The unit I bought had a 2000+ serial so I assume its one of the oldest units around. It was described as new from the store assistant but it looked used and some of the cables were opened already. The unit cost $100.
Tested with -
PS2/PS1
Sega Genesis 2
21" SVGA Dell Trinitron monitor
Cables provided by Matt (at least 18 months ago).
Since these usually cost $200+ and the RGB cables are hard to get, alot of you are probably put off by the price alone. So I thought I would give you some of my experiences.
Setting up.
Setting up the unit should be quite easy for most people. However I had problems straight away. First I took the VGA cable from the output of the XRGB and put that into the monitor. I plugged the PS2 RGB cable into the XRGB2 and switched everything on. Nothing happened.
I figured out the left hand button on the XRGB was the select input. It toggles between Svideo/Video (composite) and RGB (21 pin RGB). When the unit was in RGB mode the input light came on to show a signal was getting to it, but nothing was displayed on the screen.
So I thought to myself, try another console. Out came the Genesis 2. Plugged all in, nothing happened again. Started to get worried at this point. Again the input light came on, but no graphics on screen at all. However I was getting the input light to show that an RGB input was recognized.
At this point, I changed the cables to the monitor, since the XRGB2 has 2 output cables. One is standard VGA, the other is a DB15 to VGA. Both cables were included. This made no difference.
Then I remembered something, that PS2's need to be in RGB mode. So I take my PS2 over to my TV and change the Y BR thingy to RGB. I take it to the XRGB2 and voila, i'm seeing an upscanned image on my monitor.. Hoorah!
First impressions
First thing I saw was Onimusha 3's introduction video. It looked OK, I wasn't blown away with the image quality at all. But I hadn't fiddled with options and such at this point. Just by going from video to in game graphics made a big difference but still not earth shatteringly good.
Fiddling options
I don't know all the options on the XRGB2 off hand. But there are about 10-12 of them. Some of them written in English, some in Japanese.
Most of them are pointless, since they counter the options set on your monitor. For instance, the black level was preset to zero. If you go anywhere near 25% the screen is already black and you can't see anything at all. So I left that alone at zero %.
Gamma option -
Gamma option seems to brighten and darken the screen. There are only 4 options 1-4.
V-Line option -
This adds fake interlaced lines. I got mixed results with it. If your media is 2D such as a shmup it works rather well. Some old school Galaga or Ms Pacman looked freaking awesome just like the PCB. However, I didn't like its effect on 3D games too much. Games looked overall cleaner with V-Line on, if you took it off things look really glary to the point colors blend.
I did play with all the other options but to be honest there wasn't really much point to them. On a couple of the options I went through top to bottom and couldn't tell a difference on the screen.
Genesis 2 again
So what went wrong here? Put it back on the XRGB2, again black screen. I touched the cable on the Gene end and boom, a picture came up. It doesn't seem to be problem so far. Maybe it was the cartridge, since this system has been sitting dormant for 2 years
. Again, the picture was glary, colors blended. The brightness is so overwhelming that no matter what you fiddle with on your monitor or your XRGB it never looks PERFECT. So I'm assuming there is something not right here.I remember reading a while back you can put a chip inside the cable which counters this problem. I have also just remembered that when fiddling with the XRGB the PCB switch on the front (Exclusive to the XRGB2) makes the image darker.. Maybe I need to use that.
The fact remains that I don't see the visuals on screen that I saw with my Astro City I owned a year ago. Its got the clarity, its just too damn glary.
Inputs/outputs
I had a few problems figuring out this stuff. It seems the RCA's on the back are inputs to go with the video/svideo inputs. I was trying all sorts to get sound out of it
So you have composite in, svideo in, RCA L+R in. I didn't use these. Unfortunately the only audio output is via 3.5mm jack for PC speakers. It works great.
Obviously the RGB input is the Japanese 21 RGB input on the front which is not to my liking. I would prefer it on the back.
The outputs are a DB15 and a DB9, both do the same thing.. Cables are provided for both.. I have no idea why you need two outputs.
The throughput for use with PC's I used with my Dreamcast. If you switch the XRGB2 off, it automatically sends any input from a 31khz device to the screen if you have it looped through the XRGB2.
DVD's on the PS2 are green, this is normal.
So am I happy with the XRGB2? I am not 100% happy. Most games are glary. Watching Robocods intro with a snow background hurt my eyes. Turning the brightness down helps but to get it to the point where it bearable, its too dark!
I need to play more, see if I can get something going on. But right now there are too many options that do nothing to rectify my problem.. I will update if I find something new.. and I'd appreciate some feedback..
Thanks.
