Possible video devices for classic Amigas

[Damion]

In my ongoing search for a decent (quality) classic amiga display, I've come across a few products I thought I'd share.

Scart to VGA/HDTV converter

RGB to VGA converter

RGB to S-VIDEO converter (pricey, but includes a PAL/NTSC switch)

This is just a small sample, they also stock LCDs of various sizes, which accept 15 kHz RGB.

I have no idea if the scan converters are 8 bit/color (probably not), and the LCDs are listed as 6 pit/pixel TN panels. (Which generally look somewhat sub-par, IMHO... though may be just fine for amiga video.)

There are some awesome 24-bit converters out there (Sony), but they're around $1000 used -- tempting, but a lot to dump for used hw/experimentation purposes.

Then there's this unit:

Speco VM-TV17LCD
 
I'm going to email them, asking if the RGB port will accept 15 kHz pal/ntsc video. At $600+ it seems expensive, but it's an 8-bit panel which line-doubles and flicker-fixes.

Also for consideration is the Samsung 170MP and 171MP... however, they don't deinterlace, the technology is dated (slow pixel response) and they're only available used on Ebay. The 172MP *might* be a better unit as it should deinterlace, but we don't know whether it accepts 15 kHz via the RGB port... and it's used, not generally available, blah blah etc. There's another newer 17" Samsung, which "should" work via RGB, however, it's advertised as NTSC only.

The other day I saw mention of the Westar VA-1 video scaler. Looks like a sweet unit, though once again, I'll have to email about 15 kHz RGB as it isn't mentioned in the specs. Also, judging by the features, I'm willing to guess it's pretty pricey.



 

[Damion]

motorollin wrote:
This has been discussed here before, but it's always worth a reminder and an update of new products.

True dat! There's really not a lot of info out there though (and I haven't seen these particular products mentioned), so as I see it, more is better. You can search various amiga resources for hours and not really come up with much, or worse, conflicting/wrong/incomplete info. (F.e, BBOAH sez Samsung 171MP works w/teh amigas, but no further information (like -- "how does it handle laced modes?") is provided.)

It is really important though to check that the SCART input on the device is RGB SCART, since SCART itself is not a signal type it's just a connector which carries any of RGB, Composite, S-Video, audio and switching information. If the SCART -> VGA box only accepts composite or S-Video as an input (via the SCART connector), it will NOT work with an Amiga (since the Amiga's RGB output does not contain and composite or S-Video information).

Good point, and a reminder for those who didn't know amiga doesn't output s-video (without hacks). (Hence the above link for an rgb 2 s-vid converter, as it seems a lot of folks are interested in those lately.) The RGB 2 VGA device I linked to handles RGB via SCART. Actually, it's probably manufactured by CYP -- so quality may be similar to the Presenter 1. (And here again... one says it's great, another that it sucks! What I'd *really* like to know is whether or not the processing handles 24-bit color properly.)

Anyhow guys... I'm only going to post about devices which handle (and/or modify) the analog RGB signal, as something that scales an s-vid or composite signal would no doubt look like a sh!t sammich. ;-)

[Damion]

Just throwin' the idea out there... but I wouldn't mind keeping some sort of a "sticky" updated... an initial post (updated on occasion) with general, organized information regarding various displays, scan converters, etc, and the rest of the thread open to whatever information people want to contribute on the subject. (I suppose the "amiga hardware" section would be a better area for it.)







 

[Damion]

motorollin wrote:
I have actually been meaning to write some well organised guides encompassing all of the various methods of using VGA monitors with an Amiga, PC <-> Amiga file sharing and a few others I can't think of.

I think a wiki would be the best basis for this as it would allow the community to add/change/remove information as it becomes available/outdated.

--
moto

Agreed... a wiki would be perfect.

[Damion]

I received an email back from Westar this morning... the VA-1 is 24-bit and will easily handle amiga line-doubling and deinterlacing. It's also several thousand dollars :crazy:, though they're supposed to have a lesser expensive model out in the near future.

[Damion]

Priced out the Vartech VT170M (link to product pdf)... a 17" LCD which syncs down to 15kHz. Nothing terribly special about it otherwise, and from the specs it's probably using an older Samsung PVA panel. I figured about $600-800 USD for the "base" unit... wrong, try $3200 USD... LMAO. For that price you could buy a kick-ass sony scaler + your choice of several monitors.