Blaze VGA Monitor Adaptor

[Nick Laslett]

Have any of you seen the Blaze VGA Monitor adaptor in action?

http://www.blaze-gear.com/page1.htm

From the description at Lik-Sang it sounds like this device enables ProgScan in games that do not already have it switched on.

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=3&products_id=2362&

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Hi-Resolution VGA Adaptor (PAL Version)
Manufacturer: Blaze

Product Features

Play your PS2 games on VGA monitor.

Enclosed hardware allows your PS2 Linux development kit to work on VGA monitor.

Support REAL High-Resolution with supported games.

True 640 x 400 resolution.

Does not use the double scan method.

Compatible with PAL versions of the Playstation 2 only

Requires the included CD to load each game.

Unlock the resolution on PS2 with the Xploder VGA Adaptor. Pack includes VGA cable and Software CD for high definition picture quality on your VGA monitor. Play your PS2 games in stunning high resolution on any VGA monitor. Enclosed hardware allows your PS2 Linux(TM) development kit to work on any VGA monitor. Play your VGA compatible PS2 games such as Tekken on any VGA monitor. Play your next-generation games the way they were meant to be played, in stunning high resolution. Compatible games that can be played in VGA mode include- GT Concept, Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto3, Medal of Honor, Frontline, Virtual Fighter 4, Final Fantasy 10, State of Emergency, Vampire Night, Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament, Arctic Thunder, City Crisis, 2002 Fifa World Cup, Pro Evolution Soccer, Burnout, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, Mx2002, Paris Dakar Rally, Ready 2 Rumble, Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarders and Many Many More!

While there are many VGA adaptors on the market, none of them come even close to what the Blaze VGA adaptor can do. What must consumers don't realize is all VGA adaptors use something called "double scan" function. Which simply doubles the scan on the screen.

The Blaze VGA Adapter actually uses software to UNLOCK the true high resolution of the PS2 console. The PS2 console is capable of running in a resolution of 640 x 400 but the more common 320 x 200 is always used. With his unique VGA adaptor games will come alive with clarity and crisp graphics.

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Is this possible? How does it work?

I've got one on order so I'll be able to report my findings soon.

The previous Blaze device I bought, the Xploder V2, forced PAL games to run in NTSC mode. This worked a treat for Devil May Cry which suffered from a very poor PAL conversion - borders and full 17.5% slow down. The Xploder V2 worked it's magic and the game ran in NTSC mode with no borders and no slowdown.

 

[London Geezer]

hey rich hobbit, thats the thing i was talking about im my previous thread... waiting for it to be delivered , should be here this week, then i'll tell u all about it.... i'm quite skeptical to be honest, but im cool with playing the few pro-scan enabled games and leave the rest of the hacking stuff.... u know what i mean

 

[Tagrineth]

I'd imagine that could be done with ease on most full/full frame buffer games, but games which don't use the full frame buffer would have problems...

 

[London Geezer]

I'd imagine that could be done with ease on most full/full frame buffer games, but games which don't use the full frame buffer would have problems...

What makes me wonder is why Sony didn't just put the option in the first place........ i mean i Do know why... i just think it's wrong... but maybe its just me

 

[TTP]

I've tested it.

It sucks. Plain and simple.

Good if you wonna see games that support progressive scan on a VGA monitor tho. Just plug the adaptor in and you are set.

 

[London Geezer]

I've tested it.

It sucks. Plain and simple.

Good if you wonna see games that support progressive scan on a VGA monitor tho. Just plug the adaptor in and you are set.

GREAT... thats fine by me.... all i wanted was getting pro scan enabled games on my monitor...

 

[Nick Laslett]

I've tested it.

It sucks. Plain and simple.

Good if you wonna see games that support progressive scan on a VGA monitor tho. Just plug the adaptor in and you are set.

Care to elaborate on why it sucks?

Is there something wrong with the IQ?
Is the picture better on a TV with component connection?
Does it not work for non-prog scan titles?
Is it the image shift problem?

 

[TTP]

It works great with pro-scan enabled games (SOCOM, The Getaway and so on).

A software (on CD) comes with the peripherial that allows non pro-scan games to be seen on a VGA monitor but it is fucked up so that image either flickers tremendously or is "compressed" on the top half part of the screen.

 

[TTP]

I've tested it.

It sucks. Plain and simple.

Good if you wonna see games that support progressive scan on a VGA monitor tho. Just plug the adaptor in and you are set.

GREAT... thats fine by me.... all i wanted was getting pro scan enabled games on my monitor...

That's what you get exactly.

 

[London Geezer]

I've tested it.

It sucks. Plain and simple.

Good if you wonna see games that support progressive scan on a VGA monitor tho. Just plug the adaptor in and you are set.

GREAT... thats fine by me.... all i wanted was getting pro scan enabled games on my monitor...

That's what you get exactly.

well i tried it with Primal (the demo) and, apart from cable switching to actually see what u're doing until u get it to output Pro-scan, the problem is that the picture is note really all that....

i mean apart from being compressed at the top of the screen, there are some IQ errors here and there. it does look ok at times (in a non-interlaced kind of way) but not enough for me to justify all the trouble... might as well just play it on 60hz interlaced mode so i get a bigger picture, my TV is progressive scan anyway, the picture is much better than normal TV's even in interlaced mode...

i'll try it with The Getaway tonight to see if its only a problem with the demo of Primal... but i wouldnt count on it....

on a side note, the BEST picture quality u'll EVER get from ur PS2 tho is from the MENU of the Software disc that comes with the Blaze VGA Adaptor.... proper VGA i think its either 800x600 or more.. didnt spend much time on it this morning cuz i had to go to work so..... more to come oh and of course from the Linux Kit...

 

[maskrider]

i'll try it with The Getaway tonight to see if its only a problem with the demo of Primal... but i wouldnt count on it....

on a side note, the BEST picture quality u'll EVER get from ur PS2 tho is from the menu of the Software disc that comes with the Blaze VGA Adaptor.... proper VGA i think its either 800x600 or more.. didnt spend much time on it this morning cuz i had to go to work so..... more to come oh and of course from the Linux Kit...

Congratulations, you don't need to buy the first flight to HK then.

 

[London Geezer]

i'll try it with The Getaway tonight to see if its only a problem with the demo of Primal... but i wouldnt count on it....

on a side note, the BEST picture quality u'll EVER get from ur PS2 tho is from the menu of the Software disc that comes with the Blaze VGA Adaptor.... proper VGA i think its either 800x600 or more.. didnt spend much time on it this morning cuz i had to go to work so..... more to come oh and of course from the Linux Kit...

Congratulations, you don't need to buy the first flight to HK then.

we'll see........

i cannot believe i'm spending so much money on trying to get pro-scan from PS2 on my TV...... it was like 60 quid for the crappy vga box i bought last month which didnt work, now this one was like another 20 quid.... could have bought 2 games with that much money...... or some food

better work with The Getaway or i'll just throw everything out of the window and wait for a PS3 for decent output...

 

[London Geezer]

YES...... it works great with PRO-Scan games like The Getaway and Primal but i dont really recommend it for other games..... the problem i usually get is that the image is displayed correctly (and pretty good quality too to be honest) but the first third is repeated on the right hand side of the screen..... timesplitters 2 does that. but i have to admit that the full part of the screen (the part that comes up correctly) does look like VGA.....

 

[London Geezer]

oh, almost forgot, it does have some wird artifacts on some missions of The Getaway (now u know thats a rush job, they wouldnt be there if they spent 5 minutes testing the thing) but not a lot, and not in every mission (now thats weird)... and in Primal (but thats a demo) there's a weird flickery band at the bottom of the screen....

but hell do they look great......

other weird things.... Wipeout Fusion looks absolutely amazing until u start playing... i mean everything (menu and stuff) looks like Pro-scan until the 3D engine starts up...then its a mess...

GT3... forget it it looks like crap...

timesplitters 2 already said... looks great, like pro-scan but a bit of the image is repeated on the right hand side of the screen...

 

[London Geezer]

so, end of the story, leave ur normal games on RGB output and occasionally dust up ur Blaze VGA adaptor to play Pro-scan games on you monitor....

need to get Guilty Gear X2... that will look awesome....

is there a site with a list of every Pro-scan game for PS2?

 

[maskrider]

so, end of the story, leave ur normal games on RGB output and occasionally dust up ur Blaze VGA adaptor to play Pro-scan games on you monitor....

need to get Guilty Gear X2... that will look awesome....

is there a site with a list of every Pro-scan game for PS2?

Bought Star Ocean 3 today, it supports 16:9 mode in addition to standard 4:3 mode, for sure Pro-scan is supported. But it is a Japanese version RPG.

 

[London Geezer]

so, end of the story, leave ur normal games on RGB output and occasionally dust up ur Blaze VGA adaptor to play Pro-scan games on you monitor....

need to get Guilty Gear X2... that will look awesome....

is there a site with a list of every Pro-scan game for PS2?

Bought Star Ocean 3 today, it supports 16:9 mode in addition to standard 4:3 mode, for sure Pro-scan is supported. But it is a Japanese version RPG.

hopefully they'll keep it on the PAL release... looks like a good RPG... any good?

 

[maskrider]

Bought Star Ocean 3 today, it supports 16:9 mode in addition to standard 4:3 mode, for sure Pro-scan is supported. But it is a Japanese version RPG.

hopefully they'll keep it on the PAL release... looks like a good RPG... any good?

Too busy playing Shin Sangokumusou 3 (Dynasty Warrior 4), only played the intro and run around a bit on Star Ocean 3.

 

[Nick Laslett]

I received the VGA Monitor Adaptor on Friday.

The main reason I bought it was to play Gran Turismo 3 using VGA monitors, because it is a real pain getting 6 TV's in a room. But I can rustle up 3 LCD screens, 2 projectors and a Plasma pretty easy where I work.

For this purpose the device worked a treat. GT3 player full screen, no artefacts no compromises. The VGA display reveals what the interlacing hides, GT3 on a monitor looks more ragged.

After the device passed the test for which I bought it, I then went through every other game I own to see what happened.

All the games I own worked with the device, some better than others.

Good:
SSX - Amazing sharp picture (Some picture doubling on the edge on the sreen.
PES2 - Amazing sharp picture - (Full screen display no compromises.) Game runs at silly speed (too fast).
TimeSplitters 2 - Amazing sharp picture (Some picture doubling on the edge on the sreen.
Medal of Honor - Amazing sharp picture - Game runs perfect.
Airblade - Amazing sharp picture - Game runs perfect.

Bad:
Devil May Cry - No improvement - Difficult to get the main gameplay area on the screen.
Two Towers - No improvement - Game plays at amazing speed.
Onimusha 2 - Weird effect on game, no animated overlays just messed up pre-rendered backgrounds

Others:
Metal Gear Solid - same no improvement
Baldur's Gate - No Improvement
Ico - No Improvement
Wipeout Fusion- No Improvement
Getaway - Same as progressive
Jak & Daxter - No Improvement

I'm pleased with the device.

Generally the monitor needs heavy adjustment to obtain the right picture. The horizontal needs to be expaned and moved.

 

[Phil]

Nick, if I understood correctly, than on all those games that you tested, it actually looks equal or offers advantages over the interlaced output. Are there also games where the picture would be worse? As in, more aliasing, flickering?

Also, GT3 has some stages that flicker, so do other games. Does the flickering go away while playing it in progressive or does it get enhanced?

Thanks in advance.