Dreamcast VGA

[j_factor]

I hate to break this up, but I noticed that my HDTV has a VGA input - is the it worth paying for the VGA adapter considering I've already got it hooked up via SCART at the moment?

I'm not quite sure how it is for you in PAL land. VGA is 640x480p. I'm pretty sure the DC can't do 576p. So, if I understand it correctly, you sacrifice a little resolution in order to get progressive scan. But maybe Dreamcast doesn't do PAL resolution very well to begin with, or something.

[Devil N]

I hate to break this up, but I noticed that my HDTV has a VGA input - is the it worth paying for the VGA adapter considering I've already got it hooked up via SCART at the moment?

Yes, definitely. Not only is VGA sharper than RGB SCART because of it being progressive instead of interlaced, but also because HDTV's won't apply any meddling filters on the image coming from a VGA source, such as noise reduction or artificial sharpening. It results in the sharpest and most natural image you could ever wish to get from your DC.

The only downside is that some DC games don't support VGA. Fortunately those games are in the minority and some can be patched. If you want to be sure, there's a VGA compatibility list right here.

I'm not quite sure how it is for you in PAL land. VGA is 640x480p. I'm pretty sure the DC can't do 576p. So, if I understand it correctly, you sacrifice a little resolution in order to get progressive scan. But maybe Dreamcast doesn't do PAL resolution very well to begin with, or something.

Most PAL Dreamcast games are best played in 60 Hz anyway, so you practically don't lose anything. And whether 576i is sharper than 480p is up for debate.

[kool kitty89]

The original comment I replied to was, in reference to N64 versus PSX, on the merits of discs versus cartridges: "CD quality music is great but chiptunes can be just as good." He seemed to think that, because it uses cartridges, it must be chiptunes. Although the N64 uses cartridge media, it has no audio chip -- which a lot of people don't realize. People tend to assume it's the same as Genesis or SNES but with a higher-quality chip. And although N64 music "can be just as good", it usually isn't. I think on its own, the N64's audio method works fine. But it often runs into problems due to being allocated a limited amount of cart space. Some N64 games' music was carefully designed around the system's limitations and it sounds great. Ports are usually the worst. Would it have been better with "proper" audio hardware? I don't know, maybe. It definitely would've been better with a higher capacity format.

Yeah, that makes sense, I wouldn't considder it chiptunes, and neither would I consider it equal to the possbilities of CD-DA, though in many cases, it may be fairly equivelent. And the N64's musical capabilities were decent enough. (some made better use than others, of course)
The whole choice of cartidges goes way beyond music though, the streaming video (multimedia), cost, etc had huge connotations, and I'm not entirely sure why nintendo didn't opt for creating a propritary optical format and/or heft security system. (the simplest would have been custom size/shade CDs, with a drive too small to fit full CDs, but a capacity far larger than mini CDs, so imposing difficulties for piracy, and they could add further protection later on if they lacked time initially)

And hey, the GBA was capable of excellent sound.

OF course, it had the GB sound hardware to fall back on too.

It really wasn't a big deal, it just became one. :S