REQ: Someone Mass-Produce Scandoubler/Flicker Fixers

[Dr_Righteous]

Ok, there's a TON of call for these things... Someone please mass-produce scandoubler/flicker fixers again. I say mass-produce because there are plenty of us out here who need them, and the more you make the cheaper they'll be. Target price, say around US$100... External so they'll work on anything... Working on all Amigas and supporting 24-bit AGA.

Perhaps a bounty is in order?

[Dr_Righteous]

I don't think it'd be a problem to sell 1000+ of these things if they listed at US$100. How important are 23 pin connectors tho? I personally don't need it, since I have a C=390682-01 adapter... But I don't know how widespread these things are amongst the community.

Looking at the CV64 scan doubler and the Petsoff DBLSCAN, the BT121KPJ80 triple video DAC seems to be a commonly used chip in the AGA compatible doublers. I can't see the rest of the chips in the pics on A-H.com.

Anyone have high-res pics of a CV64?

[Dr_Righteous]

Converting from analog to digital, as I see it, is unnecessary... There ARE digital output lines already. Pins:

6 - Digital Intensity
7 - Digital Red
8 - Digital Green
9 - Digital Blue
13 - Digital Ground

I do like the looks of that TrueView 5700 chip... Question is, how much do they cost? Might be a simple matter of a voltage regulator circuit, one of these chips, a memory chip for buffer and appropriate connectors. Hmm...

Or perhaps the Averlogic AL250
http://www.averlogic.com/video_converter/AL250.html

[Dr_Righteous]

@ Doctorq:

I whole heartedly disagree with that logic. See, we have this awesome website out there called Ebay, which recieves far more retrocomputing traffic than Amiga.org. There are probably a couple thousand people in the ACTIVE Amiga community, not counting those WE never see. And I'd be willing to bet many more who can't use that Amiga in their closet because they dropped their monitor last spring cleaning.

No doubt these this would sell, tho it might take a little time. However, the costs increase with repeated production runs, especially short ones. Just like in printing, you print alot more than you need because paper is cheaper than going back on the press.

@ Bubba
Those things are about $2000... WAY outta the ballpark.

@ MskoDestny
My bad, I didn't look closely enough to see it was only one line from each signal (well, 2 from blue). I'm not sure however whether the inputs on the TV5700 are analog or digital... The AL250 is digital so a ADC would be required.

P.S. This post was really targeted at someone who could handle such a production run... Say, Individial Computers or Elbox, etc.

[Dr_Righteous]

Hmm, Phillips has some VADC & VDAC's that might be helpful... Both are triple 8-bit (24-bit). TDA8754 (ADC) and TDA8771A (DAC).
http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/markets/mms/products/analog/key_solutions/converters/index.html

[Dr_Righteous]

@BadBigBen

They don't process enough color information. CGA is 4bpp color... AGA is up to 24bpp color.

@doctorq

I see your point. And perhaps that's why no one has done it... No one believes in this platform anymore, so why would anyone take the chance. Would I do it? Yes... If I had the capital. I'm convinced there's enough market for it and knowing something sells better when it's cheaper. Price breaks come with volume purchase. A single production run is alot cheaper than repeated runs.

Anyway, all that said hows this for a design..?

Amiga Video input to triple 8-bit VADC to a PLD (or three smaller ones) programed to repeat scanned input twice out (per line) to triple 8-bit VDAC out to SVGA. Debounced toggle switch to turn off doubling program in PLD for native VGA modes. Clock signal doubled via flip-flop.

[Dr_Righteous]

@alexh

Bingo! Precisely what I was hoping for.

[Dr_Righteous]

YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Jens! Thank you Alex! PARTYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!