Customer Reviews

Mygica HD Game Box Video to VGA Converter/Switcher - Play Game on PC LCD Monitor, Support Resolution Up to 1920 X 1200

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased a brand new Genia HD GameBox from HDTVonPC through Amazon due to the price being exponentially lower. Long story short....It's in the process of being returned now.

Pros:
1) This will display almost any signal from a video console onto a VGA monitor. That includes 480i which is not traditionally supported by LCD monitors.

Cons:
1) It does not support 16:9 aspect ratio as advertised.
2) It does not come with a remote control as advertised.
3) Quoted from the product box "Add black bar to match with 4:3 and 16:10 panel. No more distortion" This simply is not true. Every single option in the menu and all submenus were thoroughly explored. There is absolutely no option for retaining the aspect ratio of the original signal. Leading to number....
4) Every signal will be scaled to the resolution that you set in the menu. This means the signal will be STRETCHED or SQUEEZED together to fit the selected resolution. This would not be a problem if traditional High Definition resolutions were given as an option, but they are not. So, you will not be able to select 1280 x 720 for 720p nor will you be able to select 1920 x 1080 to give you 1080p. Think of the picture as looking at a 4:3 picture on a 16:9 widescreen LCD HDTV that is not set to aspect or real ratio. Faces get stretched to a weird wide look, etc....
5) Because everything is scaled and there is no way to disable the scaling, there will be a loss in signal quality for all pictures displayed.
6) Some other boxes such as the X2VGA2 by Neoya have two component inputs for gaming systems versus only one on the Geniatech HD Gamebox. I later discovered and bought this competitor's product and am keeping it. However, my only 1080i game had it's black shades displayed in shades of green. So I had to set my Xbox to incorrectly say my monitor doesn't support 1080i so the X2VGA2 would display the 1080i game properly in 720p. My monitor is a 1920 x 1200 resolution DoubleSight DS-263N which supports perfectly even 1080p. The colors were perfect on the HD GameBox in 1080i (albeit stretched to 1920 x 1200).
7) The sound "quality" on the Geniatech HD GameBox can only be described as defective. Even when the HD GameBox is turned off, tremendous noise/interference/static is run through your speaker system. So you have to unplug the sound cable when not using it if you are plugging this into an alternate MP3 jack in your speaker system as I was (Logitech Z-4 speaker system) Also, the volume has to be turned way down low so that all this horrible sound quality noise doesn't overpower the actual video game sound.
8) This HD GameBox runs HOT!!! Even when not actively in use, this thing runs about as hot as a gaming video card in your PC. I didn't feel comfortable leaving it on when not in use for this reason. One has to wonder just how long an electronic device that runs this hot will last over time.
9) Although HDTVonPC has stated they are willing to refund the initial shipping costs, they will not pay for return shipping on this misrepresented and defective (from a sound quality perspective) product.

In summary, if you just need a product that will display 480i on a PC monitor and don't care about picture or sound quality, then this is an ok product for you. If you want a high definition box that will properly display your high definition signal on your high definition LCD monitor, then I suggest you run (don't walk) far, far away from this Geniatech HD GameBox. It does not live up to it's name or advertising.

*** UPDATE: HDTVonPC did NOT refund the initial shipping costs as they agreed to in their email correspondance. So approximately $16 (initial and return shipping) was lost on a misrepresented and defective product. They did say it is their policy NEVER to pay for return shipping even on a defective product. However, they did NOT honor their word of refunding the initial shipping costs either. It became very clear from an unprofessional demeanor (overly casual and disinterested) and specific statements in their emails that HDTVonPC is definately a "Mom and Pop" shop. They don't do RMA #'s and it took me almost two weeks and several emails for them to answer the simple question of what address to send the return to. Detailed return instructions were requested in the first email. Also, the product box initially shipped to me was pretty banged up due to it being "packaged" in a completely unprotected normal priority mail envelope (product itself was undamaged). On the bright side, I guess HDTVonPC could have been worse by trying to blame this damage on me and not accepting the return, but I did bubble wrap it to minimize this chance. This is not a good vendor to choose for any of your needs. This product rating of two stars does not take into account HDTVonPC being the vendor (which would have lowered it). It's based solely on the product itself purchased at a cost of below forty dollars.

I am very happy with the HD Gamebox. I bought it in order to play ps2 games on a 19" lcd computer monitor. I can compare it with two other products that I also use: Gamebridge AVC-1400 and Neoya's X2VGA2.

Details of my setup: I use a slimline Playstation 2 (scph-77001), with Sony's "Playstation 3 Component AV Cables" (YPbPr component video, these work for ps2), with a Dell 19" LCD monitor at 1280x1024 resolution and I hook up the audio cables directly to a stereo hi-fi.

HD Gamebox: very crisp and clear images, games at 480i look exactly like s-video on a good modern TV (e.g. Gradius V), games at 480p look spectacular (e.g. Tekken 5).

Gamebridge: instead of hooking it up directly to the monitor (like the other products) this runs through Windows because it is mainly intended for recording gameplay. It cannot run 480p. At 480i the games look very blurry (e.g. Gradius V looks significantly blurred). You can use software manipulation to improve the image, but it will never be close to s-video on a TV.

X2VGA2: This cannot display 480i (it supports an ugly 480i so that you can find your way to the options screen in ps2 games to switch the game to 480p). Games that run on 480p look spectacular. Unfortunately there are only few ps2 games that support 480p.

Audio: I do not recommend streamlining the audio through any of the products, but instead hook it up to a stereo.

Conclusion: Until I got the gamebox I used the last two products (gamebridge for 480i, and x2vga2 for 480p). Now I only use the HD gamebox since it supports both, and I no longer feel the need to hook the ps2 up to a TV.

This is a neat product that allows you to hook-up TV type video inputs such as composite, s-video, and component video (either interlaced or progressive). The product works fairly well especially when using a component video input. The s-video input provided poor brightness when I used it with my Gamecube. You can adjust brightness, contrast, etc. on the unit itself but it's very slow and cumbersome to do so and you are probably better off changing these settings on the monitor itself. This device upscales and deinterlaces video input. I myself use it with a Sony Trinitron CRT monitor at 1600x1200 resolution. Pretty good product and seems to be the only one on the market that supports high resolutions and component input. Also note this model does not come with any form of remote control so don't expect to get one like I did. Mine also lacked instructions but if you are tech savvy you should be able to figure it out. There is no tuner either this is strictly a video input device only so use it with a dvd player, video game console, vcr, etc.

I bought this product for my 24" 1920 x 1200 resolution monitor. So far I've run XBOX 360, Wii, SNES, N64, and PSP through the component inputs and will try to explain each as I saw it. I can't honestly review the SVideo input option because I don't use this kind of input from any device.

Disclaimer: This is a review from someone who would rather play the game than keep hoping for something that retains perfect graphics. It works very well with the condition that you accept the fact that every one of these devices WILL have degredation of quality to some extent, I've been looking this information up for a long time trying to figure out how to play games on my monitor. It has active components that cannot perfectly combine a signal. And by the way, the active components are why it runs hot as another reviewer mentioned but it seems to be well ventilated.

The Wii showed up slightly brighter and showed the graphics slightly fuzzier but it's a Wii... you don't buy it for the graphics. That's not to say the graphics are just barely acceptable; they really aren't too bad at all. Adjusting your monitor's brightness and contrast settings will work much better than the device's own options. I've played Mario Kart, Super Mario Galaxy, and deBlob with it so far and never had to squint or slow down because of this device's graphics and that's all that I need. The major concern with this one is that things in the distance seemed to become indiscernible more quickly than they do on a TV and the background's motion blurring can become overwhelming and dizzying if the camera turns very quickly. I say this with deBlob in mind specifically where you roll around and the camera frantically tries to follow you.

As far as the XBOX 360 goes, I wouldn't recommend using this device because of the high quality graphics; that's where I draw the line on degrading graphics since that's what the 360 is all about. I don't really account this into my rating because the 360 already has a specific cable to connect it to a monitor. I've used that 360-only cable on quite a few games on the same monitor and the output is much much better with it. If anyone reads this for XBOX 360 alone, get that cable instead of this GameBox and you will be much happier with the results for a much cheaper price.

As far as the classic systems N64 and SNES, there's not much to degrade since the graphics were never amazing but I've played Starfox (SNES), Donkey Kong Country (SNES), Starfox 64, Gauntlet Legends, Diddy Kong Racing, Mario Kart, 1080, etc. and found no problems with the graphics. Most of these games involve quick motion at some points but the motion blurring has never affected the gameplay in any way. 1080 Snowboarding, for example has some blurring behind the character when you make quick turns but it doesn't get in the way of the action at all. That blurring may be more noticeable when trying to follow the path of a small object like a ball as another reviewer mentioned. The image does fill the screen when I believe it should be 4:3 but I don't notice the stretching much at all until there's a pan-around cinematic. It's roughly equivalent to the stretching by putting a 4:3 game system on a 16:9 TV (except widescreen monitors are 16:10 ratio). These old systems give much better results than the new generation systems that have amazing graphics to retain.

The PSP requires progressive scan to play games and amazingly, this device did accomplish this with some time playing with the menu though I doubt anyone is buying this to hook up a PSP. The output definitely didn't fill the screen, however, and it was slightly off center but the graphics were fine and it was still bigger than a PSP's screen. You may be able to get better results if you play with the options some more, it wasn't too important to me but I did try several games on it with good results.

Another confusing issue to me is the lack of an instruction booklet. If you're not familiar with video input/output types and options, I can see this device being a severe frustration. Knowledge like YPbPr meaning HD input and CVBS meaning composite video (AV) will help you navigate the menus much easier. To be honest, I didn't know all of the information though and got some things working with trial and error and patience with the slow menu controls.

If you get output from AV input and it's in black and white, try checking your video options and change it to CVBS instead of SVideo.

And finally, I have absolutely no idea what the volume controls do. I've pushed those over and over and as far as I can tell, they do absolutely nothing other than help you to work with menus when needed. This shouldn't be a major problem if your speakers already have their own volume control as my computer speakers did.

Overall, this GameBox works well if you just want to play your games on a monitor and don't mind a bit of graphics degredation. It works very well with my widescreen monitor. It's ideal for playing older game systems but is still very able to play the current generation of systems with more noticeable quality loss (for those who don't mind this). Expect to spend some time figuring the menus out and configuring it for your monitor, but this is really only a one time adjustment that isn't required every time you want to play a game.

I agree with the previous review but I wouldn't say this product is simply a piece of junk. Pros and cons stated by previous reviews will not be repeated here, but I have a couple of points to add.

Pros:
(1) This converter does a good on progressive signals. Vivid color, sharp edges and fast response impressed me.
(2) De-interlacing does a good job on 2D images like characters and maps. Even small fonts are very clear and the edges are smooth. I was really impressed when I saw "PLAYSTATION" logo showing up on my monitor.
(3) It does has a "anti-aliasing" filter when displaying interlace signals.

Cons:
(1) De-interlacing has TERRIBLE ghost-image when displaying fast motion images. It is OK for RPG games and movies. Action games like Ratchet and Clank are still acceptable. But if you wanna play sports games like winning eleven, boy, the moving ball is like a moving line. Players have long "tails". It is painful. Solution: Progressive signals. For ps2, software like Xploder HDTV for Playstation2 might help. As long as the signal is progressive, there will be go ghost-image.
(2) When resolution of the box is set higher than 1280*1024, image will get noisy.
(3) The cable that is supposed to connect to PC VGA ports DOES NOT work on thinkpad laptop!! As long as I hook it up to my T60, T60 will shut itself down. I guess thinkpad has some sort of protection scheme and that cable violates that rule and T60 just refuse to take it. It does work on other laptop.
(4) Buttons are not very responsive.

Overall, I am OK with this product. I beat ratchet and clank on it with no complaints. Except the first title, R&C supports 480p so I am very satisfied with the image quality. But if you wanna play sports games, forget it. If it worked with thinkpad, I would definitely keep it...

After enough research, I decided on the Geniatech HD GameBox Video to VGA Converter to try and hook up my Wii to a computer monitor. It works just as described. Connecting was no problem and image quality does the job. If you're looking for an affordable way to connect your game system, this works well!

I have purchased the HD Game Box about 2 months ago. I received my Mygica HD Game Box on March 4th. On May 13, I turned on the power and nothing. Nothing happened. The power light would not turn on. I have tried unplugging and plugging in the power cord again and it still didn't work. This product lasted a little over 2 months and broke. Another reviewer mentioned that his device broke after 1 month. This product is very poorly made and looks very cheap. I also sent an email to Mygica and they replied one week later. They basically told me they were sorry for the inconvenience and that I should contact Amazon and ask for a replacement. Unfortunately I am unable to get a replacement because of Amazon's 30 day return policy.

Unless you are okay with a product that will break in 1 or 2 months, don't buy the Mygica HD Game Box. It is a waste of money and the only amazon purchase I regret.

Firstly, this converter is probably the least user friendly item I've every used (partly because you can switch it between NTSC and PAL) and also because some monitors don't display anything if you have the settings wrong (meaning you cant see the menu in order to change the settings!). After struggling with this product for a couple of hours, I got a nice signal.

About a month later the converter broke (while I was playing on the Wii with it). I have tried hooking this up to several different PC monitors since then, and I can't even see the menu.

I used the product to play Wii on my 23" monitor. It works fine. I didn't see any resolution difference between settings. This may due to the limitation of Wii output. Since I'm not looking for HD performance, it is ok for me.

Some say the unit is hot even in standby mode and the audio output is very noisy. Well it doesn't happen for me. However, I did get a non-functional unit at first. But HDTVonPC is very responsive. They shipped me a whole new box with I returning the unit only for $3.88.

I checked out few similar products online. None of them has a perfect review. If you are just like me want to covert your RCA signal to VGA, I think this is a good buy. Make sure you ask HDTVonTV to test it before ship it out.

Overall this product is easy to use. I have connected my dvd player, xbox 360, and ps2 to an av switch which is connected to the gamebox converter. Each device displays nicely on my 17" lcd monitor. Like me if you have multiple systems to connect I recommend an av switch that way you don't have to unplug and replug for each device. I wouldn't recommend connecting the sound through the device as it is very weak. Also it doesn't come with a remote as specified in the description. After tweaking the brightness and contrast settings I get a very clear picture.
I recommend using only the component cables for the best picture. For the price this product is great. Its perfect for those unused CRT or LCD monitors.