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I got a vga to hdmi converter for my dreamcast. got the cable (vga port with red/white audio cables and the box itself is from synic. hdmi cord i had laying around somewhere. Hooks up fine but doesnt work on my tv, says format isnt valid and resolution mismatch errors. Is it cause my hdtv is too old or one the cables? I have a magnavox 39mf412b. thanks!

It depends what the converter is doing. If it is literally just converting then some TVs don't accept 480p, 480i, 240p over HDMI.

You need a VGA to HDMI upscaler (or an HDMI to HDMI upscaler that accepts lower resolutions). That way the upscaler will output a common 720, 768 or 1080p signal your TV will understand.

Getting a new TV is unlikely to solve your problem, as most modern sets don't work with low resolution HDMI.

any recommendations then?

old TV is better as it has VGA port, you can use the VGA port on your TV to test DC vga cable if it works, also not all vga to hdmi converter support DC vga output, so first you should confirm if it's cable or converter issue, also try to clean the video port on DC, don't think it's TV issue

kaine23 wrote:any recommendations then?

I believe I gave one. Get a VGA to HDMI upscaler instead of just a converter.

I agree with Roareye. Your not the first person who has a hd tv that doesn't accept low resolution though hdmi. A friend at work is dealing with this same issue.

A scaler is needed to up scale the resolution to at least 720. If the tv says resolution mismatch/ format invalid it is saying it doesn't accept dreamcast native resolution but the tv is acknowledging it is hooked up.