XCM Mega-Cool VGA, purple display, HELP

[Phar]

Just bought myself another ps2 slimline yesterday, I needed some way to hook it up to my monitor so bought an XCM Mega-Cool VGA upscaler.

The problem is I get a picture but it's all in purple, tried changing resolution, refresh rate, checked that the component leads and vga cable are inserted correctly still the same.

Decided to try it on the downstairs TV, over component it's fine so it's definantely not those cables, hooked up the vga box to the monitor input on the TV and I get a purple image again and I know it's not the vga cable as I've tried that with my PC and it's fine.

So the only thing I can think of is that either the vga box is f*cked or i'm doing something wrong, thought I'd ask on here first incase anyones had something similar and managed to fix it.

The closet thing I can compare it to is with my modded xbox over vga, I get a purple image with that unless I use a patched bios but I thought with this being a YPbPr to RGBHV converter it should work with no issues.

[gunrock]

I believe that box is a modified clone of the HD Box Pro, so you've either got your YPbPr cable jacks in the wrong sockets, the PS2 is not set to component output or the XCM box is knackered.

Have you got another component device (DVD player, PS3, Xbox 360, GC etc) to try it with? Also, being a HD Box Pro clone (which I have), you could test connecting to a VGA device (Dreamcast?) to the vga-in, thus testing your VGA out cable (as it pretty much passes thru).

[Phar]

I believe that box is a modified clone of the HD Box Pro, so you've either got your YPbPr cable jacks in the wrong sockets, the PS2 is not set to component output or the XCM box is knackered.

Checked all the above, so I've got a feeling it is knackered, tried it with the PS3 as well and got the same problem. I've emailed their customer support but while i'm waiting for a reply i'll try your suggestion of hooking my Dreamcast up through the vga input, i'll get a lead for that later today, might even try connecting the box through the DVI port on my monitor as well to see what happens.

[Cornflakes]

Funny thing about the xcm boxes are they are powered via usb, that can only supply 5V 0.5Amps. All the other HD Box Pro clones requires 5V with 1 or 2 Amps.
Have you tried to play with the brightness setting on the xcm box?

[Phar]

Theres no setting on it for colour or brightness, theres not even a menu to adjust anything, just 4 buttons on the front for -+ refresh and resolution as well as a source button for vga or component, wonder if theres some sort of hidden button press for that like holding down 2 buttons at once or something.

Thats interesting what you said about the power though, I've actually got a mobile phone charger with a mini usb socket on the end so will give that a try tonight if theres a chance it's possibly not getting enough power.

[Phar]

YES!! managed to sort it, got the female/male vga cable today and set my Dreamcast up, still a purple image which only meant one thing, there was something wrong with the vga cable connected from the box to the monitor.

I'd really connected it well and screwed it down tightly but decided to apply some pressure and push down on the cable, suddenly a perfect picture. So I've shaved a bit off the cable and tightened it down with some pliers, works perfect now, still it's a bit **** that I had to go to those lengths to get it working.

[gunrock]

Excellent!

Don't clap hands, just throw money! Ithankyou. I'll be here all week, etc.

[Phar]

Cheers for the suggestion, would never of thought to try my Dreamcast, would still be thinking there was a fault with the component inputs if not.

BTW can you upscale VGA input on your HD Box Pro, my Dreamcast is just stuck on 480p, can't increase it.

[gunrock]

BTW can you upscale VGA input on your HD Box Pro, my Dreamcast is just stuck on 480p, can't increase it.

That's something the HD Box Pro, doesn't/can't do. I appreciate the need for straight passthrough, but it'd be nice to have the option to apply scaling to that input too.

According to some owners, the passthrough deteoriates the image quality PS3/360 resolutions (i.e 720p and up), so I doubt it's a direct passthrough, thus they probably should have added the scaling option to VGA in.

[Phar]

Cheers for confirming that. I've just got my PS2 setup with it today and although I never expected the image to be the best seeing as after all it is a PS2, I'm still a little disappointed with the picture quality from the XCM Box, I've got a faint green ghosting image over the picture thats really noticeable when the screen goes black.

Also it doesn't seem to handle dark colours very well, part of the opening video to ICO was almost impossible to see on the bit where their on a boat inside a cave. Just wondering if the HDPro has these same sort of issues as I'm tempted to sell this and get one of those if they have none of these problems.