Using a console, TFT and scaler?

[andy572]

Following posting to that other forum , I figured I should make amends and ask those of my usual haunt. So...

Having just bought a Viewsonic TFT monitor and an exceedingly good for its size (and cost!) Sony HTK-250 5.1 setup, I'd like to make good use of this secondary system - with the intention of starting by regularly running a Freeview box, PS2 and perhaps, the Xbox through this screen (via component, RGB or s-video).

The monitor has three inputs, in the form of a single DVI port and two VGA sockets. At the moment, there is one VGA socket free and I am interested in running into the DVI (using a DVI switch box 8) ), if it will give the same jump in clarity that I currently see between the VGA and DVI inputs. Not that I mind the monitor's scaling, so far; but again, if possible (and beneficial), I'd like to use the screen's native resolution of 1280 x 1024.

Having searched and read the relevant postings through Google and several forums, I'd like to know what any of you with a similar configuration are now using. Are the cheaper boxes (say circa ?70) perfectly acceptable (not too much emphasis on the 'perfect', there!) or does it really take something further up the price scale (?120 - ?350) to get something approaching eye-friendly results?

Oh, as you've probably guessed, ideally, I'd need something capable of accepting all signals, too. Though I have a couple of pieces of NTSC-capable hardware, I'm currently using unmodded PAL consoles (with 16-bit, one *cough* '64' *cough*-bit and each of the present generation), so an ability to continue using PAL 60 (and perhaps 'up-rate' PAL 50) is most desirable.

After a few days of intense searching, too much pain and too little sleep, I've found myself with little but information overload, with the feeling that the descriptions are alluding to hardware capabilities far beyond what one could reasonably expect - oh, and a nice way of talking-up with buzzwords. <sigh>

So, has anyone got something more concrete with which I can form a vaguely realistic opinion and expectation? Here's hoping!

For now, thank you

[yashiro]

You could try picking up a XRGB box from ebay. The console out will always be scaled up and so wont offer the clarity you may be expecting.

[m000gle]

There is no way to scale 480 lines to 1024 and still retain a nice looking image, it doesnt matter how much money you throw at the problem.

I went through all this a year or so ago, it was really annoying as the solution is so simple and yet no monitor manufacturers can be bothered to implement it.

Like you I had a 1280x1024 TFT, there are only 2 potential ways to get a crisp 640x480 console sized image, the first is obviously to run in a tiny 640x480 rectangle, the second is to run at 1280x960 with each pixel at double size.

For some reason I have yet to see any software or hardware solution to this. Which seems so dumb as I imagine it would be simple to implement and would be so usefull not just for console games but also for running pc games at lower resolutions (my laptop struggles with the latest games when running at its native 1400x1050).

I ended up selling my TFT a week or so after buying it, I wont be buying another one for gaming until someone makes one that can deal with this problem.

[phresh]

You'll need a Sweetspot capture card for your PC and a copy of Dscaler. This is what i'm currently upgrading too.

The only thing i'd be wary about is doing it on a TFT, because of the slower response times (compared to a CRT), images can appear less sharp when there is considerable motion on screen.

[gIzzE]

scalers that can do an alright job are, iscan pro (?150-200 used) Lumagen Vision (?300-450 used) and that is really about it unless you want to spend more.
One thing though, some scalers dont like Pal 60, they expect ntsc or pal and can get a little confused, obviously if you use compnent this is irrelevant.
One other thing though are you going to get a scaler where you can input your own timings?
what I am getting at is this, your monitor ideally reqires 1024x768 @ 60Hz, if you run pal through a scaler and tell it to output 1024x768 it will be doing Pal at 50Hz and NTSC at 59.94, you may find that your monitor will give you a warning flashing on screen saying "cannot sync signal" or similar.
To get round this you need a scaler that can not only scale but also change the frame rate to 60Hz too, this then gives another set of problems, to get it to 60Hz it will have to add frames, only a couple with NTSC but quite a few with PAL, this will appear as judder and is very annoying.
Honest answer to your question, using a TFT that is designed as a pc monitor is not the way to go I am afraid, You would be better with and LCD TV that can be used as a PC monitor, probably not what you want to hear?
I would suggest that you buy a cheap unit, one tha is sold as a TV tuner for PC and see what happens when you use it, if your monitor syncs OK then consider buying a decent scaler.

[g34r~guy]

You could try picking up a XRGB box from ebay. The console out will always be scaled up and so wont offer the clarity you may be expecting.

the XRGB3 is being released sometime soon apparently.

[gIzzE]

Lets hope it is better than the XRGB2 then, I bought one of these to test it out and it is pretty poor compared with a second hand scaler using the Sil504 chip to deinterlace at around the same price.