Is the Dreamcast HD Link worth purchasing?

[DCUltrapro]

$150 IS A LOT, but if it definitely means all games will work over HDMI then I might be interested in it, just need to find someone who can solder lol

[2koolpa]

https://www.amazon.com/XD-600-Laptop-Vi ... ref=plSrch

Buy this. Plug your vga out into it. Then an HDMI out from this upscaler box to your TV. 25 bucks and it's absolutely amazing. My DC games just look incredible.

[gjb1985]

if you have a very good 4k hdr tv with very high end scaling then all you need is the toro/hanzo vga box plus a good hdmi to vga converter. My dreamcast looks astonishing on my 49inch 4k tv because it has really good internal scaler.

[OfManNotMachine]

DCHDMI is the only solution that will play EVERY single title with no issues.

Most games however can be patched or tricked into booting into VGA Mode.

I wanna say there are 5 games that in no way can be played with a VGA solution, I know 3 of em are Last Blade 2, Mark of the Wolves, and Bangai-O I forget what the other two are but I'd be willing to bet one of em is JoJo's Bizarre adventure, and probably another 2D game.

If you don't really care about those couple titles, then your good to go.

If the dithering of the Dreamcast bothers you, I've been told from those who have DCHDMI it's barely noticeable with this board, and that a future update may be able to disable the dithering pattern entirely

[pcwzrd13]

I haven't used the POUND cable but I recently bought the Hyperkin one for my Nephew's Dreamcast and I'm pretty impressed. It seems the brightness is the opposite of the POUND cable and is actually a bit darker than straight VGA. Here's a comparison shot:

Hyperkin (Left) vs. VGA (Right)

As far as I can tell, the picture is almost identical to straight VGA, just a bit darker. I even tried it on a 60" TV and it still looked nice. So yeah, I would probably recommend it for a cheap all-in-one HDMI solution.

[OfManNotMachine]

Hyperkin definately looks better than the Pound cable. That thing just straight up sucks.

[DCGX]

I just got an OSSC, hooked it up last night, and damn that's glorious! I had one of those VGA to HDMI upscaler, and it worked great...until it didn't stopped transmitting audio. I only it between 2-3 years, so I figure if I'm doing that every 2-3 years (plus I needed a component to HDMI converter for my original Xbox too), I might as well get the OSSC and I'm more or less set.

[DCUltrapro]

Sweet thanks guys, looks like I need to consider either the Hyperkin or a VGA to HDMI Converter. I obviously love Skies of Arcadia, and that game doesn't play via VGA unless you trick it with the xploder, and I think you have to have the US version as well or something? Those games which CANNOT do VGA I have no real issue with not being able to play, as I only really play a handful of games (another reason why I'm selling it all)

The only other issue I would have with moving my Dreamcast over to the main tv is that I would have to run a temporary cable across the room to it in order to play PSO online, or mess around moving the console back over to the desk near my router whenever I want to play.

Essentially I have to decide whether to just move it over there, by an upscaler and when I'm playing online, temporarily run a long cable across the room, or try and fit a cable over there. I have a switch which would mean I could run the xbox and the dreamcast off broadband, so it might be an idea to set it up, but I don't really fancy the idea of running a cable under the carpet... guess i need to way up the pro's and cons and see what my fiancee will agree to lol

Regarding the VGA- HDMI upscaler which was linked to, buying it from the US Amazon site might be an issue for me being in the UK, obviously postage and time to arrive will both be high, I was looking on amazon.co.uk and couldn't find much that was similar. Assuming I bite the bullet and buy from the amazon.com site, is there any reason why it wouldn't work for me in the UK? Any reason why they don't seem to exist over here? I guess I want to avoid wasting my money if it wont work

[OfManNotMachine]

I didnt realize you were in the PAL region. i have no idea how that would affect things unfortunately

[pcwzrd13]

I obviously love Skies of Arcadia, and that game doesn't play via VGA unless you trick it with the xploder, and I think you have to have the US version as well or something?

The US version supports VGA natively. The PAL version doesn't work in VGA at all, even with a boot disc I think. That being said, my main Dreamcast has the custom BIOS by Japanese-cake which ignores VGA flags so I never need to use a boot disc. Everything that can boot in VGA just does. It's really nice.