VGA vs RGB

[Gabbyjay]

I wonder which of the two connections DID you prefer back when the DC was new?
Please ignore modern TVs/Monitors, where it may be a different story now... I am specifically asking about the comparison of CRT-TVs and CRT-monitors from back then.

I remember buying a VGA-box for the game Ikaruga since it was easy to turn my CRT-monitor by 90°s to the side, which was not possible with my TV and it's side-mounted speakers.
It was cool for Ikaruga, but I also remember how disappointed I was with the VGA image.

Sure, you did not get those ugly sawtooth-artifacts from interlacing with the VGA-box and also, the image was waaaaay sharper then on my TV for two reasons:
No interlacing meant no vertical blurring for deflickering, and also the monitor had a sharper image by itself since it was designed for working.

But I always felt the image was TOO sharp and very artificial, and you very much noticed the Dreamcast's non-existent anti-aliasing (disregarding a handful of SSAA-games). So you got much pixel-crawling, shimmering and stair-step-effects.

On the TV, the image was less sharp and had those interlacing-artifacts, but for me it seemed waaaaaaaaay more natural, more satisfying and almost had some kinda natural AA-qualitiy to it.

I preferred it over VGA (but admittedly I did not have the direct comparison on the SAME TV, since my TV did not support VGA but only RGB).

Maybe it was because I had one of those 100Hz-TV-sets which were not really known to provide an extra-sharp image. : D

I never liked S-Video, tho... RGB had just better, more saturated colors and did not have that color-bleeding.


So... anyone else (who could use it) preferred RGB over VGA?

[Holsten]

50hz PAL RF antenna input boom.

[rjay63]

I preferred RGB SCART on a CRT TV compared to VGA on a PC CRT. The larger dot pitch on the CRT TV gives DC games a natural smoothness. I also prefer the larger screens sizes of CRT's. However VGA on a PC CRT can be better for DC conversions of gamer that were originally on PC.

I used to play the NAOMI versions of Dreamcast titles like Crazy Taxi and Zombie Revenge in the arcades. VGA was used between the game board and the arcade cabinet CRT, however those CRT's had a larger dot pitch than a PC CRT so the game was not so sharp. Still a little rough around the edges but suited the games well.

Some of the more 'modern' CRT TV's I own have digital chassis so I can manually change the colour saturation on RGB SCART. However on my largest CRT TV's (and my older ones) RGB SCART colour saturation cannot be adjusted.

[mazonemayu]

I have always been an RGB person (the DC was released in my country with the official RGB cable in the box coz it was our standard back then. I did get a VGA box and it is nice and all, but imho not worth the trade off of having to play on a smaller screen. RGB on the other hand looked (and still looks) great on a high end consumer CRT like a 26” MX6000 or something, the colours are just as great as on any PC monitor of the time and the image is only slightly less sharp. When the difference in quality is so small, I will always choose the bigger screen. Besides, those CRT’s can just as easily be put on their sides

[mistamontiel]

w-0-w. I thought even across the pond having the SCART/JP21 cord was upgrade and not bundled (*cough* 7th generation vs consoles after *cough*)

Funny enough cuz I have seen OEM the official RGB cords and what were packed-in cost for quite a bit! Oh but they're boxed in themselves even.. hum

I cherish my boobtube family, I cherish them for s-vid+component so dearly much, but dagnabbit I wouldn't dare rotate either on her side to hurt, it's hard to have anyone service them cuz obviously I no wrench

[mazonemayu]

w-0-w. I thought even across the pond having the SCART/JP21 cord was upgrade and not bundled (*cough* 7th generation vs consoles after *cough*)

Funny enough cuz I have seen OEM the official RGB cords and what were packed-in cost for quite a bit! Oh but they're boxed in themselves even.. hum

I cherish my boobtube family, I cherish them for s-vid+component so dearly much, but dagnabbit I wouldn't dare rotate either on her side to hurt, it's hard to have anyone service them cuz obviously I no wrench

Yeah, I got my DC when it came out and didn’t even think twice about the RGB cable included in the box. I only saw an official RF cable for the first time when I got my hands on a UK model ears later…

I wouldn’t worry too much about putting a CRT on its side, I know the average gamer doesn’t see it often but when you hang around in the shmup community for a while you’ll see it’s almost the standard/mandatory for our lot. Besides, they just flipped em 90° in arcade machines too, it’s not like they were special screens for vertical games or anyhing

[Gabbyjay]

I preferred RGB SCART on a CRT TV compared to VGA on a PC CRT. The larger dot pitch on the CRT TV gives DC games a natural smoothness.

Yeah I thought so as well.

I also prefer the larger screens sizes of CRT's.

I absolutely agree, screen size is king!
The larger the screen, the more immersion you get.
I once had a Home Theater setup and the image was about 4.5 meters wide. I don't own it anymore, but I remember how immensely impressed I was even when I started up very old games with poor graphics... every camera move was so impressive, it is so IMMERSIVE, you need to experience this and you would never want to go back.

Some of the more 'modern' CRT TV's I own have digital chassis so I can manually change the colour saturation on RGB SCART. However on my largest CRT TV's (and my older ones) RGB SCART colour saturation cannot be adjusted.

Interesting. I know for sure that I could change color saturation when using RGB, which I did quite often as many games use very over-saturated colors IMO.

[Gabbyjay]

I have always been an RGB person (the DC was released in my country with the official RGB cable in the box coz it was our standard back then.

Rly? Lucky guy!
I did not even know there were countries where the RGB-cable came bundled. What country are you from?
I had to purchase it separately, RGB-cables were among the first things I ordered when I had a new system.

I did get a VGA box and it is nice and all, but imho not worth the trade off of having to play on a smaller screen.

Yes, same here.
Even if they were the same, I still may have chosen the TV for the more natural image.

[mazonemayu]

Rly? Lucky guy!
I did not even know there were countries where the RGB-cable came bundled. What country are you from?
I had to purchase it separately, RGB-cables were among the first things I ordered when I had a new system.

I’m from Belgium. And yeah, some countries did stuff like that. Did you know for example that in France they sold the PC Engine bitd (contrary to popular belief it was actually released outside of Japan ) and they came with RGB enabled on the motherboard plus the cable. It is the only version of the console that has this out of the box and the reason why the French models are so sought after: you don’t need to mod em anymore

[Gabbyjay]

I think I read about some systems where they did something like that in certain PAL-regions, but I cannot remember which ones, since it was such a long time ago. Hell, I cannot remember for the life of me if I even had a PC-Engine or only wanted it badly. O_O

There was a lot of turmoil about the N64s RGB-image, tho. That I still remember.
I had one of the first japanese Models back in '96 and thus was lucky to get RGB - which was not common in Japan at all I think - but interestingly video-boards in PAL-regions (where it was a lot more common) did not have it anymore - only the early frensh models I think.