Review: Composite/S-Video to VGA converter.

If you're into retro video gaming, you probably know that these games look better on a CRT screen vs your modern LCD TV screen.  That's because all retro games render their images using 2D sprites.  Modern LCD TV display everything in pixels and displaying 2D sprites in pixels simply makes it look like a mess.  I was looking for a good CRT TV but wasn't able to find one.  I do have an old PC CRT that I have lying around.  So I thought what would it take to display my SNES video to that CRT?  

PC CRT's are different from regular TV CRT's in being that they have much higher resolution and their input is via either VGA or DVI.   The CRT I have is a 17" SONY 200ES.  I remember picking this up at CompUSA for $400 when it was new.  It was a higher end model at that time when the standard was a 15" screen.  It has a top resolution of 1280 x 1024 and a low resolution of 640 x 480.  Even at 640 x 480, its resolution much higher than what the SNES puts out which is about 256×224.  Other consoles like the Dreamcast might be easier as it has native VGA adapter.  That's obstacle number one.  The second obstacle is how to plug it into the CRT's VGA port to a Composite/S-Video connector that my SNES had.  The solution I found is this little Video to VGA converter box I purchased on EBay for $15. 

Composite video to VGA adapter

Without knowing how the box internally works, I'm assuming it converts or upscales Composite/S-Video signal to VGA.  The end result is that it works great for me. The VGA port is a 15pin D-Sub connector with a Red, Green and Blue signal coming out of its individual pins.  Whether this little device separates the Composite/S-Video signal to its individual colors to VGA, I'm not sure.  But probably not.  That's all thats need to make it display on the CRT.  Another down side to using this method of connecting a PC CRT monitor over a regular TV CRT is that most if not all of them don't have built in speakers.  You will need an individual external speakers if you want sound.  Overall, I'm happy with the result and I didn't have to of scour for an old TV CRT from a yard sale or flea market.

Sony 200ES display SNES video