Can you still buy old Gamecubes, new? (Re: Progressive Scan)

[Jov]

Can someone clarify the progressive scan options for all 3 consoles in PAL territories?

I know there are cables for the PS2 and Xbox for PAL (or at least there were), but PAL Xbox games don't have PS mode, right?

As for GCN, are there any PAL version games that support PS even if I get my hand on the official cable??

 

[rabidrabbit]

Is there any way to get s-video out of a PAL Cube?

 

[pakotlar]

what is the best (60 or under) vga adapter available for gamecube? to get progressive scan 640*480, do i have to use one with componenet video inputs? here are the ones that i am looking at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=174&item=5148577265&rd=1

http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/gc/vgacable.htm


From a review I read, the converted cables (2nd link) display ghosting on high contrast surfaces. Does anyone here have experience with this? Any help would be great!

 

[Reznor007]

Just curious somewhat offtopic but does it bug anyone else with Nintendo going their component output Digital A/V?

(it doesn't even send a damn audio signal and there sure is no digital signal involved at least)

As mentioned, the component cable has a DAC for the video(not sure what format it is), and if you modify the component cable, and create a DAI->SPDIF converter circuit you get 48KHz stereo PCM .

 

[ChryZ]

As for GCN, are there any PAL version games that support PS even if I get my hand on the official cable??

Nintendo choose to replace progressive scan feature with a 50/60Hz option in PAL regions, although it's just a decision made in software, because PAL GC hardware is able to do progressive scan with NTSC software. I've got a import NTSC GC and one of those modded component-to-vga cables. A workmate of mine bought a hdtv-capable plasma display and his PAL GC looked like ass on it (interlaced RGB), so we tried my NTSC GC with the VGA cable and it was viewtiful, then we took his PAL GC booted it with FreeLoader (unplugged VGA cable), inserted one of my NTSC games while holding B in order to enable progressive scan, at that point we plugged in the VGA cable and whomp there it was: progressive scan with a PAL GC. It worked with every title we tried, but it was a bit of hassle with all this un/plugging and disc jockeying. Me workmate just sold his PAL stuff and switched to NTSC.

 

[Acert93]

what is the best (60 or under) vga adapter available for gamecube? to get progressive scan 640*480, do i have to use one with componenet video inputs? here are the ones that i am looking at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=174&item=5148577265&rd=1

http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/gc/vgacable.htm


From a review I read, the converted cables (2nd link) display ghosting on high contrast surfaces. Does anyone here have experience with this? Any help would be great!

I am not sure about the first link (does it convert the signal?), but I have the modded component Cable for the GCN. I do not have a TV, so I run my GCN on the monitor--which at 21inches is better than a TV anyhow!

It works GREAT... for the games that use it. ONLY progressive scan games will work, but the ones that do look awesome. I have played a lot of Mario Kart, Super Monkey Balls, Rouge Leader, Mario Party, and (for shame) Madden with the modded cable with no issues.

The only problem with the cable is for games like TimeSplitters 2, that do not use progressive scan, you have to get a converted box and they REALLY wash out the image and blurr edges. Think of it as a Super Sized N64 effect...

Anyhow the mod cable has a VGA adapter where the component input was. You just plug it into your monitor and viola. The only hitch is you may need a female-female 15pin adapter. I got one for $3. After that you just need to remember you need speakers to plug your audio cables into. And off you go... never to play non-Progressive again.

It is that much better, and one of the main reasons I almost exclusively play on the PC. I cannot stand fuzzy low resolution graphics. Just my preference, but I prefer high resolution games. Progressive scan 480p feels like a minimum anymore after using it... you never want to go back.

 

[Fox5]

Can someone clarify the progressive scan options for all 3 consoles in PAL territories?

I know there are cables for the PS2 and Xbox for PAL (or at least there were), but PAL Xbox games don't have PS mode, right?

As for GCN, are there any PAL version games that support PS even if I get my hand on the official cable??

Nope, PAL games only offer PAL 60.

Is there any way to get s-video out of a PAL Cube?

I'd assume using an svideo cable would work? Perhaps combined with a boot up disk.

what is the best (60 or under) vga adapter available for gamecube? to get progressive scan 640*480, do i have to use one with componenet video inputs? here are the ones that i am looking at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=174&item=5148577265&rd=1

http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/gc/vgacable.htm


From a review I read, the converted cables (2nd link) display ghosting on high contrast surfaces. Does anyone here have experience with this? Any help would be great!

The cable will offer the best quality, the 1st device would probably be horrible as it doesn't do progressive scan. BTW, I think the ghosting from the cable is only on LCD monitors, most of which don't take well to 640x480.

As mentioned, the component cable has a DAC for the video(not sure what format it is), and if you modify the component cable, and create a DAI->SPDIF converter circuit you get 48KHz stereo PCM .

I believe the gamecube outputs an interlaced or progressive scan RGB image, which is then converted by the DAC into whatever it's setup to convert it to. BTW, do you mean you can get sound out of the digital a/v port, or just that the static will be picked up as a 48khz pcm signal?

BTW, some monitors can take an interlaced signal from the vga cable....very few though and they probably have sucky image quality if they can. I had one monitor that was really old and sucky that could almost take it(maybe it could be the convertor I was using couldn't transmit it properly?), it displayed the image but flipped the sides(line down the middle, right side on left and left side on right) and the image overlapped itself a little.

Oh, ps2 has a blaze vga adapter which forces games to run in pscan, why couldn't a boot up disc like that be made for gamecube?

 

[Tagrineth]

It is that much better, and one of the main reasons I almost exclusively play on the PC. I cannot stand fuzzy low resolution graphics. Just my preference, but I prefer high resolution games. Progressive scan 480p feels like a minimum anymore after using it... you never want to go back.

Er, the resolution is identical between proscan and non-proscan... just proscan doesn't flicker and tends to use better circuitry. ;P

 

[Acert93]

It is that much better, and one of the main reasons I almost exclusively play on the PC. I cannot stand fuzzy low resolution graphics. Just my preference, but I prefer high resolution games. Progressive scan 480p feels like a minimum anymore after using it... you never want to go back.

Er, the resolution is identical between proscan and non-proscan... just proscan doesn't flicker and tends to use better circuitry. ;P

Touché! I think you know what I mean though 480i (2 interlaced fields...) versus 480p is a big difference in my book because it looks a LOT clearer... my cousin has an old TV and it looks horrible with Composit cables compared to 480p. You can actually read the text easily with 480p--which is NICE to say the least.

Progressive > Interlaced. Thanks for catching my stupid comment

Btw for the individual looking at the modded component cable, I love mine. If you actually plan to play your GCN, and have progressive scan games, it is great. Well worth the $65 I paid for mine

 

[Fox5]

It is that much better, and one of the main reasons I almost exclusively play on the PC. I cannot stand fuzzy low resolution graphics. Just my preference, but I prefer high resolution games. Progressive scan 480p feels like a minimum anymore after using it... you never want to go back.

Er, the resolution is identical between proscan and non-proscan... just proscan doesn't flicker and tends to use better circuitry. ;P

But...the resolution per frame is twice as good!

 

[Reznor007]

I believe the gamecube outputs an interlaced or progressive scan RGB image, which is then converted by the DAC into whatever it's setup to convert it to. BTW, do you mean you can get sound out of the digital a/v port, or just that the static will be picked up as a 48khz pcm signal?

You get a 48KHz 16bit stereo PCM signal of the game audio. I haven't actually built the circuit myself, but I've from others that have and it works fine. I have a schematic of the circuit if you want it.

There is also a mod for SuperNES to output 32KHz 16bit stereo PCM.

I'm hoping that someone will figure out how to take the Gamecube digital video (basically the component signal before it gets to the DAC) and convert it to DVI for a truly digital video output.

 

[see colon]

But...the resolution per frame is twice as good!

if you want to get technical, they are both 480px tall per frame, but the interlaced image will be 240 per field. 2 fields=1 frame.

 

[Tagrineth]

Touché! I think you know what I mean though 480i (2 interlaced fields...) versus 480p is a big difference in my book because it looks a LOT clearer... my cousin has an old TV and it looks horrible with Composit cables compared to 480p. You can actually read the text easily with 480p--which is NICE to say the least.

Progressive > Interlaced. Thanks for catching my stupid comment

Btw for the individual looking at the modded component cable, I love mine. If you actually plan to play your GCN, and have progressive scan games, it is great. Well worth the $65 I paid for mine

On my 61" reverse projection TV, proscan and interlace are actually often virtually indistinguishable in 3D games. The difference does show up on menus and some finer lines (mmm, flicker), and when there's a lot of fast movement (image echo due to low visible frame rate and blending between interlaced frames), of course, but the actual still output is nigh identical.

That said, though, I did buy a component cable for both my GC and my PS2 pretty much the same day I got the hardware... mmm, proscan.

 

[Ty]

On my 61" reverse projection TV...

REVERSE projection? Never heard of those.

 

[Fox5]

I believe the gamecube outputs an interlaced or progressive scan RGB image, which is then converted by the DAC into whatever it's setup to convert it to. BTW, do you mean you can get sound out of the digital a/v port, or just that the static will be picked up as a 48khz pcm signal?

You get a 48KHz 16bit stereo PCM signal of the game audio. I haven't actually built the circuit myself, but I've from others that have and it works fine. I have a schematic of the circuit if you want it.

There is also a mod for SuperNES to output 32KHz 16bit stereo PCM.

I'm hoping that someone will figure out how to take the Gamecube digital video (basically the component signal before it gets to the DAC) and convert it to DVI for a truly digital video output.

Would the PCM signal or the DVI output be noticably better than the analog connections?

 

[Reznor007]

I believe the gamecube outputs an interlaced or progressive scan RGB image, which is then converted by the DAC into whatever it's setup to convert it to. BTW, do you mean you can get sound out of the digital a/v port, or just that the static will be picked up as a 48khz pcm signal?

You get a 48KHz 16bit stereo PCM signal of the game audio. I haven't actually built the circuit myself, but I've from others that have and it works fine. I have a schematic of the circuit if you want it.

There is also a mod for SuperNES to output 32KHz 16bit stereo PCM.

I'm hoping that someone will figure out how to take the Gamecube digital video (basically the component signal before it gets to the DAC) and convert it to DVI for a truly digital video output.

Would the PCM signal or the DVI output be noticably better than the analog connections?

Well, I'm sure the DAC in my receiver is better than the one in the Gamecube Whether it would be very noticable, I'm not sure though. I would like to eventually do it though.

 

[Fox5]

Hmm, could be interesting to hear the cube in digital prologic 2.
How hard does the modification seem to be? Extremely or just a lot?

 

[Reznor007]

The schematic I have if for a version with optical digital out, and it's fairly simple if you can read a schematic. A coax digital version should be even easier.

It's 4 IC's, 1 osciallator, and a few misc. capacitors for the optical version.

 

[pakotlar]

thank you very much for the replies. looks like the modded cable for me.

 

[Nick Laslett]

Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I have a question...

I'm finally going to buy a GC so that I can play all the RE games, especially RE4.

But I want progressive scan. (No prog scan no sale)

If I buy a brand new NTSC GC, I guess I can't get prog scan.

If I buy a brand new PAL GC, will this have the prog scan socket?

I can buy 2nd hand PAL GC if the new PAL console has lost the socket.

The GC is amazingly cheap, but I want prog scan.