Hi guys. Right now I'm looking for a decent method to convert the dreamcast's vga signal to hdmi for my computer monitor. I already know about the ossc and the akura hdmi box, but they are too expensive for me, to just use them for the dreamcast alone. I did a bit of reading, in terms of lag, vga to hdmi conversion should be near lagless. I bought a cheap chinese vga to hdmi converter from aliexpress, namly one of these boxes: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Dor...lgo_pvid=4bc2de07-2643-4b36-90e6-c37fce662698 I play mainly shmups on my dreamcast, and the controls don't feel as tight as on the other systems connected to the monitor, including a ps2 with the hdmi key(yuv->hdmi), xbox 360. Did some of you test different vga converters and noticed any difference in terms of responsiveness. Thing is, I guess that probably 90% of them use the same converter chip anyway. So I don't really know if anything will improve for the better if I buy a different cheap vga converter... Mine has a MS9282 AnalogueDigital Converter Chip btw.
I have exactly that one, the only problem I've noticed is Hulk in Marvel vs. Capcom appears way too bright, so much that the borders around and inside the sprite are almost blurred, I can't remember if there was any lag but that issue alone stopped me from ever using that converter again with the Dreamcast, only with old PCs and other equipment. I'd like to know if that would be fixable but I doubt it, guess that's the reason why there are more expensive alternatives.
The DC outputs 720x480, with only the middle 640 rows with data, 40 black pixels on each ends of each line. This is confusing for some digitisers it seems. A lot of them output an off-center image, with a vertical black bar on one side and lost pixels on the other. I got a clone of this one: https://sewelldirect.com/hammerhead I have the one without the built-in scaler, I let my TV handle that, it's better at it than any cheapo converter. IMO, that's as good as it gets to play DC over VGA2HDMI if you're on a budget.
my vga converter thankfully centers the image, but my vga modded dc doesn't work correctly with this adapter. There are some major picture disturbances, but the chinese dreamcast vga cables make a clean picture with it. The boot process is fullscreen, after that I have small black bars at the left and right, because of the 640 rows embedded in 720. Does the hammerhead clone detect the signal as 640x480? or does it correctly output 720x480? Do you have this one? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Min...lgo_pvid=91f47265-9fc3-4d74-8383-f7597f7fa66f edit: I just went to the sewell homepage...they claim 43ms lag for the hammerhead. That is quite a lot, considering that one frame is 16ms https://sewelldirect.com/hammerhead
@iiAlexLiveii...https://assemblergames.com/threads/dreamcast-vga-too-bright-suggestions.49647/ Did you try adding some resistors to the rgb lines. A user in this thread claimed that it helped him.
I never noticed any lag with it myself, even playing schmups. But I'm in no way an expert gamer relying on subframe timing either. Maybe the lag depends on the resolution? The hammerhead supports up to 1920x1200, I wouldn't be surprised if the lag is bigger for that resolution than for 480p. My tv detects the Hammerhead output as 640x480, correctly centered, no black bars, except maybe a pixel or so but that might be the tv/scaling. Also, adding resistors should work to darken the image, but it's a sign that you got a shitty cable/converter. Maybe mess with the tv settings first. I urge everyone to get a properly made VGA-box or cable. I can vouch for Cabou's cable myself, if he still makes those.
Hi! It seems they made the VGA mod inside the console, but I've been using the official VGA box from Sega, which works great when I plug it into computer monitors (CRT or LCD) or TVs with VGA input. Also I think all colors look fine with the HDMI adapter, not too bright or too dark, it's just that green tone from the Hulk sprites what I think the adapter can't handle so well, everything else looks pretty fine by first look standards. I would sacrifice for modifications that HDMI adapter but not the official VGA box.
