Connecting an A1200 to an Ilyama PC monitor

[StevenJGore]

I have an Ilyama 19" PC monitor with dual-input in the rear, and I would like to connect my A1200 to it.

I have seen on the PowerC website that they have two options:

1. A simple VGA cable convertor - £15 (but it states that most resolutions will not be displayable by a PC monitor)

2. An internal flicker fixer / scan doubler - £79 (would hopefully display all Amiga screen modes)

Can anyone recommend one of the above, or an alternative solution? Has anybody successfully connected an A1200 to a PC monitor? I am trying to do it on a budget if possible!

[Jaruzel]

Sorry dude, unless the ilyama monitor can do 15khz horizontal refresh, you are going to need to shell out for a scan-doubler. I got mine on ebay for about £40.

That said, if you just get the vga adapter,  plug the amiga into your TV via the video out, and install some of the vga friendly monitor drivers, off aminet like DblPAL then you will be about to use the ilyama, but only at that resolution, ie. games wont work.

-Jar.

[StevenJGore]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Does the scan-doubler fit comfortably inside the A1200? I assume it must replace the connector on the back of the case?

Will all Amiga screen modes be displayed on the PC monitor, especially those used in Games?

Cheers!

[Quixote]

;-) Scan-doublers come in internal and external versions.  Bear in mind that a simple scan-doubler simply doubles the frequency of whatever signal it gets, so that a PC monitor will be able to display it.  It will not fix the Amiga’s interlace flicker.  For that, you need to splash out a little more and get a scan-doubler / flicker-fixer.

Since this alteration is done to the video signal after it leaves the ‘miggy’s video chips, the software is unaware that anything is being done at all.  Most games should work just fine, in theory.

:-( In practice, my PicassoIV has a built-in SD/FF, and displays most native screen modes well enough, but games like Fury of the Furries use custom screen modes and will not display.  Similarly, MovieSetter animations use custom screens and are invisible to me.  Sigh.

I've got an A1200 and a Iiyama monitor, and have experience of Power Computings scan doubler, so reckon I can answer your questions  :-D

For a start, you CAN connect the Iiyama to an A1200 without a scan doubler. There are 2 problems with this though:

a) You need a converter to change the A1200 video connector socket to an SVGA one which the Iiyama (and most other standard PC monitors use). I think I've seen these on sale for about 10UKP

b) You need to change the screen mode of AmigaOS to use a higher scan frequency than PAL or NTSD. Double PAL or Double NTSD will work, and if your particular Iiyama monitor is a multisync one, some other modes may also work. However, this will only work for games and applications which work with AmigOS. Most games and some applications bypass AmigaOS, and such software in general will not work as they default to PAL or NTSD. You will also not have any access to the Amiga early startup screen.


If you buy the scan doubler, it will double scan PAL (and I believe NTSD) screens from the Amiga to be compatible, and so almost every game and application available will work with the monitor. For modes other than PAL or NTSD, those are simply passed through the scan doubler. If they are then of a compatible frequency, they will be displayed, if not the Iiyama will give a "frequency out of range" warning. In addition, with a scan doubler you won't need any adaptor to convert the Amigas video port to the connector on the monitor as te scan doubler deals with that. Finally, it will also allow you to see the early startup menu


I've personally actually bought the Power computings internal Scan doubler with flicker fixer. This fits totally internally to the A1200 and has an SVGA monitor connector which can hang out or a blanking plate at the back of the A1200. It's great as it also leaves the generic A1200 video port free (ideal if you use a genlock). All games and apps work 100% on my Iiyama Vision monitor with no trouble. The flicker fixer part means that the output is de-interlaced so you don't get any dreaded flicker when using PAL interlaced screens.

[Matt_H]

There's another option. It's annoying, but cheap. Once you set your Workbench screenmode to a 31khz mode, turn on Mode Promotion in IControl or add another screenpromoter utility. That should get Workbench-based stuff working.

OS3.9 BB2 also promotes (or is supposed to promote) the early startup menu. From there you can force boot into Double modes for games, etc. I don't know how compatible it is with games (some are really troublesome with NTSC/PAL, the doubled modes might have the same problem). You'd need the VGA adaptor and you'd need to set the mode on every boot.

[jeffimix]

I'm doing something similiar to this. Using some left over pin kits I'm going to make a a basic wire crossing converter from my 2000 to an old SVGA packard bell monitor. The monitor seems capable of displaying low frequency rates, so will I only be left with flicker? also I found some diagram on the internet, that, while I'd need to buy some generic chips, claims to work on almost all monitors (the SVGA kind)

Last, wouldn't an LCD screen not flicker? I have an LCD and it'd be nice to use.

So basically adding more questons to annoy y'all  :-P

[StevenJGore]

Thanks guys, particularly Jules, you've told me exactly what I needed to know. I will shortly be ordering a scan doubler / flicker fixer. Cheers! :-)

[Jaruzel]

Last, wouldn't an LCD screen not flicker? I have an LCD and it'd be nice to use.

A lot of LCDs only support specific frequencies. even with a scan doubler, 15khz would only equal 30khz, which is a little bit less than the 31-and-a-bit khz VGA uses. I have a VGA only LCD screen, and it has serious dot crawl when used with my scan doubler. :-(

-Jar.

[Damion]

Interesting....the standard PAL horizontal
refresh rate is 15.6khz, so doubling that
would equal 31.2khz, which in theory should
be close enough to work with an LCD (like almost
any other monitor). I've heard though that they
work for some and not for others...I wonder
if the vertical refresh rate of the PAL screens
is too low for some LCD's?

@jeffmix

You would probably still need a "flicker fixer"
in order to view the "laced" modes with no
flicker on an LCD. All PAL modes however
exhibit some small amount of flicker assosiated
with the low 50khz vertical refresh rate...this
type of flicker should not be noticeable on
an LCD (but it gives a nice headache with my
standard monitor).

[Mojo]

Depending on which Iyama monitor is being used, it is possible to conect an Amiga to an Iyama.  Some of the older models do sync to 15khz. Many people who owned the GVP 110/24 Graphics board purchased Iyama monitors, since  you could display 1280 by 1280 resolution, as well as any others down to 320 by 240. They even included composite inputs so one could do video work and switch back and forth. Sadly,  they took these  features out of the later models, since this apparently was not  a large market for them.