OSSC and Amiga

[kirk_m]

Has anyone tried out an OSSC (open source scan converter) with an Amiga?  I bought one recently to use with my old consoles on modern HDTVs, and just tried it out on my A1200, which does not have a scan-doubler.  While it works well with consoles and with the 1200 in games, it is horrible in Workbench, especially in interlace modes.  The flicker is terrible.  The description for the device says it works very well for systems using interlace mode graphics.    In non interlace Workbench, it's unimpressive as well, as everything looks fairly grainy, whether used in scanline mode or not.  My $30 ebay HDMI upscaler looks better.  Anyone else have this experience?

[mindprober]

I have an OSSC. It works best with a PAL Amiga and the OSSC SCART input. The OSSC's VGA input will accept a signal from the Amiga using an RGB to VGA adapter although the results were less than optimal in my experience. As long as you do not care about any of the higher sync screenmodes (like DblPAL, DblNTSC, Multiscan, etc.) you will be fine. I was a bit put off by interlaces screens at first but then I remembered it was much the same on a real CRT. When interlaced screens are used in games or demos, they generally look very good. I believe this is because the programmers knew to avoid certain color combinations which might exaggerate the flickering. With the TV I am using it on (Vizio M60) there is an unfortunate loss of HDMI sync when switching from high res to hi res laced screens. I do not think it is a fault of the OSSC. My Workbench screenmode in this setup is a simple PAL Hi Res with overscan and it looks very nice.

With the right monitor and a lot of patience, it is possible to achieve some interesting screenmodes. See more about it here:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=84788

[kirk_m]

I am using a PAL A1200, in PAL HIGH RES LACED (I think 640x512) mode, over an SCART connection to the Amiga's RGB port (I have a retrocables.co.uk SCART cable).  I've tried it in PAL HIGH RES, and graphics are a little better, but, the fonts really look bad.  I'll check out that thread.

[lionstorm]

if it behaves like on a CRT you could try MagicTV (available on Aminet).
it works quite well in hires mode but you are limited to 16 colours at best and the mouse pointer is black.

[kirk_m]

The OSSC is a pretty sophisticated piece of equipment, it seems.  Having gotten on their forums and read through posts about tuning it, there seems to be quite a few settings that can be adjusted to get better image quality when using it with an Amiga.  I'll try them out sometime this weekend, hopefully.

[mindprober]

Thanks for suggesting this. I clicked on the sample image and it does appear as though the flickering is reduced but not much. It is certainly improved over the default interlaced modes. I will have to play with it more. Perhaps I won't have to settle for PAL Hi Res only. The Workbench is a bit too cramped if I want to use certain software.

if it behaves like on a CRT you could try MagicTV (available on Aminet).
it works quite well in hires mode but you are limited to 16 colours at best and the mouse pointer is black.