Dreamcast and Atlona Scalers (Pro AV Gear)

[mrneo240]

Hello Dreamers!

I've been always looking for non-modification methods for high quality output on the dreamcast.

This ain't dchdmi but it's a fraction of the price and 80% of the way there.

So onto what I've learned and bought recently:
Atlona AT-HD500, VGA to HDMI scaler (discontinued)
https://atlona.com/product/at-hd500/

Atlona AT-HD-SC-500, VGA to HDMI scaler (current model)
https://atlona.com/product/at-hd-sc-500/

The retail price of these units is roughly $500, but thankfully they can be had on eBay for roughly $50 used.

The older, AT-HD500 is able to output 480p over HDMI while the newer model is not. If you care about this fact keep it in mind.

Features

• Both units easily handle the Dreamcast outputting VGA, even with it's strange timing and such.
• Both units are very configurable for picture aspect, position, and color correction
• Both work beautifully with hydro thunder
• Both have physical hardware buttons to allow for adjustments and retain them between power off
• Both require 5v 3a power supplies
• The AT-HD-SC-500 is configurable in realtime over Ethernet with a webui
• Both happily combine stereo 3.5mm audio and VGA into HDMI output

Tomorrow or sometime I will add some pictures and such.

Personally I would highly recommend one of these units if you can find one for around $50 (and please don't spend $500, https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1189485-REG/atlona_at_hd_sc_500_3_input_scaler_for.html )

Edit:
Some pictures of my new DC command center



Gear list:

• Top: DC+gdemu
• Middle: wifi router, portta component to HDMI
• Bottom: Atlona AT-HD500, AT-HD-SC-500, Startech usb3hdcap

[mrneo240]

Sample Video Captured with this setup:

[colgate]

Nice! So you think they work better than those VGA to HDMI cables that are sold everywhere?

[mrneo240]

Easily 100% better.

No picture crush, and works fine with hydro thunder because of quality chips.

Also this may be hard to swallow but those $30 HDMI cables and whatever beharbros is hawking use the same transcoder chips. The only difference being beharbros artisnally scrapes off the chip markings and makes cheap as dirt open acrylic "cases"

[mrneo240]

Minor update to the command center.
Added in switchers and splitters so everything in the rig outputs to both the capture card and also an HDMI output

[OGDCFAN99]

Wow I thought I was the only one with one of these! This is indeed one of the best, most underrated VGA scalers out there. Used in conjunction with the mClassic, the results are top notch.

I have my hd500 set to output in 480P but it still scales the picture to fit the screen with no black bars on the sides, then the mClassic smooths out the jaggies and outputs the final signal to 1080P. Since the Atlona is doing all the heavy lifting with the scaling, the mClassic does a better job than it normally would with the actual UPscaling and smoothing.. if that makes any sense.

I have tinkered around with all the options and output resolutions, with and without the mClassic and this is the best combination I found.

Oh and as a bonus it does work perfectly with Hydro Thunder's odd VGA timing

[mrneo240]

Wow I thought I was the only one with one of these! This is indeed one of the best, most underrated VGA scalers out there.

Rad!
I noticed you have a neat power supply with an inline switch, would you mind sharing where you got it? A lot of the used ones don't come with a power supply at all and when you use a poor quality or underrated one the device doesn't function well

[OGDCFAN99]

I use the original power adapter that it came with along with an inline power switch from Amazon. It’s been while but I think this is the one:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HD5MLBB/re ... 8KY50PHD91

[anti]

I just got my HD500 setup ($20 on eBay!) and it’s much better using it in conjunction with my VGA Box than the Kaico HDMI adapter I got earlier in the year. Night and day difference. Also looks fantastic with the mClassic in retro mode. Any particular settings changes we should look for on our units?

[mrneo240]

. Any particular settings changes we should look for on our units?

People recommend changing some color settings but that's a personal change and varies per output device.

Other than that I didn't see much I needed to change, obviously aspect for 4:3 vs 16:9.