Sync issues on PVM with Hanzo

[PascalP]

Hi,

Recently I received my brand new Hanzo from Yossi and after some testing on HD TV's it works very well, build quality is A+!

Last weekend however I met with a friend of mine and decided to bring the Hanzo because he wanted to experience the scanlines and how this compares to his Cabou VGA cable.
After hooking up the Dreamcast with the Hanzo we couldn't get it to sync on his PVM-14L5 (this type fully supports 480p @ 31kHz), with the Cabou cable no issues and perfect 480p image.

The setup looks like this;
Dreamcast --> Hanzo --> High quality VGA cable (Profigold branded) --> VGA to BNC adapter with separate H. sync + V. sync (Both combined with a splitter to the sync connection on the PVM)

Changing the sync setting on the PVM didn't have any effect, switching back and forth between the Cabou and Hanzo always gave the same result (sync with Cabou, no sync with Hanzo)

I contacted Yossi from Beharbros directly and he confirmed it should work and he suggested to post my issue here.


Thanks for any ideas / suggestions!

[kamiboy]

Just joining the H and V sync from a VGA cable using a T-connector does not give you proper composite sync apparently. You might need a seperate sync combiner circuit.

[Grimakis]

Just joining the H and V sync from a VGA cable using a T-connector does not give you proper composite sync apparently. You might need a seperate sync combiner circuit.

This. You need their Kenzei if you want to combine the sync. Or the Toro instead of the Hanzo would work.

[HydrogLox]

It's important to realize that Cabou's Dreamcast VGA cables aren't "plain" cables either. Whether by coincidence or design the sync buffer/driver output circuitry in his cable may be more resilient (at least in the short term) to the interference from the other sync when the signals are shorted. Just because "it works" doesn't mean that shorting the H sync and V sync is a good idea. As already mentioned a sync combiner combines the sync signals while keeping the H sync and V sync driver outputs isolated from one another (Kenzei; UMSA also works with 31kHz).

[PascalP]

Thanks for the valuable info, next I will just order the Toro then

So if my assumption is correct, with the Toro it wouldn't matter how I connect my monitor, both Scart and VGA can output 480p / 31kHz with csync?