Multi-Amiga Flicker Fixer

[djos]

you can improve the quality of the GBS by adding these simple mods from Ian Stedman:



here's what mine looks like:







It's not perfect as the GBS still has trouble dealing with very fine patterns but this does remove the worst of the banding.

[PanterHZ]

You guys are lucky to have SCART in Europe.  We didn't get anything decent like that until S-Video came around.

Yes but why was it so? I can certainly understand why scart wasn't an option in America, because it was also called an euro connector, and in America only american standards will do

But why didn't you have a similar alternative standard? Am I right in assuming that it was the movie industry that was afraid of the possibility for people to copy video tapes with decent quality?

[djos]

SCART was a pretty expensive connectivity option to implement and this had a lot to do with OEM's in countries outside of Europe ignoring the standard.

[Ral-Clan]

Yes but why was it so? I can certainly understand why scart wasn't an option in America, because it was also called an euro connector, and in America only american standards will do

But why didn't you have a similar alternative standard? Am I right in assuming that it was the movie industry that was afraid of the possibility for people to copy video tapes with decent quality?

Well, I'm not in America, I'm in Canada, but we shared the NTSC standard.

Not only did we not have something as good as SCART - we didn't even get separate composite / audio connectors until the early to mid 1990s on our televisions.  We had to use the 75-Ohm RF "cable tv" connector.

You might have got the audio/video composite connectors on expensive TV's slightly earlier, but in the average price range it was 75-Ohm connector, or even worse, 75-ohm connector adapter going to the two TV aerial bolts on the back of the TV.

[djos]

Well, I'm not in America, I'm in Canada, but we shared the NTSC standard.

Not only did we not have something as good as SCART - we didn't even get separate composite / audio connectors until the early to mid 1990s on our televisions.  We had to use the 75-Ohm RF "cable tv" connector.

You might have got the audio/video composite connectors on expensive TV's slightly earlier, but in the average price range it was 75-Ohm connector, or even worse, 75-ohm connector adapter going to the two TV aerial bolts on the back of the TV.

Yeah same deal here in Australia (PAL), even when Composh!te became standard it wasnt even stereo on most tv's until Component inputs became standard with the advent of DVD players.

[Ral-Clan]

Yeah same deal here in Australia (PAL), even when Composh!te became standard it wasnt even stereo on most tv's until Component inputs became standard with the advent of DVD players.

Yup, it was a mono audio input and you had to buy a Y-adapter to turn your stereo VCR into mono to view on the TV.

Then around 1997 S-Video started showing up slowly with the advent of DVD players (it was around a few years earlier for videophiles, but didn't trickle down to the general consumer until DVD players came out).

[PanterHZ]

you can improve the quality of the GBS by adding these simple mods from Ian Stedman:

OK, so using the SCART mods does help with the quality then.

SCART was a pretty expensive connectivity option to implement and this had a lot to do with OEM's in countries outside of Europe ignoring the standard.

So that explains it then
But I must say that SCART wasn't that great in the 80's because many of the TV's and video players sold didn't use all pins of the connector. I doubt that the RGB to SCART cable would work on the stuff I owned back then for example.

[djos]

OK, so using the SCART mods does help with the quality then.

It does, it's not perfect but still an improvement.

[gary2000]

It works, but some distortion around pointer..

[psxphill]

Yes but why was it so? I can certainly understand why scart wasn't an option in America, because it was also called an euro connector, and in America only american standards will do
 
But why didn't you have a similar alternative standard? Am I right in assuming that it was the movie industry that was afraid of the possibility for people to copy video tapes with decent quality?

I doubt it, even though they have SCART I have never seen a VHS deck that could output or record in anything other than composite video.
 
SCART became popular in Europe because of France using it for their online services back in the late 70's and early 80's. There was not enough consumer demand for it in America & without government enforcing it (like France did) it was never going to happen. The last time I was in America the TV's in the hotel were hooked up to a set top box by RF.
 
I don't remember SCART being that common on TV's in the UK until the late 80's.

[ChaosLord]

There was not enough consumer demand for it in America

There was plenty of consumer demand.

But since nobody sold SCART devices in USA, nobody could buy them.

[Iggy]

Well, I'm not in America, I'm in Canada...

Last time I checked, both Canada and Mexico were part of North America.
Did you guys move recently?

[Ral-Clan]

Last time I checked, both Canada and Mexico were part of North America.
Did you guys move recently?

Yeah, I know we're part of "the Americas" literally speaking. But in Canada we all call the USA "America" and its citizens "Americans".  We would never call ourselves "Americans" and if you called a Canadian that he/she would probably correct you or may even take slight offense.  Nothing against the USA, it is a great country.

[PanterHZ]

Well, I'm not in America, I'm in Canada, but we shared the NTSC standard.

Not only did we not have something as good as SCART - we didn't even get separate composite / audio connectors until the early to mid 1990s on our televisions.  We had to use the 75-Ohm RF "cable tv" connector.

You might have got the audio/video composite connectors on expensive TV's slightly earlier, but in the average price range it was 75-Ohm connector, or even worse, 75-ohm connector adapter going to the two TV aerial bolts on the back of the TV.

HeHe... so it was that bad then! But with these limitations in mind, it suddenly makes it more clear to me why most C64 and Amiga users in America and Canada had real monitors instead of TV's connected to their computers. In Europe it was quite common to use a TV as display, especially for gaming.

I doubt it, even though they have SCART I have never seen a VHS deck that could output or record in anything other than composite video.
 
SCART became popular in Europe because of France using it for their online services back in the late 70's and early 80's. There was not enough consumer demand for it in America & without government enforcing it (like France did) it was never going to happen. The last time I was in America the TV's in the hotel were hooked up to a set top box by RF.
 
I don't remember SCART being that common on TV's in the UK until the late 80's.

Yes it was like this here in Norway as well. But it might be possible that some of the later VHS players made full use of the SCART connector though. Anyway, I can't remember ever seeing one that didn't have seperate video and audio connectors in addition to RF. Before SCART came along, there was a few of them which had some very odd connector types as well.

[PanterHZ]

Yeah, I know we're part of "the Americas" literally speaking. But in Canada we all call the USA "America" and its citizens "Americans".  We would never call ourselves "Americans" and if you called a Canadian that he/she would probably correct you or may even take slight offense.  Nothing against the USA, it is a great country.

Maybe it's like calling people from Ireland and Scotland for English

[djos]

Arent Canadians just Americans that cant pronounce "about" properly?