Scart video for NTSC users

[kipper2k]

Hi All,

I just bought myself an RGB to HDMI adapter based on the review below and it is F'ing brilliant!

10/10 for this adapter, using a Pal Amiga and an NTSC TV the display is crystal clear, colours are rich and not washed out, picture is stable and i tried it on 5 TV's some just NTSC and a couple of multiregion TV's and all of them give an excellent picture.

Here is a link to the video i watched that encouraged me to try it. Be warned, video is long and dry.

[ Show youtube player ]


Video shows cd32 at 17min 41 sec

here is the link to the one i bought.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B009...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So basically i used an RGB scart cable (bought it from Amigakit.com which has the audio too) and fed it to the input of the adapter, plugged in the HDMI cable and away it went, love it!

So for all of us who never had scart before here is how you can get the best possible picture, it is definitely worth the money and seeing as how Svideo is dead this is the way to go as you will be able to use all your old consoles with it too (with the correct RGB cable of course).


So in summary, if you don't have scart, you need this! and even if you do have scart, the HDMI output is worth it too

[alexh]

All modes? SuperHires Interlace?

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by alexh

All modes? SuperHires Interlace?

I'll try it on an A1200 and try some different modes. I tried it on a PAl a500 and also some games... all the games are also excellent quality. I'll try to do up a little video tomorrow just showing the meat of it

[alenppc]

Huh, the CD32 pic does look stunning! Neat little box. This basically nullifies the need for scandoublers, especially considering that most TVs don't work with them anyways.

[kipper2k]

screen can be set for 720, 800, 1024 and 1280 screens.

Screens look good on pal and NTSC low res, high res and high res laced.I'll have to grab my consoles and start making RGB cables for those now too

[alexh]

What is the scrolling like in PAL? Presumably the converter transforms 50hz input into 60hz output always?

[Solo761]

I'm going to hijack this thread a bit . I've noticed there are few types of these adapter and this one (at least by the look of it's box) being the most predominant. I also have one although my TV (LG 42LW579S) has SCART, I can't get stable picture when I connect amiga(s) to it, it jumps, flickers, colors are wrong and so on. So I went the route of this type of adapter, plus with it it's easy to connect it to anything that has HDMI, be it projector or regular computer monitor via HDMI to DVI or DisplayPort.

Anyways, this is how mine looks, additional printing on the case is the only visual difference. I bought it on DealExtreme.



What interest me are the insides, are they really all the same, or it's only the case and outputs/buttons that are positioned the same? This is how mine looks inside.



Just few pics more, how it looks on the TV, first pic is A500 and WB1.3, the other is A1200 and (C)WB3.1. Picture looks good, there's only one issue that's most visible on A1200 pic. There's some distortion (in lack of better word) that floats upwards, it takes about 30-60 seconds to make a complete "trip" from bottom to top of the screen. On this pic it's over Clear Ram icon. It's also present on A500 pic, cca at the same position, but it's far less visible on blue background.

[demolition]

I have a similar converter and use it both for Amiga and C64 as it supports S-Video input as well (through the SCART socket). While the still picture quality is very nice and movement is smooth if I set it to 50Hz output mode, it does have one major problem which is latency. Even WB usage is annoying due to the delayed mouse pointer and gaming is almost impossible, at least the ones that requires a fast reaction time. Do you get that as well?

[Solo761]

I also tried C64 with it and it works fine. My cable has a switch so I can change between s-video and composite outputs and it works with both, s-video has some extra sharpness.

I haven't tried playing any games on Amiga with it. At least not "for realz" so I can't say how it deals with latency. On C64 I haven't noticed any problems (I tried Bubble Bobble). I only noticed that it has some mouse ghosting in WorkBench, but I don't know if it's TV's fault or adapter's. But it may be that simply I didn't use it enough to notice. Open it and check if electronics is the same as with mine.

[Higgy]

Originally Posted by Solo761

I only noticed that it has some mouse ghosting in WorkBench, but I don't know if it's TV's fault or adapter's.

This could well be the TV. LCD TV's have lots of extra processing (I guess CRT basically had nothing!). I noice ghosting/aritfacts near my moving mouse using AMIGA SCART to TV SCART. I am sure it is TV processing.

I see there are a few different ones for sale.
Yours and kipper2k have those extra buttons (PAL/NTSC , 50/60Hz etc).
It is a shame you get the distortion scrolling up the screen. Maybe a setting 50/60Hz switch, a doodgy board, or maybe kipper2k has it too?

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Higgy

This could well be the TV. LCD TV's have lots of extra processing (I guess CRT basically had nothing!). I noice ghosting/aritfacts near my moving mouse using AMIGA SCART to TV SCART. I am sure it is TV processing.

My converter is exactly the same as the one Solo761 has.
It is the converter causing this ghosting. There is obviously some filtering being done to the output signal, which is also what is causing the latency. If only it was possible to gain access to the software or I2C table of the device, then I think it could be reconfigured to be quite good.

The TV could also have some filtering, but it can usually be disabled. Unless it is a Philips, where I have noticed that many of them have horrible signal processing which cannot be disabled.

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Higgy

I see there are a few different ones for sale.
Yours and kipper2k have those extra buttons (PAL/NTSC , 50/60Hz etc).
It is a shame you get the distortion scrolling up the screen. Maybe a setting 50/60Hz switch, a doodgy board, or maybe kipper2k has it too?

I have tried playing superfrog, rainbow islands, bubble bobble, battle squadron and hybris, scrolling is perfect. I was using a PAL A1200 with aca1230.

video becomes unstable when using superplus or Extreme modes, but like i said, for me PAL or NTSC high res interlace is all i would need and both display perfect.

There are a few of these video boxes for sale and obviously only one of them is the original, and who knows, maybe one of the clones is better. Interestingly enough the one i bought from Amazon has a CVID logo on it, the one i received has no logo on it and looks the same as Solo761s printed top.

I opened mine up, it looks the same as Solo's however the board ID printed on the lower right side of the board is different and there may be a few other things too. here is a link to the picture, i'll leave it in hi res so if you want to see it,

http://www.kipper2k.com/scart2hdmi.jpg


one more thing, the Scart cable you are using could be at fault, the one i am using was made by Amigakit and i am not sure if there are resistors etc inside the cable housing

[Riempie]

Will this adapter work with your cd32 expansion since it will have rgb video?
And is yours ntsc (output) only? Or will it also work with pal output?

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Riempie

Will this adapter work with your cd32 expansion since it will have rgb video?
And is yours ntsc (output) only? Or will it also work with pal output?

Yup,

output from CD32 is the same as all other Amigas when you tap into the RGB output like what my adapter will do.

I have an NTSC and a PAL CD32, i know that alien breed tower assault would only display black and white on my tv before (using svideo on NTSC CD32 , once i get the adapter i'll try it but i am sure it should be good

[Riempie]

Hmm... then I might need to find this adapter somewhere in europe...

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Riempie

Hmm... then I might need to find this adapter somewhere in europe...

You don't have scart TV's in Holland ?

[Riempie]

Scart tv's plenty over here... I thought maybe the RGB to HDMI adapter might give a better picture, instead of scart only... (or do I misunderstand something here...)

[alenppc]

kipper, just placed an order for mine. It's a bit pricy ($80 after tax) compared to the Amazon US version (http://www.amazon.com/BG-460-SCART-S...ID+BG-460+HDMI) which retails for $56 but they don't seem to have it in stock.

Riempie, I doubt the picture will be better since it's processed video. This is mostly useful for TVs that don't have SCART (sold in NTSC territories).

[kipper2k]

Originally Posted by Riempie

Scart tv's plenty over here... I thought maybe the RGB to HDMI adapter might give a better picture, instead of scart only... (or do I misunderstand something here...)

The only benefit this would give you would be allowing you to plug into HDMI, if you already have scart on your TV then that is fine.The reason i bought this is because there is no scart here in N. America and this is an excellent option to have better video than Svideo (unless you went with the Indivision which is picky and frustrating at times..

@Alenpc

I found that selecting 720P gives a good solid picture and a bigger screen size. You can alter the resolution by pressing the buttons to obtain 800, 1024 and 1260 res too but 720 is the best

edit. When i make some RGB cables up for my old consiles i'll post some pics

[alenppc]

Ordered a scart cable from AmigaKit also. Can't wait to try it out.