Playing GCN/SNES/etc on a PC Monitor

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:29 am

I have a question about playing games on a monitor. Right now, I don't have the funds to get a new TV and wanted to play videogames, such as Gamecube and Wii on a PC monitor. While one method can be done by hooking it up to a video capture device, I only get a lousy 30fps. I can prove such a device exists, just go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_G ... hird_party
My question is, where can I find such a device?

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:16 am

the problem tends to be that if the game doesn't support 480p, which most GCN and a small handful of Wii don't, then you don't get any picture at all. at least a wii vga cable that i saw acts like that.

a tv card would probably still be your best bet. or get a cheap tv, since it doesn't have to be HD or anything fancy.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:18 am

neo_bahamut1985 wrote:I have a question about playing games on a monitor. Right now, I don't have the funds to get a new TV and wanted to play videogames, such as Gamecube and Wii on a PC monitor. While one method can be done by hooking it up to a video capture device, I only get a lousy 30fps. I can prove such a device exists, just go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_G ... hird_party
My question is, where can I find such a device?

Weeeeelllllllllllllllllll...

Does your GameCube have the digital AV port?
If not, give up now.
Wii isn't capable of VGA output. Not in any region, not in any revision. It will be ignored henceforth.

If your 'Cube DOES have the digital AV port...
Do you have component video cables? Or the japanese "d-terminal" cables? Are you willing to pay the price for them?

If you have or can get the cables...
How do you feel about ripping them open and doing some surgery on the hardware inside them?
The Wii VGA adapter is actually a secondary mode of the component/d-terminal video cable's internal DAC.

If you're willing to do the surgery...
Are you playing progressive scan games exclusively? The 'Cube leaves progressive/interlaced selection up to the game, and not all games support progscan.
If you can't get progscan, you won't get VGA-compatible signals. Just interlaced RGB, which your PC monitor will probably choke on. I suspect this is why Nintendo canned plans for an official VGA cable.

If you answered yes to ALL of these questions...
http://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=av:gamecube_rgb

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:37 am

I recently found this http://www.vdigi.com/
it is worth it?

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 5:51 am

neo_bahamut1985 wrote:I recently found this http://www.vdigi.com/
it is worth it?

It APPEARS to be a component->RGB transcoder. And claims to support progressive scan.

I doubt it generates a particularly great image(by which I mean an image near the same quality level a straight component output would), but it may do for your purposes. It's almost certainly gonna give you better video than a TV card.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:08 pm

I might consider it so long as it looks better than my TVs output.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 4:37 pm

neo_bahamut1985 wrote:I might consider it so long as it looks better than my TVs output.

For SNES games, absolutely nothing is going to beat a nice small CRT TV. A PC monitor will only make everything look much shittier.

Personally I feel the same about GC games. A TV makes it seem more high res than it actually is. But your mileage may vary.

Post by **odditude** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 7:47 pm

blackmyst wrote:
neo_bahamut1985 wrote:I might consider it so long as it looks better than my TVs output.
For SNES games, absolutely nothing is going to beat a nice small CRT TV. A PC monitor will only make everything look much shittier.

Personally I feel the same about GC games. A TV makes it seem more high res than it actually is. But your mileage may vary.

Ditto for PS1.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:07 pm

While I can play via video capture device but I can neither output 60fps nor can I get a bigger screen than the capture software allows. As for now, I can get output. But, alas, TVs are too freakin' expensive..

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:18 pm

even this Duraband 13" TV from wal*mart is too expensive?

that said, why not try a AV -> PC monitor converter box?

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 10:28 pm

Not bad...but I also like the idea of a AV to PC monitor box, too. How much for one of those?

Edit 2:31PM (GMT -09:00) - What about this thing?
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_/105- ... r+Selector

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 11:00 pm

a tv with svideo/component in is a much better solution

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 11:30 pm

The question is a simple, are there such things as cheap component-video TVs?

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:24 am

define cheap.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:26 am

Anywhere between 200 to 300 dollars.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 1:55 am

Yes.

Took me three minutes or less to find that.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 3:06 am

blackmyst wrote:
neo_bahamut1985 wrote:I might consider it so long as it looks better than my TVs output.
For SNES games, absolutely nothing is going to beat a nice small CRT TV. A PC monitor will only make everything look much shittier.

Personally I feel the same about GC games. A TV makes it seem more high res than it actually is. But your mileage may vary.

Depends how you're feeding the TV, partially.

I prefer the sharper image of s-video cable run into my large monitor* for my SNES/GC. Would probably quite like RGB too, if I had RGB cables(or if US GCs supported RGB output, or I had the digital AV port on my deck and some component video cables to hack).
It's a bit less clear on the GC, but I find the cleaner overall image(no dot crawl, crisper lines, etc) to outweigh the "free antialiasing."

Now the PS1... that's another story. It's ENTIRELY too dependant on color dithering and checkerboard transparency to look like not-shit when the composite blur is removed.
Even Symphony of the Night and Valkyrie Profile look better through composite, which surprised me a LOT.

*I was gifted a 32" Mitsubishi CRT monitor for some volunteer work I did. They couldn't figure out what to do with it, and I expressed some interest. So they ensured it left with me. It's a good bit sharper than a TV, partially since it was built to handle PC inputs up to 800*600, but still has composite and svid inputs.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 9:09 pm

Yes, but since I only intend to play Gamecube games on a PC monitor, I really don't care about the quality so long as it looks better than on the TV I have now (and believe me, it ain't pretty).

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:52 am

a tv with svideo in will make everything much sharper.

my suggestion is to suck it down, and save the money you'd want to spend in a savings account.

or get a used TV.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:14 am

Okay, I swear this is my last question before I even consider getting a tv: what about this http://www.amazon.com/VGA-Monitor-Input ... 909&sr=8-1

Edit 5:24PM - I guess what I'm trying to ask in a roundabout way is, can I have full speed (60FPS) and at least better picture-than-a-really-old-tv-can-provide if I got one of these?

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:44 am

you'd get 30FPS with the video capture device, as what coming out of your GC is an interlaced signal, every odd line, then every even line 30 times a second.The TV doesn't care if its odd or even, it just draws it. Your monitor doesn't do that(unless its more than 12 years old), so the vga adapter or capture card waits for a full frame before showing it, or you might have the option of doubling the lines in each frame.

but its not going to look better than a TV either way.

I went down this path, I got the TV.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:47 am

Don't really mind interlacing too much, but how bad would be the delay? I'd still get 60FPS?

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 1:53 am

neo_bahamut1985 wrote:Don't really mind interlacing too much, but how bad would be the delay? I'd still get 60FPS?

no, read above.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 8:20 am

neo_bahamut1985 wrote:Okay, I swear this is my last question before I even consider getting a tv: what about this http://www.amazon.com/VGA-Monitor-Input ... 909&sr=8-1

Edit 5:24PM - I guess what I'm trying to ask in a roundabout way is, can I have full speed (60FPS) and at least better picture-than-a-really-old-tv-can-provide if I got one of these?

That's one of the many "VGA boxes" that upsample composite video to VGA. There was a big rash of these right after the Dreamcast VGA box came out.
They suck just as bad now as they always have.

Upsampling composite video to VGA is just a bad idea.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 7:14 pm

Okay...At least are there any decenly priced TVs that are pretty good sized, too?

Edit 12:40PM - Never mind, I'll just get this http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... id=5633690
instead.

ZSNES board

Playing GCN/SNES/etc on a PC Monitor

Playing GCN/SNES/etc on a PC Monitor

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