Ambery RGB to VGA Converter Non-Review.

[Blaine]

So I picked one up a few weeks ago, waiting on an interminably long shipping of RGB cables from Play-asia, all I could test it with was a Main Event JAMMA board (which would hardly showcase any weaving or tearing). Worked real good with the Main Event board. I was very happy.

It has not, however, been fun with my two new Jaleco Megasystem 32 boards. Both The Game Paradise and Tetris Plus 2 have hideous oscilating screens. It seems like the box isn't fixing on a signal because the "VGA" OSD graphic never disappears and small pieces of the lime green display are peppered throughout the video signal.

Motherboard #1:
http://vimeo.com/1582270

Motherboard #2:
http://vimeo.com/1586628

So for now, although I bought this encoder for a review... I'm not going to review it since as of this second it doesn't perform. Again, Main Event did look good, however there's no rhyme or reason at this stage for why Game A works and Game B and Game C do not.

I've emailed them about it, I don't expect much. I'll give them a week or so and if we don't get this sorted, I'm gonna call it a "don't buy" for arcade boards.

*UPDATE*

I did eventually return it. The company was mostly easy to work with. I am calling this a "Don't Buy" for supergun and all purpose video game upscaling purposes. There isn't a lot of rhyme or reason to what works and what doesn't. When it does work, it's great, though.

>>>>old post<<<<
Ambery 15khz to VGA upscaler.


Sounds a little too good to be true for $90.

[RGB32E]

Looks like a Cypress Technologies rebrand:
http://www.cypress.com.tw/product.php?PId=87936&CId=010&CName=PC%20Multimedia/Scan%20Converters&SR=0

The SCART (RGBS) to component converter that I have was also made by Cypress (the OEM):
http://www.cypress.com.tw/product.php?PId=2264&CId=007&CName=Video%20Processors&SR=1

[allyourblood]

i was going to ask about this very same device. i'm gonna have to either go with this, the Jrok board, or scour the flea market this weekend for an old Amiga monitor (15.75khz RGB compatibility list in-hand!). if it's any good, i'm leaning toward the Ambery so i can use the existing 22" monitor that i already own (or hell, even my ws LCD).

[RGB32E]

if it's any good, i'm leaning toward the Ambery so i can use the existing 22" monitor that i already own

So, uhh... how about you or Blaine buy one of these, connect the dots, and see if this is a viable solution? 

The CSY-2100 (SCART RGB to component converter) works really well... even accepts composite video in leu of CSYNC (like scart standard).  However, eastbayarb couldn't get the particular unit he purchased his working though for some reason...   

I just wonder if there's much if more than a 20ms processing delay on the Ambery rebrand?    Maybe the lower the resolution output, the lower the delay.

The Cypress OEM site lists the applications as:

Applications:
The CM-397 converts CGA (RGB or YCbCr format) to 3 PC resolutions- VGA/XGA and WXGA. It enables you to connect your RGB or YCbCr signal source such as game boards to a PC display.

[Blaine]

if it's any good, i'm leaning toward the Ambery so i can use the existing 22" monitor that i already own

So, uhh... how about you or Blaine buy one of these, connect the dots, and see if this is a viable solution? 

Fair enough. If no one knows for sure, I'll step up and take one for the team. Once my new credit card arrives (I lost the old one, new number and what not) I'll make it happen. It should be here any day.

It'd be nice to give something back to gamesx for a change.

[cgm]

I just wonder if there's much if more than a 20ms processing delay on the Ambery rebrand?    Maybe the lower the resolution output, the lower the delay.

The Cypress OEM site lists the applications as:

Applications:
The CM-397 converts CGA (RGB or YCbCr format) to 3 PC resolutions- VGA/XGA and WXGA. It enables you to connect your RGB or YCbCr signal source such as game boards to a PC display.

Hopefully the processing delays are minimal. They seem to market it towards video game applications so it would seem logical. Its nice to see upscalers and transcoders more readily available. It seems some of those fancy fixed pixel LCD and Plasma displays don't always do a good job with non-native video sizes. All the home theater nuts are more then willing to spend $1000+ to get a better picture.

[RGB32E]

On a side note... here is a picture of the CSY2100 PCB (RGBS->Component) 

[Blaine]

Well... we'll find out. I ordered it and it should be on it's way (orders before 2 ship same day, mine was at 12).
I'll do a review as soon as I can.

It'll be a race to find out what I'll be trying first.

I'm building my supergun but... I don't have a controller built yet for it. So if I get the joystick done first, we'll be doing some Street Fighter I action.

I ordered RGB cables for my SNES, Saturn and PSX from Play-Asia. I also ordered Female SCART connectors online. So I'll need to fashion a SCART > 15 pin DSUB connector as well. So if that gets done first, it's Necronomicon Digital Pinball time.

So we'll see how this plays out. Funny  thing is, if it came right this second... I'd have nothing to test it with  .

[KOF]

Someone has left his impression of this unit on AVSForum and I'm copying and pasting it. (ok, that's me lol)

-----------------------------------

I have that CYP CM-397 deinterlacer. (I hate Shmup! They keep recommending me interesting deinterlacers, lol!) I was originally looking for SCART -> YUV transcoder since I have just bought HD Box Pro last month. But a quality transcoder such as Jrok and Neobiz does not come cheap, so when I discovered this little box would accept RGB as well as YUV, I just had to get it. For a bit more than the price of a Jrok, I would be covering the whole thing, so I figured why not. Now that I have this box as well as HD Box Pro, I did a little comparo of the two. (sorry, no lag response comparison yet!) The loser would be sold, that was my plan.

I'll cut to the bad news first. No, CM-397 STILL deinterlaces, NOT linedoubles 240P signals. I kinda figured this out even before I bought this, because they mentioned adaptive deinterlacing. Just because it was advertised as a CGA VGA Box, does NOT mean it simply does linedoubling.

Image quality wise, the CM397 produces sharper, cleaner, and more vivid colors than HD Box Pro does. For movie contents, it literally murders HD Box Pro. For games at 480i, the CM397 produces much more satisfying picture quality than HD Box Pro did. It's still a bit behind Playstation3's PS2 upscaling for 3D games, but for 2D games, I preferred the picture of the CM397 to the PS3 due to not applying any kinds of smoothing. Also, because the CM397 uses motion adaptive deinterlacing, there is no jumpy pictures unlike HD Box Pro when things get stationary. Even with various color settings, I could never get HD Box Pro to produce correct color, but the CM397 does it without a sweat.

Unlike HD Box Pro which comes with myriad of scaling resolutions, the CM397 only has three resolutions to choose: 480p, 1024*768, 1365*768, but unlike the HD Box Pro, the scaling quality is superb, there is almost no perceivable image quality lose between 480p and the others. The CM397 does not accept progressive scan input btw, it will just bloat the picture up, making it unwatchable. Thus, it can only be used with interlaced sources. It works great with YUV and RGBHV (except for the Dreamcast, which means you'll still have to disable VGA if you want to send interlaced signal) but I couldn't get it to work with Sync on Green, even though it was advertised as working. RGB with composite sync works too, but for some reason, the contrast is extremely dark. I used Saturn SCART cable btw.

Now, for the deal breaking parts. The aforementioned taking 240p sources as 480i causes havoc for the CM397, much worse than HD Box Pro. There is only one default setting for the CM397. No remote, no buttons to adjust pictures, nada. The only buttons and switches the CM397 has are 'RGB/YUV selector' and resolution selector. Even with the 240P sources, the picture is very stable, in fact, way too stable for its own good. The CM397 does NOT have flickering shadows as a result. I tested it with Real Bout Fatal Fury, and Jin Chonshu's teleport moves, Kim's phoenix kick, and such will not come with shadows and flickers. The framerate is a bit jerky as well. Not too noticable when reasonably far, but this will surely be annoying to some people. Weaving when action gets heavy is just as bad as the Playstation3.

In the end, there was no clear winner. HD Box Pro will happily produce flickering shadows at the expense of jumpy pictures. However, they are only really noticable in mostly stationary state and they get much harder to spot when action gets intense. However, the picture itself is a bit blurry, colors are a bit washed out. If you hated PS3's blurry upscaling, you'll hate HD Box Pro even more. Even though it supports progressive scan transcoding and there are many scaling resolutions to choose from, the quality leaves much to be desired. Make no mistake, I'm not saying it's as bad as those el cheapo VGA boxes, I'm just picky. HD Box Pro still earns my recommendation for entry level VGA box, because it practically does almost everything except for accepting RGB inputs.

The CM397 is more geared towards classic consoles simply because it accepts RGB in addition to YUV component. If you want sharp, vivid image quality even from the classic consoles, the CM397 is worth a look. I personally found CM397 to be pretty close to Dreamcast VGA box for upscaled 240p games. However, it may not be ideal for the Neo because the flickers are gone. I absolutely abhor weaving and this unit surely did drive me crazy with the weaving. However, I decided to keep this unit simply because this was the most economical way for me to enjoy my classic consoles. I don't really play PS2 games, that's why.

You'll be happy with either units. I didn't feel laggy with either units although I do have to measure it. (I have Rock Band, is that good enough?) Neither unit will linedouble 240p games, although HD Box Pro does a decent job of alleviating it. Neither has scanline emulation of the famed X-RGB2, so the picture will look emu-ish. So make your choice based on your priorities. Flickers and no weaving, HD Box Pro. No blurry interpolated pictures, CM397.

Anyways, make sure your Regza accepts PC resolutions if you feel that TV's scaling is not good enough. Neither boxes upscales to explicit 720p and 1080p resolutions.

----------------------------------

One more addition, the picture may be sharp, but that is also with fake sharpening applied, so I do see ringing here and there. I should get to test for lag, but I'm not sure if Rock band is good enough..

...on off topic, I'm thinking of making an RGB amp to make Saturn SCART input brighter. Is this my only option?

[Blaine]

Bumping it up, converted the question thread into a not-really-a-review-review.

[RGB32E]

Again, Main Event did look good, however there's no rhyme or reason at this stage for why Game A works and Game B and Game C do not.

Hmm... Different devices that output RGBS have different characteristics.  Like I've mentioned before, I had to use a device to generate a new sync for a "Street Fighter: The Movie" arcade board so that I could get a stable picture.  Also, are you feeding the RGB output from any of your arcade boards through a series resistor (e.g. Red Video -> 75 ohm resistor -> Connector -> Ambery)?  You might have to build a LM1881 sync stripping circuit to clean up the sync?  This can fix some problems of that nature.   

[Blaine]

Again, Main Event did look good, however there's no rhyme or reason at this stage for why Game A works and Game B and Game C do not.

Hmm... Different devices that output RGBS have different characteristics.  Like I've mentioned before, I had to use a device to generate a new sync for a "Street Fighter: The Movie" arcade board so that I could get a stable picture.  Also, are you feeding the RGB output from any of your arcade boards through a series resistor (e.g. Red Video -> 75 ohm resistor -> Connector -> Ambery)?  You might have to build a LM1881 sync stripping circuit to clean up the sync?  This can fix some problems of that nature.   

As of right now, it's straight into the Ambery. I have some surface mount LM1881s that I could try and build a sync stripper with. I thought of that.

Here's a question, considering it works well with at least one board, would adding a sync stripper possibly affect those boards negatively? I'm just wondering if I should build a dongle that'll go between the gun output and the ambery and I'll just use it when necessary.

[RGB32E]

Here's a question, considering it works well with at least one board, would adding a sync stripper possibly affect those boards negatively? I'm just wondering if I should build a dongle that'll go between the gun output and the ambery and I'll just use it when necessary.

No, even if you have a board that works well to begin with, running the sync through a sync stripper should not cause any adverse affects.  I've tested this out with several different arcade boards and consoles connected to a PVM-2030.  Also, you should get better picture quality from arcade boards if a set of 75 ohm or 150 ohm is connected to the R, G, and B lines, since the video level from arcade boards is typically higher than the standard 1.0Vp-p or 0.7Vp-p RGB output from a game console or computer video card.  Effectively, you're not forced to turn down the brightness/contrast on the Amberly and/or monitor to get a good picture.

[Blaine]

Alright, sounds good. I'm building the sample board that came with my LM1981's, but since it's all surface mount - I expect it to all end in tears. Therefore, I've also placed an order for LM1881N's which should be a lot easier.

I'm gonna build the sync sep, as well as wire up 500 ohm pots to the video lines, wire up the coin and service switches and put it all in the same enclosure.

I'm with you on adding resistance to the signals, until recently I had trimmer pots on there, but they were 1k and they sucked (it was the best that Radio Shack had in stock) so I'm getting some reasonably beefy single turn pots.

I'll let you guys know how it turned out.

I did get the video encoder working with my MVS board before it fried (crappy day), it looked pretty good. A little horizontal color blur, but that might have been from the untrimmed video. Nothing earth shaking, maybe a 16th of an inch. Not noticeable from a distance.

That said, so far, I don't think it's a viable replacement for an XRGB.

[Blaine]

No dice.

The only thing I noticed is for about 1 second when I hooked the circuit up to the +5v... the screen was clear. But it was only for 1 second.

Any ideas at all would be appreciated.

[hellbelly]

Hi

Just found this as I want to improve the picture quality of my SNES, MD etc on my LCD.  Blaine - have you tried it with the SNES yet, you mentioned ordering some cables and a scart socket to make an adapter cable?

ta
Pet

[RGB32E]

This device is very promising....
http://www.anchorbaytech.com/dvdo_edge/product.php
Two RGBS inputs, and a total of 6 HDMI inputs with 2 outputs (AV and Audio only)

Also, have any of you seen this page before?
http://scanlines.hazard-city.de/

Fun stuff!

[cgm]

This device is very promising....
http://www.anchorbaytech.com/dvdo_edge/product.php
Two RGBS inputs, and a total of 6 HDMI inputs with 2 outputs (AV and Audio only)

Also, have any of you seen this page before?
http://scanlines.hazard-city.de/

Fun stuff!

Read the avsforums upscaler forum for even more fun. Fixed pixel displays may be a curse to some, but at least it made video scalers/transcoders a more common product. The DVDO Edge is nice, but lacks an analog output, their discontinued iScanHD+ has it though. The DVDO units seem to depreciate like rocks though, some deals to be had on ebay for video scalers. I wonder what the markup is on them?

[RGB32E]

Read the avsforums upscaler forum for even more fun.

Yes, the avsforum is definitely fun... 

Fixed pixel displays may be a curse to some, but at least it made video scalers/transcoders a more common product. The DVDO Edge is nice, but lacks an analog output, their discontinued iScanHD+ has it though.

I don't see the usefulness of having an analog out on the Edge, especially if one wants to connect an external scalar to a non-crt display.  Besides, with 5 HDMI inputs on the back, two RGBS inputs, and the potential to do ~"240p" scaling the right way... seems like it could be a great solution (even if it is too expensive for most people on this forum  ).  However, getting an HDTV that accepts 15.75kHz RGB, or using a RGB to component converter might be a better solution...

The DVDO units seem to depreciate like rocks though, some deals to be had on ebay for video scalers. I wonder what the markup is on them?

Become a dealer and find out!

[Blaine]

Hi

Just found this as I want to improve the picture quality of my SNES, MD etc on my LCD.  Blaine - have you tried it with the SNES yet, you mentioned ordering some cables and a scart socket to make an adapter cable?

ta
Pet

It's fairly awesome on anything it works with. You do have to make an SCART to their 9 pin interface adapter. In retrospect, I wish I had added some pots to the adapter to adjust the RGB signals - you can get away with not having it, but I'm sorta spoiled from my supergun and being able to tweak the video drives.

That said, I am returning mine - they gave me an RMA, because I can't get it to work with the boards I need it to work with.

In general...

1) If the transcoder works with your signal (which is most things).
2) You give yourself the ability to tweak the RGB signal before it hits the transcoder.

Then the results are very nice. True, no scanlines, but honestly... Mark of The Wolves with my supergun and Ambery looks almost identical to my Neo Geo cab.

Again, I'm only returning it because it doesn't work with some of my arcade boards, and that's really what I need it to work with.

[hellbelly]

Thanks Blaine, that's interesting

Pete

[RGB32E]

Have any of you had any luck with these?
http://www.jammaboards.com/store/acv-011-cga-to-vga-converter/prod_252.html

[Blaine]

Have any of you had any luck with these?
http://www.jammaboards.com/store/acv-011-cga-to-vga-converter/prod_252.html

I have one similar to that coming to me in the mail.



The one I ordered has a few perks.

1) It's almost $50 less.
2) It supports component video as well.
3) It runs off of 5 volts, which will be easier for when I hook it up to my supergun (one less plug in the wall).

That said... who knows if it'll be any good!

But once it gets in, I'll write up a review.

[duo_r]

What is the best place to purchase this box?  This looks very similar to the Atlona / CYM box that I recently purchased (RGB Scart to YUV converter).

On a side note... here is a picture of the CSY2100 PCB (RGBS->Component) 

[Holering]

I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail but I ordered this product (Product number A-24)
http://www.arcademvs.com/ARCADE_ACESSERIOR.htm

I bought it off this seller from ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Arcade-RGBS-CGA-EGA-YUV-TO-2-VGA-CONVERTER-NEW_W0QQitemZ310109423621QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item310109423621&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail but if you can, read this discussion here  about it though nothing has been confirmed yet http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?PHPSESSID=il3nklliab4h33a2b1sv8jepg3&topic=3484.0

it is pretty certain that this would be all you'd need. As it appears it'll take component (ypbpr & ycbcr), 8 pin rgbs, 5 pin RGB-CGA, and 15pin rgbhv inputs. It even appears to have seperate r-g-b- (Gain? perhaps) adjustments. As far as outputs its got 2 15pin vga outputs and 2 8pin vga outputs. This thing even appears to upscan-linedouble 15.75khz signals to 31.5khz which seems unbelievable for a $50+shipping product (as discussed in the thread-link I provided). On top of all that it also appears to have an upgrade interface (two 4 pin sockets)!

Once again I'd like to note that I haven't received mine yet and I haven't heard from any other members about this particular product but mine is on the way from canada (I live in northwest washington) so hopefully it'll arrive here soon. This product may very well be the holy grail for rgb wanters out there who have nothing but 31.5khz and up monitors (like me!) and ypbpr to rgb conversion (gamecube, ps2, 360, ps3 on 31.5khz-up monitors perhaps??).

Blaine (previous posts above) seems to have probly gotten this same product though he still has yet to write any kind of review-info about it...

[duo_r]

I guess I am really missing the need for this product after your post. All of the systems you mentioned should be capable of VGA output with the exception of the gamecube.

PS2 - I made a VGA cable that works on all games that have progressive mode, and with HD Loader, it works on even more games (not all correctly though)
PS3 - I haven't tested yet, but no reason I see for the VGA cable I built to not work (it is the same port and I can test)
360 - My VGA cables works just fine with this system

I originally stumbled here looking for RGB to YUV conversion, but I realized that is not what this box does. I would be interested what it could do for non VGA capable systems (like Genesis or Duo) but why do you need it for systems that are already capable of VGA output???

I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail but I ordered this product (Product number A-24)
http://www.arcademvs.com/ARCADE_ACESSERIOR.htm

I bought it off this seller from ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/Arcade-RGBS-CGA-EGA-YUV-TO-2-VGA-CONVERTER-NEW_W0QQitemZ310109423621QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item310109423621&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

I'm still waiting for mine to come in the mail but if you can, read this discussion here  about it though nothing has been confirmed yet http://nfggames.com/forum2/index.php?PHPSESSID=il3nklliab4h33a2b1sv8jepg3&topic=3484.0

it is pretty certain that this would be all you'd need. As it appears it'll take component (ypbpr & ycbcr), 8 pin rgbs, 5 pin RGB-CGA, and 15pin rgbhv inputs. It even appears to have seperate r-g-b- (Gain? perhaps) adjustments. As far as outputs its got 2 15pin vga outputs and 2 8pin vga outputs. This thing even appears to upscan-linedouble 15.75khz signals to 31.5khz which seems unbelievable for a $50+shipping product (as discussed in the thread-link I provided). On top of all that it also appears to have an upgrade interface (two 4 pin sockets)!

Once again I'd like to note that I haven't received mine yet and I haven't heard from any other members about this particular product but mine is on the way from canada (I live in northwest washington) so hopefully it'll arrive here soon. This product may very well be the holy grail for rgb wanters out there who have nothing but 31.5khz and up monitors (like me!) and ypbpr to rgb conversion (gamecube, ps2, 360, ps3 on 31.5khz-up monitors perhaps??).

Blaine (previous posts above) seems to have probly gotten this same product though he still has yet to write any kind of review-info about it...

[Holering]

Pretty much any old system (genesis, snes, master system) and arcade pcbs give out an rgb signal at 15.75khz (basically a vga signal that is a low signal with combined vertical and horizontal sync). Pretty much every modern monitor cannot accept that low signal. Being able to upscan (basically to upscale) from 15.75khz (320X240@60hz?) to 31.5khz (640X480@60hz?) is the only way to directly hook up an older console to your computer monitor (or any monitor that only accepts 31.5khz and up) using the rgb output of that particular system. I'm only gonna use the available rgb outputs on any given game console as that provides the best picture possible without modification of the console itself! I'm not into emulation so this is the only way to get that same picture quality you'd get from an emulator going through your computer except this is the real deal! Some systems do require modification like the Nintendo 64 or TurboDuo to output rgb though it's totally worth it if you have the right display equipment for your taste!

I have wanted something cheap that works (and looks great) to use on my 19" computer monitor (Sony G400) as my monitor won't sync down to 15.75khz but it looks beautiful with accurate colors and blacks etc... I use my monitor with ps3 currently (using the mayflash vga001 ypbpr component to vga box) and it looks beautiful! Picture looks perfect! I want to use this monitor with everything (my snes, genesis, saturn, dreamcast, ps2, etc.) as it's the right size for me (I grew up playing nes and snes on 19" tv's so my eyes are fine with 19" monitor) together with my pc. I really want a bigger room so I can make a setup where I'm standing playing games and also being able to use the mouse and keyboard for computer gaming. There's something about playing games when I'm standing up that just makes the experience better... Arcades are setup that way and that's probly why I was always excited to play Mortal kombat as a child

This box would work great for ps2 as pretty much all games (save for a few) will not natively output 31.5khz for people without some kinda boot disc or similar as you mentioned you use. 

You mention you need an rgb to component yuv (ypbpr?)device? I have one that I'd be willing to let go for $50 (free shipping. I paid over $100+shipping when I got it plus I had to get a proper power supply as it came with a european one so...) if you live in the states though I want to wait till I recieve this product I mentioned and see how it performs with 15.75khz games on my monitor. I used it with my Sony Trinitron 27" tv and it looked amazing with my genesis and snes! I can't believe I've read some people posts saying that using an rgb to ypbpr converter will make the picture look no better than svideo. Not true! I really enjoyed my dreamcast with rgb to ypbpr with this t.v. (think it was one of the last analog tvs sony made before going highdef) as the colors were so much more vivid and I could actually see the jaggies very easily on games with it's crispness as compared to the svideo output. If rgb looks this good I can't wait to try the native vga output from the dreamcast on my monitor...

If you want to buy an rgb to ypbpr device elsewhere look on ebay and you may find one cheap though the qualities vary (I don't even think mine is supposed to be that great but it certainly looks like it!)

[duo_r]

Appreciate the offer, I actually am the proud owner of the Atlona / CYM boards, and the RGB to YUV looks amazing on my Turbo Duo. I bought this for the older consoles (Genesis, SNES, Turbo Duo), I hook up Xbox 360 directly to that monitor using standard VGA output. Let me know how this card (the one being discussed on this thread) works, would it convert RGB to YUV or does it output to VGA only? Sounds interesting, usually a good up convert box would cost a lot more so I am a little suspicious on the performance, hopefully someone will prove that wrong with a "review."

[balazer]

I can echo pretty much everything that KOF said about the Cypress CM-397, aka Ambery 15Khz RGB CGA YUV Component Video YCbCr to VGA Converter Scaler.

I've used it only with my PS2, using PS2 and PS1 games.  Actually DDR is the only game I have.

Video is clean and sharp.  It appears to be locking onto the PS2's pixel clock and sampling the pixels perfectly, and then digitally scaling that to the output resolution.  1024 x 768 and 1368 x 768 look very similar - both very sharp. 1366 x 768 seems to have slightly sharper details horizontally, at the expense of a tiny bit of noise that's not apparent in 1024 x 768.  640 x 480 is noticeably less sharp horizontally: it seems the pixel array of the input and output don't match, and it gets resampled.  I'm using a CRT, so both 1024 x 768 and 1366 x 768 look great.  If you're using an LCD monitor, I hope that either it can display 1024 x 768 with 1:1 pixel mapping, or that it has a good scaler in it, because any more scaling will make the picture suffer.  A 1368 x 768 wide-screen LCD TV would be a good choice if it's able to display the 1024 x 768 image in the center of the screen with 1:1 pixel mapping.  The CM-397 scaler is very good, with just about the right balance between sharpness, smoothness, and accuracy. You can see the individual pixels of the source video in the output, if you look closely, and yet diagonal lines and smooth curves appear perfectly smooth also. There does appear to be some over-sharpening or edge enhancement, which I don't like, but it doesn't seem to bother me during gameplay.

Since I only play DDR, the de-interlacing shouldn't be that challenging.  There's pretty much only static graphics and scrolling arrows to deal with.  The CM-397 interlacer does a great job on 480i material.  It has motion adaptive de-interlacing, so static images are weaved so they appear without flicker, and moving parts of the screen are bob de-interlaced, keeping them as sharp as possible, without any ghosting.  The de-interlacing seems to be just the right level of aggression, at least for DDR.  I never see improper weave artifacts, and it doesn't seem to add any more bob flicker than is necessary.  Motion is smooth.

I didn't notice any lag.

240p is another matter.  It appears to treat the image as 480i.  So static 240p images look just fine.  But moving images appear a bit jerky, and you often get a double image (of moving arrows, for example).  It's just annoying enough that a non-expert will notice the jerkiness. But it doesn't detract from gameplay, considering that I don't play 240p PS1 discs that often.  A purist will want to get the XRGB2 or 2+ or 3.  I'm pretty picky about video, but I'm not going to bother to get an XRGB2 for the occasional PS1 game that I play.

I'm using the PS2 in component video mode.  The CM-397 didn't like the PS2's RGB with sync on green output, despite claims that it should.  KOF reported that it does like RGBHV, but I didn't try.  In any case the component output delivers very vivid and accurate color.

All in all, I'm extremely pleased with my purchase.  It really makes gameplay more enjoyable.