Could Someone Please Help With a VGA Question

[connect]

Hi All,

I would like to see what games look like on my LCD PC Monitor. I think I am correct in saying that I need a VGA cable. But what I would like to know is...

1. Are there different quality ones or do they all do the same job
2. Can anyone suggest one from a site or Ebay that I can use for all consoles? (I have Panasonic Q - JAP modded to play us/jap games and all region DVD, Xbox JAP modded to play all region games, PS2 USA standard.

Thanks In advance
Pete

[Londonner]

The first thing to note is that each console ideally requires it's own solution and that an all-in-one VGA box will deliver comparatively inferior results. Hence, which option you go for depends on how much cash you have at your disposal.

Second, picture quality on a TFT will vary depending on a) the console and b) the response time of the monitor concerned. It is generally acknowledged that a CRT monitor (ie. your bog standard big mo' fo' PC monitor) will deliver the best results, whilst affordable TFT technology has yet to develop to a stage where it's a viable console gaming choice.

Third, your milage may vary - what may look like a brilliant picture to me, might look crap to you, and vice versa.

With these three points in mind ...

1. Are there different quality ones or do they all do the same job

I've never tried one of these boxes myself, but from what I gather, most of them are absolutely crap. Having said that, refer to the third caveat above. Others will hopefully chip in with experiences.

2. Can anyone suggest one from a site or Ebay that I can use for all consoles? (I have Panasonic Q - JAP modded to play us/jap games and all region DVD, Xbox JAP modded to play all region games, PS2 USA standard.

For your your Q, you're looking to get an official Q RGB cable, unofficially modded for VGA. I know you can pick up a standard GC modded VGA cable from Goldenshop (where I got mine from) for about ?40, and someone is bound to sell the Q ones.

For your Xbox, the best (critically, speaking) regarded solution is this:

https://www.x2vga.com

For your PS2, I don't know and I'll be interested to find out what the best solution is if someone can come up with one here.

Finally, you may want to take a look at this thread (you'll note that most people, including myself, have had terrible results running consoles on TFT).

Hope that helps!

[connect]

Thanks very much for the detailed reply. I will have a look around and see what I can find separately. If anyone else has any experience please let me know.

[gIzzE]

Your best bet is a transcoder that will convert the component->RGB with Horizontal and Vertical sync that your monitor understands.

You will obviously need a componet cable for each console and you will need to set it up to output 480p (progressive scan) or higher for the Xbox as it does 720p too.
You may be lucky if your monitor syncs at 15kHz (look at the specs) which is what you get if you are not running progressive, otherwise you will not be able to see the console until it is in progressive mode.

This will give you the cleanest image and the highest resolutions, a vga box just generally converts interlaced (480i) video and adds the extra lines, it is not real information that it is adding though and this will give a very soft image.

Have a look at a product like this one, it is highly regarded in the av industry where image is more important than gaming as colour accuracy in human skintones is going to stand out if it is not accurate.

They are not cheap but they have been discontinued and 3rd party manufacturers have started marketing them for around $100, so it is worth a hunt around.