Bitfunx Dreamcast Component Cables

[TheRetroCarrot]

I figured I'd give a really quick review of these https://www.bitfunx.com/product/rgbs-vg ... e-console/

I also own the retrogamingcables cable, which are almost always out of stock. I couldn't find a single review of these cable outside of that "they work". From side by side comparisons I can see absolutely no discernable difference with the RGC cables with 480p output to an HD CRT. No noise, no sync issues, exact same coloration. Greyscale and color bars look identical. The only noticeable difference is the Bitfunx image is properly centered like all my other systems, whereas the RGC cable is offset to the right unfortunately.

Morals aside as I know some people have issues with these aliexpress companies, this is probably the best component cable available for the Dreamcast even if the others were in stock. The cable itself appears to be identical to that used in HD Retrovision cables, I have no doubt it's properly shielded 75ohm cabling. I might actually end up ordering a 2nd cable to replace my RGC cable and have a centered image.

[TheRetroCarrot]

I appear to have spoken too soon... After a couple hours of gameplay I started getting a very light scrolling horizontal noise on some scenes, swapping cables while still running fixed this each time. I've played hundreds of hours on the Rgc cables, same Dreamcast and setup and never had this.

I'll probably open these up and take a look what they've actually done and post up some pictures.

[RebeL9]

Thanks for your review. After reading your first post I was going to jump on the train and order a pair but that scrolling issue worries me

What crt did you use it on ? I have bvm d24 and I hope they don’t have that infamous banding issue in the top screen which only seem to occur on BVM D series monitors.

[TheRetroCarrot]

I have a Loewe Planus, I forget the model number at the moment but it's a 60hz 1080i model.

I'm actually having no luck reproducing the issue with noise. Original I played a couple hours with these cables, noticed it, plugged in the RGC cable and it was gone, plugged the bitfunx back in and it returned, did that a couple times and walked away. Went back to do some more testing and can't get it to have issues again. I can say the cables initially were an extremely tight fit, perhaps a pin wasn't making the greatest contact, the RGC cables never fit great either, they don't get audio sometimes and have to be plugged in extremely hard.

I'm going to play around more today and see if this happens again, I'd really like these cables to work as intended since they're readily available, have a centered image, and initially were giving an image that matched the RGC cable. It seems to only be one color channel that had issues, as it was very specific images on screen that it was visible on. If I can get it to happen again I could test more.

[RebeL9]

Thanks!
Please keep us updated with your experience.
How do they work with different output resolutions?

[TheRetroCarrot]

280p/480i seem to work as intended, no different than the RGC cable, just a super stiff toggle switch that works. That being said I need to run it through a GBS-C on this particular TV as it doesn't support these resolutions. I don't foresee there being any issues there though, works the same as the RGC which I have used on a 240p/480i set in the past without problem. So far the only thing that has me concerned was the noise, I don't really want to tear the housing open if I can't get it to come back though. It does appear to be 2 pieces but I doubt they'd make it easy to open unscarred.

[Link83]

Do the cables have the slight green color mismatch like the RGC component cables?:-
https://youtu.be/VPqTzYFUBwo?t=356
https://twitter.com/SureWhyNotImSm1/sta ... 6554778768

[TheRetroCarrot]

I haven't been able to replicate that with either cable, it doesn't appear visible no matter how close I look at a scrolling or paused grid pattern. They're both extremely sharp and clear, all of 240p test suites greyscale and color patterns look sharp without bleed. Maybe with a direct capture I'd see something different.

I ran the bitfunx cables the better part of the day today with absolutely no issues. I'm sick as can be so I'll hopefully get a lot of time with them this week. So far my noise issue looks to have resolved through my repeated unplugging and replugging adventures.

[RebeL9]

I haven't been able to replicate that with either cable, it doesn't appear visible no matter how close I look at a scrolling or paused grid pattern. They're both extremely sharp and clear, all of 240p test suites greyscale and color patterns look sharp without bleed. Maybe with a direct capture I'd see something different.

I ran the bitfunx cables the better part of the day today with absolutely no issues. I'm sick as can be so I'll hopefully get a lot of time with them this week. So far my noise issue looks to have resolved through my repeated unplugging and replugging adventures.

If its not too much to ask. Could you please take comparison pictures off your CRT?

[neorichieb1971]

I don't think the RGC cable is that much of a problem off setting to the right if your using a retrotink which most would be using an upscaler with it.

Straight into a HD CRT is a different matter.

I'm using a HDMI cable right now which gives good results if your nose isn't up to the screen. Mind you, I don't think Dreamcast was ever designed for huge flat screens.

I find with these sorts of things that folk are extremely fussy when it comes to PQ that they will spend lots of money finding the best optimum solution when a cheaper solution exists that is slightly un-optimum.

[TheRetroCarrot]

I haven't been able to replicate that with either cable, it doesn't appear visible no matter how close I look at a scrolling or paused grid pattern. They're both extremely sharp and clear, all of 240p test suites greyscale and color patterns look sharp without bleed. Maybe with a direct capture I'd see something different.

I ran the bitfunx cables the better part of the day today with absolutely no issues. I'm sick as can be so I'll hopefully get a lot of time with them this week. So far my noise issue looks to have resolved through my repeated unplugging and replugging adventures.

If its not too much to ask. Could you please take comparison pictures off your CRT?

Attached some in a dropbox folder since I'd assume you'd want raw quality. RGC on the right, Bitfunx on the left. Sorry I'm not much of a photographer, and I neglected to take a photo of the colorbars on the RGC cable. Any brightness differences I can see are just from my lack of camera skills.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/gzvl3cgr ... k6drc&dl=0

Smooshed quality:
https://imgur.com/a/sIyzrOj

[RebeL9]

Thanks a bunch.
Yeah its hard to tell them apart from eachother judging by these pictures. Im curious to see if Bitfunx are basing their PCB on the same foundation as the RGC cable.

[TheRetroCarrot]

Looking more at these photos, the Bitfunx cables are sharper. I noticed it zoomed out on some of those comparisons, if it was just one of them I'd say it was a photography issue, but it seems consistent across the board. This wasn't noticeable A/Bing between the two, but might be more noticeable on an LCD display. Either way at this point I'd say the Bitfunx cables perform better than RGC, I still haven't had any issues with noise again.




Did some very minor level correction to match but the RGC is the right side of this, I'm fairly certain I see a difference in clarity in all of these shots:

[neorichieb1971]

What would cause a difference of PQ on a component cable compared to another component cable?

[TheRetroCarrot]

In this situation I would say it's something with the active portion of this cable, as the cables themselves are both thick shielded coax which I have no doubts to the quality of.

[RebeL9]

Where is the hype? We now practically have a readily available component cable option for Dreamcast for the first time. I'm surprised this haven't been picked up by the big youtubers such as Retro RGB, MLIG etc. While we did get a component option from RGC last year it has been out of stock since many months.

[TheRetroCarrot]

Good question, I didn't even know about these and probably never would have if they didn't pop up on aliexpress when shopping for a translucent shell.

My guess is it's because it's an aliexpress product, I've noticed the retro gaming industry tends to be a very tight knit community of distributors and creators and typically have some moral objection to companies "copying" products. After a recent experience with a company who may or may not sell gcomp switches I'm all for Bitfunx haha.

[kitty666cats]

Where is the hype? We now practically have a readily available component cable option for Dreamcast for the first time. I'm surprised this haven't been picked up by the big youtubers such as Retro RGB, MLIG etc. While we did get a component option from RGC last year it has been out of stock since many months.

Because they all despise Kaico/BitFunx/Retroscaler etc etc for stealing designs. But hey, those companies make it so that gear is actually *readily available* and not available in ~3 day windows/getting resold for jacked-up prices like most other brands. Awkward situation for people who have strong morals about stupid video game equipment

[Neogeo1982]

Have any of you tried the beharbros stuff? I was using a Pound VGA to HDMI for Dreamcast and decided to try their Akura box. It's not an upscaler but has a lot of good perks on it. Works really good. They have a lot of VGA convertors on there and it only took a week to get it delivered to Pa from Turkey.

https://www.beharbros.com/

[TheRetroCarrot]

Have any of you tried the beharbros stuff? I was using a Pound VGA to HDMI for Dreamcast and decided to try their Akura box. It's not an upscaler but has a lot of good perks on it. Works really good. They have a lot of VGA convertors on there and it only took a week to get it delivered to Pa from Turkey.

https://www.beharbros.com/

I have a garo lite from them. It seems to function fairly well though I don't really use it any more. It was very picky about power supplies, the RGBS/RGBHV switch was broken so I ended up bridging it, and the bottom of the board was covered in what looked like dried up flux. I requested a return and they refunded the product cost minus shipping and said to keep it, make what you will of all that. I still keep it around in case I need YPbPr-RGBHV conversion without any features though, right now my GBS-C performs this with the added benefits of being able to position the image wherever.

[RebeL9]

Good question, I didn't even know about these and probably never would have if they didn't pop up on aliexpress when shopping for a translucent shell.

My guess is it's because it's an aliexpress product, I've noticed the retro gaming industry tends to be a very tight knit community of distributors and creators and typically have some moral objection to companies "copying" products. After a recent experience with a company who may or may not sell gcomp switches I'm all for Bitfunx haha.

Yeah I agree with you and I have noticed this myself. I follow some of the biggest retro gaming channels on youtube. The respected ones, not the yelling bullshit ones. The problem is as you say that it is a very tight knit community. They often refer to eachother and even participate in eachothers videos. They release reviews at the same time and of the same products. The problem with this is that it becomes to streamlined and you don't get reiews and coverage of products from AliExpress for instance.
A good example of this is Blue Retro adapters for retro consoles. They will cover one specific adapter because the developer is someone from the west. But they wont mention that the same type of adapter is being sold on AliExpress for half the price.

[Stevens]

Have any of you tried the beharbros stuff? I was using a Pound VGA to HDMI for Dreamcast and decided to try their Akura box. It's not an upscaler but has a lot of good perks on it. Works really good. They have a lot of VGA convertors on there and it only took a week to get it delivered to Pa from Turkey.

https://www.beharbros.com/

I'll 2nd Beharbros. I have a Hanzo DC VGA box from them. Top tier stuff.

[TooBeaucoup]

I would strongly urge anyone considering Beharbros to do some serious Googling before making a purchase. They have had known quality control issues on almost all of their products going back several years. Not only that, they are very unwilling to help customers when they have a problem. My $70 Toro Box never worked right since the day I got it, and it is definitely not an isolated problem across all of their products.

[Virtual_Tintin]

to summarize, the best cable for dreamcast is the one from retro access

I played dozens of hours with it, on a bvm d-series, and magnificent image in 480p, without any problem

[beharius]

For years we sent "FREE" replacement cables to fix the issues for those who contacted us. Then in 2018,we changed the cable design and revised its circuit. So we don't have those quality issues now. We're also working with a cable factory who is a defense contractor so the cable quality has been improved. For the older broken cables we can send an upgrade kit for the newer one.

That flux residue is caused by the solder wire we are using which is an American brand called DELTA(Qualitek). It's the same one also used by the defense industry here. We always use temperature controlled, professional soldering stations.

If your console can't supply 5Volts through its AV connector then you may have sync issues. You need to replace a component on your DC mainboard to fix this common issue.
https://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11860

If an Xbox console has an aging power supply and VRM capacitors then there can be issues on the video output too, this is not caused by our adapters nor cables.

We always answer the emails unless the sender is lack of net etiquette and unrespectful... Sometimes our emails are filtered and moved to spam folder too.

There are many people on the net who have no knowledge but sharing his thoughts, it's not shameful not to know, but insisting of not learning and improving yourself is. I wouldn't trust those IGNORANT youtubers who want to be famous and fill their pockets by dispraising us. We are all laughing their comments full of ignorance. When one develops something better than ours, employs many people, invests thousands then he can criticize us but with those simplest boards one doesn't have that right. We have been operating since 2012. We are now a multinational company with 3 offices in Hong Kong, Tel Aviv and Istanbul,soon in Spain, so we are not a small bite...

[RebeL9]

To summarize, the best cable for Dreamcast is the one from Retro Access

I played dozens of hours with it, on a BVM D-Series, and magnificent image in 480p, without any problem

They are impossible to get hold of

[beharius]

You can always find our MAMBA cable. We mass produced them...
https://www.beharbros.com/product-page/ ... rt-dc-480p

[kitty666cats]

You can always find our MAMBA cable. We mass produced them...
https://www.beharbros.com/product-page/ ... rt-dc-480p

This. Thing is brand new, seems like not many people know about it yet. A readily available multi-sync Dreamcast cable?! Impossible!

P.S. What’s the story with the new capture card, Yosi? Did you find a mass produced one that you discovered to actually be quite good, then buy a bulk order and make your own modifications to further improve the design?

[RebeL9]

You can always find our MAMBA cable. We mass produced them...
https://www.beharbros.com/product-page/ ... rt-dc-480p

Does it have the infamous banding issue in D-series of Sony BVM monitors?

[TheRetroCarrot]

To summarize, the best cable for Dreamcast is the one from Retro Access

I played dozens of hours with it, on a BVM D-Series, and magnificent image in 480p, without any problem

EDIT: I can't read, I've only ever meant to discuss the RGC cable, I have no experience with the retro access cable at all.