External 15khz to 31khz video converter?

[Gojirax]

I was looking for solutions that would allow me to use my 15" Flatpanel LCD monitor with my Amiga 4000 Toaster system and I found that Software Hut and Amigakit don't appear to carry the Toastscan boxes anymore.

Then a co-worker showed me this product from TigerDirect:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=674680&CatId=1427

The Kworld XPert TV LCD TV Box w/ High Res 1280x1024 output.

Basically it has 15 pin VGA in (Via included adapter cable) and 15 pin VGA out (As well as a host of other input and output options.) and it brings the "TV" quality VGA signal up to a frequency that standard LCD computer monitors can use.

The idea of this product was that you could turn any computer monitor into a television monitor with this little $69.00 box.

Will this work as a low cost scandoubler for the Amiga? Will this work on a toaster system?

Did I mention that it has Picture-In-Picture capability?!?!

[alexh]

Quality would be fairly poor, but it would work.

[Gojirax]

One person that wrote a review on that box also suggested this one as an alternative:

http://www.aver.com/products/tvtuner_AVerTV_box5.shtml#3

[humppa]

It will work, but picture quality using Composite will be very poor. You might want to try the S-Video input since it has better signal quality, but you will need to convert the RGB-signal for that purpose (only CD32 has S-Video). The cheapest solution would be to buy a Genlock on Ebay that has S-Video output (Genlocks are very cheap nowadays).

The best, but somewhat more expensive solution is the CM-345S (aka "Presenter 1"). It has great signal quality since it accepts RGB-signal over a SCART connector. Much better than AverTV and other cheap Composite/S-Video "TV" boxes. There is a lengthy thread here and several photos and screenshots in the Image section (search for "CM345S").

I actually tried one of those cheap VGA/TV-boxes first, but returned it immediately. The image was not only extremely fuzzy with colour bleeding (typical Composite), but the picture was also jumpy and not stable.

[Gojirax]

I don't have to use a composite out from the computer for my signal though. It supports VGA in. I have a 23 pin to 15 pin adapter, it just doesn't up the sync to 31khz.

The biggest concern (Unless the quality from the Amiga 23 pin video out) is if the image quality really would suffer.

Well, that and the VGA in would need to have the ability to recognize a 15khz signal in.

[humppa]

I don't have to use a composite out from the computer for my signal though. It supports VGA in.

The VGA on these boxes is only used for pass-through. You could for example connect a Voodoo to VGA pass-through and Amiga-AGA to Composite.

Well, that and the VGA in would need to have the ability to recognize a 15khz signal in.

It doesn't. The only way to keep the original RGB signal quality is to use a real scandoubler or something like the CM-345S. The latter is also a flickerfixer by the way and besides RGB/SCART, you can also connect a Composite device to it. Using remote control, I can select between Amiga AGA, Amiga Voodoo and C64 - all on a 21" CRT.

[Gojirax]

Ahh, that sounds disappointingly accurate.

Thanks