New 15Khz RGB to VGA Converter Scaler

[recidivist]

 I saw this interesting little item on eBay,and wonder if anyone has seen one in use?

 The price is tempting.$92.

 My attempt to copy the link doesn't look right,so you will need to search for "amiga converter" in ebay;it is supposed to work with Atari and other devices ,too.

 I am not associated in any way with the people making or selling this converter.

[JuvUK]

can't find it on ebay. what is the item number?
thanks, JuvUK

[tonyyeb]

EDIT: Found it:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/New-15Khz-RGB-to-VGA-Converter-Scaler_W0QQitemZ260253804679QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260253804679&_trkparms=72%3A1301%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

[alexh]

This is a well known ancient scan doubler.

Cypress CM-397

It suffers from only being a 16-bit scandoubler (i.e. not good for AGA) and being external can suffer from Digital->Analog->Digital->Analog conversion problems (ringing, halos etc).

It can only output 60Hz so PAL scrolling jerks around a lot.

I do not recommend them, way too expensive for what they are. A guy called Roy Justace was selling functionally identical products for $49 (although I think he's put the price upto $69)

[tonyyeb]

Cheers for the heads up Alex. Are there any (cheap) scan doublers out there worth entertaining? I dont want to shell out for an Indivision plus i'd like to be able to use it on my A600 as well as my A1200.

[alexh]

An external scandoubler is always going to suck compared to an internal one.

The best value for money is a £99 LCDTV from the supermarket instead. Just make sure it has an RGB SCART input. (If it has a PC VGA input too all the better.)

http://www.amiga.org/gallery/index.php?n=1332=13

If your regular PC monitor has S-Video input then the A600 and A1200 are already capable and can be persuaded to output S-Video with a simple wiring mod and a signal amplifier (very cheap mod).

Personally I just use a good quality 28" 4:3 CRT monitor and RGB SCART that I got for £40 from the second hand ads a long time ago. Works great with Amiga, all the consoles and a Super-Gun

[tonyyeb]

Sounds good. Probably better in the long term to get a decent TV instead.

[alexh]

LCD & Plasma is always going to make Amiga look worse than CRT. Just the nature of their internal workings. (Shame cos it doesn't need to be that way! Especially when paying the price of a 42" Plasma!)

Lots of places are (were) chucking out very big CRT monitors a while back. Video walls were being replaced with Plasma's etc. always good to keep your eye open for a 28" NEC (true) multi-sync monitor. Especially if you're not afraid to give it a caps-kit upgrade.

[Damion]

I agree with alexh on both counts, one, the converter is a POS, and two, CRT is really the way to go for classic amiga. Static images/WB usage is OK on LCD (at the correct resolution), but you'll cry as soon as you fire up a game or demo. Smearing, poor scaling, frequency issues, possibly dropping frames at anything other than 60Hz, and etc.

[da9000]

I'd still be interesting to know how it works, as this seems to work with the VGA input as opposed to composite/Svideo inputs.