Running Gamecube in 480p (VGA-mod)

Burbruee · Post by **Burbruee** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:25 pm

Hello.

I'm interested in running my gamecube in 480p as there are some games that I missed out on that I might want to play now.
And if I'm going to play them, why not do it with as good picture quality as possible. (at the moment I'm using the crappy composite cable)

First, let me inform you that I use my computer monitor for all games, I have a tv-card that supports PAL, PAL-60 and NTSC signals over Composite and S-video inputs. (this is the reason I'm stuck with composite, I don't know of any tv-cards with SCART, heh, and from what I understand the PAL cube DOES NOT support the s-video cable.. )
But for picture quality the optimal would be VGA straight to the monitor. (that's what I do for Xbox 360 with the HD VGA Cable they have)

I know about this mod:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/Technopolis- ... crgb_e.htm

and I found this:
http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/gc/vgacable.htm
(out of stock)

Also found this list about supported games:
http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/ind ... gamecubeac

But I need to clear some things up at first, so here's a few questions I have:

1. On the second link, it says IT WILL NOT WORK ON A PAL CUBE.
I wonder why?
I have an early PAL Cube DOL-001 (EUR) with the Digital AV Out on the back. It's also modified to run games from all regions (so to play NTSC games is not a problem)
So, will this mod work or not, is it a limitation of the PAL cube that is a problem or are they talking about the fact that no PAL games supports 480p? ( I have a couple of NTSC games such as Metroid Prime 1 and 2 that both support 480p, and I would like to play both games in this mode)

2. Is there a place to buy a pre-modded cable with VGA? It's not that I'm afraid of modding or anything, it's that I don't currently have the equipment required and don't know of a place where you can buy them. Preferrably in Sweden or close by, or a website that sells the equipment directly and ships here. I don't like ebay because you need to wait for the auction to end and hope nobody bids over you.
I have soldering-iron etc, it's things like vinyl tube and thermal shrink tube from the list I'm more worried about.

Either way, if I can buy a pre-modded cable it would be the preferred way. Like from the website I linked to earlier, but unfortunately they're out of stock.

3. Where to buy the D-Terminal cable? (you can't mod a RGB Scart(PAL) cable right?) Is it only available from ebay these days? play-asia is out of print as well.

Thanks.

Kyo · Post by **Kyo** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:40 pm

here's a suggestion: Use the RGB signal from your PAL cube, and turn it into VGA.

Burbruee · Post by **Burbruee** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 2:48 pm

Kyo wrote:here's a suggestion: Use the RGB signal from your PAL cube, and turn it into VGA.

I was thinking something like that, but I don't know how. Do you know where I can read up about it?

Dark-Aries · Post by **Dark-Aries** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 4:33 pm

Burbruee wrote:
Kyo wrote:here's a suggestion: Use the RGB signal from your PAL cube, and turn it into VGA.
I was thinking something like that, but I don't know how. Do you know where I can read up about it?

Find a pinout of the scar cable, then find a pinout of a vga cable, attach GC R to VGA R, etc...It might not work perfect but it's a good try...somebody with better knowledge might answer a lot better...

Post by **Triton** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 6:18 pm

IIRC the actual vga cable in the cube had some kind of logic in it

kasar · Post by **kasar** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 7:16 pm

you can also try this mod made by enterthehatrix

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/588/vgagciy0.gif

Anyway I was Unable to get it working, my vga monitor didnt showed nothing

here is my fail try

bgnome · Post by **bgnome** » Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:43 pm

i modded a d-terminal DV cable to component and VGA output, however I use a US NTSC system. I have no idea why PAL systems are not supported by that particualr cable, but it might take some looking in to.
edit: looks like it is a software limitation. PAL games do not have a 480p mode.

I do know that the PAL systems output analog 15khz RGB through the standard video port, which the NTSC do not have, (we have s-video). SOME monitors actually do have the ability to accept this input and display the signal, possibly through some sort of line doubling or somesuch. I know this because my old LCD monitor actually could display non-480p input from the GC, such as the boot up symbol and games using my hacked vga cable, whereas most monitors cannot do so.

since it is near impossible to find the DV cable, I would suggest trying the RGB method, and if that does not work, then getting an RGB>VGA adapter as the video quality is not really that far off as I understand it and you will be able to play ALL games, not just 480p enabled ones.