XRGB-3

[SGGG2]

I have no clue. It certainly won't harm anything. Give it a try, and let us know. Be careful not to damage any other pins!

Checking the schematics: Pin 50 on the VDP is the same line that C28 sits on, so removing that resistor is the same thing as disconnecting pin 50 on the VDP. I think it's safer to do that then trying to pull the chips leg off...

[Fudoh]

Is there any chance that lifting this graphics chip pin would fix other problems with the Gennys output?

I don't think so. Lifting the Pin just disables a clock signal running close to the blue signal, so no more interference is caused on it's way to the Sony encoder. You also can't get composite video anymore after lifting this particular pin.

[Rock Man]

could we have this user banned ? Anyone ? Mods ? NOW ?

Nice joke there, that's a low blow Fudoh. =p The XBLA look & feel ain't so bad.

I do prefer the natural look of my games. Sometimes I also enjoy indulging in that emulated quality, I wanted to do that without having to switch to another source. For instance going from playing Sonic 3 crisp on Genesis to playing it smooth on 360. It's a trivial interest of mine, I just figure with both the original look and filters, I like to have my cake and eat it. Should I decide to follow up on it one day I'll look in the DVD Edge predecessors direction as you suggested.

As suspected only the RGB cable requires the mod in order for the Genesis to accept 100% sync. Thus eliminating jailbars, but it doesn't look like anyone here has a contact who can make one. I'll just ask around else where. That just leaves me with one puzzling matter, the transparencies. Why is it the XRGB-3 displays transparent shadows incorrectly in the RGB 21-Pin hub? But when I get the source hardware i.e. the Genesis in regular RF or AV Composite Video, The shadows are fine. I've mainly noticed this problem with the Genesis. Unsure about other systems have to run more tests. Do you guys think it could be my TV?

Thanks for the help guys. You've all been really great.

[Fudoh]

but it doesn't look like anyone here has a contact who can make one.

you're in the US, right ? Ask retro_console_accessoires on eBay. They recently started offering raw sync cables for various systems. They don't offer a MD1/GEN model, but probably only because they don't know which mod to apply. If you give them a hint, I'm sure they can supply you with the cable.

Here's a link to their auctions:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/retro_console_a ... ksid=p3686

And here's the mod:
http://playoffline.wordpress.com/cable/md1rgb/

That just leaves me with one puzzling matter, the transparencies.

I didn't really understand what you wrote before. What you describe sounds like a deinterlacing error, but that can't really happen on the XRGB, at least not in B1 and generally not with a 240p signal, so I'm a bit puzzled. If you can provide a digicam shot of what you see, please do so, so we can analyze it.

[Rock Man]

Sorry for the late reply this site once again ate up my comment. I gotta remember to notepad my comments more often.

you're in the US, right ? Ask retro_console_accessoires on eBay. They recently started offering raw sync cables for various systems. They don't offer a MD1/GEN model, but probably only because they don't know which mod to apply. If you give them a hint, I'm sure they can supply you with the cable.

Here's a link to their auctions:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/retro_console_a ... ksid=p3686

And here's the mod:
http://playoffline.wordpress.com/cable/md1rgb/

This guide will come in handy. I'm certain I can convince them to make a competent pure sync lead for the Megadrive thanks to your link.

I didn't really understand what you wrote before. What you describe sounds like a deinterlacing error, but that can't really happen on the XRGB, at least not in B1 and generally not with a 240p signal, so I'm a bit puzzled. If you can provide a digicam shot of what you see, please do so, so we can analyze it.

Same thing I thought. I still need to conduct some more tests but from what I am seeing, when the Sega Genesis is connected in the XRGB-3 using my VIZIO. Certain contents that are normally intangible on Genesis games using RF become solid and chopped up when they're flowing through the GAME IN port to the XRGB-3. Just think of anything on any Megadrive title with a shallow pixel layer that's over lapping another pixel. Some back shadowing on Comix Zone shows this.

I will provide camera footage. Just a matter of grabbing a digicam should be cheap nowadays. I will get one my next paycheck so I can show you. Meantime, I'm going to try out some SNES games and see if I get the same problem.

[Zapf]

edit: moved to pm

[Konsolkongen]

About "transparencies" I think this is what he's talking about:

http://www.chrismcovell.com/gotRGB/screenshots.html

Scroll down to the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis section and compare the composhite and RGB shots.

The transparency effect happens because the signal is so crappy that it looses all kind of sharpness and all color just merge together. In some games it's very easy to see where the developers wanted this effect (Vectorman, Lion King etc.). Back then nobody used anything but RF and composite and since the MegaDrive only does 64 colors at the same time this was a nice way to make it look like it could do more shades and even transparencies (Sonic 1 waterfall).

The XRGB-3 does it right. Nothing you can do about it, and for the Sonic games I much prefer the RGB look.

[SGGG2]

Does the XRGB accept 24khz signals from arcade PCB's or do I need a GBS-8220?

EDIT: from the wiki;

How to enable low screen resolution ?
Options → Low screen resolution → ON
XRGB-3 will be able to ouput at 320x240 (15 kHz) and 640x400 (24 kHz).
Note : this option should be used only with a classic japanese PC monitor (PC-988x and X68k).

Does this mean yes?

[youdamotenai]

Hi, I'm from Brazil and I bought a XRGB-3 this week, will be coming probably next month. I bought the scart cable to connect my ps1, ps2, a d-terminal to turn the game cube. But I'm having some doubts about how to connect the XRGB output video on television.
I have a panasonic plasma hdtv 50'' with hdmi inputs, a VGA input and a component input.
My questions are as follows.

1) I bought a DVI-D to HDMI cable to connect the output of XRGB and connect directly to the television. It will not work right? I read some comments that this is not possible.

2) If I connect the output RGB / VGA XRGB right on my television (I looked in the manual format supports up to 1366x 768). Will the TV try to 1080p scaler and the image will be worse?

3) I am considering buying a VGA to HDMI converters on ebay. Will it work? What is the real type of converter should I buy (that supports a 1920x1080 vga -> hdmi 1080p).?

4) Or buy an Extron interface, connecting the VGA interface using BNC adapters and then pick up the signal into three RCA cables (component) without those cables for H and V sync

As you can see, I'm a bit confused and did not find, or did not look right forum posts have my doubts.

What better way to connect the XRGB to my television? How do you use in yours? What's the best/easy solution.
Realy thanks.

[Fudoh]

I bought a DVI-D to HDMI cable to connect the output of XRGB and connect directly to the television. It will not work right?

it will work, but only in B0 mode (with scaling, but without scanlines).

(I looked in the manual format supports up to 1366x 768). Will the TV try to 1080p scaler and the image will be worse?

should be fine. The Panasonic scalers are good.

buying a VGA to HDMI converters on ebay. Will it work? What is the real type of converter should I buy (that supports a 1920x1080 vga -> hdmi 1080p).?

test the DVI-D to HDMI connection first.

What better way to connect the XRGB to my television? How do you use in yours?

really depends if you want to use B0 or B1 or both. I would not use a VGA to HDMI converter unless neccessary.

[youdamotenai]

Thanks.

One more question, here the tension is 123 ~ 127V. Have a problem? I read a forum that the voltage of the device is 100V.
Should I buy a new adapter?

[Joe T.]

This may sound like a dumb question, but I was wondering if I can use the XRGB3 as a VGA pass through like my XRGB2+. I cannot get the XRGB3 to display any image from my xbox 360 via VGA cable and I only have the single VGA port on my monitor. I have the 360 hooked up with the d-terminal for the moment but I'd rather use VGA and turn off the xrgb3 when I play 360. Is this possible?

[BuckoA51]

You can try the PC IN port to do this, however on my setup it added whacking great jailbars to the image.

[BuckoA51]

I'm interested in connecting a PAL C64 to my XRGB3. When I connect PAL S-Video sources I get a black and white picture, which I assume is due to the colour information being in PAL which the XRGB3 does not understand/support. I've seen cheap PAL->NTSC converters for composite, but can a converter be obtained for S-video too?

[Fudoh]

I have a spare Sony Composite/S-Video to RGB integrator which you could have for free (plus shipping). If you're interested, send me a PM.

[BuckoA51]

Just to confirm, using a Sync Strike in my chain did not change the Sega Genesis/Genesis + SMS converter situation for me. Still stuck with either slightly warped picture top (Auto AFC) or occasional picture dropout (manual AFC) on SMS games. Everdrive and SMS converter perform exactly the same for me.

[fagin]

I just bought a new (well about a month ago) LED TV - Sony 55EX723. I don't if I'm being honest use the main TV for gaming stuff much, but the VGA input on it is not as good as the Samsung it replaced (in as far as the XRGB-3 is concerned). Transcoding to HDMI helped though.

I doubt this is any great surprise as it's already been noted that VGA has been getting more finicky on later TV models.

Oh well.... another reason to get an XRGB-Mini. lol

[fagin]

Does the XRGB accept 24khz signals from arcade PCB's or do I need a GBS-8220?

EDIT: from the wiki;

How to enable low screen resolution ?
Options → Low screen resolution → ON
XRGB-3 will be able to ouput at 320x240 (15 kHz) and 640x400 (24 kHz).
Note : this option should be used only with a classic japanese PC monitor (PC-988x and X68k).

Does this mean yes?

All that means is that you can set the output to a low-res output (of in that case cga or ega) for use with a low-res CRT.

IIRC the XRGB-3 struggled (but I could be getting mixed up with something else, as it should be fine in theory) to cope with 24khz PCB's. I'll drag a board out and try it.

[SGGG2]

XRGB's not seeing Planet Harriers, but my GBS does!

[BuckoA51]

Fudoh the Svideo/Composite to RGB transcoder worked with the XRGB3 and my C128, so thanks again! There was some warping of the picture at the top of the screen and I had the same problem as before with the Edge in the chain that as soon as I change the NTSC AFC to manual to remove this warping I get random blackouts / loss of sync. However the warping was well into the 64's overscan area so it didn't matter. One thing I did notice though was that the image had quite severe jailbars on it, especially noticeable on large areas of colour. Turning on scanlines and playing with the controls did mitigate them a fair bit, I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I'll post pictures and experiment more once I've rebuilt my geek-den.

[Fudoh]

Did you go composite or s-video to RGB ? You could try to go luma only and see if the jailbars are gone. This would at least hint at where they get introduced into the signal.

[BuckoA51]

This is with S-Video, I'll do a bit more experimentation in the near future, not sure I have a C64 composite cable, but NES with composite didn't seem to have any Jailbars.

Edit.. Actually wait I have a C64 SCART cable, bet that's composite and not S-video, I'll dig it out.

[SGGG2]

XRGB won't power down...

I tried another outlet, same issue. Any thoughts?

EDIT: FPGA Select works if I pull the plug and reconnect. All the lights flash when I pull the plug. Something with the power circuit?

[Fudoh]

Maybe you changed the power option by mistake ? There's an option where you can change between standby and always on and it sure sounds like it.

[SGGG2]

That worked, thanks! I was unaware of this option.

I almost ordered a FrameMeister last night...

[Eggy]

me again, new round up of questions(someone`s gotta keep this thread alive,right?)
1. now that I get a picture out of my snes, the upper half of the picture slightly shakes left and right. strength depends on the game used. what can I do? I can`t use v-sync lock, my tv doesn`t support it.
2. I can`t get a picture out of my dreamcast when using an rgb cable(non-vga compatible games:( ).the xrgb shows me that it gets a 15 khz picture and I hear the sound, but the picture stays black. maybe someone sold me a composite cable with a scart plug insted of a "true" rgb cable.
3. pal games running in 50hz only are slightly cut off on the lower half. can I do anything to help or is this just the usual xrgb pal incompatibility?
thanks!^^

[BuckoA51]

Eggy, you can try an Extron RGB interface, if that doesn't work the only choice is to chain it through another scaler.

About the Dreamcast VGA mod, this is well worth doing if you have an XRGB3, 15khz and 31khz through D in 2 both look great, the mod is super simple if you really hate soldering yourself I am sure any of the commercial modders would carry out the work. I got Gear4Games off E-bay to do mine while he was doing some other work for me.

[Eggy]

vga mod? where did I mention that? I have a vga box, but have to use a scart cable for non-vga-compatible games and my xrgb won`t see the picture.
btw I tried to mod my first dreamcast with an internal vga port, the picture was missing green and I got no picture at all after trying to repair that, bought a new dc after that.

[Fudoh]

vga mod? where did I mention that? I have a vga box, but have to use a scart cable for non-vga-compatible games and my xrgb won`t see the picture.

you can do a simple mod with a switch to the VGA box. This way you can output both 15khz RGB and 31khz VGA through the same connector. And since the XRGB will accept both 15khz and 31khz RGBHV through the same connector, you don't have to switch cables anymore.

[BuckoA51]

vga mod? where did I mention that?

You didn't, but others did

Actually I think it was in the SLG thread, as we were discussing using the SLG3000 with the XRGB3, sorry!