Problems with Dreamcast in High Definition

[jonboywalton]

Hopefully someone can help me out with this. I bought a DC VGA Box with the intention of using a VGA to Component cable and basic audio cables to have my Dreamcast play on my 42" Panasonic Plasma. When I finally had everything plugged in and ready to go I turned on my system to find that the colors were completely distorted and when I tested it with some games the results were similar color distortion and having lapses in time where the games would just black out completely. I tried messing around with the settings on the TV but I still ended up with the same results. Did I miss a connection or a converter or something? I really want my dreamcast to look its very best!! Thanks!

[Leo_A]

Your first step in my opinion needs to be in trying to diagnose what the problem is. A easy first step would be eliminating the converter and hooking the Dreamcast directly up to a VGA input on a monitor to eliminate that from the possibilities.

That is of course if you have everything hooked up correctly, I'm unsure what you need to do to convert the VGA signal to component, but it sounds like you were on the right track to me.

[Gamereviewgod]

Are you sure the component cables are hooked up right? Green and blue can look awfully similar in the dark area behind a TV and cause problems like you described. If not, do what was said above, try the adapter on a monitor with a VGA input.

[SkiDragon]

I once ran the output of my Dreamcast VGA box to a VGA switchbox, but this caused the colors to be messed up like you descibed, where what was happening on the screen seemed to affect the overall brightness. Plugging the output of the box directly to the VGA input of my TV or monitor corrected the problem.

[jonboywalton]

I wish I could plug directly into a vga port but my tv doesn't have one hooked up. Ill try to find a monitor that I can use that has a vga port because as of now i am using my panasonic via hdmi as my monitor as well. Ill post as soon as I try on a monitor.

[jonboywalton]

ok so i tried a monitor and the DC VGA box works perfectly there so there must be some sort of issue when going from vga to component or my tv is simply not compatible. i think i just have to accept that ill have to just play with a lower definition. Thanks for the ideas.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

I had the same issue with my old Xbox recently. I discovered that I had 2 of the cables switched.

[Leo_A]

My guess is that your television wasn't designed to expect such a low resolution signal coming to it through it's VGA jack.

Sounds like your encountering issues others have had with such things as trying to play the PS2 game Ico or PSOne games on their PS2 through component cables, only to discover that their television's component input wasn't designed with the expectation of ever recieving such low resolution sources.

There's a possibility its the converter I suppose. If you have a VGA cable laying around, why not unhook your computer that you have hooked up to HDMI, and hook it up to this converter and do some testing to eliminate that. If that works successfully, 'd be pretty certain your television just doesn't support recieving a 480p resolution through VGA.

Edit - Ignore that, I forget we were converting VGA to component, 480p through component is common enough where any HDTV on the market should support it. I really don't know, it must be your converter that is causing the problem. If you have the space, one option is picking up a CRT computer monitor. You'd be able to get one for nearly free with ease I'm sure, and you'll likely see a much better picture than through your hdtv upscaling it. Though from the sounds of it you wanted to hook it up to your tv, so it's not much of a solution.

[mario2butts]

You said you were using a VGA to component cable? Like this?

https://www.hdwise.com/images/T/component_video_cable_AT19072-04.jpg

Because that probably isn't going to work. Component video (YPbPr) and VGA (RGBHV) are very different video signals. To connect a VGA source to a component input requires a transcoder (expensive converter box). Cables like the one shown above are only meant to be used to connect a component video source to certain specific displays that can accept a component video signal through their VGA port.

What you would need to get your Dreamcast working on your TV is one of these (http://www.digitalconnection.com/faq/hdtv_4.asp), but that would be a $100+ investment. If you're not up to spending that kind of cash you should try S-Video or just use your Dreamcast with a VGA-equipped monitor.