XRGB-2 Oddities

[benzaldehyde]

Hi all,

I have just come into possession of an XRGB-2. While it's nice, I've noticed a few oddities with the device. The colors are nice and vibrant, but the white text and screen borders bother me. There appears to be a bit of instability in the picture. The edges of the screen are jittery; just unstable enough to be noticeable. The effect seems to be assuaged as the XRGB warms up, but is ever present. It never vanishes concerning the menu, which shears a bit too much and has the same jittery edges on the letters and status bars (like for the brightness). Adjusting the dot clock doesn't help. I opened it up and was shocked to find that the entire thing is unshielded (!), which may explain the instability. There were three pots inside, labeled VR1-3. Anyone know about what they do? I should note that these problems are completely unnoticeable with the scanlines on. Perhaps I shouldn't worry, or maybe I should wrap the damn thing in tin foil. I'm worried the thing may be damaged goods, so if anyone could confirm or deny my observations I'd be much obliged. Thanks as always!

[matt]

"wobble" is normal with the XRGB-2.  Shielding the thing won't help - it's just a side-effect of the massive amount of video manipulation that the XRGB need to do every time it displays a frame.

[Jopapa]

Is it the same way with the X-Select D4? I've been looking at getting one of those instead of an XRGB2+.

[Jeremy Pallant]

The XSELECT-D4 is not a replacement for the XRGB-2+. It is a multi-input video transcoder, like the Audio Authority 9A62 (but better), wheras the XRGB-2+ is an upscan converter. The two have very different functions. Actually For console owners it's probably best to have both (if you can afford it) to deal with both progressive and interlaced scan video signals.

[Jopapa]

The XSELECT-D4 is not a replacement for the XRGB-2+. It is a multi-input video transcoder, like the Audio Authority 9A62 (but better), wheras the XRGB-2+ is an upscan converter. The two have very different functions. Actually For console owners it's probably best to have both (if you can afford it) to deal with both progressive and interlaced scan video signals.

Yeah I discovered that when I looked a bit deeper into the units at Lik-Sang.

Which brings us back to the subject of the original post: is there any way to stabalize the wobble? It doesn't surprise me that it's there, given the job that the unit was meant to do, but are there any methods of getting a more stable image?

Now that I'm back to getting the XRGB2+ instead of an XSelect-D4, I'm planning on hooking my DVD player up to it so I can watch movies on my monitor as well.

[benzaldehyde]

Hi Jopapa,

On my normal, non-plus unit, that after a while the wobbling seems to stabilize, though it never really disappears. The units warms up, and the problem seems to almost solve itself. Turning on scanlines completely hides the effect all together. As much as I can understand from the Atari Labs review, the units (2 and 2+) are essentially the same except for a few more features, component video support, and a poorer passthrough. They might act much in the same way.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I've never noticed this on my XRGB-2.  Mine has really pronounced wobbling for the on-screen menus, but I've never noticed anything wrong wqith the actual image.  But then, I usually use the virtual scanlines.  I'll have to check more closely with them off.  Could it have to do with what revision of the XRGB we have?  There definitely seems to have been a couple from what I can gather.  Mine has all English menus and a smaller AC adapter.

By the way, sorry to thread hijack, but I don't want to create an account just to ask this.  I might be interested in selling my XRGB-2, but first I'd like to know approximately what you guys think I can get for it.  It's obviously used, but it's in excellent condition and includes everything it originally came with right down to the little plastic baggie it goes in inside the box.  Is $150 more than I should expect?  Especially now that there's the 2+.  And where should I sell it?  Just on eBay?  Any advice you can give would be appreciated.


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