Building a CMVS with "decent" HDMI out.

Finch

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Yeah, a subject beaten to death for a long time around here, but I still want it.

I'm building myself a new updated CMVS and I don't want it to rely on Component or VGA as it's best output. Yeah it'll have regular RGB out for an OSSC or PVM, but there are times when you want to take it somewhere, or don't always have all the adapters and special screens to play it properly. Also, I have a feeling that finding TVs with anything but HDMI is going to be increasingly hard, my current TV has component, but stuff like LG C9's are HDMI only with one funky composite port.

Obviously there are all manner of cheapo chinese *anything*->HDMI adapters on amazon and ebay, but most of them are crap or laggy. I want something good. The two main options seem to be the RAD2X, which sounds great and easy. They seem to be all out of stock at the moment, but I'm in no rush. Other solution is obviously a NeoVGA/Beharbros VGA line doubler. Except that those only do Component and VGA, which still isn't as widely accepted. Is the RAD2X the best option? or would it be worth converting VGA to HDMI somehow?

There seem to be the same slew of cheap VGA->HDMI adapters out there, but I really don't know enough about the conversion to know if it's easy, or these all half-ass it and it's going to look awful.

I want this to be a complete one box solution, no external dongles or adapters so ideally any converters will be popped out of their enclosure and integrated into the unit.
 

MidnightMonkey

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I want this to be a complete one box solution, no external dongles or adapters so ideally any converters will be popped out of their enclosure and integrated into the unit.

I mean... you're gonna need POW.

Also, would probably be easier to convert RGB > Component > HDMI
 

XxHennersXx

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Just wait for the rad 2X. That’s 240P RGB to 480P HDMI
 

Finch

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Was gonna answer the same, I'm waiting for one myself for the living room ngcd but they don't seem to restock it...

Was realizing since I’m going to integrate it into the unit I could probably just buy the genesis version or something.
 

traveno

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Building a CMVS with "decent" HDMI out.

When I was building my CMVS I went the Beharbros VGA16 route. My 10 year old monitor (which still works perfectly and has no dead pixels, surprisingly) accepts VGA. If I wanted to hook it up to my TV I had planned to buy a VGA to HDMI converter like you mentioned. Unfortunately, the coronavirus delayed Beharbros' shipping estimate to the point where I just wanted the build to be done with. So I ultimately went with RGB out that is hooked up to an OSSC. I'm very happy with it.

I like the idea of the 2x upscalers. But when you plug it into a big HDMI TV, it's going to stretch and interpolate that 480P signal. That's my only gripe. My OSSC upscales the NeoGeo's signal all the way up to 1080p and I've never seen a sharper image on my 70” LG. If I were to build another and want it to strictly be an all-in-one solution, I'd still go with the VGA16. It's built to be installed internally from the get go.
 
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pier

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When I was building my CMVS I went the Beharbros VGA16 route. My 10 year old monitor (which still works perfectly and has no dead pixels, surprisingly) accepts VGA. If I wanted to hook it up to my TV I had planned to buy a VGA to HDMI converter like you mentioned. Unfortunately, the coronavirus delayed Beharbros' shipping estimate to the point where I just wanted the build to be done with. So I ultimately went with RGB out that is hooked up to an OSSC. I'm very happy with it.

I like the idea of the 2x upscalers. But when you plug it into a big HDMI TV, it's going to stretch and interpolate that 480P signal. That's my only gripe. My OSSC upscales the NeoGeo's signal all the way up to 1080p and I've never seen a sharper image on my 70” LG. If I were to build another and want it to strictly be an all-in-one solution, I'd still go with the VGA16. It's built to be installed internally from the get go.

it is more clean because you don't need to manage with many external wires, power supplies and other devices. like dchdmi that is a very good device.
 

Beharius

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we will be receiving the VGA16 boards in a few weeks. They were remanufactured again after some unfortunate problems occured and a serious error made by the factory. They are finally completed.
This solution will give you the best possible image quality from the Neo Geo MVS since it process the video from digital domain then converts to analog video. It's way better than the dac to adc solutions.
 

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Finch

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we will be receiving the VGA16 boards in a few weeks. They were remanufactured again after some unfortunate problems occured and a serious error made by the factory. They are finally completed.
This solution will give you the best possible image quality from the Neo Geo MVS since it process the video from digital domain then converts to analog video. It's way better than the dac to adc solutions.

But it’s still VGA, so I’ll still be integrating a Analog to Digital converter in there. Can your board just do straight HDMI instead?
 

Beharius

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We chose this way, because, HDMI is not tolerant as the VGA standard which may not handle the out of spec refresh rate of the NG. However if you pair it with an OSSC, you can get an HDMI output too. There may still be some incompatibilities though.
It's linedoubled before the analog conversion which is way better and lossless than post-adc. It bypasses the internal dac and outputs 480p video directly. In order to get hdmi output, changing the clock frequency can be an option, however this may cause some glitches.


But it’s still VGA, so I’ll still be integrating a Analog to Digital converter in there. Can your board just do straight HDMI instead?
 

CloudGamerX

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Jan 13, 2016
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Can you not install a DFO, in conjunction to your VGA board? Surely, that would correct the refresh rate issues, no?
 
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