VGA box & Prog-Scan (please read&help)

[London Geezer]

hi guys, another (silly) question for today,.. come on i know u're bored anyway

right...

would a 3rd party VGA box (one of the crappy ones u find on the net) actually output a proper VGA signal with those few PS2 games that support Progressive Scan?

i'm in europe, therefore remember that the only way to play a progressive scan game (on any console) is with my ps2 (not sure about dreamcast) since Mr Europe decided to cut progressive scan support from pal xbox and gc

 

[London Geezer]

...(after some research)...


basically The getaway in Progressive Scan (525p) won't work in my TV because i need to connect the ps2 with a component cable and enable YPsPr output....


well of course, because im in europe, i connected it with a SCART RGB cable which gives the same image quality of component... but it wont work....


so, i just found this:

http://www.gocybershop.ca/cgi-bin/product.pl?Id=1168

which looks pretty sweet....

will i get to play my games in progressive scan??? why is it that they made it so difficult for us European gamers to get what everyone else in the world has?!?!?!

 

[Phil]

what exactly are all the benefits of progressive out?

 

[London Geezer]

Well let's just say that the picture quality is 1000000 times better that interlaced mode..... only a few games support it here in europe and funny enough they're all on ps2...

it just looks weird to me that they cut progressive scan support from PAL XBOX and GC but not from PS2.... really weird....

anyway, anyone who can help with my question?!?!

 

[Phil]

yeah, it wasn't hard to find out that the picture quality is better. I live in PAL territory aswell and happen to have a few games that support it, but my TV doesn't seem to, so my question is, what exactly is better?

Or asked differently, on my 100Hz 32'' Philipps TV, what will look better? Less flickering on high res games? Less aliasing? Will the difference be noticable enough?

 

[London Geezer]

well if your TV doesn't support it, then you won't get any improvement in the picture quality....

on the other hand when viewed in progressive scan mode, games are as sharp and detailed as they can be, with no colour loss or leaks... a bit like your PC games...

RGB cables are so far the best way to view videogames (in europe) and progressive scan will make that even better...

basically the reason is that interlaced mode (non-progressive) outputs at 640x240 (pal may be higher) displaying the even lines in one frame and the odd lines in the next one. your eye is not supposed to tell the difference and it doesn't most of the time, but when you compare the image quality to progressive scan mode, which displays frames at a full 640x480 (PAL territories is even better 640x525), the difference is striking...

and i'm so looking forward to see The Getaway in 525P mode

 

[London Geezer]

anyone?

 

[Phil]

thanks for the explanation. While I do know the difference between an interlaced signal and a progressive outputed one, I wasn't quite sure if the viewable difference would be that noticable. I look forward to trying it out though, as many PS2 games tend to suffer from flickering while in high res, so 525p out might make the difference. Then again, I ought to buy some better cables anyway...

 

[London Geezer]

god.... there must be someone out there......



would a VGA box actually output a true VGA signal for those games that support Progressive scan on PS2????


a vga box like this:

http://www.gocybershop.ca/cgi-bin/product.pl?Id=1168

what i mean is,
-i plug this thing to PS2 and Monitor
-i put The Getaway on Pro-scan mode (525p)
-i get a beautiful VGA picture quality (dreamcast style)

..........................................................................................................

 

[pcostabel]

You don't need a VGA box for games that support progressive scan, just the right cable.
In US, a component cable is all you need. For Europe. I don't think any TV actually support progressive scan, so you would need a VGA cable to connect to a monitor, like the one that comes with the Linux kit.

 

[London Geezer]

You don't need a VGA box for games that support progressive scan, just the right cable.
In US, a component cable is all you need. For Europe. I don't think any TV actually support progressive scan, so you would need a VGA cable to connect to a monitor, like the one that comes with the Linux kit.

well.... yeah... i know... that would be the *right* way to do it... however there is no *vga cable* and my tv has progressive scan support but only through a vga connection...

so, my question is not *do i need a vga box to get pro-scan from ps2*

but...

*will a vga box work Dreamcast-style with those (few) games that support pro-scan?*

 

[maskrider]

You don't need a VGA box for games that support progressive scan, just the right cable.
In US, a component cable is all you need. For Europe. I don't think any TV actually support progressive scan, so you would need a VGA cable to connect to a monitor, like the one that comes with the Linux kit.

The cable from Linux kit needs a monitor that supports Sync on green input, if he only want to play PS2 games that support 480p on a VGA monitor, he can buy a cheap version of Key digital's transcoder (X-Blaster).

http://www.keydigital.com/detail.asp?Product_ID=KD-XB

But saying cheap is indeed not very cheap at US$249 plus shipping.

Or he can take the PC with a TV card route with latest version of DScaler and a Philips SAA7130 based TV card to get a relatively high quality deinterlaced picture, but no support for progressive input.

Let's see if there are other companies that will produce better products than the available ugly cheap VGA box that can only make the picture worse.

 

[London Geezer]

but what about those games that DO have progressive scan support!?!!?!?

 

[maskrider]

but what about those games that DO have progressive scan support!?!!?!?

There are only one game that supports 480p to date, Tekken 4, and it seems the coming Star Ocean 3 also supports 480p output.

If you are willing to pay that US$249 + shipping, you can play them (only 2 forseeable at the moment) on the VGA monitor via the X-Blaster (a YPbPr->RGBHV transcoder).

But 480i/576i games may not be able to be displayed on your monitor as VGA monitors normally only support horizontal scanning rate equal or above 30KHz, 480p horizontal scanning rate is 31.5KHz, 480i/576i scanning rate is 15.75KHz.

Edit - Supplement:
480i/576i are not listed on the spec of X-Blaster, they are only listed on the more expensive ClearVideo2 transcoder (well, I bought one for myself). May be you can check out e-Bay for some 2nd hand KD-CTCA2.

And something not related to this thread

http://members.tripod.co.jp/hello_baby/apollo_mirror/

Do you like the above Windows 2000 driven Super Nintendo ?

 

[zurich]

Haha that's cool, I've wanted to try and cram a PC board into a PS2 case for a loooong time. That'd make for a VERY sexy PC.

 

[archie4oz]

There are only one game that supports 480p to date, Tekken 4, and it seems the coming Star Ocean 3 also supports 480p output.

There's more than that. Burnout 2, SOCOM, Robotech:Battlecry to name a few off the top of my head...

 

[maskrider]

There are only one game that supports 480p to date, Tekken 4, and it seems the coming Star Ocean 3 also supports 480p output.

There's more than that. Burnout 2, SOCOM, Robotech:Battlecry to name a few off the top of my head...

Because non-Japanese versions are never inside of my head, ha ha ha !

 

[London Geezer]

well there are more coming...

the getaway already supports pro-scan,

the next big one is gonna be Primal, which looks gorgeous so far.... im sure they'll get the gameplay wrong tho as these SCEE guys usually do......

 

[Ozymandis]

Guilty Gear XX is going to support 480p as well

 

[London Geezer]

exactly.... so, conclusion:

i will be able to get *dreamcast-style* image quality with those (few) pro-scan enabled games using that little thing up there.......??