Is Amiga 520 Modulator NTSC/PAL specific?

[rlcarr]

Are there NTSC-specific and PAL-specific versions of the Amiga 520 Modulator, or is it agnostic and adapts its output signal to whatever the input signal is?

If they were NTSC-only and PAL-only, can I use a PAL Amiga 520 with an NTSC A500 if all I care about is composite video out (probably not, right?)

Thanks!

[Zetr0]

Hello there,

welcome to the EAB, theres plenty of mischief to get up to around here


Now to answer your question, I am going to say that both models are different, as you may know NTSC is encoded at 60hz from 3.38mhz crystal, PAL 4.43 at 50hz, this is true of both RF and Composite.

All the A520's I have taken apart all have a 4.43mhz Crystal for PAL encoding this you need to change this to a 3.38mhz part... I MAY have one i could send you... but it would be prolly quicker to hit radio shack or something closer by.

hope that helps.

[alexh]

You planning on making an SVideo mod?

[Zetr0]

@alexh

from an A520.... hmmm only after i have had my teeth removed from my mouth with a pair of rusty pliers.

I have been modding the cases for SVideo converter (including 15Khz VGA) and Composite with switchable NTSC / PAL output ...

some of the components are re-usable like ports, some caps... not much else to be honest.

[alexh]

I wasnt talking to you.

The only reason an NTSC user would want a PAL A520 would be this mod

http://members.iinet.net.au/~davem2/overclock/a520.html

[rlcarr]

Well, based on what was said upstream, I don't want a PAL A520. I was only asking to find out if the A520 had distinct NTSC and PAL versions or if it autosensed and adapted to what it was connected to. Obviously, it doesn't. . So time to go looking for an NTSC one.

Actually, I don't really care about the A520 per se. My real goal is to have some means of displaying the output from my old Amigas if my old 1084 monitor dies (or if it's already dead -- it hasn't been turned on in ten years).

What do people without Commodore monitors connect their A500s, A1000s, and A2000s to (for those who don't have scandoublers/flickerfixers/etc)?

[Jope]

We just use a TV with RGB SCART. :-)

[rlcarr]

Originally Posted by Jope

We just use a TV with RGB SCART. :-)

Doesn't do me much good here in the US :-)

So what do USians do for hooking up old Amigas when they don't have a Commodore monitor?

[alexh]

A Scandoubler.

[rlcarr]

Originally Posted by alexh

A Scandoubler.

And the idea/rationale behind that is boost the horizontal frequency from (approx) 15.7KHz to 35.4KHz so that modern VGA monitors can sync on it? Or does it do funkier video processing/signal translation than that?

Are there modern VGA monitors that can sync to 15.7KHz? One of the things I do have is a Commodore-made connector that is an Amiga video port on one side and a VGA-style 15pin D-sub connector on the other side. I'm sure the connector is doing no processing -- it's just changing connector form factors. Assuming for the sake of argument that I have a monitor that can horizontal sync to 15.7KHz, is the 15-pin output from that connector anything that a VGA monitor would have even a chance at being able to understand? More practically, if I were to plug my monitor into it, do I have to worry about damaging the monitor or the Amiga?

[rlcarr]

Well -- that's what I get for not reading today's posts. It appears my question was answered right here: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=35887

[Dropcheck]

Originally Posted by rlcarr

Well, based on what was said upstream, I don't want a PAL A520. I was only asking to find out if the A520 had distinct NTSC and PAL versions or if it autosensed and adapted to what it was connected to. Obviously, it doesn't. . So time to go looking for an NTSC one.

Actually, I don't really care about the A520 per se. My real goal is to have some means of displaying the output from my old Amigas if my old 1084 monitor dies (or if it's already dead -- it hasn't been turned on in ten years).

What do people without Commodore monitors connect their A500s, A1000s, and A2000s to (for those who don't have scandoublers/flickerfixers/etc)?

You might want to take a look at this:

http://www.siig.com/ViewProduct.aspx?pn=CE-AV1012-S1

Not exactly the best option. But I had an extra LCD monitor and I was wanting to dedicate it to my Amiga and Atari computers. It had the right number of inputs and was reasonably cheap. Quality is okay. Nothing to write home about but it works.

[rlcarr]

I just discovered today that my Dell 2001FP works fine with a vanilla A500 (no scandoubler or anything). All I did was connect a RGB-to-VGA adapter to the A500 and connected the 2001FP. Perfect picture.

In retrospect I'm not surprised. The 2001FP has composite video in, so (here in the US) the monitor certainly is capable of syncing to NTSC. That fact finally penetrated my brain yesterday. So I realized it was just a matter of whether or not it would also sync when fed NTSC through the VGA line. It does. Yay!

The 2001FP is a few years old, but I'd imagine any monitor with NTSC composite in should be able to sync to NTSC over VGA.

[Damion]

Originally Posted by rlcarr

I just discovered today that my Dell 2001FP works fine with a vanilla A500 (no scandoubler or anything). All I did was connect a RGB-to-VGA adapter to the A500 and connected the 2001FP. Perfect picture.

In retrospect I'm not surprised. The 2001FP has composite video in, so (here in the US) the monitor certainly is capable of syncing to NTSC. That fact finally penetrated my brain yesterday. So I realized it was just a matter of whether or not it would also sync when fed NTSC through the VGA line. It does. Yay!

The 2001FP is a few years old, but I'd imagine any monitor with NTSC composite in should be able to sync to NTSC over VGA.

Nice! You definitely lucked out, since many of them won't accept 15kHz over the D-sub. Any chance you can give PAL mode a try, and maybe some interlaced modes?

TIA

Damion

[rkauer]

Originally Posted by Damion

Nice! You definitely lucked out, since many of them won't accept 15kHz over the D-sub. Any chance you can give PAL mode a try, and maybe some interlaced modes?

TIA

Damion

PAL resolutions don't show in a lot LCD monitors or TVs, since they only sync to at least 56Hz vertical refresh (far enough to PAL's 50Hz...).