Whats the Best VGA converter BOX???

[kamz]

hi

im after a good converter box to help run my old consoles on my PC monitor, i would love to replay some of my old saturn, n64 and playstations games in good quality vga picture, other then the XRG2+ which i am not interested in cos apprantly the older version XRB-2 is meant to be better, are there any other good VGA converter boxes which are cheap and possibly better the XRB-2..

i really want to get one soon and any info would be a great help...

[tankplanker]

if you really want a decent vga output then try this:

http://www.dvdo.com/pro/pro_isu.html

its what I'm getting for ?600. this will give you a 640 by 480 sized output to a monitor. If you want to feed it an RGB scart input then you need a RGB to component YUY convertor, these are about ?120.

TMF come well recommended for these:

http://www.tmfsolutions.co.uk/homecinema.htm

if you need something higher res 1024 by 768 for example, then you need a scaler, I wouldn't know what to recomend for that, try avforums.com.

[kamz]

thanks thats top stuff info...

but ultimatley wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out of my price range, i was looking for the 100+ price range if thats any help

[tankplanker]

you ain't going to get anything decent for that sort of money, sorry. Your best bet would be to use the s-video in on a graphics card and DScaler - this should give a really good picture if your pcs up to the job.

[mid]

Well, there was a link to the (apparently excellent, so everyone keeps telling me) RGB Scart to VGA box thats ?125 on the TMF site, or also available here. That's only for things with an RGB Scart, though; for the N64, which only does S-Video, your best bet for the cash is DScaler, yes.

[tankplanker]

That doesn't deinterlace the image which is essential for most monitors (my mate has a 17" or 20" that can take an interlaced VGA input), but not for any TV as for example video recorders are interlaced.

The iScan will take composite, s-video, vga and component.

[mid]

Ah yes, I've spotted that now. Naively forgot about 15kHz monitor signals, despite having an Amiga of my own, and assumed a doubler was in the box.

[kamz]

opinions on XRGB2+, i have seen one negative and more postives on this converter box, i mainly plan to use it for my Xbox and old n64 as i have a really nice CTX 960 19inch monitor...

i want to know if its worth the money, as some places are selling for 114, but may also add improt tax, and another place in seeling for 160 and can deliver with RMSD,

for the best visaul effects RGB is perferred by the XRGB2+, but do i need to modify the unit as i have heard the scart socket on the front is not a scart socket but some kind of japaness socket???

any info would be nice as i plan to buy by the end of next week

[tankplanker]

heres some pics of the unit:

http://www.ncsx.org/2002/ncs020402/ncs0204.htm

near the end they show that it comes with a female scart to component input convertor, this should mean that you can use any console that you have a RGB scart lead for.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, cheap deinterlacers are cheap for one reason only, if they had a high quality chip set then they would be selling it to people like Denon.

heres an article on prog scan that has a good mini review of the different chip sets:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html

note: it is a long read.

[NeilMcRae]

Here is what I'm using:

http://www.av-sales.com/html/brite-view.html

you can buy it via www.avforums.com powerbuys section for ?270 though. Its the cheapest decent solution, and i've spent a small fortune trying to find a decent solution. It will scale upto 1280*1024. I run it at 640*480 and at this resolution its perfect. It takes component, svideo and composite in and outputs in either VGA mode or component mode.



Shows the quality hopefully.

Make sure you get the PAL plus firmware with it though.

Regards,
Neil.