOJ-BLEX in 15kHz:


Ikaruga:

15kHz:


24kHz:


How to connect it to a JAMMA setup:


The first post before edit:

This looks like a really nice way of getting high res into low res, if you can't find an Extron cheap enough:

http://www.gameroommag.com/retroblast-a ... -universal

Anyone tried one of these?

Looks good, especially as it's small enough to be put into a slimeline for Emulation or into a 360 replacement case for low-res 360 gaming. But at $225 quite steep after all, when RGB-only Emotias runs at barely $50.

My thoughts exactly.

I bought one of these last month. Fits in the palm of my hand. I've been testing it on one of my cabs, and was going to write a review after I get it hooked up proper. Its performance exceeds the Emotia's. Accepts up to 1024x768, and can output both 15khz and 24khz non-interlaced, thus you can also use this to play Type X2 (or Naomi, Atomiswave, ...) on your original dual resolution New Astro City or Egret2 monitor and it will look as good as hires!

Hows the lag?

Wow, that almost sounds to good to be true.

did you pay the $225 retail or is there any cheaper offer around ?


24khz is a strong argument, no doubt. I can easily see that it equals the Emotia's 15khz performance, but I don't see how it can be outperformed. If you use a Super Emotia instead of the original model, you can input XGA as well...

Would be great if you took a few close up screenshots of the adapter in action. What are you using as a input ? a PC ?

No, I probably wouldn't have bought it at retail cost. I got mine very cheap from a NeoGeo member. There is also a guy on ebay (who is local to me) who is selling them for $150 BIN. I think he may have had connections with Ultracade as he has a few other items from them.



Ah, forgot the Super Emotia can handle XGA, so I guess the 24khz output is the only thing that exceeds these specs. There are also options for positive/negative sync, and delay adjustments which I'm sure the Emotia probably has as well. I believe the only thing this lacks are centering controls that the Emotia has on the front panel, but this was made specifically for arcade monitors, not broadcast TVs, so centering is not a problem using the arcade remote board.


Sure, I was going to do this when I write my short review. Its currently hooked up to my Type X2 mobo, which is essentially a PC.



The board uses FPGAs with locked clock rates, so there should be no noticeable delay, although I haven't hooked it up proper to try some shooters first hand yet. Will let you know.

Here is the user guide with specs:

http://www.happcontrols.com/images/pdf/uVCUserGuide.pdf

For Dave K.,

So could you use a DC console with VGA Box option, hook that type of setup to this Ultracade Universal Video Convertor -- VGA to EGA adapter and it'd work just fine on a dual resolution 15kHz-24kHz arcade monitor? Sounds like Ultracade knew what they were doing when creating this small PCB setup from the ground up. That's awesome to hear that you can play 31kHz high-res arcade PCBs on a 15kHz arcade monitor -- so no need to upgrade to a tri-sync arcade monitor nor upgrade to a tri-sync Wei-Ya monitor chassis either. Color me impressed! I've been told that if I were to upgrade my current monitor's chassis board to a tri-sync one, that I'd lose the crispness afforded of the dual sync chassis board that accepts 15kHz & 24kHz. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

PCEFX! yes, I agree that 15khz mode on tri-sync chassis generally sucks ass, so keeping your cab original, while being able to play hires games at 24khz is a great alternative with this little device.

do i need a emotia or i can get this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Extron-RGB-109xi-VGA-Interface-with-ADSP_W0QQitemZ250496811216QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Cables_Adapters?hash=item3a52c600d0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_4603wt_752

will something like this work if i take a 360 with vga cable to this extron thing then BNC to vga cable to JPAC to egret2 cab for 15khz xbox 360 on egret2?

I don't understand what you hope to get of a RGB interface like this one ? It won't do what you want. For 360 -> VGA -> 15khz -> Egret cab you need an Emotia or the UVC discussed here. If you want "classic" scanlines it's 15khz you want, so you can get an Emotia and don't need an UVC.

Sounds good. However, I am concerned about the way it fits the cabinets. No thought has gone into it. Firstly it has no casing, there is nowhere to put it in a cabinet and where does it get its power from?

The UVC is actually made specifically for arcade cabinets running mame/PC, as thats what an Ultracade is. Comes with 4 PCB legs just like regular Jamma boards. Power is via standard 4 pin PC harddrive power cable. Monitor cable is pretty short, and made for US style monitors with molex connectors.

To hook this up inside a japanese cabinet, means you'll probably have to wire the power and monitor output to a jamma edge connector + fingerboard, but you'd have to do that anyway if you were using an Extron or similar converter.

Any chance of some screens of 24kHz stuff, Dave_K.?

Never mind, I just bought one of these off eBay for $149 +shipping. I'm really excited now.

Cool news! Besides a few 24khz close-up screenshots, I'd love to see comparion screenshots with the Emotia on 15khz output.

Your wishes will come true, as soon as I have it.

Ok, here are some quick pics of the UVC outputting both 15khz and 24khz of roughly the same image emphatic took on his Extron running Deathsmiles. The monitor I'm using here is a 25" Hanatrex dual res in a woodie cab, so the dot pitch isn't going to be the same as an Egret Nanao, and I couldn't figure out the menu's to get the xbox360 to stretch/overscan the image to remove the borders, so its not pixel perfect, but should give you an idea.

First, emphatic's extron 15khz on Egret Nano monitor:


And now the UVC 15khz on my hanatrex monitor:


Now emphatic's Xiong Ba monitor running native VGA/31khz:


And finally the UVC running 24khz on the Hanatrex monitor:

The UVC with 24khz on the Hanatrex monitor looks stunning. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Thanks, looks nice. The 24khz picture looks nice indeed, but it somehow defeats the purpose of regaining a low-res image with heavy scanlines, doesn't it ? I mean, it's great to display in VGA-like quality on a low-res (but 24-khz-able) cab, it's that is what's desired, right ?

My whole purpose with getting the UVC is to get as high resolution as possible on my dual-sync Nanao screen when the content is up to it. While I really like the arcade look of running high res stuff through the Emotia, I don't want to see all that fine work CAVE puts into their ports go to waste.

But, depending on what mode looks best for each game, switching for 15kHz to 24kHz seems easy enough.

Would the following setup work and how good would the picture quality be on a dual sync monitor (of a NAC):

SNES/PCE/NeoGeo/Saturn/PSX/etc. connected through a RGB scart cable and via a SCART RGB to YUV Component Video Converter connected to a HD Box Pro (or an Arcade RGBS CGA/EGA/YUV TO 2 VGA CONVERTER, which is the only unit I own), which is connected via the Ultracade VGA to CGA/EGA video converter to the dual resolution monitor?

It seems a bit axtensive and I know there are other possibilites to connect consoles to an arcade monitor (in fact I made it myself for a DC, a PS and a Saturn), but I'm just wondering if this would also work. Mainly because the Ultracade converter looks like a very neat and versatile converter, also usabel for Wii and XBOX 360.

I've been thinking about the same here. But my idea was how PS2 games run from an emulator (PC) would look, as DDP-DOJ for example does look awesome rendered at a higher res.

As long as the HD Box Pro is set to output 1024x768 @ 60kHz to the UVC, this works. But be aware that the HD Box Pro adds lag somewhat, and Dave_K. hasn't tested this thoroughly for added lag IIRC. And the other thing is, will it look better than just hooking up RGBS from a SCART-JAMMA solution?

Probably not.

If the game graphics were produced for 15khz, which then got upscaled to 31khz due to PC emulation or Console limitations, then yes 24khz defeats the purpose in my mind. So I don't understand why ckong or emphatic would want to take a 240p original source and scale it to medium res, if they can get the same picture in 240p native. It will look blocky just like any upscaled picture.

Now if the game graphics were produced for hires (31khz like Naomi, Type X/X2, Atomiswave etc.), being able to display this at almost original hires quality without upgrading your arcade monitor to tri-sync, is pretty valuable to me.

And all the new Cave XB360 ports, having reproduced their graphics in hires (actually higher than hires) means I can still play these on an original arcade monitor, and get better quality than the PCB, is also valuable to me. The question of if this looks better than graphics with heavy scanlines is subjective, but at least it is the developers artistic intent to reproduce in hires graphics and not the requirement of emulation or crappy console output options.

Yes, I'm not interested in running low res into an upscaler and then scale it down to EGA. If you have a look at the screen shots of DDP-DOJ running in in a higher res here (scroll down to the next to last post): viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24948&start=30 you'll get why I'm curious to see how it would look in EGA res, right?

But my main use for this is running the 360 ports on my dual-sync Nanao, as my tri-sync Wei-Ya screen has crappy geometry and won't rotate.

I imagine at 24khz, that would look similar to a 640x480 upscaled picture. Remember the source graphic is still based for 240p, so you aren't gaining any detail by emulation at such a high resolution. Now, there is a possibility you would see faint vertical scanlines at 24khz depending upon your monitor (as shown in my zoomed in 24khz pic), but I think it will still look blocky like regular upscaled VGA.

Is there any other reason to run emulated DOJ at such a high resolution? Do the ginourmous pixels give some kind of playing advantage being more well defined with hitbox and bullets? From a purely aesthetics point of view I prefer scanlines.

I got my UVC today. I'll probably get some soldering done tonight, so I can hook it up and test it out. I'll try to remember taking some pictures while at it. I'll mainly use the 24kHz mode, but will try to get some 15kHz shots in for comparison.