[wroxtar]

I have an ACER X193HQ 18.5 inch lcd monitor with 1366 x 768 native resolution capable of doing 16:9 HD.

Now I am connecting my PS2 using a VGA box and component AV cables and playing at 1280 x 720 resolution.

When I enable the PROGRESSIVE SCAN option in my game menu. The screen goes blank.

So where is the problem?

Is this monitor not able to do HD or PROGRESSIVE?

What do I need to do to turn it on?

Please help me.

I have spent so much to get this monitor and this VGA box, but still not able to play in HD or Progressive mode.

Thanks in advance.

Also clear me on something I have got wrong.

[starbase37]

My guess would be the refresh rate. The Screen is Progressive Scan by it's very nature. Assuming it will Accept 1280 x 720 (look for a monitor setting for 1:1 pixel mapping or just hope it scales the signal) You need to make sure you are sticking out 60Hz to the screen not 50hz. Hopefully there are some settings you can try to rectify the situation.

[wroxtar]

Originally Posted by starbase37

My guess would be the refresh rate. The Screen is Progressive Scan by it's very nature. Assuming it will Accept 1280 x 720 (look for a monitor setting for 1:1 pixel mapping or just hope it scales the signal) You need to make sure you are sticking out 60Hz to the screen not 50hz. Hopefully there are some settings you can try to rectify the situation.

Hey thank you very much for the reply mate. Do you mean to say that my monitor can output progressive scan? Could it be the modchip on my ps2 that's not letting it output progressive signal?

This is my VGA Box - > XCM MEGA COOL VGA BOX

Here's my monitor - > ACER X193HQ

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

OK,


The little box is an upscaler. Your Monitor already has an upscaler in it. Everything you send to your monitor is upscaled and displayed at it's native resolution, progressively anyway. All you are doing is choosing to do this job of upscaling and de-interlacing in a different location.

I take it your monitor doesn't accept component video in which is why you got this to turn it in to a PC signal? If this is the case then the problem is quite possibly as mentioned above. Usually these cheap scalers just upscale they do not frame rate convert, ie 50Hz-60Hz. According to the specs of the scaler you linked to it accepts 576p and 576i...however it doesn't specifiy whether it accepts 720p or 1080i at 50 Hz. It's possible that either the little scaler or the monitor will not accept the 50Hz signal. If the scaler has an On screen display and you cannot see that when you enable the HD output of your PS2 then the problem is likely to be with the monitor. If you can see the on screen display but not the signal from the PS2 then the issue is probably with the little scaler.

Gordon

[wroxtar]

Originally Posted by Gordon @ Convergent AV

OK,


The little box is an upscaler. Your Monitor already has an upscaler in it. Everything you send to your monitor is upscaled and displayed at it's native resolution, progressively anyway. All you are doing is choosing to do this job of upscaling and de-interlacing in a different location.

I take it your monitor doesn't accept component video in which is why you got this to turn it in to a PC signal? If this is the case then the problem is quite possibly as mentioned above. Usually these cheap scalers just upscale they do not frame rate convert, ie 50Hz-60Hz. According to the specs of the scaler you linked to it accepts 576p and 576i...however it doesn't specifiy whether it accepts 720p or 1080i at 50 Hz. It's possible that either the little scaler or the monitor will not accept the 50Hz signal. If the scaler has an On screen display and you cannot see that when you enable the HD output of your PS2 then the problem is likely to be with the monitor. If you can see the on screen display but not the signal from the PS2 then the issue is probably with the little scaler.

Gordon

Hi Gordon,
Thanks for such a descriptive response which was really helpful to me. But how could you make out that it's an upscaler?
Someone else told me that it's a hardware upscaler which is better than a software upscaler.
And yes, you're true that my monitor doesn't accept component inputs. It doesn't have even the DVI inputs. Only one VGA input. That's why I brought this box which can take in component inputs and send it to my monitor through VGA cable. And you're right that this is a cheap scaler compared to the best ones in the market like XRGB3 which is around 200 dollars(too much for me, double the very cost of PS2 - out of question, would have considered if I were a proud owner of 360 or PS3 (will be happening soon though...)). But this scaler can do both, 50 as well as 60. I have tested it.

Please check this box working here on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJj1E0FWXMc

For the specs please check this sheet I am attaching here:

By the way I must tell you that I resolved this issue by enabling the 16:9 option in my PS2 configuration menu and I could play games in progressive scan mode now. But I hardly feel any difference between progressive or normal modes. Any light on this?

Is the component cable already throwing everything into progressive?

I would also like to ask you about the darkness and brightness on the screen that I am experiencing.

The areas which are brighter appear extreme bright and the areas that are darker appear too dark, sometimes making it really difficult to figure out the path in front of me in most games. Could it be the cable that is low quality(it is a 6 buck component cable with no gold plating)? Otherwise the colors appear really distinct and very beautiful.

Thanks in advance.

[choddo2006]

Originally Posted by wroxtar

Hi Gordon,
Thanks for such a descriptive response which was really helpful to me. But how could you make out that it's an upscaler?

Because you included a link to a page about it

The best scalers cost a lot more than the RGB3, but don't worry about that - all you really need this box to do is convert component to VGA and it's fine for that. The PS2 doesn't support 720p natively so is your modchip doing that as well? or are you expecting the scaler box to do it?

It seems that box is designed to output PC monitor resolutions such as and it will accept either 576i or 576p (or 480i or 480p as it seems you're American) so I would personally just send that (480p once you switch it into progscan mode) and then have the output from the XCM set to 1366x768 if possible or the closest you can get to it.

That featured review on that site is a bit dubious - "perfect for xbox 360"? When you can just buy a native VGA cable for it? Hmmmmmm.

As for your brightness problems - could be the scaler box doing something a bit nasty with the colourspace conversion from component to VGA or might just be LCD syndrome. If you can adjust the picture in-game, I'd start there and see what effect it has.

Most PC monitors expect a signal over VGA in a voltage range that maps to 0 (black)-255(white) and the PS2 will be sending a signal which roughly equates to the range 13 (black) - 253 (white) and if the XCM box isn't taking that into account properly you can get some weird effects.

edit: I see widescreen mode solved your original problem. As for the "can hardly see any difference" question - that's not too surprising, I didn't see much difference either on the couple of games I tried it on.

[wroxtar]

Originally Posted by choddo2006

Because you included a link to a page about it

But I don't find anything that mentions that this VGA BOX is an upscaler or scaler on that page I linked to! Please help me. Some other expert also mentioned that its a hardware scaler/upscaler and not a software one, but how did he know that?

Originally Posted by choddo2006

The PS2 doesn't support 720p natively so is your modchip doing that as well? or are you expecting the scaler box to do it?

Yes I am expecting the VGA box to take the PS2 signal and give me 720p. Modchip has no role in this. There is an option of VGA MODE in the MODCHIP CONFIGURATION MENU (MATRIX INFINITY V 1.93) though. When I enable it, everything goes blank. I don't know how to use it. I have heard it looks great if we can have VGA mode on. Please throw some light on this.

Originally Posted by choddo2006

It seems that box is designed to output PC monitor resolutions such as and it will accept either 576i or 576p (or 480i or 480p as it seems you're American) so I would personally just send that (480p once you switch it into progscan mode) and then have the output from the XCM set to 1366x768 if possible or the closest you can get to it.

Yes it is designed to output so many resolutions as mentioned in the sheet in my previous post, but my monitor can handle only the 1280 x 720 and 1280 x 1024. Others are not supported and the screen says INPUT NOT SUPPORTED.

And I guess whether it shoots 576i/576p or 480i/480p depends on the PS2 model I have. I have the NTSC version so it would be 480i or 480p, I guess. But that is really not a thing to be considered here, because I have a modchip and it has the ability to shoot everything into COLOR. It can do PAL, PAL 60, NTSC, VGA apart from this magical mode known as COLOR. So no matter what game I play, be it Pal or NTSC or JP, I get the output in color and without any hassle.

And I wish XCM could do 1366 x 768, but unfortunately it can't. The closest it can do is 1280 x 720. There is another VGA BOX in the market that can do 1280 x 768 which would be the best for me and it is available for less than half the price of this. I saw it on ISHOPVIDEOGAMES and GAMEYEEEAH. It's called VGA CONVERTER. But I was apprehensive to put money in there. So had to go with this VGA Box.

Originally Posted by choddo2006

That featured review on that site is a bit dubious - "perfect for xbox 360"? When you can just buy a native VGA cable for it? Hmmmmmm.

Yea, even I thought so, and playing at HD resolutions must be an integral part of 360's hardware, so no need of a VGA BOX if you can get a cable to make your 360 reach out to your LCD Monitor. For PS2 and PS3 this box seems apt because these consoles don't have any official VGA cable out there. Do you think, VGA cables and Component cables may be differing in producing the results on screen? Could that be a reason to get this BOX so that they can play using component cables off 360?

Originally Posted by choddo2006

As for your brightness problems - could be the scaler box doing something a bit nasty with the colourspace conversion from component to VGA or might just be LCD syndrome. If you can adjust the picture in-game, I'd start there and see what effect it has.

About this I asked one of my friends online who bought the same thing, and she doesn't experience this on her monitor. But she uses good quality cables.Should I consider getting the gold plated ones, will the difference be visible compared to these silver ones?

If I adjust the brightness in game, then even if I slide the bar to full, the change is very minimum and that makes the other colors go weird.

Originally Posted by choddo2006

Most PC monitors expect a signal over VGA in a voltage range that maps to 0 (black)-255(white) and the PS2 will be sending a signal which roughly equates to the range 13 (black) - 253 (white) and if the XCM box isn't taking that into account properly you can get some weird effects.

Oops...I give up here...not my subject...lol!

Originally Posted by choddo2006

edit: I see widescreen mode solved your original problem. As for the "can hardly see any difference" question - that's not too surprising, I didn't see much difference either on the couple of games I tried it on.

Then is it that the VGA Box is forcefully converting everything to progressive? Is that the reason that all games look so nice? I thought its the component cable doing it...lol. Maybe its a team.