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[aku:jiki]

I upgraded from composite to RGB on my PS2 a while back, and the upgrade in image quality was outstanding in certain games. (Frequency/Amplitude come to mind -- they look like shit on composite.)

Now I want to give my Xbox the same little upgrade, but I'm not sure what cable to go for. Quality is of course the #1 priority. Any tips?

My roommate found this, as well:

It's a Mad Catz Universal RGC SCART Selector. It's cheap and it's just what I need since I'm always switching between consoles as well. Anyone give one of these a shot or heard anything about them? Again, quality is important.

Link to webstore listing for the RGB selector. (Swedish site, but the listing is in english.)

 

[Saurian]

www.whitedog.co.uk or www.lik-sang.com are good for cables.

For Cube a 3rd party cable like this is very good: http://www.whitedog.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=6_53&products_id=96
(for a PAL machine)
(NTSC machines require a modified D Terminal cable taking RGB from digital out)

The Xbox wont output a clean clear RGB image like other consoles, it's not up to the same standard as the DC, PS2 and Cube but far superior to composite still - go for either the official MS RGB cable, or a 3rd party one such as: http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=83&products_id=1878&

 

[aku:jiki]

Thanks a lot for the tips. Had no idea about the Xbox there. The reason why I won't go for the official one is as simple as it is obvious -- it's too expensive just to get the MS logo on the box. The one you linked seems to do the trick, though.

I'm about as technically inclined as any given mom, though, so I have no idea about this stuff. What I experienced with composite on the PS2 was a lot of sort of "stray pixels" around the edges that gave everything a kind of blurry feel. That's what I want to get rid of in my emulators on the Xbox, and get nice and crisp 2D graphics. Will that kind of stuff look better if I upgrade my cable? (Even more specifically; MAMEoX looks the worst.)

Edit: Oh, and yeah, I forgot to clarify.. I'm talking all PAL here.

 

[D2M15]

What I experienced with composite on the PS2 was a lot of sort of "stray pixels" around the edges that gave everything a kind of blurry feel.

"That's called dot crawl," I thought, then hated myself for knowing it.

 

[Saurian]

The Xbox RGB output seems like an afterthought more than anything, the very first models - a certain batch right at the start of production were apalling. I was unlucky enough to get one, and even more unlucky I didnt buy it from a retailer so I had to sell it at a loss and get another later model. The image was so bad through RGB on that initial machine that backgrounds within games were not visible at all when certain shades were used, Jet Set Radio Future was unplayable.

You'll notice on other machines like the DC, Cube and PS2 that using RGB output will totally remove any image blur and all stray pixels for a VGA like image. The Xbox does support RGB and it has improved in the later and current models but still falls short.

The problem is that you dont get sharp edges, look at the green lettering on the machine's menu when in RGB mode to see what I mean. Mame, KawaX and Final Burn will look much better in RGB mode and with the Point Filtering Option switched on but you wont get the same quality of image as you would with the other machines.

It's shameful - yet even a Megadrive gives perfect RGB, not sure why the output on the MS machine is so....so-so.

 

[Shompola]

The RGB cable for Xbox, even the cheap ones are big improvements over composite.
Such things as ghost effects, color tearing are almost absent with RGB.

I say buy that mad catz.

"The problem is that you dont get sharp edges, look at the green lettering on the machine's menu when in RGB mode to see what I mean. Mame, KawaX and Final Burn will look much better in RGB mode and with the Point Filtering Option switched on but you wont get the same quality of image as you would with the other machines."

I am not sure about that its a technical reason for this. Some games like Ninja Gaiden are super sharp, why is that? I think it's simple because of how the games are developed and what kind of filters the developers are using.

The improvement from composite->RGB might not be as big as on PS2, but that doesnt meant that the IQ is worse, because it simple isn't.

 

[Keio]

IQ is always slightly in the eye of the beholder.

Still, Dreamcast still has the best quality RGB output of any console I've seen. The Cube comes close, but on-screen text still has some blur to it compared to DC. My release day Xbox is pretty average.

 

[aku:jiki]

Thanks guys. You've made up my mind to at least get the Xbox cable, I think.

Now, this question might be really stupid and I know it.. but hooking up the composite cable to that Mad Catz RGB box wouldn't make the end signal RGB, would it? I doubt it, but it'd be cool if it did.