XRGB-3 Worth the Cash?

I've been looking at purchasing an XRGB-3 to use my superguns/retro consoles on my LCD screen and am basically trying to work out whether it is worth the investment.

Firstly am I correct in understanding it will up-convert all RGB signals regardless of region. I am unclear as to whether it will up convert a PAL composhite signal, anyone tried?

Also are the setup/onscreen menus/documentation in Engrish or Japanese?

And finally.... Is the picture worth £300 as opposed to directly connecting RGB scart?

Cheers

WJ

 

if you have a tv set with rgb scart in, i guess you don't need it. expecially for such a price.

Or maybe i'm just tight-pocketed

 

RGB has no region.

This was adequately covered in another thread around here very recently, but the quick version is that most digital displays do a horrible job of converting analogue signals. The XRGB and similar are designed to address this, by outputting a properly upscaled, native signal for HD sets.

Is it worth it? Your call. It will make your older consoles look nice. If that's worth £300 to you, then yes, it's worth it.

There are many other, considerably more expensive upscaling units. I don't have any experience of them, though.

 

I was planning to get a xrgb too, but recently I discovered that my av receiver (Marantz sr8001) can do a fine job when up converting s-video and component input to hdmi.

 

instead of burning 300 for that thing if you have the space, get a trinitron crt tv with 2 RGB scart in. Easier, better, and no weird soulutions to get scanlines-like effects.

 

+1

I have seen all xrgb units in action, they are a bad compromise imvho.

 

i love my xrgb 2 plus ,my friend has the xrgb3
they are great for old school systems with rgb let to get lag free clear video.

i would never keep looking for old scart, rgb tvs
once you get this you know you can have many more options.

I do not like scan lines, but the ones the unit add look good to me.


http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81651

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73894

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89537

 

I use my XRGB-3 for my Neo-Geo and SNES. As a display I use a 23 inch Apple Cinema Display. The output quality in B0 mode has almost an emulated look to it (that's a personal taste of course). I don't use it in B1 mode however (which enables scanlines).

After my gaming CRT died I looked for other ways to get good video quality from my old consoles. I didn't want buy a new CRT cause I didn't want to make space for it, so I ended up looking for video scalers. The more professional scalers are mostly suited for movies. They often don't handle 240P signals correctly or have filters that cause a blurry mess when used for video games. The XRGB-3 is one of the few devices that scales in a way that is targeted for video games.

The quility of the video is much better then what my LCD TV's produce. My Toshiba TV has a Faroudja chipset, but it doesn't handle 240P signals correctly (flashing shadows aren't flashing anymore, it is deinterlacing the input so dropping half of the frames). The Panasonic TV has problems with keeping the sync with my Neo Geo AES. This all using an RGB connection.

When you use the XRGB-3 always try to use RGB or Component. Composite will look like shit. The XRGB-3 has a comb filter, but it doesn't work miracles. If you use a 50hz signal as input, then the XRGB-3 will output also 50hz. It depends on your display device if 50hz is being displayed then.

A CRT is of course the "real" thing, but with the availability of CRT's going down, I choose the invest in a scaler instead.

Here is a video I made a while ago of the XRGB-3 connected to a Neo-Geo AES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adDg64-KwhQ

 

I don't know where you are, but where I'm living CRTs have never been so cheaply available. The real issue is space, and there's no getting around that - you've either got room for a great chunk of CRT or you haven't.

Interesting post, btw.

 

I have an XRGB2, paid ~£120 and it was worth it.
I wouldn't pay 300 bucks for the XRGB3 because the picture doesn't get that better with the v3 compared to the v2.
So if VGA output is enough for your needs and you don't need hdmi and other extras, maybe you should consider an XRGB2 for half the price of an XRGB3.

 

I just saw that in the beginning of July new firmware was released for the XRGB-3. I will try it as soon as possible and post results if I can figure out what is different/improved.

On another forum the rumor goes that the development of an XRGB-3 successor has been confirmed a few months ago.

@Alchy: I'm from Holland, so CRT's with RGB are also easy to get here, but loads of them have geometry issues. After loosing the finals yesterday, I bet there are a lot CRT's less in Holland now . I still have a Philips CRT which unfortunately has problems with 60hz RGB signals now. Although I can respect the CRT look, the perfect geometry and the non flickering image of a LCD is more pleasing to the eyes.

 

This is why i treasure my SONY TV CRT. It handles 60hz and rgb perfectly and no geometric problemson its flat screen

 

i have been thinking about it, think one is in dev?

 

Even if it is, I'm wondering if it would have a good number of connectors. None of the company's other products before or after have as many as the XRGB-3.

 

Wow! Thanks for the information I really appreciate it...

While researching I have also found this device (http://www.hdcable.co.uk/scart-hdmi-converter.html) which is significantly cheaper. I appreciate it will not have the flexibility of the XRGB3 but has anyone any experience of these 'cheaper' upconvertors.

 

Any time you're converting analogue to digital, you get what you pay for. That device barely mentions gaming devices and won't be set up to convert them accurately. In all likelihood it'll be barely distinguishable from your set's inbuilt upscaler (it might even have the same chipset inside), i.e. it'll be doing the same line doubling and filtering and may introduce lag.

 

Every retro-gamer has to like scan lines!