VGA / Alternative Sound Output.

[Blondie]

I'm planning on moving my current crop of consoles (Multi region DC, Xbox, GC) upstairs to my "study".

Due to space limitations I'd like to connect the vieo output to a PC monitor and sound to a Cambridge Soundworks system - which has two inputs - rear and front.

The monitor usage isn't negoitiable due to the fact that there is simply no room for a TV - although if there is some way of "splitting" the sounds output via a set of third party speakers or the like that would fine.

Does anyone have any advice on getting started with this ?

My primary concern is the DC followed by the 'Cube - the Xbox may well stay downstairs in the living room.

Cheers.

[yashiro]

I'd look into one of the new breed of multi function TFTs.
Works as a pc monitor, built in TV tuners, RGB and component inputs, smaller than a CRT monitor.

If you have some way of getting a scart signal into your current monitor:
Get the infamous argos ?9.75 scart switcher. It has audio outs.
You can route the sounds to an amp for any console connected to it.

[ElAlcesDiablo]

For the DC you want a VGA box, it's not a converter it just makes the DC output VGA and works perfectly. Games need to support it, but 99% do.
For the GC and Xbox, if they're NTSC, I'd recommend getting a prog scan to VGA converter. You'll need component cables too.
And for games that don't support progressive scan, you could get a box like this or a TV card. I have both and neither's perfect, the box seems to flicker on low contrast images and right shift the red on high contrast and the TV card has a more dirty image with less vibrant colours. Some games bring out the flaws more than others. There is a range of other boxes which may or may not be better than what I got. If you're crossing regions at all, even using a 60hz option in a PAL game, I'd recommend you get a box with component inputs and use that, otherwise you'll probably get a black and white or colour skewed image.

[randombs]

i've got a gamars vga box that isn't specific to a console - it basically converts composite (yellow/white/red cable) or s-video to vga, and has a headphone socket too for hookingg up to a hi-fi/speaker setup although i'd more likely use the phono's (white/red) instead

ElAlcesDiablo's right about the DC and it's a shame no other console has native vga support, as the DC's vga looks like you're playing a pc game

about pal60, i've tried out a few vga boxes and none of them manage pal60 on a monitor - the picture displays, but it's really fuzzy and b&w with red/pink edges. ntsc and, even regular pal (aka pal50) both work fine though. maybe this is because of the composite/s-video usage instead of, say, rgb

you can get converters from rgb to vga which have scart sockets, but they're very expensive

there's a special cable that's out for the xbox that gives a great picture on the monitor by using the component output instead (you'd need to buy the component video cable though, about ?20 or so i think), but like the DC it needs the game you're playing to support progressive scan in the first place (which most xbox games do)

there's also a similar device for ps2 btw

i found this too

http://www.consoleplus.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=624

which converts any progressive input to vga but be prepared for much cable-swapping between the GC and XBox if you use them both alot. also, i'm not sure if many gc games support progressive scan (no pal games do, as the pal gc doesn't do progressive scan - no idea why they left the digital connector on the back :? )