XRGB & VGA CRT Question

[FamiDriveDuo]

Sorry to make so many help threads, but I'm not finding much via Google.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221764448995?_t ... 8.l2649&ss

Because I'm unable to get my hands on a professional monitor like the PVM/BVM, etc, I figure this would be the next best thing alongside an old pre-Framemeister XRGB. Would the XRGB 2/3 be the best options for this? I have a PS2 I'm dying to play again and would like to pick up a Genesis at some point, but don't really want to deal with cheap LCD TVs for gaming anymore. I haven't had much finding a regular-ass consumer CRT TV that fits my criteria either.

Opinions on these monitors? Should I pay the money? Also for games that switch resolutions regularly, how fast does the older XRGBs respond between switching?

I also have a LG 24gm77 which has HDMI, DVI, and VGA inputs. Should I just forget the XRGBs and hold out for the OSSC? (I don't know if it has analog out)

[mikejmoffitt]

An old line-doubler scaler like the XRGB2/XRGB2+/(XRGB3 in the correct mode) will do exactly what you're thinking - zero latency, sharp image on a very high quality CRT. Minor advantage is no 15Khz whine, which seems to annoy very young people. My old XRGB2 responded more or less instantly to changes between 240p and 480i.

For that price, though, surely you can find a decent 20" broadcast RGB monitor, though. Here's a 20M2MDU, shipped, for around the same price (actually a bit cheaper): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-PVM-20M2MD ... SwP~tW3-FZ

[tacoguy64]

It's a nice monitor but maybe a bit too expensive.
I think these are in the same line as the FW900 monitors which are some of the nicest pc crt monitors you can get.
But with this price and the price of the upscaler, you are looking at around $500+ and at that price you can easily get yourself a multiformat pvm/bvm from ebay.

[FamiDriveDuo]

An old line-doubler scaler like the XRGB2/XRGB2+/(XRGB3 in the correct mode) will do exactly what you're thinking - zero latency, sharp image on a very high quality CRT. Minor advantage is no 15Khz whine, which seems to annoy very young people. My old XRGB2 responded more or less instantly to changes between 240p and 480i.

For that price, though, surely you can find a decent 20" broadcast RGB monitor, though. Here's a 20M2MDU, shipped, for around the same price (actually a bit cheaper): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-PVM-20M2MD ... SwP~tW3-FZ

I've already looked at that, it's untested and sold as-is. Too risky. Everything that looks to be tested is way over what I want to pay.

[kel]

A XRGB3 in B1 mode on a PC CRT monitor is the best lagless 480i I have seen upto now. From 2 feet away you would barely even know it was 480i regarding flickering. Miles better than 480i directly connected to my PVM20L2.

240p through the XRGB3 on the other hand doesn't look very authentic on a PC CRT. You end up with very small scanlines in between every line even though it is line doubled or if you turn the scanlines of the XRGB3 on full then it will look a lot more authentic but the scanlines will be even bigger than the active picture lines. If you managed to find a PC CRT with a low enough maximum resolution then the above probably wouldn't be a problem but I would imagine that the one that you linked to in your first post can actually do even higher than what is stated in the listing so very small scanlines even on 480p will be unavoidable.

I can't quite remember how fast the 240p/480i switching is but if I recall correctly then it is not quite as instantaneous as my PVM but still not bad by any means.

[BazookaBen]

240p through the XRGB3 on the other hand doesn't look very authentic on a PC CRT. You end up with very small scanlines in between every line even though it is line doubled or if you turn the scanlines of the XRGB3 on full then it will look a lot more authentic but the scanlines will be even bigger than the active picture lines.
.

Yeah, that's why I'm excited about the OSSC's line-tripling mode. It'll give you a 960x720 image that will be free from scanlines on most PC CRTs. So while it won't look like an authentic PVM or anything, you will have razor-sharp pixels and clear motion that you can only really get from a CRT.