tv-out, arcade vga

[rasputin]

im using an s-video to composite lead to connect PSX emulators to my crt tv.
i read that i'd need an arcadevga card or something similar to get accurate psx image, but it seems ok as it is. not perfect, but the psx never was perfect was it?

i understand the card in question displays at lows resolutions without stretching, now i'd imagine that tvs stretched the original psx image also, but i need confirmation...

so does anyone think the arcadevga card would actually benefit psx emu, if so how much, and what part of the image, if any, is actually degraded from lack of this card?

thanks

[FatTrucker]

If you're running with S-Video (or scart) TBH most videocards will be fine on a conventional CRT TV.

The AVGA specifically is designed for use with 15Khz and 25Khz arcade monitors and even then if you have a card that supports it the free soft15Khz app does exactly the same job.

So no you wouldn't see any real benefit from using one.

PSX outputs an authentic 1:1 image so the picture you're seeing on your CRT should be pretty much faithful to what you would see if you hooked up a real PS1 to it.

[rasputin]

thanks for quick reply.
its s-video to composite, if that matters. i have an s-video to scart but my tv doesn't support s-video over scart (or something like that).

what about using soft15Khz with a geforce gtx 260 to crt tv? it's a european PAL btw... if this setup is possible, and if my card supports it, maybe it'd be worth trying it out to see the results...

thanks

[FatTrucker]

If its a CRT TV then you won't need to use it. A standard TV afaik runs at 31Khz which is within the normal range of a videocard. In fact you'll probably find that if you output at 15Khz you'll lose the picture completely.

The only added function that the AVGA could offer you is the ability to output all sorts of non standard resolutions, but again most VGA cards can force those resolutions themselves http://www.nvidia.com/object/custom_resolutions.html.

If you've already set the PC up to run with good colour and a stable picture then you really don't need to do anything else. If you're not sure if the PSX game in question looks correct, try to find a vid on youtube or somewhere showing that game running on the original hardware.

Just set up PSX using its own config menu to turn off any and all effects, set aspect ratio to 'no correction etc and it will output a native PS1 picture.

[rasputin]

ok thanks for clearing that up for me. onwards with the nostalgic bliss of psx emulation

[Xenepp]

If its a CRT TV then you won't need to use it. A standard TV afaik runs at 31Khz which is within the normal range of a videocard. In fact you'll probably find that if you output at 15Khz you'll lose the picture completely.

That's not true at all. In fact, it's backwards. Regular PAL TVs (and NTSC TVs for that matter) are 15khz and have a maximum resolution of about 320x240. Anything above that is interlaced (640x480 will be too). 31khz will not work on most older PAL TVs, some newer TVs will tolerate it.

Keep in mind I speak of CRT TVs here, LCD and HD TVs will run this stuff natively but will also make your older games look like crap.

So anyway, ArcadeVGA is useful for outputting the exact resolution that the original console output (you will never get that from TV Out on your graphics card) but Soft15khz will do the same thing near enough, depending on your graphics card.

Personally I use Soft15khz with a list of custom resolutions for all my favorite game consoles. I have also built an adaptor to allow me to use S-Video, Composite and RF from that meaning I can use any old TV I want and it will look exactly like the original system did.

Another benefit from this is that the emulator will run faster since it does not have to do any scaling of the image, it just runs in the system's native resolution.

[josef1975]

I have made a complete guide on how to build the vga to scart rgb cable that let you use psp and other emu with soft15khz at the native resolution with great result, follow the link on my signature... hope this can help you

[Xenepp]

I read your guide and appreciate the effort!

It's nice to see someone else playing emulators on a TV in their correct resolution, I'm shocked no one else seems to!

What video card are you using? I have an Nvidia which is limited to the number of resolutions I can add and I can't figure out how to remove built in resolutions and exchange them for my own (like for PAL megadrive, snes, nes etc). With Soft15khz obviously.

[rasputin]

wow, so i'm twice as confused as before!

i'm downloading soft15khz now.
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XENEPP, are you sure PAL maximum is 320x240? i have consistently read that PAL is 720 x 576...

i'm now trying out SNES and megadrive emulation via tv-out so want to sort this out properly. will soft15khz be useful using my s-video to composite cable (my tv doesnt support s-video to s-video) or is it designed for VGA only? and is this program useful for PSX emulation, as I'd imagine the resolution for PSX games well suited for standard pc - tv.

do you set custom resolution per game or per console emulator?

also, what resolutions do you set for SNES emulation? 320x240 or even lower?
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JOSEF1975, will a tv with only one scart input and no s-video input support your custom cable? and do I even need one if i use soft15khz?
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how do i set soft50khz to use my crt tv rather than my pc monitor (will it damage a tft pc screen???)

hope you guys can answer my questions

regards

[Dreamgirl]

i have a question.
how do i set soft50khz to use my crt tv rather than my pc monitor???