ATI DVI to component dongle and custom resolution on CRT TV

[Nataq]

Is it possible ?

I am not able to use lower resolution than 640x480 using radeon 9600 with this dongle made for ATI card and suggested by members of BYOAC : http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041901&p_id=2398&seq=1&format=2

I do use soft15khz and switchres to 1.

My card accept the resolution but on my TV, for exemple, 320x240 is scaled down by half so a small window in center of the screen. How is it supposed to fill the screen ?

I was thinking... on the ATI dongle there is switches and for TV out to work on standard CRT I need to switch the 480i one. Does that mean that all I can do with this configuration is 480 lines (640x480) ? 320x240 is half that and that would explain why it is displayed on half the screen (displaying 320x240 lines on a active 640x480 resolution).

I am about to give up to get native resolution...

Other solution I am thinking about :
-A VGA to component transcoder would eliminate all problem ? I guess. Would that give me more resolution freedom then going through a dongle that lock me in a certain format.
-ArcadeVGA card... what is the difference in using this and a VGA to component transcoder ?

PLEASE HELP!!

[Ummon]

Dude, you're not really trying to get native resolutions on a TV, but trying to get the best overall picture that fills the screen on a TV. I told you, search under 'TOK component'.

[Nataq]

Dude... I did. And I would say re-read me. I do want native arcade resolutions displayed on my TV whitout any kind of scaled effect (I dont care about overscan issue, that is not my point). You're saying it is not possible ? Just say so and be clear cause I did searched for what you are suggesting and for a lot of other criterias for hours
(10+ believe me) and although I found some good informations it didnt answered my questions. Plus try and search "TOK component" you will see there will be tons of topics... What specific information you want me to look at ?? That is not very helpful but thanks for trying.

[DJ_Izumi]

Why would anyone use Soft15khz with a TV adaptor?  It does all that for you... o.O  Soft15khz is for when you're using the RGBHV output on a graphics card with an RGB display.

I admit I've never used the ATi component dongle, but I figure that for 480i it should work the same way as the s-video/composite outputs.

[Nataq]

Ok maybe I got everything wrong then...

If I recap in short:
- No way to display 320x240 on a TV (needs to match the closest res to fill the screen instead).

What bugged me was that I read everywhere that soft15 give you the power to output native res... So that is untrue. It does though give you the power to use low resolution although not native (for the most part on a TV using component, no6t talking about arcade monitor)

Please confirm.

Sometimes its just easier to understand in its own words then from other peoples way to say.

Sorry for my impatience that can be seen in my other posts but I really searched a lot so beeing told to search more just annoyed me. I understand for peoples that doesnt even try to find an answer on their own but I did say in my first post that I searched for hours.

[TOK]

Mr. Ummon was referring to my experiments with the Radeons and dongle.
Here is what ended up working for me. TV's are much more finicky about resolutions than computer monitors. Running it at the lower native rez of the old games isn't going to work on your TV.

I also experimented with soft 15k and found that I didn't need it.

I used MaLa as a front end. It has a spot that lets you input a custom resolution.

Set the dongle for 480i. Set Windows to display at 640x480 (you might have to go into Advanced Tab and select Show All Resolutions).

In MaLa (I guess you could also use Soft15k for this if you want to use a front end with no custom resolution support), create a resolution of 640x432. This will fit the image on the screen without cropping the bottom. Your Windows desktop will probably still be a bit cropped at 640x480.

The other alternative is leaving your display 640x480 and using the TV's service (not setup) menu to tweak the image size. I know quite a few people mentioned doing that with success, but I didn't try it. Its different for all brands of TV's, just read up on it and understand the steps if you go that route.

Edit: Here are a couple of pics. Desktop at 640x480, DK at 640x432.

[Nataq]

Thanks for the input!

Your experiments make me wonder if Soft15 is making any difference for me too since I run in the same fixed resolution as you. I'll try without and see if I can spot any difference.

I was able to fix the overscan to a point on my TV service menu but it is still not full screen. I'll try again the resolution you suggest since my TV horizontal and vertical adjustement just compress the graphics on the edges of the screen, not the whole screen (top and bottom are squished only, but not the center of the screen).

I'll just be happy with my current resolution. Now I need to finish my cab. I should be done by the week end.

Thank you again!

[Nataq]

Just for future reference I will add this. Just bought a VGA to component transcoder and a regular TV can display 320x240. I just did it. It's just that the ATI dongle scale everything to 640x480 (limited by the switch set to 480i on the dongle itself).

Unfortunatly going through the transcoder doesnt really improve the picture. Colors are faded out for me somehow. But I do see real scanlines now.

That brings me to think about something I saw on the catalyst driver. There is a section where it state that if you set the dongle switch to 720p you can then customize your own resolution. It is not said like that but it is just over my head. Anyone experimented ? For now the catalyst control panel is bugged on my machine so I cant run any test...