opinion on this VGA box?

[DamageX]

http://www.ambery.com/rgbcgatovgac.html

As it is one of the elusive VGA converters that actually supports RGB input on the 15KHz side, the price looks pretty good right?

[ChaosLord]

It might be great for an A500, A1000,A2000 or A3000.

But the converter is CGA which means it only has 4096 colors or less.  So it is crap for any AGA Amiga.  :cry:

[mingle]

@DamageX,

Yeah, it does seem like a good price. There are quite a few of these things around, but generally they are around $150+...

@ChaosLord,

Are you sure it will only do 4096 colours? I would expect that since it's analog RGB input, it should be able to handle any colour resolution?

 :-?

Cheers,

Mike.

[AmigaHeretic]

Not sure about the 4096 color thing.

On the one hand it does say this:

This RGB converter also helps upgrade 480i component RGB video signals from DVD player or other video devices to progressive scan VGA type for high resolution presentation.

Which if they say you can use it for DVDs that would suggest it does more than 4096 colors or your movies would look like crap.

But, on the other hand they are very specific about calling it a CGA converter over and over again, but I'm pretty sure CGA "provides a fixed set of "16" different colors".  As you'll find if you google CGA and number of colors.  I tried to hook a CGA monitor up to my Amiga 1000 once and was very disapointed when I found this out.

On the 3rd hand you could just contact them and see and then let us all know. :-)

[ChaosLord]

I agree that true CGA is 16 colors and total crap.

The engineers probably said X and the website maker wrote Y.

X and Y are unknown.  To solve for X and Y someone must buy one and try it out.  :-D

[Homer]

Hey, let X = X !!!

[Zac67]

CGA used a four bit digital 'RGBI' signal, giving 2^4=16 different (ugly) colors.
Actually I can't think imagine this unit is CGA only as it's said to support a variety of consoles - all of which I have never heard of though...

Before you buy it you should ask the dealer whether analogue RGB works.

[CLS2086]

Go at the bottom :
# Input RGB Signals:

    * CGA (15K)
    * RGB Combined Sync - RGBH+V
    * RGB Separate Sync - RGBHV
    * RGB Component Video for 480i or 576i

# Input RGB Timings:

    * CGA: Horizontal 15KHz Vertical 60Hz
    * 480i: Horizontal 15KHz Vertical 60Hz
    * 576i: Horizontal 15KHz Vertical 50Hz

So you can use it with AMIGA (you only need how to wire it correctly)

[da9000]

FYI...


I asked:

"Hi there,

I'm looking at your product:

http://www.ambery.com/rgbcgatovgac.html

and I have one question for your technical staff: does it support
16bit or 24bit *SAMPLING* color? In other words when it samples the
input signals (RGB/CGA), does it sample at 16bits resolution, or at
24bits resolution?

Thank you very much"


and I got:

"Hi,

Thanks for the email.

The typical CGA RGB or YUV signals are ranged from 4
colors to 16 colors so the sample rate of 8-bit is
applied for most instances.

The max sampling rate of this model is up to 12-bit.
16-bit or 24-bit sampling are used for VGA/SVGA/XGA.

Sincerely,

Support/Ambery.com"



I'm not quite sure how to interpret it: 12bit max, but then can also do 16bit or 24bit? Hopefully it means the latter! :-)

Anyone try it yet?

[alexh]

They say CGA but they really mean 15KHz analog RGB.

As for the 16-bit vs 24-bit, I'd have to see what chip was inside. From Ambrey's response I'd say it is a 16-bit Averlogic AL250A with an AL875.

It says "Automatic 50Hz to 60Hz conversion". That is going to make your scrolling suck, but at least it will work on all LCDTV's

[alexh]

Dont you just love technical responses from non-technical staff who's first language isnt English!

so the sample rate of 8-bit is applied for most instances

Sample rate, yeah sure ;-)

[da9000]

alexh wrote:
Dont you just love technical responses from non-technical staff who's first language isnt English!

Hahahaha, yeah, totally! :-D

Anyways, I'm in agreement with your analysis, although I can't see why they would limit their device to 12bit when the Averlogic chips are plentiful and they do 16bit. I think the answer is simple: they don't have a clue what chips they have in their very own hardware!!

Anyways, so I pressed on and here's an update:

"Hi,

I'm sorry I'm confused, but when you said it does a maximum of 12bit
sampling, then how can it do 16bit or 24bit?

Unless you meant: it can do 12bit sampling on the "CGA inputs", but
will do 16bit or 24bit (which is it?) on the "RGB/VGA inputs". Is that
what you meant?

Thank you"


Note how the question is a trick question as there's only ONE input port on the box!

And I got:

"Hi,

Thanks for the email again.

Yes, that's what we meant. This CGA RGB + YCbCr to VGA
scaler can take either CGA or 480i signals for the
input and it can do 12-bit sampling on the "CGA" RGB
or 480i component RGB.

This unit does not support VGA input and no 16bit or
24bit sampling."


Woa, a totally different response, huh? Confused still?

Make what you will of it, all I know is that I'm glad I'm their only friend ("Thanks for the email again." - must be lonely out there!) :-D

[Damion]

I thought about trying this unit, but the lack of specific info along with the 50 -> 60Hz "framerate conversion" (yuk) deterred me. (Plus, I'd wager most scalers around the $100 mark are going to blow, unfortunately.)

[da9000]

Perhaps if they had a return policy? I didn't inquire about that.

[rkauer]

 My opinion for the device?

 I think it's white. :roll: