XRGB-mini photos (or, how I learned to let go of my CRT...and I am better off)

[Loefye]

You know I don't get the hate leveled at CRTs. Sure they're big and take up space, but I've yet to see an XRGB or any similar device come close in terms of picture quality. It just doesn't make sense to me personally.

The biggest reason for me is that I just feel so damn future proof now. No worries about anything biting the dust plus I can easily move my gear to any setup anywhere. IMO the mini with scan lines looks amazing.

 

[andsuchisdeath]

So..how much lag are you dealing with.

 

[theMot]

Im surprised someone like you would go for such a device broken. Personally i still think a $50 CRT owns it but to each their own.

We may have to relieve you of your Sony PVM club membership as this is something of a conflict of interests!

 

[Yodd]

Maybe just me, but the pictures above appear to exceed CRT quality with ease.
There are other benefits of going LCD besides size:

* Better Color uniformity
* Usually no overscan (edge-to-edge, everything is on screen).
* No geometry distortion. Straight lines are perfectly straight, circles are circles.
* Images are much sharper (though I suppose that may have pros and cons).
* IME picture doesn't degrade with age as fast or as badly. Every CRT I've owed starts getting very dark a few years in.

I'm sure there are more. That said, I still love CRTs for low-resolution stuff and their price & availability.

Such clarity can also be a bit of a double edged sword. Not having to deal with overscan can be great, however on some systems (Genesis comes to mind) there is a bit or garbage that shows up on the bottom edge of the picture. With a regular CRT that doesn't show up due to overscan. You can adjust that some on the Mini to counter it though.

Plus, some of the software trickery these machines did relied on CRTs and their display nature. However, it's a worthwhile tradeoff in my opinion.

So..how much lag are you dealing with.

More or less zero. Unless you crank up the processing modes, it has no detectable lag. And this is something I am picky about and was blown away by how the Mini handles it. However the display you use plays a large role in this as well.

Im surprised someone like you would go for such a device broken. Personally i still think a $50 CRT owns it but to each their own.

We may have to relieve you of your Sony PVM club membership as this is something of a conflict of interests!

I went with the Mini cause I am tired of having a heavy, large CRT sitting on my desk. I would love to have a NEC XM29 crt monitor, but space and size is always an issue.


And unless you have personally seen a XRGB-mini setup in person, it's hard to really fault it. It's fucking fantastic.


I'm still keeping my PVM, but as far as my main gaming display goes, its going to be an HDMI display fed from an XRGB-mini.

 

[Nick Goracke]

You know I don't get the hate leveled at CRTs. Sure they're big and take up space, but I've yet to see an XRGB or any similar device come close in terms of picture quality. It just doesn't make sense to me personally.

I'm hurt that you don't remember the side-by-side comparison I did using the same CRT TV (XRB970) that you own(ed), both with and without an XRGB attached!

If size didn't matter, I would opt for a professional RGB-capable CRT. For any other TV (non-RGB CRT included), or in an instance where size matters, you'll get significantly better results using an XRGB and RGB inputs.

 

[Zenimus]

I still don't get this whole CRT and scanlines thing. Don't you guys love clarity and sharpness? Being able to see each blocky pixel in perfect color is what it's all about.

I used to think CRTs were better for old games due to the blurry ugliness you'd see on an LCD. But it took a long time for me to realize that it was caused by the (usually) crappy internal scaling done by the TV. The XRGB mini handles that part now, so any benefit of a CRT is gone... except for playing NES light gun games.

 

[SSS]

The games look better in their native resolution. With CRTs you get a wonderful picture for next to nothing. I grabbed a stockpile of PVM's for half the price of this converter. Don't have to worry about display lag.

I've already used one for a cabinet monitor replacement.

Blowing the games up all blocky looks like crap. Simulated scanlines are close, but not the same thing. I could only see spending the cash on one of these xrgb if I only had room for the main entertainment center.

 

[RAZO]

I think I might pick the mini up in the near future. Pvm crt's are great, but I would rather have the room plus my wife keeps busting my chops about how ugly and bulky they are. If I had a game room I would not mind but unfortunately I don't so I might just go this route.

 

[lantus360]

i can relate

when i picked up my PVM my wife said "why are you bringing that stupid monitor into the house for?"

 

[DangerousK]

Todd, can you possibly take a few pictures of the Mini and post them? I want to see the front and back of the device.

 

[Yodd]

I can take some better photos once I get home.

Here is the only photo I took of the front of the unit:

I will take better front and back photos when I get home.



On the front it has the 8 pin mini din RGB input, status lights and on the right hand side it has stereo audio, composite video and S-video. Has buttons of the top to control the unit or you can use the included remote control.

So far all the sources I have tested have been RGB. I haven't tested any svideo or composite inputs yet.

 

[DangerousK]

Thanks Todd.

Silly question, what is the difference between this and the XRGB3?

 

[Teddy KGB]

Thanks Todd.

Silly question, what is the difference between this and the XRGB3?

Dave, good front and back pics here http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/framemeister.html

Probably the best review for the Mini and XRGB3 here too... among other scalers.

 

[GutsDozer]

I have to say it looks very nice. I would not mind having one but I still need my PVM.

 

[DangerousK]

Dave, good front and back pics here http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/framemeister.html

Probably the best review for the Mini and XRGB3 here too... among other scalers.

Thanks a bunch Jim!

 

[Yodd]

Here are my other pics:

BONUS!!

 

[Teddy KGB]

Showoff! I'm just jelly...

I'm not taking pics of my set up till I get a monitor set up in my office. Shopping tonight (hopefully). You da man Yodd...

 

[DangerousK]

Very nice pics...thanks Todd.

 

[Green Beret]

How many consoles can you hook up at the same time? Is it user friendly to plug and unplug?

 

[DanAdamKOF]

It definitely looks good, but I have to wonder how much a skilled bemani player would agree with it being lagless. I've seen Fudoh reference that it "should be good for bemani" or something like that, but no reports from skilled players ("skilled" basically being synonymous with sensitive, as noobs to the series can have a hard time discerning lag).

Honestly if I didn't play so much beatmania IIDX I wouldn't care that much about lag, but because I do I keep a CRT around.

 

[Green Beret]

If it is 8ms lag, it can't be spoted. I think mini has half frame wich is 8ms.

 

[RAZO]

Got mine in this monday and today got a chance to mess around with it. Broken wasn't kidding when he said the quality on these ups scalers are top notch. I think I could finally put my bulky pvm in storage. Rocking the mini on a 50 inch Samsung Plasma. Would hook this up to my dell monitor but don't want to clutter my desk. Most Pics are in Meister Mode. I'm a sucker for scanlines.

Japanese Megadrive



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Pc Engine


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Snes


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PsOne


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Scanlines


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Widescreen w/scanlines


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[Kiel]

Whoa, hold on, are there no jailbars with your RGB NES?

When I use my modded nes with the xrgb-3 I get pretty bad jailbars, although if I use my PVM or xselect D-4 I don't...

 

[Zenimus]

Whoa, hold on, are there no jailbars with your RGB NES?

When I use my modded nes with the xrgb-3 I get pretty bad jailbars, although if I use my PVM or xselect D-4 I don't...

I also have a RGB modded NES, and the jailbars aren't very noticeable most of the time with an XRGB mini. Large areas of solid bright colors are where they show up the most, but most of the time you don't see them. It was worse before I had the XRGB though.

EDIT: I play without scanlines enabled though. I'd imagine scanlines help hide those bars a little bit.

 

[Teddy KGB]

Still shopping for a 24ish" monitor for my office for my Mini. With minimal use so far, 240p material looks fantastic. I wish it had a VGA option or perhaps an additional RGB in place of one of the HDMI inputs but overall, I'm pretty happy. My 60" LG panel is too big for how I prefer to play my older consoles so I need to make a decision quick on the 24"er.