Scandoubler recommendations

[Jiffy]

I also have an internal DCE scandoubler/flickerfixer in my 1200, complete with a 4 GB 2.5" harddisk. It's a bit of a hack to fit the harddrive as the normal cradle does not fit anymore after you place the flickerfixer: the legs are to short and holes of the cradle don't match the harddisk's either. On top of that, I had to remove the upper shielding. Apart from that, the whole setup functions reliably and doesn't suffer from overheating.

The image is very crisp on my 15" Compaq screen, taking in mind that is 'only' a 50 Hz signal ofcourse. I haven't noticed any side effects from removing the shielding of my A1200.

BTW, although it has been mentioned before in this thread: it is _not_ possible to fit the scandoubler somewhere else in your 1200 as it has to be placed directly on top of Alice.

All in all, I am very satisfied with the unit. The flickerfixer itself easily snaps in, replacing the harddrive is not hard either (I am _not_ a hardwarehacker), cutting, slicing and soldering is not necessary and you only have to remove the shielding.

[Jiffy]

srg86 wrote:
50Hz hmmm.

On my PC, I see flicker at 85Hz refresh rate on plain white. This is enough to cause me eye strain. I run my PC monitor at 100Hz.

I do have one 1989 VGA 14" VGA monitor that afaik is single sync (it has black border arround the outside of the screen so the picture doesn't fill it). at 60Hz I don't see flicker, strange.

Could this cause me problems with scandoubled Amigas on PC monitors.

Flicker still can be seen at 50 Hz on my Amiga 1200. The more recent your CRT, the more you will notice the flicker: old CRTs were made for 60 Hz and therefor had slow decaying phosphor. Current CRTs are often made for 100 Hz or more and thus use much faster decaying phosphor. The netresult is that on the latter screen, flicker will be (much) more noticable when running it @ 50 Hz compared to the older screen designed for 60 Hz operation. Nevertheless, I find my internal flickerfixer in combination with my Compaq V50 15" CRT a perfectly acceptable solution: no more 'black lines' in non-interlaced resolutions, better colours and a very usable high-res/interlaced resolution (I have my workbench set to high-res/interlaced with full overscan).

The 50Hz flicker is ofcourse still noticable: my PC (with 19" Iiyama and Matrox G550) ofcourse has a (much) stabler picture.

If you don't like a pc screen @ 85 Hz then you won't like an Amiga workbench @ 50 Hz. Then again, a high-res interlaced screen @ 50 Hz on a SVGA CRT is _much_ nicer to look at than a med-res non-interlaced screen @ 50 Hz on a 1084... :-D

[Jiffy]

srg86 wrote:

Also, those of you with it fitted it in Desktop A1200s, I was wondering where you put the VGA connector. Have you made a hole for it above the other ports, or possibly left it dangling on it's lead outside the case.

It connects through a small flatcable to the RGB video out of my Amiga 1200 (it is designed to fit here). To be honest, I never questioned its position and thus never wondered if it would work without it being connected to the Amiga's RGB port. Certainly something worth trying, though.

I was also wondering about that little plate on the left hand side of this image (it would be beneith the floppy drive), would the lead reach to mount the vga connector in that? Looking at A1200 motherboard pics, it would seem that it's unused.

Normally, it is indeed unused. The Blizzard SCSI card uses it for the external SCSI connector and there is/are also soundcard(s) which use it.

It would most likely not be ideal to use it for the flickerfixer's VGA connector as the internal flatcable would have to be replaced by a much longer one and I don't know if that would have a nice effect on imagequality...

[Jiffy]

Doppie1200 wrote:
So; after this thread I can summerize this about an internal scandoubler:

Minus:
-Could be a hassle to fit inside

All is relative, ofcourse. My internal scandoubler/flickerfixer was easy to fit in my desktop A1200, when you take in mind the upper shielding had to be removed and the harddisks cradle also didn't fit. Nothing a small piece of cardboard couldn't fix... ;-)

-Has a tendancy to get hot

Seems not to be a big problem. The chips on the flickerfixer are _very_ tolerant to high temperatures. Apart from that, I have a 2.5" 4 GB harddisk put on top of the flickerfixer and there's only a slight increase in temperature on the outside of my A1200 at the spot where both harddisk and flickerfixer are placed. My Blizzard 1260 is much more of a heatsource.

Plus:
+Interlaced modes are rock solid

'Rock solid' as in 'compared to normal interlaced modes', ofcourse. The flickerfixed image is still only 50 Hz (PAL) and a slight flicker can therefor still be noticed. The better your CRT, the better it will be noticed.

All in all, I am very satisfied with the unit:
- if you're not to shy to open up your A1200, it's an easy fit;
- much improved imagequality;
- no heatingproblems;
- you can use a standard (S)VGA CRT.

BTW: is there anyone with any experience connecting a TFT to a flickerfixer? I like the idea of connecting one to my A1200, but don't have one handy to test the result. I know, high-res interlaced doesn't compare to well to a TFT's native resolution and most TFTs prefer at least 60 Hz. But I still would like to know... :-)

[Jiffy]

Doppie1200 wrote:
Anyway what benefits are left. The biggest benefit would be the solid conversion. It takes the digital signal from the chip.

This for me is a big pro: I've seen the image on several internal and external flickerfixers for different types of Amigas during time and I find my current one to have a nice & stable picture. Much better compared to, for example, my Multivision 500 of the early nineties...

The two biggest flaws identified are indeed colour limitation and inflexibility. You cannot hook it up to your A600.

Indeed. Again, this is personal. In practice, I hardly notice the colourlimitation (I come from the A500-era, so the 8:4:4 is still quite an improvement).

As for inflexibility: I prefer to put my computersystems together and leave them like that. My other Amiga is a 2000 and I'm not going to rip that one apart to take out, for example, my X-Surf II or my Multivision 2000* just because I need it on another Amiga...

*which currently is not being used as I 'only' have a 1084 to connect to my 2000.

I think this thread has become very resourcefull for someone wanting to know something about scandoublers. We should rename it to 'all you ever wanted to know about scandoublers but was afraid to ask'-thread  :lol:

:-D