Connecting RF / switch box consoles to VGA box

[boxpressed]

At the risk of heresy, I'll admit to being curious about whether I can play my 2600 and other RF / switch box consoles on my LCD monitor via a VGA box. I do have a CRT for retro consoles, but desk space is becoming a premium.

 

I have one of these: K-World 1440

 

It works great with my PS2. I've tried to hook up my 2600 to the coax input on the VGA box using the RCA-coax adapter, but I can't get a signal on my monitor. I was just wondering if this setup is even possible since I don't know much about the types of signals that are being output by the 2600 and can be received/converted by the VGA box. Thanks in advance!

[boxpressed]

Some pics to clarify. I have one of these:

 

 

and one of these:

 

 

No video signal on the monitor with the 2600. Works fine with the PS2 when I have S-Video input via the included dongle (not shown).

Edited August 1, 2011 by boxpressed

[Rex Dart]

Cheap-ish VGA box probably just can't deal with the 2600's non-standard output. You'd have better luck converting to VGA if you do a Composite video mod to the 2600, then convert that to VGA.

Still may not work, though.

[boxpressed]

Cheap-ish VGA box probably just can't deal with the 2600's non-standard output. You'd have better luck converting to VGA if you do a Composite video mod to the 2600, then convert that to VGA.

Still may not work, though.

 

OK. I was wondering whether the 2600 had non-standard output. I will unpack my Odyssey 2 later today and see if it can't output to the box. My dream of one VGA box to play them all may be just that -- a dream. I might go down the HDTV-as-monitor route now...

[keilbaca]

Cheap-ish VGA box probably just can't deal with the 2600's non-standard output. You'd have better luck converting to VGA if you do a Composite video mod to the 2600, then convert that to VGA.

Still may not work, though.

 

OK. I was wondering whether the 2600 had non-standard output. I will unpack my Odyssey 2 later today and see if it can't output to the box. My dream of one VGA box to play them all may be just that -- a dream. I might go down the HDTV-as-monitor route now...

 

You *can* use a VCR if you like to play the nonstandard devices on the monitor.

[Rex Dart]

Yeah, you can definitely try running the RF through anything that converts RF to Composite, like a VCR. Usually has good results.

[boxpressed]

I was wondering about that. Someone had mentioned in passing the possibility of using a VCR. Guess I shouldn't have recycled my VCR with S-Video output! (It was eating my tapes, what could I do?)

 

So just to be sure, I would hook it up this way:

 

2600 > VCR coax TV-in (with RCA/coax adapter)

 

VCR coax/composite/s-video out (can't remember what my last VCR has for outputs) > VGA box?

 

Thanks for the advice -- I'm eager to try this solution once I get home.

[keilbaca]

I was wondering about that. Someone had mentioned in passing the possibility of using a VCR. Guess I shouldn't have recycled my VCR with S-Video output! (It was eating my tapes, what could I do?)

 

So just to be sure, I would hook it up this way:

 

2600 > VCR coax TV-in (with RCA/coax adapter)

 

VCR coax/composite/s-video out (can't remember what my last VCR has for outputs) > VGA box?

 

Thanks for the advice -- I'm eager to try this solution once I get home.

 

That's exactly right.

[boxpressed]

Using the VCR did the trick. The image looks about as I had expected -- a tad blurry and washed out. Worst of all are the black, vertical bars that you see in between the colored pixels. No lag at all, however. A fun experiment, but I think I may go back to the CRT to enjoy the excellent H6 RF output.

[Rex Dart]

Oh, I figured you were using a CRT monitor with VGA... Yeah, CRT's the only way to play classic systems / anything with less than 480p resolution.