23 replies to this topic

[endlessnameless]

I recently took the plunge and bought an LCD HDTV and was also interested in getting a jaguar and just wanted to know how the picture would look on a large tv and what I could do to improve the quality of the picture as best as possible. Thanks in advance.

[Tom-Lynx]

How large is the new TV? I tried my Jaguar on my 52" and it was truly horrible.... I went back to a 20" LCD.

[sciarpo]

I have a 42" 1080P and it looks great with the s-video.

[endlessnameless]

I have a 42" 1080p and its good to hear that it works well with svideo. I really wanna start out w/ AVP and tempest 2k

[kgenthe]

It looked fine on my 42" LCD with s-video. A controller extension would be nice so I could sit a little farther back. But if you are sitting right in front of the screen it's going to look very pixelated. I still prefer to play the jag on a standard def CRT though.

[mimo]

Does your TV have a SCART RGB input?
There are some official Jag RGB Scart cables around and the picture (and sound) quality is fantastic!

[Zerosquare]

Yes, if you can, get the SCART cable. It's RGB, so you'll start with the best quality you can get. It can be a bit expensive, but if you could afford a HDTV, it shouldn't be much of a problem

But it ultimately depends on the specific TV model you have. The way they display analog sources (even good quality ones like RGB) ranges from 'excellent' to 'lousy'. And more expensive models are not necessarily better at it.

Edited by Zerosquare, Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:19 PM.

[dreamcastrip]

My 40" Sony Bravia 1080p TV looks great with Jaguar hooked up via an official RGB SCART cable.

[lNFERNO]

If you really want to see the highest quality on your HDTV, you need this:

The Atari Jaguar Scart RGB cable:

Scart RGB Cable


And a cool scaler converter like this:

Scart to HDMI

Scales up SCART RGB to HDMI 720p format

Edited by lNFERNO, Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:54 PM.

[mckafka99]

Here's another SCART cable on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/...301310004r19163

[otaku]

I ran my jag on a 57 inch through svideo and thought it was fine

[ovalbugmann]

lNFERNO, on Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:47 PM, said:

If you really want to see the highest quality on your HDTV, you need this:

The Atari Jaguar Scart RGB cable:

Scart RGB Cable


And a cool scaler converter like this:

Scart to HDMI

Scales up SCART RGB to HDMI 720p format

I am still using only very large CRT televisions, but I'm seriously thinking about an LCD or Plasma HDTV and I definitely want to play my Jaguar through it. I am thinking about doing what Inferno has said here for the Jaguar: An official Jag Scart/Perital(same thing right?) cable running into a "Scart to HDMI" converter unit box & upscaler, then just a good HDMI cable to connect it to an HDTV.

So I have been thinking about buying a very expensive official Atari Perital cable on TelgamesUK or possibly from Best electronics or myatari(will see if they have 'em) and then looking at these units:

http://shop.ebay.com...w=scart to hdmi

Would this setup work? and would it probably provide the best picture for the Jag on a modern HDTV as Inferno says?

Thanks for any input here.

Edited by ovalbugmann, Sat Jan 2, 2010 10:06 AM.

[Zerosquare]

Yes it'll work, and if the scaler is a good one, this is how you'll get the best quality.

I have no idea why official SCART/Péritel (yep, same thing) video cables are so expensive.

If you're not afraid of soldering, building one yourself is much cheaper. Check those topics :

http://www.atariage....ost__p__1407739
http://www.atariage....ost__p__1308919

[ovalbugmann]

Much Thanks for the confirmation, info & links, Zerosquare!

[kev187]

The upscalers are different in each TV. LCD TV's do not natively handle the older composite & S-video type of hookups. The resolution is very different & has to be upscaled. The thing is, most LCD TV's have very basic built in upscalers on their video inputs... they do not add lines of resolution, they just stretch the old video image across the LCD's high res screen. Thats why we get the pixilated ugly pictures on most.

So for your european atari peeps, scart appears to have a nice RGB output for the TV's that have it. For the rest of us, if your TV has a nice scaler, S-video is ok. But there are a lot of video scalers out there on the market. Upscale your s-video or scart to hdmi, dvi, or vga... ect... but you have to spend the money, if its under $100, its junk (I have learned) so spend good money on a good scaler/converter.

Or.......

You could go all out like I just did & spend mad money on a catbox with RGB out & then get one of these http://www.ambery.co...bcgatovgac.html yes.... its stupid money spent. But it will look very very nice

Ill give a full report once all my purchases are in!

Edited by kev187, Sun Jan 3, 2010 8:31 AM.

[ovalbugmann]

Quote

The thing is, most LCD TV's have very basic built in upscalers on their video inputs... they do not add lines of resolution, they just stretch the old video image across the LCD's high res screen. Thats why we get the pixilated ugly pictures on most.

Definitely, I have noticed this as well! @The stretched picture looks terrible.

Hey that; "15Khz RGB CGA YUV Component Video YCbCr to VGA Converter Scaler" looks like a really cool item to have for the Jaguar!

I might like to do that also , so I can play my Jaguar on my 19" CRT VGA computer monitor in the meantime until I can afford a nice large LCD HDTV.

I have a Catbox too, the "analog RGB" connector on it is a female DB9 style connector.

The connector of my CRT VGA computer monitor on the end of it's cord is a Male DB15 connector.

Now to use the box you linked to I will need two connector cords; a cord going from the Catbox to the converter/scaler box and then a second cord(just my VGA cord that's connected to my monitor) going from the converter/scaler to the VGA monitor.

So, and keeping in mind the picture of the connectors on the converter/scaler;

Connection #1 from the Catbox to the input of the converter/scaler needs to be a: Male DB9 to a Male db15 -right?

Connection #2 from the output of the converter/scaler - well,..I can just plug in my CRT VGA Male DB15 into the converter/scalers' Female DB15 output - no cord needed here!

Kev187; Can you verify the connection needed that I bolded & italized above is correct (and what your going to do) and tell me what cable for this connection you are ordering?

[ovalbugmann]

Duh! Looks like in my excitement I didn't scroll down the page you linked to The cable I am referring to for legacy analog RGB devices like the Jag is a"Propietory" cable also sold by the ambery site, so I'll have to order that too.

WhooHoo! Thanks for all the info Kev!

Edited by ovalbugmann, Sun Jan 3, 2010 10:20 AM.

[kev187]

ovalbugmann, on Sun Jan 3, 2010 10:18 AM, said:

Duh! Looks like in my excitement I didn't scroll down the page you linked to The cable I am referring to for legacy analog RGB devices like the Jag is a"Propietory" cable also sold by the ambery site, so I'll have to order that too.

WhooHoo! Thanks for all the info Kev!

Yup.... I was just about to reply when I read you 2nd post. They have the legacy 9-pin rgb cable to 15-pin to use with the scaler converter. I just purchaed a catbox from another member here on the site & I am going to order my scaler + cable today. Hopefully by weeks end I have it all hooked up.

I have a 22" LCD wide screen monitor for all my vintage systems with a full set of AV,s-video, component imputs. But I found out the hard way they do not work very well, so I am now jumping on the scaler converters to up things a bit. If this works well, Ill jump on a full converter for all my other systems also.

[ovalbugmann]

Yeah, getting a good video scaler like this one is probably best for the Jag running on a Computer monitor.

And for modern TVs, like you said many don't display the old consoles well and need something to boost/convert/size the old game systems' video output properly -especially widescreens.

Quote

This RGB to VGA converter is featured the only product in the market that supports true 16:9 output with native wide screen resolution at 1366x768 pixels

So, This unit should work well with your 22" LCD Widescreen Monitor, I bet.

I'm going to order the converter/Scaler unit also and special cable too soon, and will let you know how it looks on my 19" CRT monitor! -it's not a widescreen but I have always wanted RGB for the Jag and to use the RGB output on the CatBox, but the required 15Khz horizontal sync needed always prevented me being able to do it. And I'd rather use this much newer flatsceen CRT monitor than the old Atari SC1435 or Atari SC1224 or similar type of vintage monitors anyways -the Atari ones are smaller too.

[Hyper_Eye]

kgenthe, on Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:32 AM, said:

It looked fine on my 42" LCD with s-video. A controller extension would be nice so I could sit a little farther back. But if you are sitting right in front of the screen it's going to look very pixelated. I still prefer to play the jag on a standard def CRT though.

A VGA extension cable should work as a controller extension cable. Something like this: http://www.monoprice...at=1#largeimage

[kev187]

Hyper_Eye, on Sun Jan 3, 2010 2:17 PM, said:

kgenthe, on Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:32 AM, said:

It looked fine on my 42" LCD with s-video. A controller extension would be nice so I could sit a little farther back. But if you are sitting right in front of the screen it's going to look very pixelated. I still prefer to play the jag on a standard def CRT though.

A VGA extension cable should work as a controller extension cable. Something like this: http://www.monoprice...at=1#largeimage

Yeah I have a 32" LCD in the living room mounted to the wall. But in the basement I have a nice setup. I have a macbook pro 17" with a 22" LCD hung on the wall above it. I run dual desktop over/under (I need to take a photo, its nice.

In a cabinet to the right of the setup is all my vintage game systems ran to a switchbox running to the 22" LCD monitor through its built in av inputs both S-video & composite. I can just open the cabinet, grab a controller & swap the LCD from the computer to gaming.

But again... the scalers on the built in av-inputs are horrible, as are the ones on my living room TV. So all of us who want to play vintage games on Flat panels either monitor or HD TV (both are the same these days anyway) we need to get one of these scalers.

I will post pics & feedback at weeks end once I have it all hooked up proper!

[Zerosquare]

Hyper_Eye, on Sun Jan 3, 2010 2:17 PM, said:

A VGA extension cable should work as a controller extension cable.

Beware -- I used to think that too, but apparently some cables don't work. More info in this topic.

Edited by Zerosquare, Sun Jan 3, 2010 2:57 PM.

[Hyper_Eye]

Zerosquare, on Sun Jan 3, 2010 2:54 PM, said:

Hyper_Eye, on Sun Jan 3, 2010 2:17 PM, said:

A VGA extension cable should work as a controller extension cable.

Beware -- I used to think that too, but apparently some cables don't work. More info in this topic.

That is some good info. Looking at that cable it has 15-pins and I would be willing to bet Monoprice wires them all. For a couple bucks it isn't that big of a deal to get one and try it out. I would be willing to be the guinea pig. If it doesn't work I will have a spare VGA extension cable. Monoprice makes great cables.

[Allpaul]

Sorry to bump this topic, but could anyone point me to a good scart to hdmi upscaler? Which ones have y'all had luck with?