Well, I’m a college student who just bought herself her very own shiny silver GameCube, and I was wondering: Could I spare myself hauling in a TV by hooking my GC up to my computer? There are VGA adapters available, but the good ones are too expensive and the cheap ones can’t perform. Could I install a TV tuner card in my PC and connect my GC with the RF adapter? I found this on Nintendo’s website, but I’m not sure if this is referring to what I want to do or not. Could anyone give me a hand?
I could be wrong, but I think it’s saying that the Commodore Monitor has Chroma and Lumen inputs. And all that switch does is convert regular A/V inputs to Chroma and Lumen inputs, I think basically making it a TV, I guess.
The TV tuner card and RF adapter idea sounds pretty good. My TV tuner card (Radeon 7500 AGP w/TV tuner 64MB) has an audio and video input, plus tuner input, never used it though so I couldn’t tell you how well it works. Good luck.
My friend made his own VGA adapter for his Gamecube by modifying the stock Nintendo digital adapter. He also owns one of those $99 generic TV to VGA switchbox things. The modified digital adapter is better because a) it’s cheaper (~$20 for parts) and it supports progressive scan, which is the main reason non-dormitory residents would want to run on their monitors.
I believe the cheaper adapters you can buy are the modified ones, but I have heard they have quality issues. You can find the plans online. If you are not solder-ly challenged (as I am), I suggest making friends with an EE major. Most would be happy to do it for a smile and a donut.
If you use a TV tuner, get one with a video input (round, probably yellow). You’ll get better quality using the GameCube’s video output than the RF adapter.
I doubt the quality will be any better than a same-priced VGA adapter, though. The video signal coming from the GameCube is interlaced, and the one on your monitor is not - no matter how you have it set up, you’ll either get a chunky looking picture (each line is doubled) or “tearing” effects (the even lines move while the odd lines stay put, and vice versa).
Nintendo suggests a Commodore monitor because it can display an interlaced TV signal. Commodore monitors had RCA audio/video inputs just like a TV, and the Commodore Amiga could use interlaced video modes (I don’t know why… interlacing always drove me crazy).
Now I finally understand why my friend has a gazillion of those Commodore monitors laying around to use her GameCube on. I just thought she couldn’t afford a TV in her room. :smack: I was surprised that it could show good quality, though.