vga box questions

[jethro jazz]

im thinking about getting a vga box to play my console through a monitor but i know nothing about them.
are they expensive?
are some better than others or do they all do the same thing?
can i get just one for all my consoles or do i need separate ones?
does the region of the console affect this in any way?

thanks

[EvilBoris]

it depends which console it is you want to play through your moniter really.

[jethro jazz]

USA ps1
PAL DC
PAL Ps2
PAL Xbox
PAL N64

[Tychom]

It's only worth doing if you can find one which takes RGB. Anything less and you'll have the same lack of clarity as if you were on a normal TV with bad cables, only it'll be even more obvious.

Most (and certainly any cheap one) will only accept s-video or composite. One which takes RGB such as Micomsoft's XRGB series (1, 2, 2+) will set you back $150-230. These need to be connected up with Japanese RGB cables (if you've any soldering skills it's not a complicated job to make them - just rewiring of a normal RGB SCART cable). One thing I don't know about them is how well they work (if at all) with 50hz inputs.