Building a Dreamcast VGA box vs. Internal VGA mod

[crabhammer]

S-video is serving me decently at the moment, but I know the Dreamcast video quality can be much better with VGA. I made the mistake of buying a Hong Kong Special VGA cable and it's complete crap. They omitted the resistors and capacitors necessary for a clean, acceptable picture and were kind enough to leave out the pins I would need to connect to in order to make a solid VGA box. After chopping up the cable in hopes that I might be able to salvage it for a VGA/scanliner box I'm starting to think that an internal VGA mod might be the way to go.

I guess the entire point of this post is to gather some opinions before I do something to my Dreamcast that I might regret in the future. Thoughts?

[sin2beta]

I think it is a good way to go. If you do go RGB scart/SLG you might just put the Dreamcast in with it for the sake of money. It's pretty good picture. That's what I use now and don't see the VGA jump being worth the 100 + dollar investment to do properly. It's nice and maybe someday.

If you know how to do the internal VGA mod, I think that is a no brainer. If you don't that makes it more complicated. Sending off to get one done is risky only because the Dreamcast lasers are not the greatest. If I got an internal mod from send away, I would be tempted to also invest in a new Dreamcast to prolong its life. But that's stupid. It would be cheaper to pick up the good VGA box for the money.

The VGA box can be swapped to a different console. But the internal mod is tied to one system. That's my thinking. But it depends on how much you play and see playing in the future.

[crabhammer]

I know I can do the internal VGA for a pittance compared to the cost of the VGA boxes I've seen. Official VGA boxes are outrageously expensive and the knock-offs are very poor imitations. The way I'm looking at this, once I mod the console for VGA out and the console were to die down the road, then I'll only have to mod another console and keep the dead unit as parts. The more I try to get an external solution established, the less I feel it's going to work out. I can't seem to find a DC cable that has all it's pins or isn't otherwise worthless. I enjoy modifying and repair consoles, but I'm very hesitant to do anything to my Dreamcast. I enjoy this thing too much to mess it over.

[sin2beta]

If you are comfortable doing the mod, that is the way I would go. You can buy dreamcast systems all day for 30 bucks. Hell, it's that cheap even from retailers http://www.estarland.com/SegaDreamcast.product.14586.html

Go for the internal mod.

[crabhammer]

Kinda funny that you mention how cheap they are these days. I just snagged another on ebay for less than $7 before shipping. I just have to muster up the courage to hack my DC.

If only SEGA had kept it alive a bit longer...  Those were the days.

[bobster]

If you're still thinking the external VGA box might be up your alley, you might want to look into the hanzo. I've heard really good things about this guys work.

This is a link to the forum to buy them.

Here's the review that made me look into it.

I love the dreamcast and want to find a good way to get the best quality picture as well! Once I have some extra money (probably after the holidays) I'm going to order one. It seems like a quality build and it's a good price I feel.

If you do go the mod route, I know I'd be interested in seeing the process you go through and seeing how it turns out. Maybe post a guide!

[crabhammer]

I've seen the Assembler Games thread about the Hanzo. I've already got the chips to build 10 VGA scanliners and an internal mod can be done with a bit of effort and a few dollars in parts.

I was kicking around the idea of attempting to cram scanlining in with the VGA mod, but i haven't had the time to sit down and figure out where i'd stuff it.

I'll definitely post a build thread (I love build threads)

[bobster]

Yay build threads!