Is it posssible to add a switch to make the dreamcast vga 480i instead of 480p?

[Modular511]

Okay, so I have this third party dreamcast vga dealio, I had someone on reddit tell me people have added a switch that makes the vga signal 480i instead of p, Is that actually a thing? I would presume no and I need a downscaler, but figured I would ask lol

[fernan1234]

Yes it's possible. The switch you've heard of must simply be shorting the pin that tells the Dreamcast to go into VGA mode. You can also manually remove the pin from any Dreamcast VGA cable and it'll basically become a 480i RGBHV cable. I can't remember if it's pin 6 or pin 7, so just look up the pinout to make sure.

[Bassa-Bassa]

Any 480p DC game will output at 480i with many cables on the market. 480i RGBHV will likely be useless if it's a CRT what you're after, watch out.

[nissling]

Not all American and Japanese Dreamcast games support RGB in 15kHz either. Skies of Arcadia is an example, where the American version supports 15kHz composite and S-Video as well as 31kHz RGB.

All PAL games support 15kHz RGB however.

[fernan1234]

Not all American and Japanese Dreamcast games support RGB in 15kHz either. Skies of Arcadia is an example, where the American version supports 15kHz composite and S-Video as well as 31kHz RGB.

The Japanese version is also like that. It'll just go into VGA mode when you boot the game (and funny enough back to 480i when you go into the internet section). It's only a handful of games that are like this though.

Any 480p DC game will output at 480i with many cables on the market. 480i RGBHV will likely be useless if it's a CRT what you're after, watch out.

And yeah for most TVs/SD monitors you'll probably need to convert RGBHV into RGBS or YPbPr. Many cheap Extron interfaces will do this for you.

[Modular511]

Not all American and Japanese Dreamcast games support RGB in 15kHz either. Skies of Arcadia is an example, where the American version supports 15kHz composite and S-Video as well as 31kHz RGB.

The Japanese version is also like that. It'll just go into VGA mode when you boot the game (and funny enough back to 480i when you go into the internet section). It's only a handful of games that are like this though.

Any 480p DC game will output at 480i with many cables on the market. 480i RGBHV will likely be useless if it's a CRT what you're after, watch out.

And yeah for most TVs/SD monitors you'll probably need to convert RGBHV into RGBS or YPbPr. Many cheap Extron interfaces will do this for you.

dreamcast>vga cable>extron rgb 109 xi>gbs control>bvm-20giu Is the display chain I planned, That should all work out fine I presume?

[Modular511]

Yes it's possible. The switch you've heard of must simply be shorting the pin that tells the Dreamcast to go into VGA mode. You can also manually remove the pin from any Dreamcast VGA cable and it'll basically become a 480i RGBHV cable. I can't remember if it's pin 6 or pin 7, so just look up the pinout to make sure.

Got any good places for resources on pinouts etc per chance? I wanna feed it into a bvm-20g1u, seemed best route with stuff I already have as the gbs control doesn't like the rgbhv lol

[fernan1234]

You don't need a GBS in your chain.

This is a good picture of the cable pinout:

https://www.mastersystem.dk/modding/pin ... amcast.png

So looks like if you just remove pin 6 from any Dreamcast VGA cable you'll get 15khz RGBHV. It's much easier if you can pry open the connector, but I remember I was able to just carefully pry it away with small enough tools. You may ruin the cable in the process though so I'd recommend trying first with a cheapo cable.

[Bassa-Bassa]

dreamcast>vga cable>extron rgb 109 xi>gbs control>bvm-20giu Is the display chain I planned, That should all work out fine I presume?

DC > RGBS cable with BNC adaptors > BVM is all you need. Again, using a VGA cable for 15khz is nuts even if you have it.

If you get the chance to pick a 480p CRT, though, you won't regret it even if it's just for the DC (unless you only want to play Gunbird 2 or SF3, that is, but those aren't 480i so I guess you don't).

[Modular511]

You don't need a GBS in your chain.

This is a good picture of the cable pinout:

https://www.mastersystem.dk/modding/pin ... amcast.png

So looks like if you just remove pin 6 from any Dreamcast VGA cable you'll get 15khz RGBHV. It's much easier if you can pry open the connector, but I remember I was able to just carefully pry it away with small enough tools. You may ruin the cable in the process though so I'd recommend trying first with a cheapo cable.

Okay so I got the cable naked, Which color would I add the switch to/inetween? I was NOT expecting there to be unused wires lol

Pictures of inside:

Spoiler

[Modular511]

Okay Sooo - I got it completely apart - this is the box


Pictures of the rest

Spoiler

[Modular511]

If I wanna add switchs to pins 6 and 7, How do I tell what is what? it seems easy, Just need some guidance lol

[fernan1234]

The pins are lined up and you can see a small 12 on your last picture there indicating the direction they go, so that lets you identify the two pins in question where you'd want to add a switch.

[Modular511]

The pins are lined up and you can see a small 12 on your last picture there indicating the direction they go, so that lets you identify the two pins in question where you'd want to add a switch.

So, Like this is the direction they go and the ones id want? I seen the other 4 pins are likely in that audio jack, so didn't know if the pinout order would be different of the cable lol