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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: Peter_s on April 17, 2004, 08:08:31 PM

Title: what Road?????
Post by: Peter_s on April 17, 2004, 08:08:31 PM
Ok my 040/603e card arrived the other day so now all i'm missing is a graphics card.  So which road should I take?

1) stick with buying a mediator

2) buy a bvison card

Im also wanting to buy a scan doubler/ff will I need an internal or external version to be used with a graphics card. as last time I had a mediator, I had workbench on the vga monitor and the games on the telly but I'm wanting all on the VGA monitor.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: Piru on April 17, 2004, 08:32:29 PM
Quote
Im also wanting to buy a scan doubler/ff will I need an internal or external version to be used with a graphics card. as last time I had a mediator, I had workbench on the vga monitor and the games on the telly but I'm wanting all on the VGA monitor.

Neither will do the job.

The only way to get this is to use TV tuner card with mediator and route the Amiga display signal to it.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: Peter_s on April 17, 2004, 08:43:28 PM
Thanks Piru

Guess its better off sticking to getting an mediator then.

wheres the best place to get the mediator from elbox or powerc????
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: cgutjahr on April 17, 2004, 08:53:32 PM
Quote

So which road should I take?

1) stick with buying a mediator

2) buy a bvison card

You'll have to decide that on your own ;-)

A mediator has three advantages over the BVision:

1. you can use a standard sound card with it
2. you can use a tv card with it
3. it's slightly faster/better for 3D games

If you need a sound card (and don't have one connected to the clockport already), get the Mediator.

If you need a tv card, get a Mediator.

If you're really into 3D gaming, get a Mediator.

Otherwise, get a BVision, it's a whole lot cheaper (eBay)  and you don't need special cases.

Quote

Im also wanting to buy a scan doubler/ff will I need an internal or external version to be used with a graphics card.

Neither the BVision nor a PCI gfx card plugged into a Mediator support this (only some older, Amiga specific gfx card do). You will always have to use two monitors, unless you are willing to buy a tv card and connect the Amiga's native display to the tv card.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: Lemmink on April 17, 2004, 09:12:15 PM
Quote

Neither the BVision nor a PCI gfx card plugged into a Mediator support this (only some older, Amiga specific gfx card do). You will always have to use two monitors, unless you are willing to buy a tv card and connect the Amiga's native display to the tv card.


That`s not entirely right. though the BVision has no port for looping back the 15KHz RGB out is can make use of the "softwarescandoubler" that is build in the later version of the BlizzardPPC flashroms. This optin is only meant as an emergency measure but it works fine with the bootmenu and the Workbench, as long as you don`t open a graphicscardscreen. I`m not sure about gamecomaptibility.
The other way would be an external Videoswitcher, preferably an electronic one for quality reasons, but that would cost about 50 EUR.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: cgutjahr on April 17, 2004, 09:29:22 PM
Quote

Lemmink wrote:
That`s not entirely right. though the BVision has no port for looping back the 15KHz RGB out is can make use of the "softwarescandoubler" that is build in the later version of the BlizzardPPC flashroms. This optin is only meant as an emergency measure but it works fine with the bootmenu and the Workbench, as long as you don`t open a graphicscardscreen. I`m not sure about gamecomaptibility.

It only works until a new screen (other than Workbench) gets opened and it certainly will not work with games banging the hardware.

It's perfect if you don't want to run hardware banging games or applications though - I don't, so I don't need to have a PAL monitor connected to my main Amiga anymore.

Quote

The other way would be an external Videoswitcher, preferably an electronic one for quality reasons, but that would cost about 50 EUR.

Right, I forgot that option. In this case, it wouldn't matter if he uses an internal or external scan doubler.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: Peter_s on April 19, 2004, 04:34:30 PM
Thanks guys I found a switch box at power computer now just top see if they would like to sell one to me?

Also I managed to get sorted with a bvision and a mediator but the mediator package comes with a Voodoo2 card (dont know what version the mediator is yet a LT or SX) Will the mediator work with a Voodoo2 as I've checked elbox site and it only mentions 3,4 and 5 and not a trace of 2.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: Kronos on April 19, 2004, 05:05:54 PM
Most be some typo, since the Voodoo2 wasn't a GFX-card as all (just as the Voodoo1), but an 3D-addon to an allready existing GFX-card.

There was some plans about that, but nothing ever went on sale.

Maybe a Voodoo3-2000 was meant.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: rayt on April 19, 2004, 05:06:49 PM
Quote

Also I managed to get sorted with a bvision and a mediator but the mediator package comes with a Voodoo2 card (dont know what version the mediator is yet a LT or SX) Will the mediator work with a Voodoo2 as I've checked elbox site and it only mentions 3,4 and 5 and not a trace of 2.


No, a Voodoo2 wont't work with mediator. A Voodoo2 is just a 3D addon card and requires a 2D graphics board. Maybe they made a mistake and they mean the Voodoo Banshee (which afaik works with mediator), but a Voodoo2 won't work. My advice is to get a cheap Voodoo3 from ebay, this card has full Picasso96/Warp3d support.
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: NightShade737 on April 19, 2004, 05:23:19 PM
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There was some plans about that, but nothing ever went on sale.


Yes there were! Loads of people had Voodoo 2's in SLI configuration...
Title: Re: what Road?????
Post by: Peter_s on April 19, 2004, 06:00:53 PM
I didnt think the Voodoo2 card would be any use, But I thought I'd check.  Its not that I need the Voodoo graphics card as I'll be using the Bvision but this is a private sale (not ebay)and I thought that the Voodoo2 was abit strange to sell with a Mediator. And with all this scamming that seems to be going on at the moment concerning amiga hardware, it just got me thinking thats all!