HD Box Pro: cheap (and good) alternative to the XRGB-3

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat May 10, 2008 12:43 pm

Yesterday I got in the HD Box Pro which I ordered roughly 2 weeks directly from HK. I have had so many deinterlacing and upscaling devices over the past years that I can hardly count 'em.

For a mere EUR45 incl. shipping from HK to Europe you get the little box pictured below. It has one analogue component input (compatible to SD and HD signals) and one VGA output. It does a very neat job of deinterlacing SD and does proper scaling to all major PC resolutions (from 640x480 to 1920x1200). A nice addition is that you can choose the Aspect Ratio yourself.

In terms of deinterlacing and scaling the unit does not outperform a XRGB-3, but it's really on the same level. The menu offers basic picture settings like sharpness, Brightness and has also a control for the sensitivity of the deinterlacer.

The remote is crap, but otherwise the box makes a real good first impression. I tested it with a PS2 with 480i YUV output and with a Wii with 480p output. I used EPSGaluda on the PS2 to make sure timing-sensitive games stay playable and I can say that the unit seems to be faster than a XRGB-3 on full scaling mode.

Compared to all the other "VGA Boxes" from HK this one is most likely the best so far and whoever doesn't need the scanline emulation of the XRGB2+ and can live with the single YUV Input, this is cheap and good alternative to more expensive upscaling units. I basically just ordered it to see how it compares to the other solutions out there, but I don't really need it course, since my VP50pro offers enough features already

http://www.hdboxpro.com/eng/public.htm

zakk · Post by **zakk** » Sat May 10, 2008 3:43 pm

Can it deal with 240p input?

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sat May 10, 2008 7:01 pm

Frothing demand increases.

Does it have any of the "shimmering" issues that the XRGB2 exhibits with white text or objects?

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sat May 10, 2008 9:17 pm

Can it deal with 240p input?

I checked with ESPGaluda and with a PS1 Game (Metal Slug X) - both looked fine. The signal is handled as 480i, but that's in no way worse than with the other upscaling solutions out there.

Does it have any of the "shimmering" issues that the XRGB2 exhibits with white text or objects?

don't really know what you mean. What I always disliked about the XRGB2(+) was the weak vertical sync, in other words the wobbliness of the picture on the vertical axis. This picture here is really solid with this little box.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun May 11, 2008 12:36 am

Yeah. That's exactly what I meant. Wobbling/shimmer/judder/jitter, and it's usually more noticeable on white objects.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Sun May 11, 2008 2:01 am

X68000 input ability?

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun May 11, 2008 2:33 am

Can you please post pictures of the unit, Fudoh? I can't find a view of the input panel on the official site.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:08 am

Looks just like the one I use which is mentioned a handful of times in this forum, but with an extra button. The functions of the two buttons on mine are only to switch between Component and VGA inputs, and to cycle through the available output resolutions, which don't seem to go as high as the one in this thread.

If it's the same encoding hardware, it works real nicely. Looks fine with 480i and 480p inputs, and no noticeable lag. I can play beatmania IIDX with it.

P_HAT · Post by **P_HAT** » Sun May 11, 2008 8:54 am

wow, really cool.
But, sorry for dumb question - it work on 50/60hz?

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sun May 11, 2008 11:02 am

But, sorry for dumb question - it work on 50/60hz?

can't test since I have no 50Hz videogame source. The problem might be indeed that most classic PC monitors don't handle 50Hz input...

Pictures:

Menu Buttons enters the menu (obviously) in which you can set the resolution and things like Brightness/Contrast/Sharpness/etc. Pressing the Up button without entering the menu before changes the Aspect Ratio and pressing the Down Button on it's own changes the resolution.

stuntman · Post by **stuntman** » Sun May 11, 2008 12:55 pm

To use this with a Sega Saturn, I'd have to buy a RGB to Component converter, such as the CSY2100. The converter costs almost twice as much as the HD Box Pro itself, but perhaps the result would be worth it (still cheaper than an XRGB).

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Sun May 11, 2008 9:20 pm

stuntman wrote:To use this with a Sega Saturn, I'd have to buy a RGB to Component converter, such as the CSY2100. The converter costs almost twice as much as the HD Box Pro itself, but perhaps the result would be worth it (still cheaper than an XRGB).

For stuntman,

And is the CSY2100 take Euro SCART RGB signal only? How about Japanese SCART signal (aka Japanese 21-pin RGB)?

Here's the instruction manual in PDF:

http://www.cypuk.com/pdf/csy2100.pdf

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

stuntman · Post by **stuntman** » Mon May 12, 2008 3:22 am

PC Engine Fan X! wrote:And is the CSY2100 take Euro SCART RGB signal only? How about Japanese SCART signal (aka Japanese 21-pin RGB)?

They're wired differently, so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work. But by referring to the pinouts, a Jap to Euro scart adapter could be made.

http://www.gamesx.com/avpinouts/rgb21pinj.htm
http://www.diyha.co.uk/electronics/scart.html

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Mon May 12, 2008 6:42 am

So if I want to hook my PS2 up to a monitor with that, I need component cables?

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Mon May 12, 2008 2:49 pm

themachinist wrote:So if I want to hook my PS2 up to a monitor with that, I need component cables?

Yes, any $5 cable off eBay will work fine. Also remember to set component output to YPbPr/YCbCr in your PS2 system dashboard.

Daigohji · Post by **Daigohji** » Sun May 18, 2008 4:12 pm

So is this just for connecting to a PC monitor, or will it work with an HDTV that has a VGA port? I had a look on the product's website, but the wording is pretty ambiguous in places.

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sun May 18, 2008 7:33 pm

I used it on my Sony XBR5 HDTV, no problems at all. It doesn't offer 1920x1080, just 1650x1050 and 1920x1200, but on my TV it wasn't a problem. The rescaling within the TV does little to no harm. In fact I even prefered 640x480 from the box and had my Sony do the rest of the work.

Typical chinese website I'd say, but buying was flawless and communication was good (2 weeks delivery time with economy shipping).

jandrogo · Post by **jandrogo** » Sun May 18, 2008 10:39 pm

Hi Fudoh,

can you take some pics of anything in your TV without the HD BOX PRO and with HD BOX PRO working?

Lot of thanks

skinny goon · Post by **skinny goon** » Fri May 23, 2008 1:09 am

Well, I bit the bullet and just ordered one of these. It appears to be the exact solution I'm looking for...I want to run component out from my supergun into a VGA box so I can play my PCBs on my CRT VGA monitor. I've also got an LCD TV with VGA in, so this will probably do double duty.

Even if this thing doesn't work very well with my setup, it won't be a very costly mistake. Can't wait till it gets here...my little CRT SD TV just isn't cutting it with composite only.

skinny goon · Post by **skinny goon** » Wed May 28, 2008 11:35 pm

OK, so I got the box...seems to work pretty nicely in general. I am getting some noise/interference that is really noticeable if I jack the sharpness all the way up. I think it may be my POS component cables. I tested with two sets of cables, and one set was definitely better, but they both have some degree of noise.

Is there a good mid-range component cable that you guys are using with this box? I don't believe overpriced Monster cables are necessary...but I should probably get something a bit better than the junky ones I have.

Overall, though...this upscaling unit is not bad at all. Colors look very crisp, image is pretty stable and there is a nice range of options to tweak.

neocvera · Post by **neocvera** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 3:12 am

Yeah some without/with pictures would be nice. I'm surprised more people aren't all over this.

/me very interested.

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 10:43 am

I sold mine since I use a VP50pro, so I really have no need for this little box. Besides it's always hard to take snapshots of video processing in which you can notice the difference....

skinny goon · Post by **skinny goon** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:56 pm

neocvera wrote:Yeah some without/with pictures would be nice. I'm surprised more people aren't all over this.

/me very interested.

I'll post some pics later on...I've been tinkering with the settings and am now quite pleased with the outcome. I'm using it with my old TVM CRT monitor.

laurie47 · Post by **laurie47** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:34 pm

If this is as good as it sounds then I will have a Boxed complete XRGB 2 + for sale

Fudoh · Post by **Fudoh** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:35 pm

It's good, but the main advantage of the XRGB2+ is the RGB input. If you only have component sources, you can easily go with this one instead, but buying an additional RGBS to YUV transcoder defeats the purpose (and the price).

laurie47 · Post by **laurie47** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:34 am

I have a monster component cable

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:03 am

Guess this one trumps the Neoya X2VGA converter both in price and the ability to take 480i, huh?

laurie47 · Post by **laurie47** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:08 am

Has anyone tried running some PCBs through this?

skinny goon · Post by **skinny goon** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:10 pm

laurie47 wrote:Has anyone tried running some PCBs through this?

Yep. I am running various PCBs through a component(neobitz) supergun with no issues. Actually, I am pretty pleased with this box. I have fixed all the issues I was having by tweaking a few things in the menus.

I paid less than $80(shipping included) for this thing. That's a steal as far as I'm concerned. I actually snapped a few pics, but they do not do it justice.
No surprise that MVS games look great(being a neobitz SG):

laurie47 · Post by **laurie47** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:08 pm

Now does the supergun do anything to the video signal from the PCB?
I would want to use my cab (It has a power supply and a 19"tft)
I would want to hook the PCB video directly into the HD box.
Would this be OK?

shmups.system11.org

HD Box Pro: cheap (and good) alternative to the XRGB-3

HD Box Pro: cheap (and good) alternative to the XRGB-3

Re: HD Box Pro: cheap (and good) alternative to the XRGB-3