Recommendation for a PS2 vga box

[Tetsuosan]

I was wondering if anyone can recommend me a good vga box for the ps2? I know the Micomsoft RGBX2 is a great one but you can't find them anymore and people are selling them for like 300+ dollars. Thanks for the help :smile:.

[ShinMagus]

HD Box Pro?
http://www.hdboxpro.com
http://forums.shoryuken.com/showthread.php?t=94426&page=25
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=20122

[DevilsFang]

I have to second the HD Box Pro.^

I need to update my post in the HDTV thread.

After more testing I have concluded that the XRGB is better at de-interlacing (i.e. less combing effects) but the HD Box Pro has better vertical scrolling stability (although still not perfect).

HD Box is a great choice if you don't have $400+ to blow on a XRGB or iScan.

[ShinMagus]

Mine should arrive at the beginning of July or before. :P It's in customs.

[Mayhem]

$400 for an XRGB? The most I've paid for a unit was $200 and only because I was impatient at the time, my other two came around $150 and $100...

[xqoole]

Wow, this box looks great, any concrete lag testing done on this thing??

[Tetsuosan]

Mine should arrive at the beginning of July or before. :P It's in customs.

And you know how customs is in brasil............... That's why I don't mail anything to my family there. I just usually send it to them through someone.

So I gave in and ordered one 71 dollars isn't a bad price. Hopefully it'll get here in less than a month lol. Thanks for the help guys

[Tetsuosan]

$400 for an XRGB? The most I've paid for a unit was $200 and only because I was impatient at the time, my other two came around $150 and $100...

Well they're super hard to find and laurie47 was selling one for 197 pounds. I whipped out the old currency converter online and the pound to dollar is 1.98 cents.

[Mayhem]

Well they're super hard to find and laurie47 was selling one for 197 pounds. I whipped out the old currency converter online and the pound to dollar is 1.98 cents.
Well, that was only another auction he referred to when asked about a potential buy-it-now price. His actual auction on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250260797831) just closed around the £100 mark which seems much more reasonable.

[deadend]

noob question: HD Box Pro use VGA out put, for PS2 and such generation can be good. But for Xbox360 and PS3, wasn't a DVI output a better choice? Is there a DVI box something?

[Farpenoodle]

360 has a native VGA cable. PS3 can be used with some monitors using a HDMI to DVI adapter (which you can also probably use with newer 360s though I have no idea how you're going to get sound out of it considering the a HDMI cable won't fit with the AV cable plugged in.) If your monitor can't do HDCP over DVI for PS3 then the last solution is a component to VGA transcoder.

[V4MPIRO]

360 has a native VGA cable. PS3 can be used with some monitors using a HDMI to DVI adapter (which you can also probably use with newer 360s though I have no idea how you're going to get sound out of it considering the a HDMI cable won't fit with the AV cable plugged in.) If your monitor can't do HDCP over DVI for PS3 then the last solution is a component to VGA transcoder.

Digital out (optical)

[ShinMagus]

Still, the HD Box Pro can output at 1680x1050 (my monitor's native resolution), which no console can as far as I know.

[Tetsuosan]

^ Did you get yours yet?

[ShinMagus]

Nope.

http://websro.correios.com.br/sro_bin/txect01$.QueryList?P_LINGUA=001&P_TIPO=001&P_COD_UNI=RA260808206HK

It shouldn't take too long now though.

[DevilsFang]

360 has a native VGA cable. PS3 can be used with some monitors using a HDMI to DVI adapter (which you can also probably use with newer 360s though I have no idea how you're going to get sound out of it considering the a HDMI cable won't fit with the AV cable plugged in.) If your monitor can't do HDCP over DVI for PS3 then the last solution is a component to VGA transcoder.

Microsoft makes a special dongle that plugs into the A/V port, it is thinner than the standard A/V cable allowing HDMI cable to be plugged in at the same time. The dongle has both optical and stereo output (RCA) on it. I'm not sure where you can buy it, but it included with the elite model.

[Mayhem]

Microsoft makes a special dongle that plugs into the A/V port, it is thinner than the standard A/V cable allowing HDMI cable to be plugged in at the same time. The dongle has both optical and stereo output (RCA) on it. I'm not sure where you can buy it, but it included with the elite model.
Aside from the Elite it can only be bought bundled with the MS official HDMI cable. Or you can shave away some plastics from one of the regular AV cables to make it fit...

[Tetsuosan]

I just got my HD Box Pro today. I'm very surprised with the shipping. I ordered it on friday and it actually got here on wednesday. I've ordered things in the past from Hong Kong and it took about a month to get shipped to my house.

When I get home today Ill give everyone my impressions on the box and will most likely post pictures of the image quality.

[Fallback]

I have this High-Box (http://www.gamemanx.com/multi-platform/review-high-box-component-to-vga-converter/2008/05/20/) Component to VGA Converter which seems to have almost the exact same specs as the HD box pro.

I also noticed this XCM VGA Box (http://www.renchi.com/renchi/Other_Gear_VGA_Converters_1080p_Mega_Cool_VGA_Box_ XCM.htm) that was released last week. Its only USB powered which seems kind of suspect.

[xqoole]

I just got my HD Box Pro today. I'm very surprised with the shipping. I ordered it on friday and it actually got here on wednesday. I've ordered things in the past from Hong Kong and it took about a month to get shipped to my house.

When I get home today Ill give everyone my impressions on the box and will most likely post pictures of the image quality.

Any updates?? :angel:

Thinking about getting one of these, but I was wondering if it'll upscale dreamcast vga through its vga input. Anyone know??


edit: here is an interesting link about the hd box pro:

http://www.dealextreme.com/forums/Forums.dx/Forum.-206~threadid.63784

[Tetsuosan]

Snip

I'm so sorry about that. I've just been getting really backed up with a lot lately.

It works great with anything that supports widescreen displays natively. When I hooked up my X360 to it the image was even better than if I hooked it up to my monitor using the M$ Vga cable.

When I hooked up my ps2 the image wasn't the best in the world. When playing 3s the image looks a bit washed out. The colors aren't vivid and the image isn't as sharp as I thought it would be. If you go and adjust the settings on it and put it to sharp, the image tends to be a bit pixelated.

Another complaint that I have is that the hd box still won't display the image as fullscreen 16:10. When playing CvS2 the image still has borders on the sides of it even on fullscreen mode. The borders are about 1/2 inch from each side on my 22 inch monitor.

All in all the monitor does its job better than I had expected. There was no lag in any of the fighting games that I played, but you can tell that sprite based games are starting to show their age.

I tried to hook up my dreamcast to the vga box pro but I'm having problems with it detecting it through vga in. I still have to mess around with it to see if I can get it to work.

If I remember today I'll try to take pictures of 3s and CvS2 so that you can see the image quality and such.

[kodec]

Another complaint that I have is that the hd box still won't display the image as fullscreen 16:10. When playing CvS2 the image still has borders on the sides of it even on fullscreen mode. The borders are about 1/2 inch from each side on my 22 inch monitor.


Sounds like you are playing PS2 version. The problem with the black borders is not an issue with the HD BOX PRO but with the output of the PS2. The PS2 does not render the full resolution for NTSC standard and fills in the outer edge with black using the output scaler. This black edge is not normally seen on tube tvs (which crops the outer area). On LCDs and Plasmas however, you will see this issue since they do not have as much overscan or any at all.

[s8n187]

has any one tried building this VGA cable ? , i built a Comp Sync Seperator and it performs better than Ultimarcs PS2 converter and MGCD its sharper and has way less noise. I think the PS2 cable will perform as good as the Sync Seperator circuit. Reason im interested is cause if you build the PS2 VGA cable you can hook it up to a 31k Arcade Machine and get Tekken in 480p mode.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/172/ps2vga7404hw3.png


Sync Seperator pics in action

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2183/hnk1mu5.jpg

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/2921/hnk2tp2.jpg

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/8914/hnk3fz9.jpg

[xqoole]

^ haven't used a homemade ps2 vga cable, but wouldn't it it limit you to 480p games? That's what I've read.


And real quick, are the above pics of a homemade scart to rgb cable (w/ lm or ln188 something like that IC)?

[s8n187]

hiya xqoole , indeedy 480p games only Guilty Gear series would kick in 31k mode.

Affirmative , its the LM1881N circuit based on a RGB cable running in 15k mode.

Those pics are ok but dont do it 100% justice it looks a bit better than that with no camera noise

[xqoole]

^ Curiously, what kind of capacitors did you use on your rgb cable? I actually got one of these cables from someone else and it had 100 microfarad caps on it. I've yet to try it on an 15hz arcade monitor (don't have one), and didn't know if it would be able to give enough volts on the output to look good. What kind of arcade monitor are you using??

[s8n187]

bonjour xqoole , i use a Original PSX or DC or GC RGB Scart cable and connect it to my Console Jamma Converter i made it accept RGB Scart cables through a Scart Socket i havent tried it but you could prolly hookup a XBOX 1 to it as well. So im unsure what they are in a Original cable but from this site they are just 220 uf capacitors. What they do is brighten up the Arcade Monitor or CRT TV you are using , sometimes they are not required.

http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/gamescart/gamescart.htm#psx

checkout this site also

http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/


its a 29" Toshiba monitor capable of 31k but has a Chassis that goes up to 24k max


good luck in getting a cab xqoole , i wish everyone who wants one the best of luck . Ive had a mad time , a week ago i played my mum at Track and Field original (Konami) and League Bowling (Neo Geo) it was pretty damn fun. I have the cab running MAME and a few other emu's.


http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/3647/workingog6.jpg

[s8n187]

heres another shot ingame with a different setting on my camera. Not as bright but has better detail , still looks better in person tho. Taking pics of CRT screens is an art/science and a $1000 camera.

http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/2561/hnk4xb3.jpg

[xqoole]

^ dang, that looks slick, man i gotta get a trisync monitor someday.