Can't get fullscreen using Sony Trinitron

[richruns]

Its a 13' Sony trinitron. The yellow and white plug in the back (no red). It doesn't display full screen. I tried messing around with menu settings, but no luck. So if i look to get another tv, what should i look for?

Thanks

[Gary_b]

What do you mean it doesn't display full screen? is it cut off? the Sony Trinitron should be equipped with a S-Video input depending on your model? If so you could always buy a Dramcast S-video or consider getting a VGA adapter and using a PC monitor. in either case you will get a better picture and might not need to buy a tv.

If you do buy a tv its hard to recommend something, if you want something small like that 13 inch anything with composite inputs should work as the picture is so small you will not see as large of improvement as you would using a good cable type and tv. I use the VGA box and a VGA to component converter up scaling box with a few different flat panel HDtv and it works pretty good. I payed about $50 for the box a while back and I think they are cheaper now and I think that the new ones have HDMI out instead of component. The one I use only displays in 720p and 1080i max and the new ones should do 1080p. The VGA boxes are pretty cheap too somewhere around $15

here are a few ebay listings that might work, I have not personally used either of these but they seem like they would work. I would actually like to get one of these for my self, but it seems like a waste already having both in a different version. Also keep in mind that not every Dreamcast game supports VGA, but most can be sued with it in some form.

DC VGA cord roughly $8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VGA-High-Defini ... Sw1DtXLDc8

Converter box $13.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VGA-to-HDMI-Swi ... SwzvlW-21T

[Anthony817]

I am using the same setup Gary linked above. The $8 VGA Cable and the $14 VGA2HDMI box. Picture is crisp on my Philips 1080p LCD, but it doesn't exactly fully center on this particular TV. I chalk it up to limited scaling and positional options on this TV and that is even after I updated the firmware on it.

However in games that allow me to reposition the image I can correct it. So, like I said, it is a problem with my TV not the box. Also that particular box doesn't really upscale anything. It is a straight converter. Makes the analog 480p signal output to digital. That crap about 720p to 4k on it is false advertisement. If it was an upscaller it would have the switch on the side where it shows that QC sticker that allows to make the signal from 720p to 1080i.

Either way, all you really want if you do use a TV that only has HDMI you need that. If you got a TV with VGA you should be ok without buying the box, but eventually you will want one for the future.

[richruns]

Hey, thanks for the responses. I do have a hdmi and vga adapter. It works great for most games, but not all games (kof 99, hydro thunder). I want to be able to play everything. Going with a tube and regular AV cables seems like the way to do it. Ill try to attach some pictures.

[Gary_b]

I am not sure about KOF but hydro thunder can be tricked into working in VGA. You just load the game with codebreaker and you have VGA mode on Hydro Thunder. There are only a few games that you cannot use this method of booting VGA. If you find a Tubed GD tv you might be able to use VGA strait to the TV. I had a few televisions like this, but even though they had a tube they still did not work for light gun games. My sister has a samsung and it has composite inputs. The only issue is that older gaming systems look like crap on the HD display with composite. I had to order a component cable for my PS2 to clear up some of the fuzzys.

[rjay63]

Ideally you should buy a CRT TV with at least S-Video if you're in the US. However if you want full screen on this TV, you may have to access the "service menu" and make some geometry adjustments. Be warned though, they are not designed to be accessed by customers and you could break the TV. Worth a try if you happy to take risk.

[Gary_b]

I have used the service menus on tvs and they are not easy to understand. you might make it worse. If you do try this, you should at least see if there are some documents or even a service manual online first.

What rjay63 said about the s-video is good advice. it would be even better to find one with VGA or DVI and an s-video. The DVI can be used with the Dreamcast VGA adapter fairly easy.

[Bob Dobbs]

In short, good luck.

Long story; S-Video is mostly "gone" on new TV's. To note, I have tested 5 different HD TV's (all 16:10) with a VGA input and came up with varying results. With the VGA cable Gary_B has referenced in this thread, some will show up with a full 4:3 image, some fill the screen and one will not display the image at all. Ironically, I used an old leftover Altinex Professional 5-BNC (RGBHV) 2x1 VGA switcher which allows the image to be displayed on the odd-ball TV but with a very slight degradation in the image.

I also did the same test with the Retro-bit VGA box and this other "blue" VGA mini-box adapter with very short cables on each end of the "blue box" and a 3.5mm female stereo connector (called "DC VGA CABLE" which does not have an AV option). These adapters also created different results per HD TV, thus proving that even the adapter boxes vary.

This does not even cover the issue of some games not being "VGA-friendly".