KaicoSega Dreamcast HDMI Adapter – Plug & Play HDMI Converter for Sega Dreamcast Console – Supports DC VGA & RGBS Output – All-in-One AV Cable for All Dreamcast Games

VGA output looks beautiful on a modern TV. I like the ability to switch from VGA to component with the switch on the back. Very helpful for the games that don’t support VGA. Only owned a few weeks but no issues whatsoever, quite the step up in comparison with the standard cable.

I read various reviews about this "not working" and was concerned but thought I'd try it anyway.Plugged it in and... NOTHING!!!!... Now considering I had to pull my entertainment center aware from the wall and get behind to cable things up... I was a little miffed at this point... But then... I have HDMI cables going into a HDMI switch etc so I thought I'd start with the basics... straight into the TV. Still nothing....The documentation makes no mention that there is a small hole in the case on the underside and I wondered what did that do... unplugged everything to get a better look but no idea... plugged it back in FIRMLY into the Dreamcast and bingo, the little hole was actually a BLUE LED and it lit up!!!! Checked the TV, Yup... I have a signal. Plugged everything back into the various switches and it was still all working great.Put everything back in place (moving my entertainment center back against the wall with its array of cables etc) and grabbed a handful of Sega games. The video quality difference between composite (The old yellow video cable and red-white sound) and the VGA to HDMI is very noticeable. That's hardly surprising as Dreamcast VGA is 480 lines (Comparable to DVD) and the composite in the Dreamcast is said to only be about 240 lines. I had previously used the composite (on a 4K TV) using a HDMI converter and to be honest I thought it was acceptable. However after trying the VGA-HDMI converter, the difference is night and day better.There is one unfortunate downfall.... As I discovered in my haste and enthusiasm to try games.... not all Sega games support VGA... You can't blame the VGA-HDMI converter for this but it is rather irritating. However, the volume of games I've tried thus far that fail are currently 1 failure out of 12 tested.... When you try to load the game it tells you it's not compatible with the display cable... It's a game I'm not bothered about so no biggee.I no longer have the old Dreamcast to VGA adapter as that bit the bullet years ago and I've not tried any other adapter to be able to compare against this one. I will say for $30 it was my upper limit of what I would pay for the feature and although there were others for $20, I liked the reviews on this one more.So for all the folks who had "bad" ones I wonder if you suffered the same issue I did when I first tried it... Not saying there couldn't be a bad one now and then. For all said, I'd highly recommend this unit. Just be aware the documentation is brief to say the least... and once the cable is plugged in, check the Blue LED lights on the underside of the unit. No LED, no workee... make sure the Dreamcast is powered up and try firmly reinserting the cable into the Dreamcast.UPDATESo after playing some of the VGA games, which I am really impressed with the quality, I switched back to the Composite to play a couple of games that I've subsequently found required that. Couple of them I do enjoy playing. Considering I had been using the composite for a long time before buying this adapter and I thought I was previously okay with the quality, I was stunned at the obvious drop in quality going back. Even the opening power on screen shows a clear loss in image quality. So being finicky, I've now set mine up so that by default I will play in VGA mode but with just a simple cable change in the back of the Sega Dreamcast I can revert to just the composite video for those games I really want to continue to play. You do have to power cycle the Dreamcast if you want to change back and forth. Just changing the cables doesn't work but that's no biggee.Still ecstatic at the improved quality using this adapter. Well worth the money. BTW, Played "Crazy Taxi" and "Silent Scope" both in VGA mode... damn even after all these years, the Dreamcast really does shine. I totally accept new consoles have HD graphics etc but it's the simplicity of the games not just the graphics that make them fun to play. Kudos on this adapter.

There are add-on boards (including one called "DCHDMI") that I've seen costing up to to $220.00. And they involve some very tricky soldering. But I don't doubt that these offer the best results.I previously had my Dreamcast connected to an AV-to-HDMI converter. That works great with other consoles (such as the Sega Genesis). And it worked for the Dreamcast. But the picture was quite blurry. Apparently the Dreamcast's video does some extra tricks for higher resolution that just don't translate to HDMI without the help from some special circuitry.And that is what the Kaico Dreamcast HDMI Converter obviously does because the difference is night and day. I've seen example videos of the Dreamcast running on those more expensive adapter boards. But, honestly, it would be difficult to tell the difference. But I assume there is one.But for forty bucks, this Kaico converter really works. I actually wasn't expecting it to. But it did. This is what you need and likely all that you need.

I bought this out of curiosity. I honestly expected it to have all the same issues as the Pound cable. However, I have been pleasantly surprised. Sure it's not as good as the DCHDMI mod, but for the price it's really usable. It seems to do just a basic VGA to HDMI conversion without screwing up the signal in the process, and really that's all I could hope for. That does mean that your picture quality is highly dependent on the quality of your TV's scaler. One of my TVs makes 480p look pretty soft, a different TV looks far sharper, both have issues treating the 720x480 signal as if it is 640x480. Using my Framemeister to upscale gets around most of those issues, and I'm able to get a very sharp picture that doesn't have the same scaling issues.As far as build quality, it seems to be built well enough. There didn't seem to be an easy way to open it up, so I couldn't take a look inside, but the box itself has a metal body, the cable feels think and durable, and the Dreamcast connector feels well made.Overall I'm pretty happy with it. I feel like I now have a very usable HDMI solution for a relatively affordable price. Even without the Framemeister I am happy with the picture quality on my main TV.

It gets the job done and I appreciate the 16:9/4:3 and RGB/VGA toggles, but the image is bit too overexposed, the whites are so bright to the point where they lose detail. For example in Sonic Adventure in the first level, the sand on the beach is so white that you can’t make out any details. Normally you’re supposed to be able to see the texture of the sand. No amount of tinkering with my TV settings was able to fix this. Because of this I don’t find the high price tag justifiable. I paid $40 for this and at that price point I expect the colors to be accurate. Unfortunately most of the cheaper adapters don’t have the aforementioned toggles, but ultimately I don’t think the trade off is worth it. I would have rathered accurate colors.Other than that, it’s very simple to plug in and use, no external power needed, and the image quality is good.

Played both Sonic Adventure 2 and SoulCalibur, both looked great on my PAL Dreamcast. It didn't produce perfect picture, but the trade was definitely worth it. Great product, highly recommended.