Reply To: General help with a Dreamcast, please?

[nmalinoski]

* RF: I had no idea this existed until today, I thought the N64 was the last console to have an official release of an RF modulator

As far as I can tell, RF modulators work off of composite video, and the last console I recall having native RF output was the NES; from the SNES onward, an external RF modulator was used, which could also be used with the N64 and GameCube (and I’m sure the AV Famicom) by virtue of those consoles using the same AV Multi-out port and pinout. In any case, stay far away from this, because it is by far the worst possible choice for video output.

* RCA composite: 480i only, luma and chroma carried on a single wire (1)
* s-video: 480i only, carries chroma and luma in two different wires
* SCART: 480i only, capable of carrying RGBs (meaning the sync is carried in a 4th wire) (2) (3)

In general, these three output methods are also capable of transmitting 240p. It’s just that the Dreamcast doesn’t support 240p output over these, correct?

* DB-15: 480p only, capable of carrying RGBHV, very susceptible of visual noise due to poor cable shielding (meaning the sync is carried through 2 wires) (4) (5)

RGBHV is typically carried over DE-15/VGA cabling, which is often built with coax, which makes it the best-shielded option for the least amount of money (in terms of cabling in general). More often it’s everything else–SCART, component, S-Video, composite cables–that are commonly found to have been constructed with unshielded cabling, although I’m sure you can find garbage VGA cables as well.

3 – sync is signal that combines vertical and horizontal lines
4 – DB-15 is usually called VGA, which is a bit of a misnomer

Regarding note 3, the combination of vertical and horizontal syncs is called composite sync, or CSync.
Regarding note 4, it’s typically a misnomer when used in the context of Dreamcast, because that output method uses VGA cabling, probably because it’s the most appropriate for outputting separate sync, but the video signals are not compliant with the VGA spec (not that it really matters to a CRT).

My only concern about the DCHDMI is the complexity of the installation. My soldering skills aren’t as good as needed for a project like the UltraHDMI, and where I live there’s no modders I can trust to install that kind of thing.

I can’t speak for the DCHDMI, because it’s not out yet, so I haven’t done an install, but I installed my own UltraHDMI, and it’s really not that difficult of an install if you have the right tools and follow the directions. I don’t claim to be any kind of soldering wizard, but that part of the install went surprisingly quick.

You’ll need a good soldering station (Hakko FX-888D can be had for ~$100 USD, and it comes with an appropriate tip), SMD tweezers (handy for keeping the flex cable in place while you’re tacking it down), and you’ll definitely want the specific rosin flux pen specifically recommended in the installation manual. The hardest part for me was the case modification; I don’t particularly care for cutting plastic.

I’m assuming the Dreamcast port only output analog signals, so an external FPGA solution like the ones for the GameCube can’t be expected, right?

Also, DCHDMI should have a better image/audio quality as it’s getting data directly from the GPU, and not converting the signal from analog to digital like Akura does.

Correct. The GameCube (or at least the DOL-001 model) is special, in that its Digital AV port directly exposes digital audio and video, which I’m not sure any other pre-HDMI console does. And, yes, the Dreamcast only outputs analogue signals, so that’s what the Akura has to deal with. There is, however, an external FPGA solution for this, and you know it as the OSSC. 😛

How complicated is it to run Dreamcast games from another region?
The PlayStation 2 had region lock and even with modchips, swap tricks, or whatever, PAL games would be black and white on a NTSC TV, unless a component cable was used.
I’m assuming the Dreamcast can output both 50Hz and 60Hz without bigger mods, right?
I think I read that the original Xbox had serious troubles with that kind of thing, and even if the European consoles had an PAL60 option, running NTSC games was a bit troublesome. So I’m still concerned about all the things I don’t know.

With a GDEMU, playing games from other regions is as simple as launching it, and I don’t think the Dreamcast needs a dual-frequency oscillator, like the PlayStation and PS2 do, to properly play PAL games on an NTSC console or vice versa. PAL games may tend to run in 50Hz, so, if your display can’t handle 50Hz, then you may wish to stick to NTSC versions when possible. Some PAL games, like ChuChuRocket!, do give you the option on bootup to use 50Hz or 60Hz, which is neat.

I’m not familiar with that issue with the original Xbox. In my experience, Xbox games will run in whatever video mode the console is currently set to, so PAL games running on an NTSC console will display in NTSC, since it’s basically just a PC. The only problem I’m aware of is that, when set to PAL mode, the only additional video option you get is PAL60 (I forget if this also prevents you from using digital audio); your console needs to specifically have its video region set to NTSC to enable any of 480p, 720p, and 1080i.