Switching to Amiga

[Tripitaka]

A towered Amiga can look very nice, as I posted earlier check out Revanche.
I like the idea of a tower machine for expansion and a wedge for potability, if you don't mind being a bit brave you can get a lot of stuff in a wedgey, including a PSU, look at a few PC modding sites for diddy little ones and with a bit of hacking it'll fit. Add a wireless PCMCIA card for Ami joy...
..but a tower still gives you more expansion however much you squeeze into a wedge.

Hyperspeed wrote:

Damn have I seen some ugly Amiga 1200s in PC cases, even ones designed specifically for the Amiga.

So true...but I've seen even more ugly PCs. :-)

[steve30]

Considering that I have more or less no more money to spend on this machine, upgrading from 030 to 060 or ppc isn't an option, and neither is towering it. I also like the deskptop miggy because it takes up much less space and is much more portable.

I will tower it one day though.

[SamuraiCrow]

If 640x512 isn't high enough resolution isn't high enough for you you can boost the resolution horizontally to 1280x512 interlaced but it will be slow in super-highres mode.

Vertically will be the big challange.  You can use overscan to get a few more pixels vertically but I doubt a PAL display will go over 560 and still be completely visible.

If you have a "silver-box" adapter for the AGA chipset then you'll be able to connect to a VGA monitor and, depending on the monitor you choose, be able to get 800x600 super-high resolution.

The moments that a "silver-box" adapter will come in handy will be rare if you play a lot of games so a scan-doubler would be your next option and there are only a few available.

[steve30]

What is a silver box adaptor?

[Piru]

@steve30

What is a silver box adaptor?

Sync Dongle - VGA Adaptor [Big Book of Amiga Hardware]

NOTE: It's not a scandoubler. You will not be able to use regular VGA monitor for games and demos. To be able to see the games/demos the monitor must be able to sync down to 15kHz and 50/60 Hz.

[Hyperspeed]

An old Commodore adaptor for Amiga 23-pin RGB video port -> PC 9pin VGA

[steve30]

I won't need that then as I have a 1438 monitor with a 23pin RGB plug.

[steve30]

Hopefully I'll be getting my roms and os soon.

I think I might do that mode where you put a slimline cd drive in the back of the A1200. That would be much better than having an external one.

What would the 68030 be like at burning CDs? I expect it might be able to at a slow speed. Also what would it be like at playing DVDs and other videos? Someone told me that video is really slow on the 030.

I thought I better ask as I don't want to get a CD-RW drive if it isn't fast enough.

[Hyperspeed]

I've seen a mod where someone's put a slimline CD drive in the A1200 desktop and sprayed the case metallic red. I can't remember if they had transplanted the motherboard into an A500 case though...

As for burning CDs on '030 - you'll need a Blizzard 1230-IV I'd say. SCSI is a lifesaver on '030 since it uses less than 5% of your CPU time due to DMA. MakeCD has an option to burn CD tracks to disc simply by giving it an MP3 file but that will be too slow 'on-the-fly' with an '030.

However, burning CDs needn't be real-time as you can first make an image file then later burn this to CD at full speed (since your hard disk will send it straight without the CPU having to work out things). I've heard of problems with PowerFlyer but with SCSI it's hassle free.

Playing DVDs is out of the picture, as is movies on '030. Your only hope of real time video is Commodore's own format CDXL(?) and earlier AVI/Quicktime files. MPEG, due to it's compression, is only really possible full-screen on '060+GFX card.

The Amiga CD32 could play full motion video on '020/14 with an optional FMV Video-CD cartridge and you can burn Video-CD with MakeCD+VCDGear, but you'll only be able to play these discs back very jerkily with a registered copy of Frogger. Best bet is to get a 30 GBP DVD player for playback if you don't want to buy a big box Amiga.

[steve30]

Thanks.

I do have the Blizzard 1230-IV, but it's SCSI-less. I was going to get a buffered IDE interface and connect an HD (or possibly a compact flash card) and have the CD mounted in the back of the computer. I forgot the link to the page about this.

The SCSI options seems too expensive for me. The SCSI adaptors are expensive and so are the drives, so IDE is the best option.

I assume MP3 and CD playback would be good?

[Oliver]

I think CD playback would be fine with a sound card, otherwise, don't know how it would go.  MP3 playback is possible with an 030, but may make the machine sluggish, specially for high bit rates.

[steve30]

I've almost purchased a copy of OS3.9, some 3.1 roms, and a buffered IDE interface.

[Hyperspeed]

MP3 playback isn't up to scratch even on the 50Mhz Blizzard 1230-IV. For some reason the FPU version of the mpega.library slows things down considerably with no audible benefit to sound quality.

You'll be using 80-100% CPU, maximum of 22KHz, 200kbit, and possibly stereo will be out of the picture too. It's only when you get to '040 40Mhz does MP3 become realistic. However, if you can live with 22Khz that's still radio quality, if not 44KHz CD quality.

Probably best to have the MP3 loaded into RAM: first or streamed off SCSI.

[steve30]

What if the MP3 was being played via a network e.g. the MP£ is stored on another computer but played on the amiga?

[Doppie1200]

Somehow you give me the impression of jumping to amiga thinking it will do everything your PC used to do for you.
Allthough you didn't like your PC it was able to do those things you want.

Ok too save you some time searching through the forums here's some summary.

You have an 030 A1200 with no GFX card.

This does NOT do the following in a way even slightly comparable to a moderatly modern PC (or an old one (<1997) for that matter):
-AUDIO (MP3,VQF and alike)
-VIDEO (AVI, DIVX, DVD and alike)
-Web browsing (no flash no java and so on)
-.....why should I go on?

The comment made earlier that was being thought of as trolling was a very good one; stick to PC.

Anyway as it is too late to save you some bread we might as well go on with it. But for your own happyness; see this as a nice hobby with a classic computer. Or else you are heading on collision course with MAYOR DISSAPPOINTMENT.

Make your hobby fun; rob a bank and get the following:
- Hot accelerator (the hotter the better; MELT THAT PLASTIC CASE -> 68060 minimum but go for PPC(+BVISION))
- Über expensive expansion stuff (PCI nothing less)
- Cards that actually belong in a PC (so you'll get closer to your goal; a PC) think Voodoo, soundblasters and stuff
- Harddisk that make an amiga overflow (Anything above 4G will do that ;-) the more the better)
- Scandoubler/FF (SELL A KIDNEY IF YOU MUST. you do want to play SWOS on your VGA don't ya?)
- Hook up some cool scsi stuff (CDRW ....no that is old DVDRW at least (what was I thinking))
- Watercooling.....mmm no I'm going too far now.

You get the idea...max it out. That is what you want. you know you get the ultimate amiga award; no need to buy a virus scanner

Take care!

[steve30]

When I said switching to amiga, I didn't really mean making a complete switch. I just wanted a nice machine that can do stuff like play MP3s, browse internet, etc.

I'm not actually going to be using it as a PC replacement. There's no way I can afford stuff like PPCs, 060s, GFX cards etc. I'm just trying to make the most of the equipment that I can afford.

Basically, I want to use my amiga a LOT more than I do at the moment.

I think the 030 should be fine. But when I win the lottery I will definately be upgrading to 060/PPC.