Is a Mediator 4000Di worth it?

[Amigaz]

d0pefish wrote:
Maybe this is of no use to you, but I found that my Voodoo 3 3000 (although on G-Rex and CGFX4) is significantly - noticabley - faster even at drawing 2D desktop items than my CyberVision PPC.

Things like tiling the backdrops of windows happens in a snap and I can't see them being "painted" any more. So far I am very pleased with my Voodoo system.

I'm not sure if a similar sort of performance is gained with a Mediator though, but PCI sure has been a great upgrade for me.

Amigaz sold me his Terratec 512i which is excellent under my G-Rex; MP3s, modules, and HivelyTracker sound fantastic on it. Thanks again, btw, Amigaz! :-D The digital out is useful too. I'm sure you can use this sound card under the Mediator aswell.

I am also using a PCI ethernet card which is noticably faster than my XSurf was. The only Zorro card I am using now is my Algor Pro.  

Glad the card worked great  :-)
Using one in my Mediator 4000, the sound is much deeper and crisper than my old SB128

[alexh]

If PCI is your bag, seeing as how you have a CS MKIII you should try to get the illusive G-REX A4000D and then you dont loose the video slot.

Ah... if I remember correctly you have a dual input LCD monitor with a built in scandoubler.... hmmm... maybe you would be ok with a Mediator 4000Di afterall.

Kickflash would still work (if it worked in the first place).

If you want to know if your kickflash is working... load the X-Surf IDE driver in and try and boot from it's IDE interface. You cannot do this unless you have a working kickflash (or a homebrew kickstart ROM)

[A4000_Mad]

Videoslots can also be used for Internal Genlocks; MPG Decoder cards; GFX Cards with integrated FF/SD (Picasso IV)

I have Picasso-IV in the video slot of A4000. Another A4000 has the Phase 5 scandoubler in the video slot which is linked to a CV64/3D.

However, my first graphics card was a Picasso-II. I put this in the 2nd slot up in the daughter board as I was concerned that it might touch the fast ram simms. It appears to have worked perfectly for years in that slot, but would I gain anything if I dropped it down into the bottom slot?

A4000 Mad

[alenppc]

A4000_Mad wrote:

I have Picasso-IV in the video slot of A4000. Another A4000 has the Phase 5 scandoubler in the video slot which is linked to a CV64/3D.

However, my first graphics card was a Picasso-II. I put this in the 2nd slot up in the daughter board as I was concerned that it might touch the fast ram simms. It appears to have worked perfectly for years in that slot, but would I gain anything if I dropped it down into the bottom slot?

A4000 Mad

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If you are placing the card in the last slot, if you are not careful you risk breaking those cheap plastic SIMM holders, then you are in trouble. Best leave it where it is.

[A4000_Mad]

If there is nothing to gain then that sounds like good advice to me  :cheers:

A4000 Mad

[whiteb]

I would buy a 4000Di, if it meant that I WOULDNT lose the Arxon Scandoubler. (Nice scandoubler BTW).

So.. No scandoubler, No 4000Di.

And from memory, with the 4000Di, you cant play games without a scandoubler on the 4000 with PC montor, The Voodoo will only output Workbench, so you still need a 15khz monitor on the Amiga.

[stopthegop]

I'm very happy with my Mediator system, no regrets whatsoever.  I do have a CV64/3D and a PicassoIV but I use the Voodoo4 because it just runs circles around the Zorro cards, as far as raw speed is concerned.   I still have G-REXX envy as I have not been able to locate one of those. Which I have to say is mighty damn frustrating...  Anyway, the Mediator might be the lesser of the two by a small margin when compared to the G-REXX, but the mediator has one VERY big advantage: availability!  

[Dandy]

stopthegop wrote:
I'm very happy with my Mediator system, no regrets whatsoever.  
...

Same on my side...

stopthegop wrote:

...  
Anyway, the Mediator might be the lesser of the two by a small margin when compared to the G-REXX, but the mediator has one VERY big advantage: availability!  

Her is annother big advantage:
You can use USB 2.0 Highspeed cards with it, while G-REX just supports USB 1.1 (AFAIR)...

[keropi]

usb2 on mediator.... yeah right!
UNLESS you already own a Poseidon USB FULL LICENCE, then you cannot register it anymore for Elbox products, and u cannot have usb 1 or 2 for mediators....
also there is no g-rex native usb driver, u need a highway or algor(pro) zorro cards, or a clockport to attach a subway to, and they all come with OEM Poseidon license...

[motorollin]

Thanks for all the advice. I want to keep my A4000 as a desktop so the 4000Di is the only option if I want PCI. I'm not really bothered about the video slot as my screen has VGA and SCART input, so it can display the Amiga and Voodoo outputs. From the sounds of it the Voodoo will perform significantly better than my CV64 so I'll go for the 4000Di when I can afford it.

--
moto

[A4000_Mad]

clip on scandoubler's aren't full 24bit

Hmmmm... The graphics card provides the 24bit Workbench screens and programs and utils use 'changescreen or 'newmode' to promote as well. My clip on scandoubler only kicks in to display old games on the PC monitor, so does it need to be 24bit to do this properly?


@ Moto

"I'll never sell my A4000 so you might as well forget it now"

That A4000 could not have gone to a better owner than you  :-)  :-)  :-)


A4000 Mad

[keropi]

yes, clip-on scandoublers don't really offer the full aga color range, they work with aga modes but downgrade it's color info to 16bit , that is actually OK for ECS/OCS , they usually have a color space of 8:4:4 RGB instead of the full 8:8:8 RGB... and as for videoslot scandoublers, the ones that are fully 24 bit are: the picassoIV scandoubler, the Arxo/Compserv ones v1 and v2 and the Petsoff DoubleScan4000...

[alexh]

keropi wrote:
they usually have a color space of 8:4:4 RGB instead of the full 8:8:8 RGB...

Yeah? 16-bit RGB colour ratio is usually 5:6:5 RGB because human eye is more sensitive to subtle changes in Green than Red or Blue.

8:4:4 is a well known YUV spacial resolution.

What makes you think the Amiga scandoublers use 8:4:4 16-bit RGB?

P.S. "8:4:4 RGB" is not what I would call a colour space. RGB is a colour space, YUV or Y'CbCr are colour spaces. 8:4:4 is a colour ratio

[Crumb]

@alexh

Non 24bit scandoublers look bad to people used to AGA demos/games. For example, the CV3D scandoubler isn't a 24bit one and you'll notice it inmediately if you are used to a 24bit AGA display.

Example: In Rain/TBL you'll notice that the clouds of the start have smooth gradients and will look very bad with a non 24bit one. If you are unsure connect your miggy to a TV using a scart cable and compare the image to the one in the scandoubler. Apart from more square pixels, the colours should be equal.

Is there any internal A1200 scandoubler that shows the full 24bit palette? AFAIK DCE ones aren't 24bit.

What about external ones designed for the 23pin port?

[Jose]

@Crumb
"What about external ones designed for the 23pin port?"

I had one some years ago(latest Eyetech top of the range one with flicker fixer included) but send it back because it added artifacts(don't ask me how they were exactly, it's been a while.. in some pictures and the image was not as bright. But it did seem to be 24 bit with the advantage that you can unplug it and plug it back in any of your amigas.

[Zac67]

All scan doublers / flicker fixers produce 'comb' artifacts at fast horizontally moving objects.
This is caused by both fields (usually) showing two different pictures spaced 1/50th second apart. Only professional scan doublers and modern digital TVs avoid this by interpolating between the frames - which might be more or less successful.

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