Dreamcast VGA Boxes

[shmuppyLove]

I've seen a few different types of VGA boxes for the DC floating around, are there some that are better than others?

The one that I'm specifically looking at goes for ~$50 shipped from eBay, and appears to have composite and s-video output as well, which is handy.

[neorichieb1971]

I had 2 boxes and gave them back to the store due to audio problems.

I was recommended the standard VGA cable and it worked great all these years (5) and was cheaper.

That was then though, don't know if these new ones are better or not.

http://www.racketboy.com/store/sega-dre ... e-box.html

They have 3.5mm jacks for PC speakers.

[shmuppyLove]

I saw the one on Racketboy. The price is not bad, shipping is ~$26 so it comes out to about $60 which seems like a lot, but not really that much more than the eBay ones.

[-SD-]

I have the same one as in the first post, but it didn't come in a nice box like that; it was just a generic DC VGA Box.

However, I assume they probably came from the same factory in China anyway so you should be ok. Mine works perfectly fine, never had any problems with it at all.

[beatsgo]

I have a VGA DC box as well and works as advertise. I did notice a few streak lines though and aliasing in some games, but that's typical from older systems. Just remember shmuppy that some DC games don't support VGA.

[BuckoA51]

All the DC VGA boxes are pretty much the same as far as I am aware, there's not a lot to them. I'd imagine the 'box' designed ones are much easier to mod if you wanted 15khz RGB as that cable looks way more compact and difficult to open.

[fagin]

I'm not aware you can mod the cable ones, without smashing the casing up and even then I haven't seen any mod guides for this type of unit. I have the official DC cable and really need to get hold of the boxed version.

[matrigs]

making one yourself is dirt cheap and super easy with minimal solder skills

[Dave_K.]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=20010

[shmuppyLove]

making one yourself is dirt cheap and super easy with minimal solder skills

I assume you mean this?

(warning a huge image is approaching fast)
http://www.gamesx.com/grafx/dricas.gif

I'd be willing to give that a go ... I don't see the audio connected in that diagram, but I assume it's just a simple line-level + / - hookup for each channel?

[mrsmiley381]

I have the one in the topic post and it has worked flawlessly for me. I thought it was worth the asking price.

[matrigs]

making one yourself is dirt cheap and super easy with minimal solder skills

I assume you mean this?

(warning a huge image is approaching fast)
http://www.gamesx.com/grafx/dricas.gif

I'd be willing to give that a go ... I don't see the audio connected in that diagram, but I assume it's just a simple line-level + / - hookup for each channel?

i did the mod with the gamesx schematics but a little differently :



there are several unused pins in a vga connector so i used those to also output s-video, composite and sound from the dreamcast.
adterwards i made two custom cables one with a vga connector and one with a scart. the switch is for changing modes, although
it isn't really necessary.

[shmuppyLove]

making one yourself is dirt cheap and super easy with minimal solder skills

I assume you mean this?

(warning a huge image is approaching fast)
http://www.gamesx.com/grafx/dricas.gif

I'd be willing to give that a go ... I don't see the audio connected in that diagram, but I assume it's just a simple line-level + / - hookup for each channel?

i did the mod with the gamesx schematics but a little differently :

http://i.imgur.com/0neC8l.jpg

there are several unused pins in a vga connector so i used those to also output s-video, composite and sound from the dreamcast.
adterwards i made two custom cables one with a vga connector and one with a scart. the switch is for changing modes, although
it isn't really necessary.

So you wired a switch and an HD15 connector to the AV output on the DC it looks like. That makes sense, I was thinking I'd have to hack apart an original cable, but then I was worried that it wouldn't have the pins/wires I would need.

[matrigs]

well i guess i could make a cable with with both scart and vga so i don't have to recable them at all.

but i'm right now using mainly the vga output so i don't really care about the scart that much.

here is the pinout of the connector in the dreamcast :

http://imgur.com/hakux

+5volt, composite sync, red, green, blue,
ground, vga select, vertical sync, horizontal sync,
luma, composite video, chroma, left audio, right audio

i could basically also use one pin for rgb select and could then remove the switch and connect it to ground
in the cable.