ide cable ports and a tower

[Thomas]

There's IDEfix hardware for the A4000, too. But it's still a hack. You need the IDEfix software running in order to use the second IDE channel and it will still run at the same slow speed.

In order to get a real benefit, you should go for a real two-channel IDE controller like the FastATA4000 (= PowerflyerGold).

Best solution would be a DMA SCSI controller like on the CyberstormMK3 or PPC. You can have up to 15 drives on there and with a SCSIDE-Adapter you can also use an IDE drive. On the SCSI controller drives would run at top speed without CPU load.

Lastly, can a GVT-1000 scan upconverter allow my A4000 to hook up to a multisynch monitor and use most if not all the software I have on hand? How about the TVone AVT-3340?

Don't know what you mean by "GVT-1000". All I found with Google was about gigabit ethernet connections. This has nothing to do with video.

As it seems the AVT-3340 only has Composite and Y/C inputs, but no RGB. So you still need a TV modulator which means a huge quality loss. You should rather use a real Amiga scandoubler.

Another solution would be to connect the Amiga to an LCD TV with a Scart cable, provided that the TV has a full-featured Scart connector (e.g. supports RGB input).

Bye,
Thomas

[Thomas]

I understood that the Amiga output composite and the scan doublers I was looking into allowed for composite input

Well, "the Amiga" is too general. The A600 and A1200 have a built-in TV modulator which indeed delivers a composite video signal. But I had the impression that you are talking about the A4000 and this model only has the 23pin video connector which delivers an analogue RGB signal.

Why would a scart cable hooked to an LCD TV not need any kind of additional hardware?

Well, the cable (23pin -> Scart) is a bit of additional hardware, isn't it ? :-)

The LCD TV is a TV. A TV understands the Amiga's video signal as it is (15kHz x 60Hz for NTSC or 15kHz x 50Hz for PAL). If the TV has a Scart connector which supports RGB, then it can handle the signal unchanged. The same is true for a normal CRT TV with an RGB Scart connector (I tried it with my big 100Hz Panasonic in my living room). But I thought you wanted better quality than a TV, so I suggested the LCD one. (Although I don't know if the image quality of an LCD TV is really better than that of a CRT TV. I never saw an LCD TV in action.)

I tried a Belkin KVM switch and that was a waste of money as well.

KVM switches usually can only switch standard PC mice and keyboards. So if you use a PC mouse and a PC keyboard (and a PC monitor) and your Amiga is connected through the appropiate adapters (e.g. Lyra and Cocolino), then you can use your Amiga and your PC with the same mouse/keyboard and the switch in between. I use a KS-104 with a Logitech Cordless Desktop keyboard and a Logitech Cordless Optical mouse and am quite happy with that. Sometimes the Cocolino looses the mouse but switching to another computer and then back usually solves it.

Bye,
Thomas