VDC Interlace to S-Video (new thread)

redrumloa · April 04, 2010, 05:33 AM

I have been playing with this RGB -> S-Video adapter a bit the last 2 days. I've yet to do the mod for 16 colors, that should be tonight. I bought a new 19" LCD TV last night and it works great in all modes, including interlace! I set up my camcorder and took a video for Youtube. The quality of the video is atrocious, but it focuses enough at times to see it works without flicker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c13esF5Ir88

I would rather have recorded directly to my TV card, but it has some difficulty with VDC interlace. With the help of Vanessa and some reading of past threads, I am able to get some life with the TV card too.

@Hydropholic
If you are reading this, I tried your modified Zed on both the LCD TV and the TV card. I get nothing in the TV card, it works on the LCD TV but it is missing the top 1-2 lines to all characters. You able to tweak the program even more?

dmackey828 · April 04, 2010, 05:37 AM

Nice job Red, Keep me updated, I want to do the same on my 128. Use an LCD screen. Can it also be used in C64 mode?

redrumloa · April 04, 2010, 05:54 AM

C64 mode and 128's 40 column mode is very easy. The standard output is composite, which most TV's support. If you look for a TV, you may want to make sure it has multiple composite inputs. My TV I bought works great, but the S-Video is on the same input as the composite and just has the one composite input. To fix this I bought a switcher box, but if the TV has 2x composite inputs you will not have to worry about a switcher.

redrumloa · April 04, 2010, 06:20 AM

Oh man, this is getting good!!!

redrumloa · April 04, 2010, 12:46 PM

I'm getting this device read for the 128T, did the intensity mod.

redrumloa · April 05, 2010, 11:44 AM

Adapter is getting installed in the 128T.

BloodyCactus · April 06, 2010, 12:26 PM

Looks really nice red. Any full pics of your 128T? I thought I read on amiga.org you were selling your 128T?? Thats ogtta be a beast of a tower (you got the super cpu didnt you?)...

redrumloa · April 07, 2010, 02:43 PM

@Bloodycactus

I came close to selling twice in the last ~6 months it due to a couple factors, most recently a rough financial patch. Long story short, I came close but didn't sell in the end. At this point I have taken a week off work and a good part of my R&R is playing with my C= equipment, mainly tinkering with the 128T.

I have the case open right now, so I'll show you a pic from 1 year ago first.

Things have changed as you can tell in this thread. I am now using an S-Video TV exclusively. With one S-Video cable out and one sound cable out, I can switch between 40/80 column on the fly with a switch on the case. Today I have hooked up an 8/9 switch and installed an LED indicator for the primary 1571.

Here is a snapshot of the system in use, in it's current transitional period.

In this picture I am running Tower Toppler, which was loaded from a D64 image on the uIEC.

Yes it has a SuperCPU 128 with 16MB. It also has two internal 1571 drives and an internal uIEC. Everything has JiffyDOS installed. I have some more mods to do this week :-)

airship · April 07, 2010, 03:02 PM

Just curious - if you HAD to sell it, what would you expect to get for it?

I could never afford it, but it's SO close to my 'ideal' C128!

redrumloa · April 07, 2010, 10:58 PM

Quote from: airship on April 07, 2010, 03:02 PM
Just curious - if you HAD to sell it, what would you expect to get for it?

I could never afford it, but it's SO close to my 'ideal' C128!

Well, in a moment of weakness a month or so back I floated a $1,500 price to one specific user. From past offers when I wasn't serious at all about selling, I know $1,500 at least on eBay would be a very quick sale. I'm guess I may be able to get about $2,000, but that is a guess. Hopefully I have no more moments of weakness going forward.

airship · April 08, 2010, 05:14 AM

I hope not either!

'Unique' is a word that is bandied around way too much by those who are ignorant as to what it means. The definition is 'one of a kind', and what you have there is unique.

redrumloa · April 08, 2010, 09:57 AM

@airship

Thanks! She's my baby, I am quite proud

I built off the ideas of the innovators, Al Anger and Vanessa Ezekowitz. Both of whom have been very helpful in the process of this project. Hopefully someone else will get the bug and I can help them, like others have helped me.

Hydrophilic · May 06, 2010, 07:11 PM

I was really anxious to see the video but got message "This video has been removed by the user." when I went to youtube... sigh...

In case you haven't read my other post, redrumloa, let me repeat your C128 Tower is totally awesome!! I might pay $1000 but not $1500... I guess that's why you priced it at $1500: so you would never have to sell it!

DesTerm128 looks really sweet! Your RBG+Intesnity board looks really nice too. There are two different pics; one (21mw4lh.jpg) connected directly to C128 VDC port then to SVideo adapter; second (kafifr.jpg) it looks mounted onto another board... can you explain?

Both Al Anger and Vanessa Ezekowitz sound like really cool folks. Do you have any links?

redrumloa · May 06, 2010, 11:15 PM

Quote from: Hydrophilic on May 06, 2010, 07:11 PM
I was really anxious to see the video but got message "This video has been removed by the user." when I went to youtube... sigh...

I'm sorry, that video was taken with a camcorder and looked awful. It was a CP/M interlace demo and the frequency was out of range for my PC TV card. If you like I can do another interlace video and post to Youtube. I can do one with Desterm128 and record with my TV card.

Quote
In case you haven't read my other post, redrumloa, let me repeat your C128 Tower is totally awesome!!

Thanks! As you have probably noticed, i am quite fond of it myself

Quote
DesTerm128 looks really sweet! Your RBG+Intesnity board looks really nice too. There are two different pics; one (21mw4lh.jpg) connected directly to C128 VDC port then to SVideo adapter; second (kafifr.jpg) it looks mounted onto another board... can you explain?

The first one was when I built the board, I was testing on a spare flat 128. The second picture is when I mounted it inside my 128T. The 128T uses a 128D(CR) motherboard, with the RGB port modified from a right angle connector to a straight connector.

Quote
Both Al Anger and Vanessa Ezekowitz sound like really cool folks. Do you have any links?

Al Anger:
http://alanger.net/

Vanessa Ezekowitz:
http://starbase.globalpc.net/~ezekowitz/vanessa/hobbies/index.html