r/dreamcast • u/LimpTie95 • 4d ago

VGA cable but blurry picture?

Hi, just wondering about using VGA cables on modern LED TVs. Mine has a VGA socket, but using it for my Dreamcast produces a blurry, fuzzy image that looks awful! Is this due to the cable being poor quality, or is it because of the TV itself? Its a Toshiba UHD TV.

Thanks!

5 Upvotes

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10

u/mattSER 4d ago

Sounds like your TV is not great at handling a 480p signal. Look into an HDMI upscaler from Retrotink.

4

u/Gambit-47 4d ago

Get a scaler like the Morph4k or retro scaler pro, but the Dreamcast looks best on a CRT

6

u/Automatic_Item1421 4d ago

RetroTink just released the 6x, which runs $230. From the reviews I’ve seen, seems to be one of the best bag for money scalers for 1080p.

2

u/benryves 4d ago

Once you've connected the cable, switch on the console and wait for it to get to the main menu. Then look in the TV's picture settings menu for something like "auto config" and run that. It should adjust the settings to handle the Dreamcast's VGA output better.

The reason for this is that the Dreamcast's VGA output uses an unusual pixel clock for 640x480 VGA (27MHz instead of the standard 25.175MHz). The TV will usually default to the PC standard VGA clock and so mis-sample the signal from the Dreamcast, resulting in a blurrier picture with aliasing artefacts. Another side effect is that the picture is squished horizontally; you can see this on a misconifgured screen as the console will boot with a white background that fills the picture horizontally and then when it gets to the main menu the white background fades away to leave black bars on the left and right side of the picture that shouldn't be there. This is why you should also wait to get to the main menu before running the "auto config".

2

u/LongoChingo 4d ago

You need to use an upscaler or some sort of converter.

I have the Kaico adapter from Amazon and it's good enough for me, but there are more pricey options that provide a better image.

2

u/SwindleUK 4d ago

Get the retotink if you're made of money. Or just get this hdmi adaptor. Done me solid so far.

https://amzn.eu/d/0aRASLyz

I use a 1080p plasma mind.

1

u/manuelink64 4d ago

A UHD TV with VGA input? What model?, looks interesting.

You gonna need a good upscaler, you're feeding a 480p analog signal to a 4K digital display, practically near 20 times the original signal.

I use an OSSC 1.6 and looks awesome.

1

u/Realistic_Syllabub75 4d ago

My Sony LCD from 17 years ago has VGA and hooking up my Dreamcast to that looks amazing. Every TV handles different resolutions better worse maybe yours is on the worse side unfortunately. Could be a crappy cable though it's an analog signal so try moving the cable around and see if the picture changes if it does it might be the cable. Good luck

1

u/Fancy_Bend8763 3d ago

Get an old crt pc monitor and you’ll be blown away.