Topic: Hooking your GC to computer monitor?

[chooy]

Does anyone know if it is possible to hook a gamecube up to your computer monitor?  If it is possible, how may I go about doing so?  Is there a cable out there you can buy to hook it up?  Thank you.

[Kyosho]

There's a few ways.

I have the RedAnt VGA box and it works wonders for me.  You can buy it at PlayAsia or do a search on yahoo for Gamecube VGA

The other way is to buy a VGA-Component adaptor.  This sells for 199$, and frankly, I don't think it's worth it unless you are a hardcore enthusiast.

And lastly, you can get a universal VGA adaptor where it has RCA plugs.   This can be found just about anywhere including ebay.

I'm pretty happy with the RedAnt VGA box.  Of couse it's not as good as a HDTV with component inputs, but it's much better than the old TV sitting in my living room

[egman]

Another option that I found recently is a component to VGA cord at gamerstech.com for about 50 bucks. I haven't order from them for myself, yet, so I can't tell how reliable they are. But it seems like a cheap solution. The only disadvantage is that it will only work with progressive games, so if you need to display all you games on you monitor, a VGA box or a capture card with dscaler are better options.

[chooy]

thank you guys.  Do you guys know of any common stores such as walmart or something like that, that would sell vga's?  Or can you only find vga's online?

[Sir Kero]

You won't find that kind of stuff in common stores, you'd be lucky to find them at a game or electronics store even.

Kyosho is the first person I've heard who actually likes the redant box.. you might want to read reviews of it first. The main thing to consider is that it doesn't support progressive scan at all. It has to convert (or "upscan") interlaced video to make it work on a monitor. I haven't seen the redant box in action for myself, so I can't outright condemn it, but upscan conversion usually gives a really shoddy picture.

egman mentioned VGA cables made for the GC, and that's the solution I went with. Unfortunately you can't use it with non-progresseive games, but I've only played one of those anyway so... I'm not complainin'. All first and second party games support prgressive scan, as do most third party games of any consequence.
I made the cable myself, out of a component cable from Nintendo, a VGA extension cable, and many hours of tedious work. If you search a little you can find several places selling these things pre-made, and fifty bucks doesn't sound at all bad.

[chooy]

ok, thank you guys for your help

[Kyosho]

I posted some pictures in another thread a while ago of the pictures of Zelda on my monitor.  

http://www.planetgamecube.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=2510&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=

If that doesnt' work, just do a search for my name.

I will tell you that the RedAnt Box has 2 different input settings: you can choose either the s-vid or the regular rca.  Choosing the RCA gives you the muddy blurry feel you're use to getting if you use rca cables, but if you select s-vid, the text and colors are alot more sharper.  The only problem is the refresh rate is fairly low (sub 40 hz).  But i hear that the 199$ VGA-component GC adaptor does wonders if you dont have HDTV at home.  

[Ymeegod]

You can always go with a PCI TV tuner.

Some of the better ones are LeakTek WinTV 2000 & MSI TV ANYWHERE's.   Both cost the same but for quality go with the TV anywhere's.  The only drawback with the TV anywhere's is it's only supporting mono-sound but if your speakers have AV inputs then that shouldn't be much trouble.  The leaktek WinTv is so-so out of the box but I've heard that you can download third party filters that help the quality, so you might what to talk with someone that has one of those.

As for the $200 option, I take it you're talking about Key Digital's Componet TV to VGA box.  Yeah it only works with progressive scan games.

The other method is using Viewsonics TV Tuner or Nextvision's series.  The N6 is the best in the series but a few commented on the "blue tint" on the screen.   I would get the N5 (better quality than the N4) since it's only $130-150 though it doesn't support progessive scan like the N6 which costs $250+.