LOOK Vbox HD-360 (Best thing since xrgb ??) + my experience with gonbes 8220

[Holering]

Hasn't anybody tried this yet?! Yet another device that looks too good to be true http://cgi.ebay.com/HDTV-Component-1080P-HDMI-to-VGA-output-converter-Box_W0QQitemZ150384401972QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item23039bde34

OMG wtf?! $65.00 + shipping that's it?!

The same company that makes these even has this thing with a Euro RGB scart input and an hdmi (720p ?) output.
http://www.hdgamingpro.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=2&category_id=2&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=37

Someone did a quick preview-review and according to them it seems perfect!!

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=587303

The menu text-font-color looks remarkably similar to the gonbes 8220 pcb...

Speaking of the gonbes 8220 I really wish I could read chinese to figure out if there's a firmware upgrade for the gonbes 8220 and/or how to update it... It seemed to work ok at first but I noticed it's got some obvious deinterlacing artifacts on (almost too obvious. it treats 240p as 480i unfortunately...) 240p sources which really degrades the signal in my opinion and is dissapointing (that's the whole point of 240p is to not have interlacing!!) which of course applies to 480i content. It's also got a big problem scaling to any resolution higher than 640X480 and gets screen tearing (yeah screen tearing exactly like you see when your getting 1000+ frames per sec. in a first person shooter with vsync off in a pc game!) which is really too bad as it looks nice and sharp at 1024X768 (1360X768 native lcd tv. So native 4X3 resolution is 1024X768 for my lcd) despite the deinterlacing annoyance (looks blurry in motion of course. Looks great on 3d games though!). It'll scale up to 1360X768 which I thought would be awesome but unfortunately it stretches the 4X3 image to 16X9 so it looks completely unnatural (hence the reason why I prefer 1024X768), but you can adjust the hsize to make it 4X3 artificially again but it's not even worth it as it has nasty ghosting and color bleeding before you even try that and it just ends up making it worse!! LOL. The Dreamcast won't even display properly upscaled to 640X480 (from 15khz rgb of course) as the screen is severely overscanned vertically (almost in half!) and playing with any of the hsize and vsize options introduces nasty scaling artifacts (looks like lines crawling in random parts of the screen when in vertical motion. Real Ugly!). Did I even mention some serious noise interference issues that always come and go completely randomly... Could be due to the pcb not being grounded-housed in a pcb mounting tray which I will get around to doing sooner or later and installing female bnc's plus female scart socket to have an ultimate all in 1 box solution though I somehow think it might not even be worth it with all these issues... Another possible problem could be the 5vdc 2 amp ac adapter which I got in a flea market that might not be providing enough juice (I kinda doubt it if you know what I mean...).

All in all this board just seems to suck real badly!! I'd like to hear about anyone with this gonbes 8220 board that can say anything good about it... But if you wan't my honest opinion I'd say stay clear away from it!! I paid$60 after shipping and I feel ripped off. BTW I'm using official sega rgb scart cable for the dreamcast, and official pal gamecube rgb scart for my NTSC super nintendo (I resoldered the sync pin to use the composite sync wire instead of the composite video as this gonbes 8220 won't accept anything with composite video as sync whatsoever.). I also hacked a gold plated philips rgb scart audio breakout adapter and wired/soldered it with gold plated terminals to the rgbs pins on the gonbes board. I've also ran all my scart plugs into my rgb to yuv component converter and then into the yuv input on the gonbes board and still had interference issues (it of course happens on my ntsc gamecube when it's in 480p using officialy nintendo straight yuv component cables as well...). I wanted to love this board but I absolutely hate it with great evil now!! Stay away from it especially since it's about $100 now with shipping if you do see it around now...

As of now I'm really bummed out since my  samsung LN19b360 (19" 3 series) won't handle the snes 240p output correctly (gets violent shaking/vibrating on center of screen whether I use composite sync or composite video..) and it looks very nice with all the gamma turned down, processing, gain levels, etc all off. The picture looks very sharp even with sharpness at 0! BTW I'm using all my rgb scarts going through the rgb to yuv component converter. Oh yeah and it won't do 15khz over vga either so yeah... LOL. Though 480p vga is really soft compared to 480p component even with game mode turned on.

I really would like to get a dvdo edge (or something equivalent) so I can finally someday have in my opinion a faultless setup of rgb goodness on my LCD (I can't have huge crt's everywhere lol). It's gotta be something with hardly any to no lag of course but looks sharp at the same time. I was also thinking of getting a capture card with rgb input but I never see them on ebay. Their too expensive on other retailers... I hope someone serious here will try out the VBOX HD-360 and see how it performs (especially with 240p! Or even midway 53hz arcade pcb's for that matter!)

[keropi]

I have one since 3 months. I am the same keropi as in EAB forum mentioned above , LOL

The conversion quality is AWESOME for that price. I connected my xbox1 and I thought it was outputting a true vga signal without any converter LOL
The internal vga switch is excellent too, there is no degration if you use the same monitor with a pc and a component device.
It's lag is minimal as far as I can tell, did not find anything wrong with it.

BUT

if you have PAL 50hz component equipment the device will convert it to 60hz vga standar and you will loose smooth scrolling. Tried it in both pal xbox1 and PS2 games, they show fine but with jerky motion... I have contacted the manufacturer of this, for the possibility of adding a 50hz vga-out option, but they replied they would do it for a large order.... sometimes I wonder if they really understood what I told them about PAL equipment...

here are some pics I took some time ago...

[RGB32E]

I'll agree with Holering's comments about the GBS-8220.  I picked up one of these recently and thought it was an alright unit.  I'm using a custom built +5VDC@3A power supply with EMI line filter.  The output isn't too noisy, but the video processing in my XBR8 TV is much, much cleaner, though a little bit softwer. 

Also, I've observed as well that the GBS doesn't handle 240p correctly.  It appears to treat the video signal as 480i, but better than other line-doubling units I've tried.  The biggest disappointment with the GBS (in addition to incorrect 240p) is the image displacement (noted by the "least capable" member of this form).  For example, when playing Gunbird on the Sega Saturn, start a new game and pause the game.  When paused, the paused text cycles between displaying, and not displaying.  When the text appears, the screen image area around the text is displaced (i.e. warped).  So, overall a fun unit to play with.... though using my Kramer FC-14 with my TV (which correctly handles 240p via component) is the way to go for now.... until my new XRGB-3 arrives in a couple of weeks!

[Holering]

Hey keropi it'd be nice if you could test this with a 240p title (ps2 game perhaps) and let us know the results. I would get this thing in a heartbeat if I knew it handled 240p without interlacing artifacts (240p as 480i is typical of most scalers...) 

[keropi]

I will but please wait some days, currently my ps2 in undergoing a mod replacement 

[Shelcoof]

I have the Coosis HDBox converter with Scart and component input and HIDMI output.

my experience with it is that it has about 1.7frame lag for everything.

overall though its pretty decent converter.  I'd only recommend using it on older consoles like the saturn, SNES or N64.

Anything higher you can use straight to your HDTV.

[Alc]

I bought a "High Box" recently that apparently uses the same chip, cost me about £20 delivered off ebay. I can confirm that mine line doubles 240p signals, no scanlines, and looks nasty when it does so. For the price I can't complain, although there were/are various issues with it - the supplied PSU wasn't powerful enough (I thought the unit was broken at first, after a few tries it reset itself to a Chinese menu which I haven't been able to switch back out of, but it works now with a better PSU), it produces a faint vertically rolling line at times at varying severity, it looks horrific on any resolution other than 640x480 when fed with a 480i/p signal, colour/luminance balance is not great (whites are too light, blacks are too dark, hue adjustment goes from too dull to too vibrant with no in between), etc. Since I'm using it for PS2 480P signal on a set that has a max VGA res of 640x480 I'm happy enough with it, but if I wanted to use it for just about anything else it'd probably be useless.

[Endymion]

it produces a faint vertically rolling line at times at varying severity

This isn't actually caused by the board, this is a ground loop. If you set up your equipment properly it will be eliminated. Start by making sure everything is run from the same power source.

[Alc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRIWjpp0sn4
Please excuse the noisy music, it's not my video, just an example on the same box of the same problem. My PS2, TV and this box are on the same mains 4-way adapter now, and I still get this problem, though it seems like it might be less pronounced - that said, the problem came and went before at random. Who knows.

[Endymion]

Without a doubt, this is a ground loop. Scrutinize your power setup, and possibly the power supply, the unit it came with might be crap. If you have extras, try one with a lower voltage and/or amperage, a switching power supply is good for this kind of testing. Keeping your power clean and on the same circuit will solve this.