Dreamcast VGA box and other DC related stuff

[Kolzig]

Well then...

After 5-6 years of NOT buying a VGA box, I finally bought one this year.

So now my question is, what is the best way to connect it to the tv for audio and video?

I have a VGA cable and then I can use the PC setting, but I can't of course hear any sounds. There's a 3,5mm plug on the PC side of the VGA box also.

On the TV side there's S-Video plug and 2xRCA connectors for the sound and also one more for the video I guess.

I suck at this stuff and I'm hoping that some Thumbs are more familiar with this as all help is very much appreciated.

Also, my DC is originally from 2001 and I bought it at some point in 2003, 2004 or 2005 as a used console, I don't remember exactly which year it was. There's a strange problem with it when I put a disc in and power the console up. When the console is normally horizontally level on my tv table, it usually doesn't load up the discs or if it does, the games hang up in the middle of action, mostly in loading screens.

This problem I have "fixed" by testing various things, When I lift the console from the backside so it's instead of _ position in a / position. In this position all games load up and work perfectly. I have no idea if the problem is with the laser that reads the discs or what?

I have to confess that I have not used my Dreamcast at all in about 2-3 years, it's just been sitting and waiting for the comeback moment which is now. I'm surprised that the fan is a bit loud, but not too much.

EDIT: The advantage of the VGA box is to get 480p graphics out of the Dreamcast. Too bad that there are only couple of games that support 16:9 widescreen and most of the games are 4:3 fullscreen games. Michel Ancel's masterpiece Rayman 2 is one of the rare ones that have support for widescreen. I'm very sad that Sega's own big games like Shenmue and Sonic Adventure don't support widescreen...

Edited April 27, 2010 by Kolzig

[syntheticgerbil]

It's possible I may be the only one to help here, having both a Dreamcast and a VGA box, so I'll give it my best shot.

I don't know what I can do to help with your CD drive. It just sounds like a laser problem like you said or something to do with the motor mechanics of the drive. Maybe these are possible to replace for cheap? But mostly I've noticed people just buy a whole new Dreamcast when their drive dies.

Most of the VGA boxes I think have an S-Video output in addition to VGA output, but I wouldn't recommend using this since there's S-Video Dreamcast cables that exist for cheaper and the VGA output looks nicer.

I'm assuming you have an HDTV? My TV has a VGA input so I had to use a separate VGA cable going from the box to the TV. Also I used one of those normal audio cables (don't know what they are called) a PC uses from the box to the TV as well, since there was audio input next to the VGA input.

Worked fine, I didn't have to do much from there. The TV automatically knew it was a 640x480 signal. I have the option to stretch the screen to fill, but I only have one widescreen game and that's Toy Commander, so I only use it there. I've heard HDTVs that only support like 800x600 resolution and higher won't work with the VGA box as well.

I'm also using a 3rd Party orange VGA box since the first party ones are super expensive and hard to find.

Anyways, I think it's funny that out of that generation the Dreamcast was the only system that consistently put out a 480p signal for nearly every game. There are only a handful of games that don't work with the VGA box. Not even the Xbox had this high of a percentage of games that would display with progressive scan.

Edited April 27, 2010 by syntheticgerbil

[Kolzig]

Yes, I've got a mediocre Samsung HDTV that has got all kinds of plug options, and so far I have tested it with a VGA cable plugged to the VGA box and to the tv. This way I have not had any sound of course.

The sound I could use through the headphones with the 3,5mm plug, but I would like to connect it so that I can use it through the home theater like the Wii etc.

So I think I need some kind of audio cables and then I'm set.

My VGA box is also a 3rd party version bought from eBay.

I have noticed from my collection that something like 95% of the games support 480p, but then again only a couple of games support widescreen...

I also have Toy Commander, I need to test all the games very soon. I've got around 15-20 DC games that I bought years ago.

[syntheticgerbil]

So I think I need some kind of audio cables and then I'm set.

My VGA box is also a 3rd party version bought from eBay.

Ah, I think I understand now. I'm pretty sure from reading other forums that got me wanting to get the VGA box, you can only use one side at a time, either the PC VGA output with the 3.5 mm audio cable or the S-Video side with the regular RCA audio output. I don't think you can use both sides at the same time. Does your VGA box have a switch allowing you to choose S-Video or VGA at the same time?

The only thing I could think of if you can simultaneously use the RCA audio output and VGA at the same time is possibly getting some sort of converter to RCA from the 3.5 mm output? I'm really bad at understanding home audio systems since I've never had one, so I would guess this also isn't a good solution since it would seem like the signal would be deteriorated going through the headphone jack first and then a higher quality separated cable.

Also I would love to experience Rayman 2 widescreen. I should really give that a try. I used to have it for my Dreamcast a long time ago but traded it in towards the superior Playstation 2 release with all of the extra crap jammed in it. The PS2 version doesn't support widescreen and tends to lag a lot and seems to have lower resolution textures. The Dreamcast version always played and looked very smooth.

[Kolzig]

I noticed that my tv has a 3,5mm hole next to the VGA plug.

I will go today or tomorrow to a electronics shop to buy 1,5 meter cable 3,5mm <-> 3,5mm cable.

I will just connect it to the tv, that will be enough for now.

My VGA box has that switch between PC and TV setting. I think it's the most common 3rd party VGA box in eBay.

I always liked Rayman 2 a lot, I've never tried the widescreen version of it as I always had a normal 4:3 tv during the time the DC was in daily use.