[BenoitRen]

A friend gave me a component cable for the PlayStation 2 I have here at home, along with a component to VGA plug. It didn't work.

I'm testing this by using a homebrew software called GS Mode Selector, launched through Free McBoot, to set the 480p video mode.

After some research, it would seem that I need a monitor that supports sync on green. But after seeing a list and testing several of the monitors I have here at home, it would seem that monitors that support it are a rare breed. Or maybe they do support it but there's some kind of ritual I have to do. I wouldn't know, though, because no specifications or manuals are available for them.

The last resort would be to build a sync splitter or modify the component cable to incorporate one, but I've never soldered anything in my life. It doesn't seem to be possible to buy a completed sync splitter either.

The only consumer-friendly solution out there is the Blaze VGA cable, but it's become quite rare, and there are conflicting reports about its quality.
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[Corinth]

For about ten years now I've used a Vdigi VD-Z3 component-to-VGA transcoder to play my Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube on monitors. My transcoder supports RGBHV and RGBs sync, and I've yet to find a monitor it doesn't work with. I know that there are other consumer level component-to-VGA transcoders out there - I chose between a few when I bought mine, and I've seen more since just kind of passively taking in AV nerd news. I think you'd be way better off finding one of these that works with more common sync modes than trying to force things to work with SOG.

[notbov]

what thatbox said

XCM made a transcoder that supports 480i/1080i, but that's only if the display in question does, and you're forcing 480p (from what it sounds), so, yes, any decent transcoder will do
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[BenoitRen]

The VGA cable (which is likely a component to VGA transcoder) I use for my Wii is from VDigi (VD-W2). *high-fives thatbox*

The VDigi VD-Z3 cable isn't available anymore, though (neither is anything else, save for a Wii HDMI upscaler). The XCM transcoder I found is designed for current-gen. systems, and is quite expensive as it includes component cables for several consoles. Argh. Guess I'll hunt some other transcoder, then.
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[Corinth]

Here are some pictures of the Xbox and PS2 using my transcoder on a Dell P1110 Trinitron that I already had online from, like, 6-8 years ago:



Outrun 2 on Xbox with Pijaibros and Sub over XboxConnect.


Shikigami no Shiro 2 on Xbox.


Halo on Xbox.


Halo on Xbox, I don't remember if this was just the dorm LAN or XBC.


Shadow of the Colossus on PS2.


I have Xbox 360 Halo 3 and Wii Skyward Sword pictures using the same transcoder somewhere, too, if you're interested.

[Corinth]

Sorry, you hadn't responded when I opened the tab to type that. Embarrassing! Well, I dunno then. There seem to be some generic ones on eBay and Amazon, and just on my first Google this thread seems like it might be helpful.

[BenoitRen]

One of the recommendations in your linked thread is the X2VGA2. An older thread on the same message board (which I stumbled upon during a Google search as well) details in a series of posts why the X2VGA2 is not a good buy. However, it did lead me to this post by someone who works for a company that used to resell the VD-Z3 cable (which according to your thread, bizarrely enough, is referred to as "some cheap HK crap"). It was his responsibility to find a replacement, and he recommends the CSV-955A.
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[BenoitRen]

It doesn't look like you can buy the CSV-955A from anywhere else than DataPro. A shame, because international shipping is expensive! We're talking $27.50 for economy shipping! They talk about a Postal Express option on their help page, but it's not offered during checkout.

By the way, can people please get their terminology right? 480p is not HD (as I'm sure every HD afficionado will testify after vomiting). It's ED (Enhanced Definition).
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[spinach]

HD is a dumb nondescriptive marketing term once used
even to describe french PAL sets. it's much better to refer
to resolution itself rather than spew marketspeak.
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[notbov]

no, 480p gets referred to in properly done materials as ED (and correctly identified TVs as EDTVs), but EDTVs can still "support" HD resolutions (hell, 1080i isn't that far off from 480p considering 540 lines are ever only drawn during a refresh), so you can imagine the clusterfuck that makes. technically, HD starts at 720p for the purposes of anything not a computer monitor and i eagerly await the massive amounts of stupidity once we go past 1080p (routinely described in the states as "full HD", nevermind that 1080p is described with vertical res and newer standards will be by horizontal res, like 4k and 8k)

if the transcoder can do 480p and the display can do 640x480@60hz, you're good to go
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[Gironika]

*2001-gaming-lore*
Wasn't that green-screen thing a trick for sony to avoid some legal stuff that should prevent you from watching DVDs without paying some royalty (that was split 50/50 among the remote/the VGA-cable)?
*/2001-gaming-lore*


(man, I love those times when the internet wasn't around to crush those weird explanations with cold, hard facts that made life seem less … exciting).
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[Brooks]

years ago i spent a while and some money trying to get vga cables to fly with ps2 too and then just said fuck it i'll wait for decent emulation

i tried the blaze and it was junk

[BenoitRen]

[Brooks]

could never get it to talk properly to any of my bog standard tft monitors on any setting

possibly a faulty unit but i ran out of patience to delve any further into it

[cassievania]

rise-from-your-grave.gif
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[BenoitRen]

I got a connector that changes the gender of a VGA plug, so I could test the rest of my monitors.

None of them worked.

So, instead of shelling out a lot of money for a transcoder/box, I figured I'd look for a CRT monitor from Sony, most of which support Sync on Green. I found one nearby: Sony MultiScan 17 sf II. According to the Sync on Green Monitor DB, it should work. A quick e-mail message to the seller confirmed that it was still available.

What do you think? Is there a good reason I shouldn't pick this one up?
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[Felix]

you guys it seems significantly harder to get a working VGA output from the original hardware to 480p than to just emulate gc/ps2/wii at 1080p

I don't get it

[BenoitRen]

Felix, please. This is not the place, or the time.
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[notbov]

well, a transocder is a modular solution (on either side), whereas that separate SoG monitor is up until whenever the tubes in it crap out
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[BenoitRen]

Sure, but I was wondering if the monitor I'm looking to purchase is known to deliver bad quality, break down fast, etc. That sort of thing.
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[Seizure]

Aren't Sony CRTs pretty solid, as a general rule? Whether or not it's still in good condition after all the years is another thing.

[Gironika]

my SOny Triniton TV set (20") bought in 2004 is still working (after lots of FFes, Star Oceans, GT4s (at least 4 x 24h races), the Irem PS2 lineup, ... so yeah, has seen some usage over the years) and my SGI Triniton (also sony) CRT has been doing fine the last time I've fired it up.

So yeah, seconding the "ROCK" solid commen.
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[Toptube]

Is the component cable you are using a quality piece? Normally I wouldn't press on this, but I've had legitimate issues with cheap component cables and PS2 even on normal TVs. Especially those multi-system cables.

[Corinth]

[BenoitRen]

A transcoder would be a better solution, but at the moment I'm not prepared to drop a lot of money on a decent transcoder + shipping.
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[BenoitRen]

[BenoitRen]

I got the Sony MultiScan 17 sf II!

Booted GS Mode Selector and set the display mode to VGA. So far, so good.

Booted Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2, which natively supports progressive scan. The image is screwed up. When I activate the progressive scan option in the menu, I get a double image as if I was on a display that only supported interlaced. What the heck? I tried the game again without forcing a video mode first and activating progressive scan. I get an image... but it's got a green tint to it. Isn't it stripping the sync from the green signal?

Going to try more...
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[BenoitRen]

I've tested 22 games so far. The success rate is about 40%.

Lots of games don't seem to use the full framebuffer. God Hand is a peculiar case in that it uses the full framebuffer when it boots, but switches to the reduced framebuffer when you choose to use the NTSC video mode.
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[BenoitRen]

List of VGA compatibility in PAL PlayStation 2 games (EDIT: obsolete, see more recent post)
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[Felix]

God Hand may be doing some really inefficient framebuffer stuff because it's also much slower to emulate than it seems like it should be (I could run SotC and FFXII at 720p but had to run God Hand in native resolution to get fullspeed).

[BenoitRen]

Research suggested that the reason the image had a green tint on Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 was because the PS2's video output was set to component instead of RGB. I just tried again with the output set to RGB, and it works!
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[BenoitRen]

I remembered that there was a commercial program out there to force PS2 games to display in progressive scan called HDTV Player. It's not easy to find anymore, but I found a website in The Netherlands that still sells it, and for a very good price, even. Still, I wanted to try it first, so I downloaded the ELF file.

While it has less options than GS Mode Selector, HDTV Player works better overall. It has better compatibility and for some reason the games look better. This was easily seen with Nightshade, a game that also works flawlessly with GS Mode Selector. With the latter, the game looks like an old DOS game running at 320x240. With HDTV Player, the game looks better, which is most easily seen by the appearance of the menu options, which no longer look pixellated.

It's definitely on my to-buy list.

I've added a separate table for HDTV Player compatibility on my VGA compatibility page that you can find on my website.
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[BenoitRen]

I've tested some games with 576p, and this allowed Castle Shikigami II to run past the publisher logo video. So now I'm thinking of adding a column for 576p to the HDTV Player table (GS Mode Selector 0.23x doesn't support 576p on PS2s that haven't received a very late BIOS update). However, 576p isn't VGA... What do I call my list/page, then? Is there a more elegant name than "List of VGA and ED compatibility in PAL PS2 games"? I can't call it a list for progressive scan compatibility, because there's the oddball but useful 960i mode that GS Mode Selector supports.
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[Gironika]

you could use the name of the computer display resolution (see: here)?
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[BenoitRen]

I'm not looking for how to name the progressive scan PAL video mode. I'm looking for a good name that encompasses all the video modes I test.
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[Takashi]

If you want a title, I'd so with "W/S/VGA and component compatibility in PAL PS2 games"
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[BenoitRen]

[jjsimpso]

Technically, I'm not sure if I'd consider any format with sync on green to be VGA. VGA can mean a number of things, including an hd-15 connector or 640x480 resolution. Generally speaking though, I think of VGA as RGBHV. Component is actually a more appropriate descriptor because RGsB(RGB sync on green) is a form of component video(and so is VGA). Of course, most devices that have component inputs don't handle PC video rates properly.

How does "Analog RGB Component Compatibility" sound?
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[BenoitRen]

Analog RGB Component Compatibility sounds pretty good. However, doesn't that include NTSC and PAL video modes?
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[Takashi]

Technically, the terms "NTSC" and "PAL" are defined by the color encoding on composite cables, not the resolution.
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[jjsimpso]

Yes, Takashi is right about and NTSC and PAL. I can't think of any nomenclature that would clearly exclude component 480i and 240p from your list though.
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