What kinda TV do you play TG16 on?

[SignOfZeta]

Lately I've been experimenting with one of these:



So far I've only had it running with MVS and Saturn, but the results for those systems were amazing when coupled with a 17" VGA monitor.

I'm waiting for parts for an RGB amp for PCE since the built in signal is too weak and shitty to sync with this thing.

What I wrote about it on neo-geo.com:

I tried it out on a few things. Everything looked bad on the Viewsonic LCD because I can't figure out how to make it not scale, but when I switched to an old Dell 17" CRT things got really good.

It runs with PS2 and GC through component pretty damn good, aside from all the fake low-res issues 2D games for those systems have.

I tried feeding it unmodified Genesis 1 and PC Engine RGB signals...neither worked very well. The PC Engine synched a lot better than the Genesis, but neither really worked. I've got parts for a PCE RGP amp coming in the mail that I hope will help with this issue. I also found details of how to get a better Genesis RGB signal with resisters and caps. I'll try that too.

I hooked my 2 slot up to it and had no issues. In fact, that flicker in Pulstar when it switches between game play and anything else? Even that's gone. The visual experience isn't much different from Neo Rage X.

So as for quality, I have to say I'm very impressed. After a lot of adjustment the only issue I noticed was that sometimes when backgrounds scroll you get a bit of...I don't know the correct term, shimmer? Even that is pretty minimal. You'll never notice it in KOF, and you certainly won't notice it in Bomberman or Super Baseball 2020, but it will show up in Metal Slug 3 or Pulstar because the BGs are so detailed. Other than that...I literally have no problems with it whatsoever. No delay, no scaling artifacts, nothing. The thing is amazing.

Is it perfect? No, only a large flat CRT is perfect, but for those who don't have an extra $700 and a titanium spine this is a pretty good substitute. It must be an absolute God send for operators. Seriously. You can replace a blown out CRT with this and some random LCD for $300 or less.

Best thing? Its $35. $35! Incredible!

Anyone who's running composite straight to an big LCD and for some reason doesn't realize their image absolutely sucks*, I highly recommend you try one of these out and marvel at the different. They aren't perfect, but XRGB are FIVE f*ckING HUNDRED DOLLARS these days so its a pretty good alternative.

* No, it sucks. No, seriously, its sucky. No, I don't care how much you paid for the damned TV, SD game consoles look like shit on it. Yes, shit.

[SuperDeadite]

Only the XRGB-3 is really expensive.  And there is no point to the 3 if you are using a CRT monitor.  
For your 17'' VGA monitor, the 2+ would be fine.  2 still has the best compatibility and is my favorite.
It can play all the screwy arcade boards (like Xexex) perfectly.  Xexex on an XRGB-2+ or 3 gives you a
black screen of death.

Still that board is ok, I'd recommend adding one of those new SLG3000 gizmos (new scan line generator),
just plug and play with 31khz signals.  As that's the one big negative of the cheap jamma vga board,
needs scanlines.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, I can't help but wonder if scan lines would reduce the "shimmering" effect as well.

I realize the 3 is expensive, but the 3 is the only one you can buy new now, isn't it? The price of Japanese electronics has really gone up. A Technics 1200 MkII turntable now is very near $1000 now, whereas 10 years ago they were barely half that. Same damn deck!

I think there might be a typo in your post. Are you saying the original 2 is the best and to avoid the 2+?

[nikdog]

The Pyle SCART to HDMI convertor works great for LCDs aswell.

[SuperDeadite]

No typo.  The old gray 2 has the best compatibility of all XRGBs.  If you want to play arcade boards, the 2 or even
the original XRGB-1 are better choices then the 2+ or 3.  The 3, in B1 mode is just a 2+ with more tweaks. And B0 mode
gives you 2 frames of lag.

The 2 was the last model to officially support arcade PCBs. Here's my old vid, shows the 2+ fail:

When I get more time, I plan on making a full on comparison vid between the 1,2,2+,3, and even the
DISPL TV

Oh, now I see what you meant by typo, post fixed.

[Jibbajaba]

I use a little 15" Sony PVM RGB monitor to play all of my classic systems.  Yeah, it's small, but the image quality and color are amazing.  I just sit up close to it and have it sitting up at eye level, so it works just fine.

Chris

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, smaller displays make low res consoles look amazing. Also, you can tate them without the warping/exploding/etc.

[Jibbajaba]

I'm way too protective of my RGB monitor to flip it on its side.  I'm sure it would be fine, but I wouldn't want to have to worry about finding another one if something did happen.

Chris

[GameFreak]

I'm glad I started this thread. Half of you confuse the F out of me. But the rest of you are actually informing my dumb azz big time. Keep the info comin! Some of you say LCD looks bad compared to an old tube TV. My LCD looks WAY better than my old tube TV but I think it's because my tube TV has turned into JUNK recently. I'm not sure though... /...

[Duo_R]

I am wanting to look into something else besides the Atlona RGB to YUV boards. Any extensive reviews on the other boards eveyrone is mentioning? I am curious about that RGB to HDMI board.

[SignOfZeta]

I'm way too protective of my RGB monitor to flip it on its side.  I'm sure it would be fine, but I wouldn't want to have to worry about finding another one if something did happen.

Chris

If its a pro arcade monitor it will be fine, since they are designed to rotate in the first place. If its small-ish (17" or so) it will also be fine. If its big and has a normal consumer sort of chassis though, yeah, I wouldn't risk it.

[Arkhan]

I just slapped a 19" sanyo LCD tv down on my desk and put the f*cking 1084S in the closet.  I sacrifice image quality for reclaiming desk space.  It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look f*ckin good.

I cranked the sharpness to max and un-fullscreened.  Its ok. 

I also hooked the sound up to a 5 piece logitech speaker setup.  Thats pretty funny.

Got a link to that doodad you put the picture of?  I might want to try it on this TV with my MSX and PCE.  Assuming we can get it to sync? Did you get any luck with syncing it?

This is just my spare/Dev setup next to my PCs.  The real setup is on a like 32" sanyo CRT television hooked up to some 1980s HIFI!

f*ckYEAH.

[SignOfZeta]

Got a link to that doodad you put the picture of?  I might want to try it on this TV with my MSX and PCE.  Assuming we can get it to sync? Did you get any luck with syncing it?

LINK

My Saturn works perfectly with it. I hooked it up with SCART. Well, actually not SCART but via a DB9 I hacked into to the back of it. Saturn SCART cables don't have any resistors in them or anything though, so its identical to SCART. Cube and PS2 through component also sync perfectly. Any JAMMA board should work perfectly. My two MVS do.

I can't get the PCE to sync for the life of me though. I tried running the lines right in from the IFU, but it only syncs the first frame or two when you first turn the system on, then it drops. I built the old PC Engine no Tsubete RGB amp, and with that I got jack shit. I tried the new N64 inspired IC amp people are talking about now, and that didn't work either. This amp leaves the sync alone, and that's probably my issue. I have a sync separator chip just for this purpose, I just need to figure out WTF to do with it.

What sucks is that this is my only 15kHz RGB capable device, so I can't be certain that my PCE mods are functional at all. If I had a normal fully analog RGB monitor I have a feeling it would sync fine, but I can't be sure. I also have issues with Genesis, but that's for different reasons. I have an X-RGB2+ on the way. Once it gets here I'll have a better frame of reference.

Didn't you say you had some extra monitors of some sort? You live in Cleveland, right?

[esteban]

You live in Cleveland, right?

This has nothing to do with an extra monitor.


I kid, I kid.

[Obfuscate]

I'm glad I started this thread. Half of you confuse the F out of me. But the rest of you are actually informing my dumb azz big time. Keep the info comin! Some of you say LCD looks bad compared to an old tube TV.

Some Tubes do look like shit, my mom gave me her old 27" sylvan CRT and I was all pumped since I've been playing on a 20" Toshiba CRT. Brought it home, played with every setting and it still looks like crap so I'm back to my 20". I'd rather have a smaller screen with a nice picture than a large one that looks like a turd. Someday I will stumble on a 27-32" CRT with a nice picture and it will be mine.....