Customer Reviews

INNOVATION TECHNOLOGIES Playstatioscy

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If you don't have a great TV or need the space, this vga box is for you.

People will tell you that the image quality of this box is poor. What they don't realize is that this basically makes your monitor mimic a television screen. So just like a television, the closer you are too the screen, the image quality dimishes. In other words, you'll want to distance yourself from your monitor when you play games using the box, just like you would if you played video games on a normal TV. When you do this, you'll find that the image quality is pretty good (I would say a notch above S-Video) and the colors are dead on (for example, black shows up as pitch black instead of gray).
The type of monitor you have will also be a factor when it comes to your image quality. I use a 19" NEC MultiSync FE991SB that has extensive OSD (on screen display) for adjusting the screen. Since the VGA Box doesn't automatically fill out the screen with the game image, you'll need a monitor with a good OSD to do this. The best part is that the box remembers the setting so you don't have to adjust it every time you want to play a game.

My only gripes with this product is..
1. No audio cable included - For switching sound between PC and Console. You'll have to buy one on your own.
2. No vga cable included - For switching between your PC's display and your console's display. Once again, you'll have to buy one separately.
3. Lack of instructions. While everything is labeled on the VGA Box and there is a diagram on the cardboard box, theres still one port on the box in which I don't know what to do with despite what the diagram says.
4. It's not self-powered. It has to be plugged into one of your memory card slots to get it's power. I would of at least prefered an AC adapter.

Bottomline....
This is a great VGA Box for the price. Just don't expect resolutions higher than what your console achieves on a normal television just because you're using a monitor.

Personally, this is just a temporary solution for me. There are better (however, more expensive) products out there that can get the job done much better, which I will persue later on. I only got this one because I just purchased a PS2 and it was either play on my monitor or play on an old 12" TV via RF switch.

PROS:
Item works as promised. The unit was truly "plug-n-play" and has been compatible with the 6 or 7 games I've tried. The unit also works well with my PC speakers (although sound quality diminishes with the length of the audio cables).

CONS: After reading about these converters I had hoped to get an improved resolution on my VGA monitor over my TV. I would say the resolution is equivalent (perhaps even not a good for on screen text). Also need to provide your own second VGA cord.

BOTOMLINE: If you want a reasonably priced PS2 to VGA converter that gets the job done this is a good unit.

If you're looking to hook your PS2 up to your monitor, this does it. If you're looking for it to do much more, you're looking in the wrong place.

Everything about this item is minimalist -- from the packaging (a cardboard box with instructions on the back) to the contents (for the price, they could have thrown in VGA and mini-headphone cables) to the features (outputs TV-quality video to your monitor, and allows audio/video switching between your PS2 and PC, nothing more). Gets its power from a memory card slot -- having optional AC or a pass-through memory card port would have been nice, but it's not a big issue unless you get into multiplayer. I'm sure a multi-tap would handle that problem if the need arises.

Definitely a step up from the old RF adapter and my ancient 26" RCA television, but if you've got a decent TV and connectors don't expect any jump in quality, this is more about convenience.

When I first got this, I hooked it up to my 19" monitor and tried it with Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal, and I was not pleased with the result. I don't know if it's the monitor or the game, but it looked really bad.

Then I tried it with Gran Turismo 4 on a different monitor, a 17" Philips, and it works just fine. The picture quality is as good as can be expected, and with some find tuning of ipcture size and position, it's a decent substitute for using a TV.