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Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 9:25 am
by myshtuff
So after many years of playing on a shitty TV, I finally got a nice 42 inch LED HDTV. Of course, one of the first things I want to do is play Shenmue on it. So I have a VGA box for my dreamcast. From my understanding, I need to get a vga to hdmi upconverter/upscaler box to plug it into my HDMI port. Has anyone tried this before?

I am thinking about getting this:
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Video-Proje ... 1BFS31MYTF

Has anyone tried this setup before and know how it looks?

Thanks!

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 7:01 pm
by Ziming
Adam Koralik is the guy to ask about this. He even made a video.

phpBB [video]

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Sat May 11, 2013 7:09 pm
by AdamKoralik
Yes, that's my video. I HIGHLY recommend that process.

Just to add to that, I can now capture footage (which I couldn't do when I made that video).

Skip to around 12:22 to see the captured footage.

phpBB [video]

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2013 10:55 am
by myshtuff
Wow that looks awesome. Yeah I will definitely get the vga to hdmi converter this week from Amazon if I can. I will post later this week when I get it in and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the awesome videos!

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Sun May 12, 2013 3:22 pm
by spud1897
I'm gonna get one of those!!

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 4:21 am
by Master Kyodai
I'd like to see a comparison like "NullDC true 1080p Shenmue vs upscaled conversion box DC Shenmue". I'm curious if the difference is visible at all, so far the upscaled version looks pretty nice. But if you have a PC with HDMI out NullDC is maybe the cheaper solution although not always 100% glitch free.

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 5:16 am
by MiTT3NZ
NullDC's a pain in the arse when it comes to Shenmue. My laptop (2007-2010 :( ) ran Shenmue better than my current PC, which is ridiculously more powerful than it. It's as if it has maximum requirements as opposed to minimum.

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 9:18 am
by myshtuff
I mean I already have a VGA box so getting the VGA to hdmi converter was only another $35 so it's no big deal.

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 1:40 am
by AdamKoralik
I hope you didn't cheap out and get an off brand one.

Most converter boxes suck ass and totally fail to do the thing they're supposed to.

Atlona ones are expensive as hell, but they actually do what they're meant to.

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 8:22 am
by myshtuff
http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Video-Proje ... 1BFS31MYTF

Thats the one I got. There was a review on it about someone using it for a dreamcast and they said it worked great. If it doesn't work, I'll return it.

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 2:43 pm
by AdamKoralik
Image

Eek, good luck with that.

That looks like a piece of shit.

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 3:18 pm
by Sonikku
Not all scalers are created equal, sadly. I learned that when I tried watching dvd's on my projector back in the day using the Infocus X1's own Faroudja upscaler chip in comparison to letting the player output the dvd player doing the scaling it self over component. The faroudja chip came out on top. When you're dealing in upscaling an image from 480p to 1080p especially, the quality of the device is going to make a big difference in trying to fill in detail where there isn't any. I'd probably just get an HDMI cable off Amazon for $10 and go through the trouble of configuring the Dreamcast emulator in outputting 1080p natively than bother fooling around with scalers though. (I already have a wired 360 pad and a Radeon 7770 video card that can easily handle running high rez dreamcast games however, so your mileage may vary)

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 5:57 pm
by ys
This thread inspired me to have a look at these different options. The last emulator I played around with was Chankast but I'm curious about NullDC.

Master Kyodai wrote:But if you have a PC with HDMI out NullDC is maybe the cheaper solution although not always 100% glitch free.

Besides the glitches, Shenmue feels different for some reason without the added sound of the Dreamcast : KRRR ZZZ ZZZZ ZZZZ KRRR when loading areas ;)

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 6:16 pm
by myshtuff
AdamKoralik wrote: Image

Eek, good luck with that.

That looks like a piece of shit.


When I get it in ill report back and let you know how it goes

Re: Playing Dreamcast on an HDTV

PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 6:57 pm
by AdamKoralik
You should never cheap out on a scaler bro. Cheap ones NEVER do what they're supposed to. Trust me.