LCD/Plasma/CRT/DLP - questions

[themanwithapc]

Just got a modded VGA cable for the GameCube today. I'll post further impressions later on when I've had time to play with it, but I have found this -

THE LG SUPPORTS 480i THROUGH VGA o.o

Seriously. I'm playing interlaced games on my GameCube via VGA. I can't think of another screen in this price range that can do this...
This is awesome, means the VGA cable really becomes the ultimate connection method.

Where'd you get the cable Jake? Awaiting your impressions on the cable and if it's worth forking out for over component.

[sj33]

It's a custom homebrew cable, basically a modified D-Term cable, which I got from a user on the forums. Not many places sell them really, Lan Kwei make them, as do Ahead Games. Might wanna make a wanted topic in the forums first.

As for the quality... it's about the same as Component. Well, lets understand what the VGA cable is - inside the Component/D-Term cable is a DAC which basically throws the output into YPbPr. A bit of fancy soldering and you can tell it to output RGBHV instead, simple as. The actual output is the same, your just changing the colour encoding. So don;t expect huge leaps like with the 360 VGA.

However, my reason for wanting this cable is the fact that the LG's VGA support is far better than the Component support, in my opinion. If other people are dis-satisifed with the LG Component like I am, it may well be worth it. If you think the Component looks fine (some people do have later revisions of the firmware, which probably fixed this), then there's no point.

But it's an awesome little cable though, and my preferred method.

Shows the capabilities of the screen too -

480p - Perfect.
480i 60Hz - Perfect (!)
576i 50Hz - Somewhat. Works, but some pretty bad artifacts, I assume because the screen only partially support that res at 50Hz. Good enough for menu browsing though.

(Just to note, 576p 50Hz worked perfect on my 360).

So even 576i 50Hz works through VGA to some extent, though only enough for broswing game menus (to enable 60Hz mode, maybe). It's here that I love my Qoob modchip and it's Force 480p, Force PAL60 and Force NTSC modes. I just have to rebuy problem games with no 60Hz modes like Tales of Symphonia.,

[Dazzla]

I'm sure I've never noticed this before, but when the screen is complete black when the 360 is on (e.g. the dev logo screens at the start of the screen) I get what looks like film grain going horizontally on my TV. It's connected via component, TV's a 32LX2R. Anyone else with this series of TV get something similar?

[Geezer]

Any news of a firmware update for the LG?

Dazzla-I've never noticed that on my 26".

[Dazzla]

Even looking on dark screens, I've got the carbon theme applied and the screen has dimmed cause it's sat there and if I look closely I can see the grain moving across the screen. Saying that, it's not visible when the 360 is off so maybe it's the 360, I dunno.

[sj33]

It's a custom homebrew cable, basically a modified D-Term cable, which I got from a user on the forums. Not many places sell them really, Lan Kwei make them, as do Ahead Games. Might wanna make a wanted topic in the forums first.

As for the quality... it's about the same as Component. Well, lets understand what the VGA cable is - inside the Component/D-Term cable is a DAC which basically throws the output into YPbPr. A bit of fancy soldering and you can tell it to output RGBHV instead, simple as. The actual output is the same, your just changing the colour encoding. So don;t expect huge leaps like with the 360 VGA.

However, my reason for wanting this cable is the fact that the LG's VGA support is far better than the Component support, in my opinion. If other people are dis-satisifed with the LG Component like I am, it may well be worth it. If you think the Component looks fine (some people do have later revisions of the firmware, which probably fixed this), then there's no point.

But it's an awesome little cable though, and my preferred method.

Shows the capabilities of the screen too -

480p - Perfect.
480i 60Hz - Perfect (!)
576i 50Hz - Somewhat. Works, but some pretty bad artifacts, I assume because the screen only partially support that res at 50Hz. Good enough for menu browsing though.

(Just to note, 576p 50Hz worked perfect on my 360).

So even 576i 50Hz works through VGA to some extent, though only enough for broswing game menus (to enable 60Hz mode, maybe). It's here that I love my Qoob modchip and it's Force 480p, Force PAL60 and Force NTSC modes. I just have to rebuy problem games with no 60Hz modes like Tales of Symphonia.,

Just like to add to my earlier comments. Been playing RE0 in 480i, to give the 480i play a go since the game does not support 480p (and is one of those annoying games that mess up when forced with Qoob).

I do find the edges are much sharper and clearer, as you'd expect from VGA. That said, in terms of colour it's pretty much comparable to Component. Another guy on the forum reckons that the Cube renders in YUV instead of RGB internally - I don't know if this is true, it would be a unique thing for sure, but it would explain why the difference between VGA and Component on the GameCube is pretty incremental.

That said, any improvement is good IMO, so I reckon it's good stuff. A pretty high price to pay mind, and most TV's don't support 480i anyway (the LG does, but there's stll issues with 576i). For most people, it's probably best sticking to Component unless your TV has markedly superior VGA support (like mine).

Just to add, I'm very impressed with how the LG 26LX2R handles 480i over VGA! It's just *very* slightly blurrier on the edges than 480p because of the deinterlacing. RE0 in 480i over VGA looks lovely

[EvilBoris]

Even looking on dark screens, I've got the carbon theme applied and the screen has dimmed cause it's sat there and if I look closely I can see the grain moving across the screen. Saying that, it's not visible when the 360 is off so maybe it's the 360, I dunno.

I had an old crappy CRT that did that, there was a band of grain that would move up or down the screen really slowly.

Electrical interference perhaps?

[Simmy]

You shouldn't get noise through a digital cable like HDMI or DVI, you'd only get corruption on screen if it was a naff Cable.

I take it you have the digitalNR turned on?

Yup have that off. Not sure if noise is the correct description, it is a grainy look in some of the dark areas of the screen, greens blacks etc. Try and get a pic of it up, maybe I should call samsung in to check it out !

[EvilBoris]

Yup have that off. Not sure if noise is the correct description, it is a grainy look in some of the dark areas of the screen, greens blacks etc. Try and get a pic of it up, maybe I should call samsung in to check it out !

Turn it on it does actually make a difference on the samsungs.

I got my player today and didn't notice anything awry with it.
I'm well impressed, gave LOTR a quick run and it look spectacular, I've also tried a couple of DIVX videos on it.
The sound is fantastic, just through the TVs built in speakers.

You say it happens in blacks and greens, it like large areas or blocks that are a slightly different colour of dark inside the dark areas?

[Simmy]

Really hard to describe tbh ! It's like a very faint snowy type effect, basically if their is a patch of black on the screen, it will not be a solid black like the 360 would display in game for instance, it will have a faint noise to it, which is moving not static - "sparkles" there's yet another word for it

[EvilBoris]

Sounds er Magical

[Salsa Party Animal]

Got the farmer's component switch and it work fine. I watched Dukes of Hazzard DVD on it. Lovely body of Jessica Simpson. (Not face for me)

I played F-Zero GX on gamecube and the picture is beautiful in 16:9 progressive scan but why can't the TV show them in complete screen.

[mid]

Simmy - is that just on DVDs and DIVX movies? What you're describing (artifacts in very dark areas) is exactly the sort of thing I'd expect to see from a poor encode or if you've got the brightness up too high. The fact that you don't see it on 360 games (where there hasn't been any image compression) does go along with that.

[sj33]

I have a similar problem when hooking my Oppo to the HDMI socket on my TV, through various cables (cables which work fine for other devices).
These same cables work fine when hooking my Oppo to the DVI.

[EvilBoris]

I think the cables or socket on the samsung DVD player might be a bit iffy. After I got my new player today, I booted it up to check it worked.

Then I spent about an hour fitting cable tidies to everything behind the TV then booted it up and it gave me the same Blue screen of death that the first player did to me.

Wiggled the cable in the back of the player and WHAMMY it worked again