RGB to PAL/NTSC adapters @ AUD$30-33 each!

[1985BMWK75]

I took lots of photos, but because they are of a CRT screen, they all look pretty lousy. My first customer, an Australian, received his, and said the S-Video was nice and clear and so on, so there is nothing wrong with the adapter, it's my lousy equipment - but I already knew that. I sent Cammy her adapter the other day, so she should have it soon. She's an Amiga's amiga, so I'm sure she will report about my adapter, and hopefully get some good photos of S-Video

My adapter doesn't convert PAL to NTSC or vice versa. It is not a flicker fixer or scan doubler. It takes an RGB signal, and converts it to PAL or NTSC. Trying to display a PAL image on an NTSC TV or a NTSC image on a PAL TV will probably never look right. Unless you have an expensive TV with some sweet circuitry, or a converter. So for a correct aspect etc, I recommend to use it with all NTSC or all PAL equipment. Mixtures of either will probably not yield satisfactory results.

[Cammy]

Hey everyone, I've received one of these adapters from AmigaManiac and it works great! Composite is sharper than the A520 and the S-Video is rock solid, no colour bleeding, no rolling, no distortion at all. You can admire all the lovely pixelart as if you had plugged your Amiga into an RGB monitor.

I'll be taking some pics of the unit and the output as soon as I can!

Thanks Nathan

[Cammy]

Heya everyone! I have taken a few photos of the games room TV running Babylonian Twins through S-Video on my A500. Sorry about the size, but it's important to see the detail, and sorry about the angle I was on, the cord wasn;t long enough for me to sit right in front of the screen.

I'll post a link to a quick video we made once it finishes uploading to YouTube.

http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/FirstLevel.jpg
http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/TitleScreen.jpg
http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/Spear.jpg
http://home.exetel.com.au/amiga/DogAttack.jpg

My TVs aren't very good, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to borrow an LCD TV and see how it looks though that!

[Cammy]

Well, my silly little video finally finished uploading properly after a few tries. You'll have to excuse the way I look, it was very late at night and I don't wear makeup so try not to throw up.

Unfortunately there's just no way to show the sharpness of the video output like this, but it at least shows that there's no rolling, or dot crawl, which I find are the most annoying problems with Composite.

I'll take more pics and videos soon!

Here's the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTLvrhlNdyc

[save2600]

Thanks for the pics and video! Awesome Amiga setup you have over there in Australia.
So this device handles PAL & NTSC modes just fine? And characters/sprites/backgrounds
that scroll do not exhibit any motion blur of any kind?

Edit - just caught the last post on the other page. Guess you need to order either a PAL
or NTSC unit.

BTW: you look great with or without makeup! No worries  :-)

[tone007]

I think I'm going to have to throw one of these on my next order from the AmigaManiac.

[Cammy]

Hey guys. These adapters have a little switch on them for PAL and NTSC, so you just order the one unit, and switch it to whichever setup you have. Everything that scrolls seems very smooth, although there's always some motion blur from fast moving objects, but that's natural, not caused by the Amiga or the adapter.

I have made another video now showing my A1200 output through the S-Video adapter on an LCD TV. I'm so happy to see the monitor has a built-in flicker-fixer, so in Super High Res Interlaced with a bit of overscan it can fit any webpage on screen, and theres no annoying flicker. The LCD TV is a 19" MXT LCD1904HDD and it has a built-in DVD player, HD tuner, VGA, HDMI, S-Video, Component, Composite, RF, Coax, PC-audio inputs, so it will hook up to just about anything.

Anyway, here's the video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kaz6fNpHYIg

I hope you enjoy the music

[tone007]

Time to throw away the Indivision!

[save2600]

Thanks for the PAL/NTSC clarification Cammy. The video looked impressive. Nice, crisp
and clear. Guess I should place an order for one of these real soon  :-)

[gertsy]

I got mine today.   (o:  
Soldered it up. I wanted a cable on mine so I dont have to worry about it sticking out the back of my valuable Amigas. The instructions are clear and i used an old Amiga-Scart cable (with the scart plug removed)
The Composite is like composite fine for games but no good for text. I tested it on a 68" Panasonic CRT TV and a 15" LCD monitor with composite. No better or worse than the A520 modulator. So a good replacement for anyone who's A520 is on the way out.
Then I tried S-Video. Both on the 15" LCD and on our fairly new (2007) but cheapy LCD TV we have in the kitchen. It's a 16:9 (Widescreen) DTV(SD) with all the std vid inputs.
S-Video is clear!
On the DTV it's better than the 15" LCD even for text and workbench. I was very impressed.
The image is clear, colourful and has deep contrast. Even my wife was impressed by the image of the red Ferrari in TD II.
On the down side there is a barely perceptable "strobing" and grid effect when viewing mid strength colours from the sides, but from straight on it is clear.
The messas in the distance in Test Drive II have no bleeding at all. I have some photos but it's hard to see the quality from screen images. I will find somewhere to put them as they will be too small on amiga.org.  Suggest you look at Cammy's video as it shows it all.
Very impressed !
I will test it on S-Video on my CRT TV when I have enough time to pull the giant mother of a TV out of the wall unit to plug in the cable.  I am guessing an S-Video CRT TV will give as good or better results than the LCD TV.

Well done Nathan!. A top piece of kit and very affordable.

Classic owners with S-Video equipment... Get one !

Gertsy

[1985BMWK75]

@gertsy

Thanks mate, I'm glad you're happy with it

Since composite is all I can view at my place (*sigh*), I found I could get a very sweet picture with careful tuning and patience. Text was fine and readable for me on WB (inc. shell window), not sure about a WP program though. Be careful of the brightness and contrast settings, perhaps colour too, when using composite. I found that can make a difference too. But why anyone would bother with composite that can use S-Video is beyond me. It's like drinking a warm beer on a hot summers day, when you have an ice cold one in the fridge - madness I only included it as it was so easy, and some people may not yet have a means to view the sweetness of S-Video. Of course, you were testing it out of curiosity...

With your LCD TV, they have a certain viewing range/angle. When you get to the limits of that, or outside of it, the picture will look funny. It could also be the TV itself, or you might need to tweak (tune) the RGB adapter just that teeny tiny bit to get the best picture. It will look better on your CRT TV for sure. Just look at those photos Cammy took!

[gertsy]

Agree on the LCD TV. It is fine straight on, and it is a cheapy CONIA (very cheap in Aus) but very usable as a personal monitor.
Some people are purists though and expect perfect out of a $30 box so I told it like it is.

Yes I have tested it on the 68" CRT it looks fantastic so the kids will luv "bubble and squeek" on the A500.

IMO S-Video is better than straight Amiga RGB to larger displays (The 15" LCD monitor I have accepts straight Amiga RGB 15k through the VGA). RGB looks "too" sharp for GFX in that you can see the defined pixels whereas S-Video gives you a "filtered" or smooth look which is much better for classic games.

It's almost the valve amp v transistor amp scenario.

Now I need to find a nice Jiffy box to put it in.

cheers

[1985BMWK75]

Yep, composite will never be that great, because it's...well...composite - a.k.a. composhite I don't think anyone would expect magic from a composite image, especially from a computer. BTW, I thought your review was great, and is much appreciated

[amiga1260]

Today the RGB to PAL adapter arrives. It gives a sharp picture and has the same quality as the internal S-video adapter from DJBase.

Thank you, AmigaManiac.