New Dreamcast HDMI Box!!!!

[Xiden]

A new component cable is in the works!

Yeah that's been there for a long time now. It's just a possibility that they might pursue in the future. As far as I know, I don't think they've even released their original product, the Genesis/SNES component cable, yet.

They have sold them, but they are currently sold out. My Life in Gaming did a small review on them

[Thmanx]

Hmm... well heres my 3 takes on it.

1) This 'HDMI Box" is a good idea because it 'does' remove a step for most people. Its great to have a direct DC-HDMI box, i mean why not with FPGA's being so cheep now a day.... thats a good thing.

But...

2) I kinda wish beharbros went one step further with this box... Why not make a direct DC to HDMI 480p cable? I mean this HDMI box doesn't do 480i/scaling anyway. They do make (USB POWERED) VGA-HDMI converter cables that work quite well. it has a Digital converter chip INSIDE the HDMI plug. So all I'd need to do is modify the VGA end of this plug with a DC AV port... and you could have a true HDMI DC cable! Just put a button on the DC side of the pug to do the VGA switch trick... easy The DC's AV pins already have Stereo Analog Audio, R-G-B and Sync signals on the pins. I'd think all you need to do is cut the wire and splice it in no? What do you think PC Wizard?

3) I wonder if this HDMI box is any better then my Internal VGA modded DC connected to an Atlona-HD.
I already get direct VGA out of my console, and it goes into the legendary Atlona scaler with USB power. Sure if offers many resolutions, but I only use 480P (to keep it as close to the source as a I can). So i wonder if this will provide a better image then my current set up.

[pcwzrd13]

I could look into that but there are a couple issues. One is the size of the HDMI end of the cable. Some TVs have the HDMI port indented a bit so this wouldn't fit. You would need an adapter (extension cable) just to plug it into your TV.

In addition, I couldn't just solder together the two wires because there are way too many. There simply wouldn't be enough room to solder the all the wires without burning or desoldering another one (not to mention the fact that you need to insulate and keep each wire separated). I would need to solder the wires from the Dreamcast VGA cable directly to the board in the connector and judging by the size, it might be very hard to work with.

I'll grab one of these cables and see what I can do with it. Theoretically it should work but it may be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to work with.

[Thmanx]

Yeah fitment could be an issue. And soldering wires would be tight. Perhaps a small box i between (like those retro component cables). But man it would be clean.

[Xerxes3rd]

Does yours read the VGA signal with VESA timings or with DTV timings? Most of the VGA->HDMI converters (such as the Atlona that I use) read the Dreamcast's DTV 720x480 as VESA 640x480, which results in a slightly "squished" image.

[pcwzrd13]

the Dreamcast's DTV 720x480

That's a common myth. The Dreamcast's output resolution is 640x480. There would be no reason for Sega to have the Dreamcast output in a non-4:3 aspect ratio when the standard aspect ratio of just about every display at the time was 4:3. Some displays may misrepresent the signal as 720x480 which is where this misinformation came from:

DC uses a 13.4MHz pixel clock to generate a 640-pixel-wide display on a TV. With VGA output, the pixel clock is doubled to 26.8MHz, BUT... VGA monitors have a quicker horizontal retrace. The normal clock for 640x480x60hz on a VGA monitor is 25.175MHz. So the DC's display will be a little squished horizontally on a VGA monitor, and the monitor may misinterpret it as 720x480.

[Xerxes3rd]

Some displays may misrepresent the signal as 720x480 which is where this misinformation came from

You didn't answer my question. =)

[pcwzrd13]

You didn't answer my question. =)

Yeah I did. The Dreamcast outputs a 640x480 signal so therefore the box and TV will output it as 640x480.

[Thmanx]

I actually have some insight into this. (As far as the VESA/DTV HDMI converter thing)


When i used the powered VGA-HDMI cable, my Vizio 32B1 shows its input as "640x480", A PC resolution. As such many of the TV's internal processing features are disabled for this kind of input. (Black Detail Level adjustment, Sharpness, etc)


However with the Atlona...


I have 6 output modes, 3 are PC spec, 3 are DTV spec.

When I set the Atalona to say its lowest PC resolution mode (640x480). My vizio again prevents me from doing any post processing adjustments. Even stretching the image is limited to 4X3 or Stretch 16x9 (no panoramic)



HOWEVER...

The Atlona can also output at DTV 480P which my TV also correctly detects (as well as stretched 720P and 1080P meh)

When my Atlona outputs at DTV 480P, my Vizio treats it like any other modern HDMI input. With proper stretching, post processing, noise reduction if you really wanted it, and sharpness controls...


Frankly the colors also look much more muted when the TV is running in PC input mode, then the true 480P mode its designed for. (color space issue?)



-----
additionally...
maybe about 1/2 of the time I turn on my DC/TV/and Atlona... it gets the 480P signal a bit off... i.e. it stretches the image too narrow between the actual 4x3 bars of the TV. I have to unplug the Atlona (while the DC is running) and plug it back in. Then usually it properly stretches it to the correct 4x3 aspect.

Obviously its an Atlona scaler/timing thing... but for what ever reason it too thinks the input is a bit off then a full 640x480 or 720x480 pixel map. Maybe this is something the eventual 'ultra HDMI' style board for the DC will fix, since its pulling digital video direct from the board.

This kind of improper 4x3 scaling never happened with my previous PC based VGA-HDMI converters that outputted at 640x480 to the TV. (the cable and another cheeper one i used before that)

[Raen]

Many will pass on this. BBS would be better by doing this but with a built-in upscaler feature. That would add up to the challenge though.

For those of us already with a VGA box, specially with a Hanzo or a Kuro, there are cheap converters like these that do the job just fine:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Converter-Supp ... s=vga+hdmi
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Adapter-Conver ... ga+to+hdmi

A plain format converter from BBS doesn't cut it for me, since I already have a Hanzo with scanlines. Besides, the Dreamcast should be played with a glorious CRT