Has Anyone Ever Used This VGA to RGB Video Converter?

[bungy]

[I posted this in the Monitor/Video section but didn't get any bites.  Since I'm just looking for general info, I'm posting it here.]

I have a brand new Dell Vostro 230 that won't even boot with ArcadeVGA 3000 and the monitor is standard CGA.  I have contacted Andy at Ultimarc, and he thinks it is a compatibility issue with Dell.  I don't want to use Soft15kHz because it seems like a configuration nightmare.  The only two options I see are 1) get a VGA monitor (prefer not to), and 2) convert the VGA signal.

Has anyone ever used the following converter or had any experience with it?  It's pretty cheap, but any input on how it performs can help me avoid another dead end.

http://www.arcadespareparts.com/arcade_parts/video_converter/vga_rgb_cga_video_converter/12215.html


http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=111465.0

[ark_ader]

Is this the same thing unboxed?



If so its super cheap at £5.

[bungy]

I don't believe it's the same thing.  The one I posted actually converts the signal's horizontal frequency to 15khz for use on an arcade monitor.  That one looks like it just converts VGA to S-Video and composite.

[armi0024]

We have had some great feedback on these and the newer model.  That is the GBS-8100.  There newer version, the GBS-8150 is also available.


The 8100 has a few extra outputs the 8150 doesn't, but the 8150 is a newer model.  I have never had one of these returned, and everyone who buys one seems to like them.  There was a long thread on KLOV from someone who was really impressed by how well it worked.  I have not tested the ArcadeVGA board, so I can't offer a comparison, but I do know Andy makes some nice products.

One big caution on Gonbes boards.  There are a lot of knock off boards out there and the quality difference is huge.  It is hard to know whether you are getting the knock offs or originals when you buy from distributors because both are from China.  This is why we go straight to Gonbes.  The only other company that I know deals directly with Gonbes is Jammaboards.com.  Even though the printing on the board will say Gonbes, I would stick with the people who buy direct.  We have at least 3 dozen emails from people whose boards didn't work from other people but they loved the ones from us.

[bungy]

Thanks for the input armi.  Unfortunately I already pulled the trigger on the one in my post.  Hopefully it works ok, but if not, I'll get one of yours.

[armi0024]

No problem, someone ordered one 10 minutes after I posted, which is really ironic...

The knock offs work well sometimes, but if it doesn't don't hesitate to get in touch.

[AndyWarne]

I really need to explain something here in the interests of technical accuracy, not trying to knock a product which another supplier is selling but just to point out it might not be appropriate in this case, unless I have the situation wrong.

The OPs original emails to me about the ArcadeVGA problem mentioned using a D9800 monitor. This is a tri-sync monitor. The benefit of these monitors is they can run all the 30 or so 15Khz resolutions of the ArcadeVGA card and also run VGA. Using a converter of this type, this will output only one resolution. so this negates the benefit of doing any conversion at all.
Using the converter all games would run at the desktop resolution, or similar, a VGA resolution the converter can accept as input. The converter would resample and output its own resolution to the monitor.

As none of the native game resolutions are available, there is no benefit over connecting the monitor directly to a normal VGA card and running at 31Khz. This will not give native resolutions either but it will not be using any external resampling. The conversion would be done by Mame and Direct3D instead, which is pretty good at it.

Where these converters are useful is when a 15Khz monitor is being used and there is no other way to generate compatible signal. The PC can be run at 640 x 480 and then the converter has an exact divisor of number of lines, ie down to 240 lines. The Asian coin-op games these are generally used with have a native resolution of 640 x 480 so this works well in these cases.

[armi0024]

Not a knock at all, glad you weighed in, I was just answering the question about the Gonbes boards. 

[bungy]

I really need to explain something here in the interests of technical accuracy, not trying to knock a product which another supplier is selling but just to point out it might not be appropriate in this case, unless I have the situation wrong.

The OPs original emails to me about the ArcadeVGA problem mentioned using a D9800 monitor. This is a tri-sync monitor. The benefit of these monitors is they can run all the 30 or so 15Khz resolutions of the ArcadeVGA card and also run VGA. Using a converter of this type, this will output only one resolution. so this negates the benefit of doing any conversion at all.
Using the converter all games would run at the desktop resolution, or similar, a VGA resolution the converter can accept as input. The converter would resample and output its own resolution to the monitor.

As none of the native game resolutions are available, there is no benefit over connecting the monitor directly to a normal VGA card and running at 31Khz. This will not give native resolutions either but it will not be using any external resampling. The conversion would be done by Mame and Direct3D instead, which is pretty good at it.

Where these converters are useful is when a 15Khz monitor is being used and there is no other way to generate compatible signal. The PC can be run at 640 x 480 and then the converter has an exact divisor of number of lines, ie down to 240 lines. The Asian coin-op games these are generally used with have a native resolution of 640 x 480 so this works well in these cases.

Actually, I was trying to use the ArcadeVGA with a standard 25" (I think Hantarex) arcade monitor, but the computer wouldn't even boot with the card.  I tried the ArcadeVGA in another computer with my D9800 just to make sure the card worked, and it did flawlessly.

I'm building a MAME system for a friend who already has the PC and monitor, so we are trying to get everything running with the hardware we have.  Since the target computer is not compatible with the ArcadeVGA, I figured the next best option was to convert the signal with one of these, just as you stated.

If for some reason the converter doesn't work, my next step is to try Soft15khz with a J-PAC.

Thanks again for all the help so far.