The Playstation screen->VGA mod update

Skraggy_uk · 04-08-2003, 08:47 AM

I've been following M Pros plans, and using a passthrough connector desoldered from the rear of the screen, and a 15pin Dsub VGA connector, make my self an adaptor.

I know that these screens need 15khz synch.

Matrox cards should be able to handle this low with Powerstrip.

The only spare AGP card I had available is a Matrox G450 DH DDR.
Bingo I thought. Excellent.

Wrong.
it seems (don't know about the Parhelia or 550, don't have one spare) that the G400 was the last Matrox card to support the Arcade setting.

Looks like I have two choice here.
1) Find a G400 DH/Max and use that.
2) Find a replacement for my GF2MX in my main PC (Powerstrip says that will do the Arcade settings).

My main PC is a dual 466Celeron@ 525mhz on a BP6 board so state of the art 128meg etc isn't needed, and usual I'm borke (thats why I'm using a console screen not a Xenarc), so it has to be cheap, and at least as stable as a Hercules GF2MX, at least as quick as a Hercules GF2MX, and if possible Dual head (current one is single head, but I might as well improve matters).

Any suggestions. budget is peanuts, and now I have a G450 that is going to waste, that is proving to be pretty much useless.
no TVout under linux or DOS, Poor 3d but it was originally for an HTPC anyway.

Now no Arcade resolutions like it was supposed to.

NJay · 04-08-2003, 10:54 AM

Skraggy,
how much are you looking to spend on a new card?

You have two options. 1) If the GF2MX does the arcade setting then do the swap (I gather this is what you are considering) or 2) Get a card for the carputer that does the arcade setting and leave the GF2MX in your desktop machine

I know my 64mb Radeon 7000 from Sparkle does the 15khz as I managed to setup a custom res for it. Didn't know about the preset Arcade option at the time and hence I'm going to try that tonight. It worked in so far as windows swapped to the resolution but unfortunately the TFT screen I have couldn't sync that low and hence I got what you did with a scrolling image.

One other thing is that the sparkle has two vga outputs and a TV-out that can be driven at diff freq so you can have them as one large desktop or the same image on all three at optimum refresh rate for each screen. Cost me £50 6months ago from a PC show so would imagine its a lot less than that now.

And as to performance. Its quicker playing UT2003 than the GF2Ultra I also have so nuff said.

Skraggy_uk · 04-08-2003, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NJay
Skraggy,
how much are you looking to spend on a new card?

You have two options. 1) If the GF2MX does the arcade setting then do the swap (I gather this is what you are considering) or 2) Get a card for the carputer that does the arcade setting and leave the GF2MX in your desktop machine

I know my 64mb Radeon 7000 from Sparkle does the 15khz as I managed to setup a custom res for it. Didn't know about the preset Arcade option at the time and hence I'm going to try that tonight. It worked in so far as windows swapped to the resolution but unfortunately the TFT screen I have couldn't sync that low and hence I got what you did with a scrolling image.

One other thing is that the sparkle has two vga outputs and a TV-out that can be driven at diff freq so you can have them as one large desktop or the same image on all three at optimum refresh rate for each screen. Cost me £50 6months ago from a PC show so would imagine its a lot less than that now.

I'm stuck with choices here now. Either option would be good for me.

I know Sparkle stuff can be a little flaky, but once setup with decent drivers works really well. My GFs machine has a Sparkle TNT2 that I bought about 5 years ago, and it still goes well.

I would be happy with either the GF2MX staying in my machine, or the Radeon, and £50 is right on the button.

Let me know if with the right powerstrip build you get the Arcade option available for the Radeon, and I'll go for that with the car PC, otherwise I'll put it in mine and use the GF2.

Skraggy_uk · 04-08-2003, 11:21 AM

Hmm, just had a look arroudn the Sparkle taiwan, and UK sites, no sign of a Radeon card, just the GF and TNT based ones.

looking for other brands. So you never know.

NJay · 04-08-2003, 11:43 AM

That's coz I'm an idiot and thought one thing and wrote something completely different

Try
Supergrace

Skraggy_uk · 04-08-2003, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NJay
That's coz I'm an idiot and thought one thing and wrote something completely different

Try
Supergrace

Cheers. Not a problem, I do that all the time

NJay · 04-08-2003, 12:21 PM

Let me know how you get on as I have one of those adaptors I posted a picture of, on its way so piccies of your cable mod and results would be helpful.

Looks like I might be making a trip to Maplins to get a new soldering Iron tip as mine it knackered.

NJay · 04-08-2003, 01:36 PM

Just upgraded to v3.30 and tried the Arcade Setting. The driver accepted it no problems and didn't even need a reboot.

Switched to the resolution and the monitor just went blank though but it did tell me that an error had occured as 15.7khz wasn't valid.

Wooohooo that means the cards outputting the right frequency

Edit: Skraggy, don't know if this will help but I've just upped the horizontal pixels in the arcade setting from 640 to 800, leaving the vertical at 480. The driver accepted it no probs, so if I'm not mistaken that means you should get the right screen ratio when it gets output onto a 7.2inch widescreen display like yours

Skraggy_uk · 04-08-2003, 06:13 PM

Cheers for that.
Had fun this evening.

Took the G450 out of the CarPC, and put it in the main PC, installed Matrox drivers for 2k/XP, rebooted, and powerstrip offered Arcade.

So it looks like it was the flaky old 98 install on the CarPC Hard-drive that was the problem.

The CDrom that I'm using to install from decided to die, just as I'm about to install 2k from it. Can't be the motherboard surely?

I found an old Creative IDE 6 speed CDRom and that worked fine.
Is now installing 2k, unfortunatley the Creative drive will read CDRs but not CDRWs, and all the software I want to use is on a CDRW.

I just hope I can get 2k to install the Netgear wireless driver easier than '98 and then I can just grab the latest Detonator direct, and see if the GF2 has the arcade option that was missing in '98 with the Matrox.

Skraggy_uk · 04-09-2003, 02:23 AM

Cheers for that.
Had fun this evening.

Took the G450 out of the CarPC, and put it in the main PC, installed Matrox drivers for 2k/XP, rebooted, and powerstrip offered Arcade.

So it looks like it was the flaky old 98 install on the CarPC Hard-drive that was the problem.

The CDrom that I'm using to install from decided to die, just as I'm about to install 2k from it. Can't be the motherboard surely?

I found an old Creative IDE 6 speed CDRom and that worked fine.
Is now installing 2k, unfortunatley the Creative drive will read CDRs but not CDRWs, and all the software I want to use is on a CDRW.

I just hope I can get 2k to install the Netgear wireless driver easier than '98 and then I can just grab the latest Detonator direct, and see if the GF2 has the arcade option that was missing in '98 with the Matrox.

jol · 04-09-2003, 04:02 AM

Any chance on the gamevue screens? =)

Skraggy_uk · 04-09-2003, 04:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jol
Any chance on the gamevue screens? =)

Please don't quote me on this, if your screen fries.

But if the screen used the proper Playstation AV Multi RGB connector, and has a passthrough, you may be in luck.

I desoldered the passthrough from the board on the screen (and I suck with a soldering iron).

and used that to make a cable, rather than sodler stright onto the pads.

Njay used a light gun/guncon type cable to get hold of an AV multi out passthrough.

If you don't fancy desoldering on the board, maybe one of those for a couple of pounds/dollars might be your best bet.

That way, if your soldering goes bad, you can always desolder again, without risking the board.

Try it. Make the cable. When I post the pics, I'll try post an Excel spread sheet with all the pinouts, and some pics of the connectors etc, along with M pro's diagram.

With the problems I was having with the VGA/RGB output, I checked the Compsite was still working, and it was fine.

NJay · 04-09-2003, 04:35 AM

Good to hear you are making some progress even if its hampered by the CD drive, etc.

Are you going to look into altering the Arcade setting to that you have a RGB widescreen ratio?

Skraggy_uk · 04-09-2003, 04:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NJay
Good to hear you are making some progress even if its hampered by the CD drive, etc.

Are you going to look into altering the Arcade setting to that you have a RGB widescreen ratio?

Once I get the Nvidia drivers installed I'm going to see if it offers the arcade option first on the GF2MX. I wonder if it was because I was using 98 on the old install that caused the probs? because on my main XP machine the G450 offers arcade.

once I get it running on the PS2 screen I'll look at either stretching it to 16x9, or using 800x480. See which works.

M pro · 04-09-2003, 06:58 AM

Edited god i need sleep

User Name		Remember Me?
Password