DC VGA Box - Holy Shit.

[Marc]

Picked up an official VGA box for the DC a long while ago but never got round to using it, figuring it couldn't look THAT much better than RGB.

Got an absolutely huge PC monitor a week or so ago so decided to try it out, first game I played was SNS2... all I can say is... fuck. The quality on this thing is unbelieveable, could not believe that the DC could look so crisp, clean and utterly pin sharp. Span Rez, Cosmic Smash and Ikaruga after that, every one utterly incredible looking. Only bummer was the Yu Suzuki's Game Works disc, game me something about a frequency error on the monitor or something.

Anyway, what I want to know is if the VGA boxes available for other consoles improve the picture quality to this effect? I've seen a few on Ebay that supposedly work with multiple consoles, and am thinking of getting the PS2 chipped for DDPDOJ and Mushi, would be great if running the PS2 through the monitor has the same effect on that as it does the DC. They were quite costly though, and knowing nothing at all about video output etc, I'd like to know if the effect is going to be as noticable, or is the DC a one-off in this respect? Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

[mannerbot]

Absolutely not. A converted signal obviously can't compare to the DreamCast's native VGA support, and most of the "VGA boxes" for other consoles simply take composite signals and convert them to VGA, making it look even worse than composite. Of course there's always the XRGB2 type of device, which takes an RGB signal and upscans it to VGA, but they're expensive and I haven't seen one firsthand. The search function will provide you with detailed impressions, though (I'm pretty sure Dave K. has one).

[Ord]

I could be wrong, but doesn't it look kind of crappy with low res 2d games?

[mannerbot]

You mean the DC VGA box right? Sure does. Marvel vs Capcom 2 is a great example, everything except the sprites looks fantastic, but the sprites look like complete ass.

[Ord]

You mean the DC VGA box right? Sure does. Marvel vs Capcom 2 is a great example, everything except the sprites looks fantastic, but the sprites look like complete ass.

Yep, that's what I meant.

[Vexorg]

The Xbox360 (and apparently Revolution, if rumors are to be believed) are going to have native VGA support in the next generation. I've also heard that the third party Xbox VGA adapters (X2VGA) are quite good as well since they convert to HD resolutions. Most VGA adapters are going to be upscan converters, which leave much to be desired as far as image quality goes.

[Neon]

Pretty much everything worthwhile on psx/ps2 is low-res or fake low-res anyways, so plain RGB should do the trick nicely.

[SAM]

Here is a review for the XRGB-2.

http://atarilabs.com/meat/2001/0120_XRGB2.shtml

[Valgar]

First thing to check is if the game supports High Resolution, then if the game isn't low-res 2D graphics.

Only a few PS2 titles allow Progressive Scan, Guilty Gear XX being one.

Almost all GC games (90%) support Progressive Scan. You can get a hacked cable but you need to make sure your GC has the input that was removed on later versions.

I think all Xbox games support 480p. You can get a hacked VGA cable for this too.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Since I already have two DC consoles with an official Sega DC VGA Box and a 3rd-party Naki version DC VGA Adapter. The Sega DC VGA Box has built-in S-Video output along with the Naki DC VGA Box as well. The Dreamcast is the only current console to output in VGA mode via an optional "VGA" Box adapter.

Yes, by using Yu Suzuki's Gameworks Vol. 1 on the DC, it only supports RCA composite video, S-Video or Japanese RGB but not the DC VGA Box adapter. (I use a DC Japanese RGB cable piped up to an XRGB-2 upscan convertor when playing the Gameworks Vol. 1 disc on my DC...by using the "fake" scanline options afforded on the XRGB-2, the five classic Sega arcade games on that particular Gameworks disc look pretty good with that type of setup.)

I see that the upcoming Sony Playstation 3 console will have Japanese RGB output compatibility...perfect for use with an XRGB-2 anyways.

A die-hard console/arcade/Supergun gamer or shmupper has access to an analog RGB monitor hooked up to his or her game consoles...no need for Japanese RGB or Euro SCART cables as the RGB monitor presents the best image availble with no signal loss whatsoever.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Dave_K.]

You can do the "switch trick" to get DC games to work with the VGA box even when they are not supposed to. What you do is power on the unit with game loaded and DC box set to TV, disc will start spinning and you will hear a small beep (approx 2-5 seconds) then flip switch over to PC, you should then be seeing the "Sega" copyright logo in VGA, and game will then start in VGA.

[Vexorg]

Note that this swap trick has mixed results, and you will almost assuredly encounter glitches when you use it (some are minor (Gunbird 2 has some slowdown with heavy action on screen, and the galleries will not display correctly) while some games will be basically unplayable (Bangai-O, for example.)

[mannerbot]

Gunbird 2 is unplayable as well. Maybe I did something wrong, but the few times I tried getting it to work in VGA the colors were off and there was heavy slowdown regardless of how much action was on the screen.

[Vexorg]

I was actually using my DCX disk to boot non VGA games in VGA mode, so maybe that had something to do with it...

[zaphod]

generally if a game does not support VGA mode it sfor a good reason.

The infamous "BLaze VGA BOX" for ps2 has hacks on the disc that comes with it to enable progressive scan in a number of popular games that don't normally have it. you boot the disc, then remove it and insert your game.aso games that have progressive scan built in (often accessed witha code!) then they will work with the vga box without needing the disc, and you will get true 640x480 resolution.

With games that don't support progresive scan, or that don't have hacks for them on the disc, you wil instead get normal interlaced video upscanned.

[Pingu]

A die-hard console/arcade/Supergun gamer or shmupper has access to an analog RGB monitor hooked up to his or her game consoles...no need for Japanese RGB or Euro SCART cables as the RGB monitor presents the best image availble with no signal loss whatsoever.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

Err, correct me if I'm wrong but all tubes are RGB capable and Tellies that can use either the scart or jap rgb lead are usualy no different from those found in your general cab. You'd be hard pressed to find ANY image difference from your "RGB monitors" and a well set up TV which have RGB input-

On another note the ntsc gamecubes can output VGA trough hacked component cables I've heard. Think it was some guide over at gamesx even though the GC shumplibrarie isn't exactly stellar.

[Baki]

Hi I'm new to this forum but a shooter fan for years. I also have a DC vga box and recently hooked it up to my plasma tv. I can say the same thing as Marc...f#ck! All the games that support vga look so crisp. I just wanted to play my DC 24/7 again.

[Specineff]

@Pingu: You seem to be correct. I assume from you saying "tellies" that you're in the UK. You guys are lucky, because your TV's come with RGB scart in most cases. Perhaps PCE FX was referring to us SCART-impaired NTSC players. I blame Hollywood. There's no copy protection on RGB currently (no recorders on RGB, though), so it's just their paranoia that we all would turn into leeching pirates (ARRH!) given half the chance. Case in point? The PS2 switching to component when playing DVD's on RGB connection. (DVD region X or a mod solve this)

I wonder if the PS3 with that HDMI (BS, IMHO) would prevent us from making recordings of our own plays.

Long live RGB and VGA.

[Pingu]

@Pingu: You seem to be correct. I assume from you saying "tellies" that you're in the UK. You guys are lucky, because your TV's come with RGB scart in most cases. Perhaps PCE FX was referring to us SCART-impaired NTSC players. I blame Hollywood. There's no copy protection on RGB currently (no recorders on RGB, though), so it's just their paranoia that we all would turn into leeching pirates (ARRH!) given half the chance. Case in point? The PS2 switching to component when playing DVD's on RGB connection. (DVD region X or a mod solve this)

I wonder if the PS3 with that HDMI (BS, IMHO) would prevent us from making recordings of our own plays.

Long live RGB and VGA.

Nah, a bit east of there, Sweden.
As far as I know you can't really record RGB as noone seems to care about it, I supose there are some high end capture cards out there that makes it possible but I have yet to see one, and it would be expensive. Maybe one of those new HD boxes can handle it, problem is that most equpiment is made for ntsc and the later adapted to pal so they often don't give a damn at all.

And yes, Long live RGB and VGA