SCAN.DL VGA Scanline Generator
- Condition:
- New
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- Calculated at Checkout
Description
If you own a collection of retro games from yesteryear, chances are you remember how they looked on an old 4:3 TV screen. Monitors back then featured a much lower resolution than today's high-definition TVs, but had a distinctive look that most fondly remember - scanlines.
Arcade gaming has come a long way since many dropped coins into stand-up and sit-down arcade machines, admiring the graphics on a glowing CRT screen. Today, many can enjoy their games of yesteryear via MAME or other arcade emulation, but the experience on modern LCD screens isn't the same. For those who remember CRT displays, scanlines were distinct and quite visible, and in many cases characterised how the graphics were to appear. A scanline is one line, or row, in a raster scanning pattern, such as a line of video on a cathode ray tube (CRT) display of a television set or computer monitor.
SCAN.DL - or "Scan Delineation Line" - is an adjustable, VGA input/output adapter that generates scanlines, replicating the appearance of older CRT monitors on modern, hi-resolution LCD/LED displays.
Robust Features, Economical Price
SCAN.DL comes with 3 individual trimpots for red, blue and green colours. Rotating the trimpots clockwise or counter-clockwise using a small flat head screwdriver, you can change the intensity of the scanlines to your preferences, from dark to faintly visible.
If you notice that the screen turns increasingly red, green or blue, this is normal. All that is needed is a turn of each pot to match each of the color intensities that you set for a single color. For example, if you increase the red, make sure to increase the green and blue by the same amount. This will return the screen color to normal, and in turn adjust to your desired scanline intensity.
Also present are 4 prominent dipswitches to turn on the device and configure the scanlines. These are labelled on the device:
[P] Power on/off
[W] Scanline width (for thicker or thinner scanlines, adjusted thicker for higher resolutions)
[OE] Even or odd scanlines
[V] Vertical sync. Vertical sync inverts the VSYNC signal; VGA resolutions other than 640x480 @ 60Hz or 1024x768 @ 60Hz will need this activated to properly display scanlines.
To activate each, move the switch towards the number or label on the device. To turn off, simply move the switch away from the number or label.
Other features include two female VGA connectors on each side, representing signal input and output.
The compact (2.1in x 1.5in x 0.5in) hardware is enclosed in a protective, anti-static bag.
High-Resolution And Dreamcast VGA Compatible
SCAN.DL is a 31KHz VGA product, and will support resolutions to 1080p (1920x1080) and above. It has been tested on various VGA sources and monitors for compliance. The quality largely depends on the graphics card (if using PC), quality of cable, resolution your monitor can produce. Best practice is to test a VGA source and the cables you intend to connect the SCAN.DL to.
The SCAN.DL has been tested on VGA output from the Sega Dreamcast and will output to a TV with VGA (often labeled as PC) input. You can also connect it to a VGA to HDMI upscaler if your TV does not have a VGA input.
Reviews
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it works great
this thing turned my pandora's box dx from something i hated when i first got it to something that i love now
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Scanline
Works great
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Get that authentic look and feel
Works great, arcade games look 10x better now and more authentic.
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Surprisingly competent piece of kit
Picked this up for an arcade cabinet I recently bought. The cabinet is a Taito Vewlix clone with a 32inch LCD screen with 720P resolution. Truth be told I wasn't expecting much, inline SLGs at this price point are generally a waste of time so lets just try it and see was the initial mindset I went in with.
Connecting it up is as easy as you would expect. VGA out from your game device/board > SLG > VGA to monitor and it just works, so far so good and no unpleasant surprises. Build quality is good but the board itself is lacking any real functionality, of the configurations I tried I only noticed two distinct settings; very fine or very thick scanlines. Luckily, the fine scanline setting is truly outstanding for what it is. I can honestly say for the purpose of cleaning up the image, it does an extremely good job of it. The scanlines can be seen if you look closely but they are not blatantly visible when you move back a few feet.
I'd initially considered using an OSSC as I already own one, but after using this i'd honestly say it isn't worth it. Sure it doesn't upscale or line double, at this price point that was never going to be an option. But what it does do is give your image a distinctly cleaner and nicely filtered image, emulating what you would expect from a consumer CRT.
Would have rated 5 stars but due to the lack of any real funtionality and the horrendous thick scanline setting i'd say 4 is about right. -
scan line
gives a very picture like if you were using a arcade monitor
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Makes proper looking scanlines.
I am not a die hard scanline guy who simply has to have scanlines in order to play a game but I do appreciate they bring a certain air of authenticity to a game and after I changed my dead CRT out for a LCD I decided to give this little generator a go as all the emulated/software ones I had tried just didnt look right to me and there was obvious variations between games/Emus.
Now as I said above I am not a die hard scanline guy but the results this give I think are good, They look much better than the emulated ones and are consistent. I still have to use Emulated ones on ZSNES and Gens but this is due to the way the Emulators handle full screen resolutions and not the generator itself.
It works flawlessly with my Mame, CPS1 & 2, Neo Geo and M2 emulators though. I cant comment how compareable they are to a real CRT playing a game as I no longer own one but I am happy with the results.
Installing is a doddle with it being plug and play, I had to order 2x adapter cables because both my monitor and PC are DVI not VGA but it worked fine with them.
After installing it I was wondering if something was wrong as when I powered up the PC I had no signal to the monitor, But once the PC had booted to Windows it came on ok. It just seems to take a while to get going.
I would of liked a tiny bit more adjustment over the intensity but thats a minor point really.
The only other very minor point of note is the V Sync dip switch is labled as "S" Not "V" as stated in the instructions.
