VP30 & Hanzo, No Picture

[Lord of Pirates]

It detects the signal but doesn't process or output anything set to VGA or RGB; I tried unlocking the refresh rate to no avail. I was trying to output through HDMI, if that makes a difference.

[Lord of Pirates]

Got another VGA/BNC cord so I could test RGBHV input/output. I can get the VP30 to output by setting it to passthrough on VGA/HDMI out but the colors are way off on HDMI and VGA is a little shaky. The VP30 detects the signal as unknown whether it's set to RGB/VGA.

Does anyone know what's happening here, I'd really like to get it working if it's possible?

[Lord of Pirates]

Anyone ? Is this a bug with the VP30 firmware?

[beharius]

led is ON?

[Lord of Pirates]

led is ON?

Yes, the Hanzo is working, the VP30 isn't detecting the signal properly for some reason.

[beharius]

tested on another display without any converters?

[Lord of Pirates]

tested on another display without any converters?

Yes.

[HydrogLox]

Anyone ? Is this a bug with the VP30 firmware?

According to the page 6(10) of the manual: http://www.dvdo.com/documents/DVDO/DVDO ... 239-01.pdf

• Component/RGBS 1 (480i/p, 576i/p, 720p@50Hz, 720p@60Hz, 1080i@50Hz, 1080i@60Hz)
• RGBHV/Component (480p, 576p, 720p@50Hz, 720p@60Hz, 1080i@50Hz, 1080i@60Hz,VGA/SVGA/XGA/SXGA@60Hz)

So

• RGBS would only be accepted on the Component 1/2 inputs - and only 480i, not 240p.
• VGA(RGBHV) 480p has to come in over the 5 BNC RGBHV inputs.

See also Which Dreamcast vga box should I buy?

EDIT:

VGA is a little shaky.

Do you have another VGA 480p source that you can test the cable/connection with (before we start suspecting the Hanzo)? Also have a good look at the Hanzo's DC AV connector to make sure that all the contacts are well aligned. I once got a "defective" Blaze DC VGA box (just for the DC cable) off of ebay - "Picture has blue tint". It definitely had that problem but then I straightened out some fishy looking contacts that either shorted or didn't connect - and then it worked like a charm. One of my DCs needs a good shove on the AV connector to get it to work but as your LED is lit that shouldn't be a problem.

Through the VGA cable/BNC input you should be getting a compatible signal on the Hanzo VGA setting only - likely nothing when it is set to RGB. That's the configuration you would be using most of the time to either run games that support VGA directly or by forcing the game to VGA via the "RGB/VGA switch trick". For the odd game that doesn't run in 480p at all (like "Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh") keep a DC S-Video AV cable around so that you can force 480i (rather than RGBS 240p) that your VP30 can process.

[Lord of Pirates]

Anyone ? Is this a bug with the VP30 firmware?

According to the page 6(10) of the manual: http://www.dvdo.com/documents/DVDO/DVDO ... 239-01.pdf

• Component/RGBS 1 (480i/p, 576i/p, 720p@50Hz, 720p@60Hz, 1080i@50Hz, 1080i@60Hz)
• RGBHV/Component (480p, 576p, 720p@50Hz, 720p@60Hz, 1080i@50Hz, 1080i@60Hz,VGA/SVGA/XGA/SXGA@60Hz)

So

• RGBS would only be accepted on the Component 1/2 inputs - and only 480i, not 240p.
• VGA(RGBHV) 480p has to come in over the 5 BNC RGBHV inputs.

See also Which Dreamcast vga box should I buy?

EDIT:

VGA is a little shaky.

Do you have another VGA 480p source that you can test the cable/connection with (before we start suspecting the Hanzo)? Also have a good look at the Hanzo's DC AV connector to make sure that all the contacts are well aligned. I once got a "defective" Blaze DC VGA box (just for the DC cable) off of ebay - "Picture has blue tint". It definitely had that problem but then I straightened out some fishy looking contacts that either shorted or didn't connect - and then it worked like a charm. One of my DCs needs a good shove on the AV connector to get it to work but as your LED is lit that shouldn't be a problem.

Through the VGA cable/BNC input you should be getting a compatible signal on the Hanzo VGA setting only - likely nothing when it is set to RGB. That's the configuration you would be using most of the time to either run games that support VGA directly or by forcing the game to VGA via the "RGB/VGA switch trick". For the odd game that doesn't run in 480p at all (like "Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh") keep a DC S-Video AV cable around so that you can force 480i (rather than RGBS 240p) that your VP30 can process.

Hanzo is fine as far as I can tell:

Pins look fine.


VGA output works.


RGB seems to work but I don't have any displays to actually test it.


Both BNC/VGA cords are fine

[HydrogLox]

Pins look fine.

I'd say pin Pin 8 (VSync) looks potentially iffy - but I don't know how the VP30 would react to an intermittent vertical sync signal (I realize that the VGA monitor doesn't seem to have any problems - different hardware sometimes has varying tolerances to signal corruption). Hopefully someone else can helps you with your VP30 settings.

[Fudoh]

It's not a settings issue, it seems to be some stupid incompatibility issue with the DC's VGA signal. Your VP30 is working fine with other VGA sources and your Hanzo is fine with other processors or displays.

If I was in your position, I would put an RGB interface between the two. This reconditions the sync signal and adjusts the RGB levels to standard ratings. I would be really surprised if it still didn't work after that. About $20 from eBay ("Extron RGB").

[Lord of Pirates]

It's not a settings issue, it seems to be some stupid incompatibility issue with the DC's VGA signal. Your VP30 is working fine with other VGA sources and your Hanzo is fine with other processors or displays.

If I was in your position, I would put an RGB interface between the two. This reconditions the sync signal and adjusts the RGB levels to standard ratings. I would be really surprised if it still didn't work after that. About $20 from eBay ("Extron RGB").

Any suggestion on specific model?

Would one of these be fine:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EXTRON-RGB-130- ... 43bed37bef
http://www.ebay.com/itm/EXTRON-RGB-192- ... 51b0f497c1
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Extron-RGB-109- ... 35cb2cfd42

[Fudoh]

The 192 is fine. The others are older models, the top one even still with 9pin RGBHV connectors instead of regular VGA.

[Lord of Pirates]

The 192 is fine. The others are older models, the top one even still with 9pin RGBHV connectors instead of regular VGA.

Alright, thanks for the help guys .

[Lord of Pirates]

Extron got here today and I did some quick testing. The VP30 will process the signal at random now, I have to flip-flop the input color space from RGB and back when it does because it treats it as component (for whatever reason).

Time to find a scaler that it'll work with 100%.

[Endgame22]

Hello, sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but I am having the same problem with my Vp30 and Dreamcast setup. I have the Kuro vga adapter and I can never get a consistent connection with the upscaler and my TV (plugging Kuro into TV directly with vga cable and no processor works perfectly). So did the Extron give you an image every time you turned on DC? I understand you need to change color output a lot, but do you at least get the DC to connect to your TV consistently?

[Lord of Pirates]

Hello, sorry to bring this thread back from the dead but I am having the same problem with my Vp30 and Dreamcast setup. I have the Kuro vga adapter and I can never get a consistent connection with the upscaler and my TV (plugging Kuro into TV directly with vga cable and no processor works perfectly). So did the Extron give you an image every time you turned on DC? I understand you need to change color output a lot, but do you at least get the DC to connect to your TV consistently?

Nada.

[Endgame22]

Well....S-Video cable for DC from now on I guess X(

I wanted to record footage from the Dreamcast on a Hauppauge with native progressive scan RGB from DC, but the Vp30 doesn't like the DC apparently (even though other people online use Vp30 with DC). This is ridiculous.

[Ji-L87]

I want to remember having problems with the BNC input as well, but having sucess through the VP30s component input through a VGA -> RGBS cable and bnc to rca adapters.
Unable to confirm right now, however.

[Fudoh]

Does RGBs on the VP30 accept 480p ? Not sure about that.

If you want an easy solution, just get a VGA to HDMI converter ($35).

[Ji-L87]

Does RGBs on the VP30 accept 480p ? Not sure about that.

If you want an easy solution, just get a VGA to HDMI converter ($35).

According to the manual the RGBHV input takes 480p signals and all the way up to 1080i.

The HDMI solution is probably easier tho'

[Fudoh]

According to the manual the RGBHV input takes 480p signals and all the way up to 1080i.

I know, but you stated that you used the RGBs (component + sync) input instead and my question was if this combination accepted 480p at all ?

[Ji-L87]

According to the manual the RGBHV input takes 480p signals and all the way up to 1080i.

I know, but you stated that you used the RGBs (component + sync) input instead and my question was if this combination accepted 480p at all ?

Ah sorry, I got confused when you reffered to the component input like that.
The component input can, again, according to the manual accept 480i/480p signals and up.

And I'm pretty sure I've fed linedoubled 240p signals from my FX2+ into those. My setup is a bit broken up/spread out at the moment so I might not be able to test and confirm it.

[Fudoh]

The component input can, again, according to the manual accept 480i/480p signals and up.
And I'm pretty sure I've fed linedoubled 240p signals from my FX2+ into those

I know that. Component does accept 480p. Still the question is wether the RGBs (the combination of a component input along with a composite sync input) accepts 480p or not. Technically it was meant for 15khz only.

[Endgame22]

I want to remember having problems with the BNC input as well, but having sucess through the VP30s component input through a VGA -> RGBS cable and bnc to rca adapters.
Unable to confirm right now, however.

That is what I am using (VGA to RGBHV I think you mean) and the Dreacast will rarely give me an image. Hooking DC VGA adapter to TV directly works, but using VGA -> RGBS cable and bnc to rca adapters to my Hauppauge gives me problems. Again, Vp30 seems to just hate my Dreamcast and everything else I hook my Vp30 up to works. DC is the only VGA source I've used on my Vp30 so far.