HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

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beharius
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by beharius »

another great review from srarcade:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLbpbRld4ds

Thanks!
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ckong
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by ckong »

I am very glad with my hanzo, but yesterday I found a 'problem'.

When I connect my DC through a DC VGA cable via an extron super emotia to a Sony PVM, then I get a perfect 240p picture on the screen.

When I replace the DC VGA cable by a hanzo in VGA mode, then the super emotia doesn't get (or can't process) a proper video signal and the PVM screen is blank, not even the OSD message of an incoming RGB signal.

What causes this issue? The hanzo does work when it is directly connected to a LCD tv with VGA input.
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Fudoh
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Fudoh »

beharius might not have the means to try that. I can do, once I get around getting a DC, a BVM, an Emotia and a Hanzo into the same room. What does the input detection LEDs on the Emotia "say" ? Are they locked or blinking ?
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ckong
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by ckong »

With the DC VGA cable the led (3rd one from the left) is locked, when I use the hanzo then the led light is continuously cycling through all 4 positions.
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fafangus
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by fafangus »

Some capture of the Hanzo via xrgb-mini + avermedia live :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovS6K3kQY-0

Really impressive work made by beharius 8)
FriendofSonic
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by FriendofSonic »

gabe wrote:I just got done testing it on a few different displays. Everything works as expected. Here are some unsorted thoughts...
  • It's a really slick piece of hardware. Excellent craftsmanship and quite easy on the eyes.
  • I was hoping to connect my DC to my Sony PVM20L5 using Hanzo's RGB switch and a DB15-4BNC adapter, but I've been unable to get it to sync. I'm pretty sure this is the fault of my cabling. My guess is some sort of sync-on-green business. I plan to look into this further when I have more time.
  • This is probably obvious, but scanlines do wonders - 2D DC games (especially those with low res assets) look awesome on an LCD
  • This is the nicest VGA box currently on the market
Hey,

I just bought a 20l5. Did you happen to find a way to make it work?
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ae.tc
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by ae.tc »

great build; just ordered :o
• Sega Mega-Tech • SNK MVS • Sega Naomi 2 • Kaneko AX • Taito F3 ••
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mission
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by mission »

Hi Beharius

I would like to preorder a Hanzo + scanliner cable as well.

Shipped to the UK

Please PM me. Thanks !
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Zorator
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Zorator »

Never owned a DC before, but I've been thinking about getting one. Seems like the consensus is that VGA output is the way to go, why is that? Is a VGA box with scanlines on a LCD display better than whatever the best option is for CRT TV displays?
Lord of Pirates
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Lord of Pirates »

Zorator wrote:Never owned a DC before, but I've been thinking about getting one. Seems like the consensus is that VGA output is the way to go, why is that? Is a VGA box with scanlines on a LCD display better than whatever the best option is for CRT TV displays?
VGA has superior signal quality and is progressive. You could use a CRT monitor if you wanted a CRT.
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mission
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by mission »

My hanzo arrived today , works great.

Cheers mate. :D
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Zorator
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Zorator »

Lord of Pirates wrote:
Zorator wrote:Never owned a DC before, but I've been thinking about getting one. Seems like the consensus is that VGA output is the way to go, why is that? Is a VGA box with scanlines on a LCD display better than whatever the best option is for CRT TV displays?
VGA has superior signal quality and is progressive. You could use a CRT monitor if you wanted a CRT.
Superior to what though? RGB/SCART? Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't RGB basically the same as VGA? And obviously I realize you can use a CRT. What I'm asking is, is there any way to hook it up to a CRT, without VGA, that has comparable video quality?

Maybe I should have posted this in the thread for questions that don't derserve a thread. I'm really curious why VGA+scanlines is preferred over a high quality CRT setup. Isn't the conventional wisdom that CRT is better(or at least more accurate) than LCD/etc. with scanlines, when dealing with 2D sprite based graphics? Of course the DC has plenty of 3D games but I don't get why VGA setups for DC get so much love here in particular.
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Fudoh
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Fudoh »

What I'm asking is, is there any way to hook it up to a CRT, without VGA, that has comparable video quality?
no, there is not, because the majority of the DC games running in 15khz do output in 480i (interlaced).
I'm really curious why VGA+scanlines is preferred over a high quality CRT setup. Isn't the conventional wisdom that CRT is better
because 480p + scanlines gives you the sense of 240p, while - again - a DC directly connected through 15khz RGB is 480i for most games.
Sixfortyfive
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Sixfortyfive »

Only VGA will give you 480p.
Nam
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Nam »

ckong wrote:I am very glad with my hanzo, but yesterday I found a 'problem'.

When I connect my DC through a DC VGA cable via an extron super emotia to a Sony PVM, then I get a perfect 240p picture on the screen.

When I replace the DC VGA cable by a hanzo in VGA mode, then the super emotia doesn't get (or can't process) a proper video signal and the PVM screen is blank, not even the OSD message of an incoming RGB signal.

What causes this issue? The hanzo does work when it is directly connected to a LCD tv with VGA input.
Can anyone confirm that the Hanzo works when paired with a Super Emotia to get 240p output to a Sony PVM?

Ckong, it is possible that you had the scanline switch on, possibly confusing the Emotia?
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Guardians Knight
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Guardians Knight »

you got these back in stock mate?
001
beharius
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by beharius »

Yeah, It's always in stock...
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Guardians Knight
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Guardians Knight »

Received mine a few weeks back thanks dude!

Any tips for best way to connect this to my tv that doesnt have a vga port? it has scart, composite and hdmi. Could i just use a hdmi to female vga lead and plug that into the Hanzo? Or will that cause me problems?
001
beharius
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by beharius »

Enjoy it!
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bobrocks95
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by bobrocks95 »

Fudoh has said before that cheap VGA to HDMI boxes work just fine.
PS1 Disc-Based Game ID BIOS patch for MemCard Pro and SD2PSX automatic VMC switching.
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Guardians Knight
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Guardians Knight »

ok I've already pm'd Beharius but maybe this question might be helpful for others too.

So I'm just getting a black screen when i plug my DC into my hd tv's hdmi port via a vga to hdmi lead. I've tried the Hanzo on my computer monitor using just a vga cable and it works fine. Even tried the vga-hdmi cable set up on a different tv and it won't work.

Where am i going wrong please?

Thanks guys
001
philexile
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by philexile »

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. I picked one of these up back when they were launched and it recently started having problems. I've found that the switches no longer work and now it will only output a 15khz signal. I checked each of wthe switches with my multimeter and three don't even make a connection anymore.

Do the Hanzos carry any sort of warranty? I barely used it to be honest. I probably get to use DC 2x a year max at this point, so I'm a little disappointed the unit crapped out at 3 (?) years. I had a knockoff set of VGA cables that were 10 years old and going strong.

Are there any other boxes with a switch for 15/31khz output? It's all I really need. I don't care about scanlines at this point.

Thanks
beharius
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by beharius »

If it needs to be repaired, send me back for fixing it. I haven't heard of non functioning switches before. Sorry to hear that.
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fafangus
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by fafangus »

Hi
Just posting a fresh video of the Hanzo in action :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKqyWTSmta0
Going trough OSSC and CII for a 1080p upscaler
In first I was double scaling with the ossc to 960p and doing 1080p with the CII, but in the middle of the video just passing trought the OSSC (480p) to the C2 and the result is beautifull
So the setup :
DC > Hanzo > OSSC > C2
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Fudoh
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Fudoh »

your CII info screen shows 640x480p60 as the input. Are you using the VESA output option on the OSSC instead of the DTV one ofr have you tweaked the OSSC's output in any way ?
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fafangus
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by fafangus »

When I updated the ossc to 0.76, I didn't touch the settings for 480p (just the output)

In the start of the video the output is set to 480pX2, and in the middle, I just used (switch to) the passtrough fonction, I think it's better this way (directly to C2)

I know there is some tweaking with ossc and DC but I didn't get into this for now :p

The ratio is not good ? - I think the top and bottom of the screen is a little cropped -
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Fudoh
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by Fudoh »

In the start of the video the output is set to 480pX2, and in the middle, I just used (switch to) the passtrough fonction, I think it's better this way (directly to C2)
doesn't matter. It's the input sampling on the OSSC that matters.
The ratio is not good ? - I think the top and bottom of the screen is a little cropped -
the ratio is fine, but you got a CII, so you can adjust the ratio in any way you like anyway.

The usual problem is that if you use the VESA sampling mode on the OSSC you you're not getting the full resolution from the DC. You have to use the DTV sampling option instead. The output AR will be a little more narrow this way, but using the CII you can compensate for it.

The CII info screen should report 480p (or 720x480p), not 640x480p (not 100% certain on this, since it's been some time since I used mine).
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fafangus
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Re: HANZO - The Ultimate Dreamcast VGA BOX wuth Scanlines

Post by fafangus »

Yes before updating to 0.76, I used to switch to 640X480/480p in OSSC sampler option, I remember now :p, and the C2 showing me 720X480...
Thing I didn't do for this video, I may take a look at it
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