X-BOX video

[unicron]

With 3s now slated for xbox live, I'm going to buy an xbox and wire it to my arcade.

The controllers I'm sure will be pretty much same old, yet I am unsure as to what would be the best route for video.

Ideally I would like to have a vga cable to plug into my jpac (like how my dc is hooked up with a hacked vga box), so I can simply switch between dc or xbox by switching which cable is plugged into the jpac.

I do not want to wire it directly to my harness, and if possible I would like to avoid having to wire a scart cable to a jamma fingerboard.

 My main question is what is the best way of doing this?
Can you buy an xbox vga box and hack it so it'll plug into a jpac?
 tia, unicron

[pathfndr]

I would like to know to i have searched the boards and internet for a way to hook a xbox to a arcade monitor. People on the boards have done it but i think they have a direct connection vga to thier monitors. On this does say a XBoxVGA  or a X2VGA output a 15k signal like when you hack the dreamcast to use on the arcade monitor. Would the people that are using the xbox vga box please explain how they are hooking them up and using them. I understand that they are made for computer monitors and like the dreamcast vga box you have to kill the 25k signal. But no one is mentioning this on the xbox ones. They are running the straight into it i assume. Anyone please put input on this so me and other people will have a working knowledge of the process. Also anyone have any knowledge of using a scart xbox cable to arcade monitor. Thanks all.

[Dave_K.]

Have you read the Game Consoles FAQ on this site?  

[urlhttp://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade_consoles.shtml[/url]

To answer your question, you use a transcoder with the xbox in 480i mode to output RGB at 15khz.  Note: I do not know if the X2VGA box will output 480i signal (at 15khz)....I believe it has some weird "preview" mode which upscans 480i so you can view the xbox dashboard on a vga monitor.  If you can turn that option off, you are golden!  

[unicron]

Thx for the point to the FAQ.

"  a 480p progressive signal can be converted to 640x480 VGA. "

this sounds like what I want.

So the xbox can output 480p progressive scan signal at will?
Know of any good places where I could buy a cheap transcoder?

[Dave_K.]

As mentioned in my above post, this is the best option out now for xbox transcoding.

http://www.x2vga.com/

[Dave_K.]

Oh, I should also mention that there are a few xbox games that will not output 480p (and thus are not compatible with a vga monitor and transcoder).  For example, "Kung Fu Chaos" will not work with a transcoder.

[Floyd10]

(snip snip)For example, "Kung Fu Chaos" will not work with a transcoder.

But who wants to play that?

[unicron]

Sounds good, anyone ever trying plugging and x2vga into a JPAC?

I only care if it works with 1 game, and that game isn't out yet (I'm waiting for it to come out before I buy my xbox). All the other games for xbox besides the upcoming Street Fighter III: Third Strike, are trash imo.

[Dave_K.]

Sounds good, anyone ever trying plugging and x2vga into a JPAC?

I only care if it works with 1 game, and that game isn't out yet (I'm waiting for it to come out before I buy my xbox). All the other games for xbox besides the upcoming Street Fighter III: Third Strike, are trash imo.

I don't know why you'd want to do this.  The jpac outputs keyboard protocol for the joystick/buttons which is not compatible with xbox.  

[unicron]

I don't know wtf you're talking about.

I want to DISPLAY MY XBOX'S VIDEO ON MY ARCADE MON.
I'd rather not splice / mess with the wires on my jamma harness.

A nice vga cable to plug into my jpac, it'd be great, the jpac even will not allow "bad" refresh rates to be displayed on the mon, and so forth..

Perhaps you do not own a jpac so you don't know why this would rock,
I do it right now with my DC, and it ROCKS.

here's an old pic but my setup is still basically the same now, although a little more cleanly wired: http://home.houston.rr.com/lcastles/dcpics/P1010065.JPG

I wanna do it with an xbox too, so it will ROCK^2 get me?

EDIT: look at my website for more pics,
and I'm glad for your help on my question.

EDIT2:
http://home.houston.rr.com/lcastles/dcpics/P1010063.JPG
http://home.houston.rr.com/lcastles/dcpics/P1010064.JPG
See what I had to do to my DC VGA box to get it to plug into my jpac? I had to cut some wires and insert some resistors. Basically what I'm asking is if I'd have to do that same kind of stuff with an X2VGA or could it just plug directly into my jpac without any modification to its signal, etc.

[dabone]

I just made a scart to rgb cable.

I took the videoamp circuit from

http://www.mameworld.net/pc2jamma/hardware.html


and then grabbed the sync with a lm1881n circuit.

http://www.national.com/ds/LM/LM1881.pdf

(input the composite video into it and get negative composite sync out)


I've tried it with a 27" monitor in a SNK candy cab, a 13" wg, and a 25" 8liners chassis. It works with the 27" and the 13" but has overscan issues with the 8liners chassis.


I used a female scart connector, so I can hookup the dreamcast, psx, psx2, and xbox thru the same adapter.


Later,
dabone

[Dave_K.]

I don't know wtf you're talking about.

The jpac is a PC interface to Jamma.  As in controls + video.  Thats what I thought you were trying to do.  If you only want to use it for displaying the xbox video (and then use the normal xbox pads to play games) then I guess that will work fine.  You don't need to do any further hacking after you transcode the component signal to RGB.  Just plug it into the VGA port on the jpac.

[unicron]

"You don't need to do any further hacking after you transcode the component signal to RGB.  Just plug it into the VGA port on the jpac."

you've done this and it works?

[Dave_K.]

Ok now I understand what you are asking, you really want to know if the x2vga transcoder can output 15khz.  I don't have one so I can't say.  From their website it says that with a 480i input source, it will attempt to upscan in to 31khz (they call it "480i easy view").  I don't know if you can turn this feature off, but if you cannot, then you do not want this transcoder.

Looks like the VD-Z3 transcoder has an on/off switch for 480i upscan mode:
http://hardware.teamxbox.com/articles/xbox/724/VDZ3-ComponenttoVGA-Transcoder-Review/p2

[unicron]

Thx for replies. So you think that the VD-Z3, with 480i upscan mode switched to off, would output 15khz vga?

Anybody else know anything about this?