Help me save Christmas! (Astro City + Xbox360 Setup)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

What hardware do I need to buy in order to be able to hook up an Astro City to an Xbox 360? Totally new here, not sure what's recommended. I sent Lemony Vengeance a note about his device: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe3yu4dWTWk

But if there's other devices or comparisons of what's recommended on the market for use, that'd be cool to know. Thanks!

[rugdoctor]

Viletims' SCART to JAMMA is proven the best, you need to get the playstation controller module PLUS a PS2 to 360 converter OR a PS360+ to enable the joystick and buttons to work. Just plug any XBOX360 scart cable and you are good to go.

There is another newcomer who is offering a similar solution on Arcade Otaku.

Both methods main weakness is that the image is 480i. A whole slew of hate is out there for this screen resolution, of which there are no quick fix and requires additional hardware to bring the resolution back to 240 non-interlace which you are use to on JAMMA boards.

You can invest in the first stage and see if it floats your boat and invest further to improve the experience.

[gray117]

Can't stand 480i ...

Aside from appearance some people are more physically more sensitive to the flickering than others - not only do I notice it more it actually hurts/causes eye strain.

I would recommend ebaying an emotia or similar device.

Fudoh's helpful write up on this and similar devices can be found on:
http://scanlines.hazard-city.de/


The short of it:
If you're the type that can tell the difference between 30 fps vs. 60fps I would really recommend a 240p solution... It's not a totally accurate comparison due to phosphor retention, but the basic princple applies - 30 times a second vs 60 times a second...



The longer newbie explanation:


Why is this?

480i is an interlaced picture i.e. alternate lines are scanned in each pass. So you have a 60hz refresh... that means on a 480 line picture/screen alternative 240 lines are scanned i.e. each line is only scanned 30 times a second. For most people this gives a flickering picture; particularly unpleasant up close.


With what we call 240p (not really progressive), with a 60hz refresh only scans a single set of 240 lines i.e. all these lines are scanned 60 times a second. The non scanned lines become the black scanlines so characteristic of arcade games. For most people, on most screens this results in a much more visibly stable [if not perfectly stable] image, even close up.

All 15khz arcade games (well nearly all jamma era ones) basically made use of a non-interlaced technique to make the image more stable - and arguably more appealing.

Small detail; on tri-sync screens (those capable of accepting both 15khz/31khz signals) the scanlines are often a lot more clearly defined whereas 15khz only screens the general glow tends to soften the appearance on scanlines. [Hence why on scanline filters/generators/effects on mame or whatever often have a scanline opacity option to help simulate this effect].

Even 60 times a second doesn't sound that much? Despite crt's reacting instantly to image changes most also have a small degree of phosphor retention helping to soften/blur between refreshes.

[gusmoney]

This video is a pretty informative overview of getting an Xbox 360 working in a Blast City:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMENwGh7vQ

[Fudoh]

The bizarre thing about this video is that he uses the UNPROCESSED output of the Extron. He should be using the BNC outputs on the back. The fact that the passthrough output works for him is sheer luck as it hardly boosts the input signal at all.

[opt2not]

Though pretty hard to find these days, if you can get your hands on Ultracade's UVC, they are pretty awesome. You'd have to wire up a JAMMA connector, but if you have some basic soldering skills this isn't that hard.

The UVC can output 24khz as well, so if you have the original dual-res Nanao MS8 in your cabinet you can set it to medium res and can get a really nice image quality. I was running this in my cabinet for a little while. I was able to connect my 360 and my Dreamcast and was really happy with the image quality.

But like I said, they're pretty hard to find these days.

[emphatic]

Though pretty hard to find these days, if you can get your hands on Ultimarc's UVC, they are pretty awesome. You'd have to wire up a JAMMA connector, but if you have some basic soldering skills this isn't that hard.

ULTRACADE, not Ultimarc.

[opt2not]

Lol whoops, nice catch. I'm not entirely awake today...
Thanks Emph!

[rugdoctor]

The bizarre thing about this video is that he uses the UNPROCESSED output of the Extron. He should be using the BNC outputs on the back. The fact that the passthrough output works for him is sheer luck as it hardly boosts the input signal at all.

That is weird.

[Asure]

The output is cleaned up, and the sync becomes composite sync.. it's not 1:1 vga from the 360 with separate H+V

I had the same thing with a friend's blast, the VGA would drop off if it was connected straight from the 360.
I passed it through a Jpac (vga in, jumpers to vga) as well, and thay also works for the blast as the Jpac outputs composite sync.

If you don't do this, the signal drops after a short while, at least on the MS2930, with dips & analogue pots/controls.
I wrote a lengthy post on it here:
http://forum.arcadeotaku.com/viewtopic.php?t=27732

[rugdoctor]

That is cool! I had a blast with ms2930 as well, though I did not keep it long enough to use the 360 on it. Could the OP do better (as in a all in 1 solution) with an aliexpress type 360 to JAMMA adapter? I have not fiddle with those before but apart from the 480i input will it serve his purpose?

[chempop]

I have the Lemony padhack box that has scart>jamma video and the audio amp.
It works pretty well in an astro city, no complaints here. The interlacing is noticeable but then again my MS9 has so much blooming, I'm used to the screen going somewhat bananas.

I've also used the 360 in a blast city with 2930 chassis, you can get around the blasts safety shutoff with a $20 Extron sync stabilizer. The picture of VGA is good but might add more lag, using an official microsoft brand A/V cable is recommended to avoid some ghosting in the picture.