DREAMCAST VGA QUESTIONS! come here for everything VGA w/ DC.

[TSTR]

No shame. I've got a 24" CRT sitting right beside me that I'm like, why the fuck do I even have this?

[stickem]

I actually do have a 10 year old Vizio lcd tbat does like the Dreamcast signal. Unfortunately it's not in a room I wish to play it, plus has no audio in for sound. So convertor for the tv it's going on it is.

[SpaceBooger]

Odd question. I just hooked my DC via the retrobit VGA box to my LED 1080p monitor... question. Should I keep it in "full screen mode" where it takes up almost the whole screen (some black on the sides) or should I change it to the smaller "4:3" mode?
Does it matter or is it just personal preference?

[TSTR]

It's personal preference, mostly. 4:3 is the correct aspect ratio, but there's no law saying you can't look at it stretched out to fill the screen. (Though I'd go insane looking at that, but that's just me.)

Did the DC have any widescreen games? I'm thinking similar to how the PS2 did some things, where it would output a squishy image that you'd have to use your TV's controls to widen out properly.

[SpaceBooger]

It's personal preference, mostly. 4:3 is the correct aspect ratio, but there's no law saying you can't look at it stretched out to fill the screen. (Though I'd go insane looking at that, but that's just me.)

Did the DC have any widescreen games? I'm thinking similar to how the PS2 did some things, where it would output a squishy image that you'd have to use your TV's controls to widen out properly.

It doesn't full the whole screen, it seems to be proportional with some, just less, black on the side.
I am also annoyed that even though it's s monitor there it's still artifacting and it's not a clear as crt.

[miked]

It's personal preference, mostly. 4:3 is the correct aspect ratio, but there's no law saying you can't look at it stretched out to fill the screen. (Though I'd go insane looking at that, but that's just me.)

Did the DC have any widescreen games? I'm thinking similar to how the PS2 did some things, where it would output a squishy image that you'd have to use your TV's controls to widen out properly.

Rayman 2 has a 16:9 mode. Played it like that a couple years back. It was pleasant.

I feel like a couple of other titles exist, but maybe someone can fill them in.

Edit: According to this thread its actually quite few

http://dreamcast-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4605

F355
Metropolis Street Racer
Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2
Trickstyle
Aerowings
Rayman 2
Toy Commander
Star Lancer
Test Drive V Rally
Wacky Races

You could also use gameshark codes like ps2 style to force some games.

[TSTR]

Yeah, using a CRT is going to soften the image some and make artifacts inherent in the DC video output (whether caused by the game or the hardware) less visible. Switch that to a fixed-pixel display, throw in some odd/non-integer scaling, and you're probably gonna notice a few crunchy bits.

Interesting about Rayman 2! I had no idea the DC had games that did that. Would love to know if there are more.

[Tanooki]

Maybe it's just me but 16:9 didn't seem like a good thing when I did it. It cut off parts of the screen on the left and right. I kept tabbing between on the options screen and you see this little open swampy area with a few things flying/running around and a tree with a cave in it or a cave(forget) so it's static. I could tell the difference between them as you got to see less area to the sides away from that and the animals circling towards the edges were cut off. Mind you this is on the default cable, maybe on VGA mode it doesn't screw things up.

[Arenegeth]

So I got my Dreamcast ready with a VGA cable recently and I can't help but notice some dithering.

Is not that noticeable during gameplay, but it can be very distracting when still images are on the screen or during CGI cutscenes.

I'm using a VGA cable I got from eBay like two years ago, will this effect still be present if I switch to an official VGA box?

I'm playing on a 52" Sony LCD, Full HD TV, its a 2011 model I think, and it has native VGA slot (I don't convert from DVI or anything else).

Any of the newfangled VGA boxes/HDMI upscalers worth it?

I can live with the dithering in the meantime I suppose, though I do have the option of going scart (I got a Pelican cable from back in the day) on a CRT, but in that case I assume the Dreamcast will default to 480i and not 240p right?

[Ziggy]

Which exact VGA cable do you have now? You can easily get interference in analog AV with shitty cables.

I can live with the dithering in the meantime I suppose, though I do have the option of going scart (I got a Pelican cable from back in the day) on a CRT, but in that case I assume the Dreamcast will default to 480i and not 240p right?

Yes, but I think you can force 240p on some games.