Hi-Res PS2 VGA Adapter/Games

[wright45]

Has anyone used the hi-res ps2 vga

http://www.success-hk.com/welcome/vga-adaptor/vga.htm#VGA_Adaptor

I ordered one, and I was wondering if someone has used it and how it worked. They are on clearance at this store.
It says it works with "GT Concept, Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto3, Medal of Honor, Frontline, Virtual Fighter 4, Final Fantasy 10, State of Emergency, Vampire Night, Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament, Arctic Thunder, City Crisis, 2002 FIFA World Cup, Pro Evolution Soccer, Burnout, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, Mx2002, Paris Dakar Rally, Ready 2 Rumble, Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarders and Many Many More"

Any one know of any more?

[Shadow_Cast]

I think Unreal Tournament works with it, as does Quake III

[Razor Blade]

Sounds fake to me. They don't even have screens -_-

[Phoenix Flame]

I have something similar, a VGA box which converts the PS2 output to VGA signal on your choice of three quality levels: RGB (blurry, ugly), S-Video (Sharp but still blurred enough to be smooth) or Componant (Super sharp, unfortunately it only highlights the fact that PS2 is only 640x480). It's not a bad piece of equipment.

When they say 'high-resolution' they really mean that at the highest quality level you can play PS2 games on your monitor without the blur that a TV gives. Sounds good until you see that PS2 games are only 640x480 and look pixellated to all hell without the loss of definition that a TV gives. Still, the mid-quality mode on the box should give best results.

[Razor Blade]

I connected my ps2 to my monitor through my tv card, and although it may not give the best quaity I still much rather play on a tv. It's not worth it unless you are absolutly crazy about making videos and taking screenshots. Playing on a television looks better too.

[wright45]

Well I got one of these Blaze VGA things for $20 all together ($10 + $10 shipping from Hong Kong to Cali)

You'll probably think I'm stupid because I already have a VEG-Lite ( http://www.rtv-veg.com/products/veglite/ ) Which is nice but, its not the same as the Blaze.

First off, with the Blaze you need to start your PS2 with the Blaze CD (DVD?) and then load and start the game from there. It seems to work with Kingdom Hearts which I was happy about.

It basically makes the game look more like a pc game. The main problem with this is that it displays the full vg screen a little smaller that the monitor size and then it has the a little of the left side of the vg screen, displaying again on the right. You can compensate for this by using the monitor controls to move the screen all the way over to the right but then it is not centered and you have the full vg screen on the right with a 1" wide vertical black bar all the way to the left. So it kindof sucks because of that. The manual said that this problem is common, and it said something that made me think that if I find the right monitor, it wouldn't have that problem.

I've tried it on 3 monitors so far. My nice 19" crt is ok. The graphics actually looked best on my neighbors old Acer (~15") crt. The colors were very good and there was just enough blur to mess with the pixelation enough to make it look very clean. It looked really good like this, better than tv and better than my 19".

The veg-lite is nice because it is compatible with basically any s-video or av cable I guess. And its simple, no dumb startup cd. But the problem with the veg is that: The ps2 sends out the video at less than 640x480, then the veg picks up the signal and sets the monitor to either 800x600 or 1024x768. So you may be able to imagine the effect. It really doesn't look that bad and it is more than playable. But I guess I'm just a little picky and I wish I could have my ps2 games look more like a pc game on a monitor. I don't have a tv and I'm not going to get one so this is how I'm going to play console games.

[F-3582]

When they say 'high-resolution' they really mean that at the highest quality level you can play PS2 games on your monitor without the blur that a TV gives. Sounds good until you see that PS2 games are only 640x480 and look pixellated to all hell without the loss of definition that a TV gives. Still, the mid-quality mode on the box should give best results.
How come that PS2linux runs at 1024*768? I think that there might be quite a number of games (I might be wrong, but it could have something to do with Progressive Scan that can be enabled in some games) that do run at that resolution.

[wright45]

Yes I think your right, but I think most games run at tv resolution, which is less than 640x480.
According to playstation.com, the ps2 has " Screen Resolution: Variable from 256 x 224 to 1280 x 1024 " http://www.us.playstation.com/consoles.aspx?id=2/info/415007657.html

And this Blaze VGA does something through software to display on a monitor. I think all it is doing is setting the monitor to display at 640x480, not the game. It cant really change the games resolution like it claims. The game is displayed at its normal resolution and the monitor is set to 640x480, thats why it doesn't fill up the whole screen, (but most of it). Thats what I think.

[F-3582]

I've seen some other VGA adaptor which uses a Component cable as input. It should give you some better results. Or try to get the PS2 linux kit and connect the enclosed VGA adaptor.

P.S.: Did you ever try setting your video mode to Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr in the PS2 bios. It might increase the image quality on some of these VGA adaptors.

[emurex]

Well how about this YPsPr VGA Box by Sagestar (Redant),
I hope someone have test it and can you all tell me before I order one.