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Upscalers, CRTs, PVMs & RGB: Retro gaming done right!

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Khaz

Member
Scart signal isn't a thing. Scart is just a plug, which can carry Composite, S-Video, and RGB. Putting Composite in a Scart adapter won't magically convert it to a different signal, it just brings your Composite signal to the correct pin on the Scart plug, for your TV to display Composite through Scart.

Do you have a continuity tester? If you have a multimeter you have one. Try to test from the console end of your scart cable to your BNC end. Even better if you can identify the pins.

If you can't do that, you have to assume that the wiring was done wrong, and bruteforce all the different plugging possibilities. I suggest you identify which cable carries the sync by having one plugged to one colour and test each three others on sync. it should get you a monochromatic picture at some point. If none of your cable seem to carry Sync, either the wiring was done horribly wrong or you're having Composite on your Sync (which is fine for TVs but PVM can be finicky).

Obviously I'm assuming your display works fine.
 

Huggers

Member
Thanks Khaz. I don't have a multimeter annoyingly. I will try the other test you suggested now.

It's been suggested that the issue could be that my Scart to BNC cable needing 5 volts from pin 8 (for sync) could be the issue. Does this sound plausible?

The monitor itself is fine and the test channels are all okay
 

Khaz

Member
It's been suggested that the issue could be that my Scart to BNC cable needing 5 volts from pin 8 (for sync) could be the issue. Does this sound plausible?

It shouldn't, pin 8 is to tell the display a signal is being transmitted. It's used by consumer TV to automatically switch on or off when the console is turned on. It was later adapted to carry the aspect ratio information. It's one-way only, the console can't sense a TV and adapt its signals. Even with a damaged pin, you could turn on your TV to the AV channel and have something displayed.

PVM are no consumer TV, you need to turn them on and manually tune in. To display a picture you really just need what you have, the three colour channels and sync. Your Scart to BNC adapter is something really simple, connecting the correct four pins to the BNC ends. No resistor, capacitor or anything fancier, just wires. Actually, your need for +5V from pin8 would be for an integrated sync stripper, as said in the next post.

If you can't find any fault with your cable, I suspect you may need a Sync stripper.
 

baphomet

Member
He has a sync stripper built into the cable. Thus the reason it needs voltage. But any correctly wired mega drive cable should have it.
 

Huggers

Member
Right so I chopped out the sync stripper and got rid of the pin 8, 5 volts and directly wired the yellow component wire together thus eliminating the stripper. Still doesn't work. I'm getting a flowing green image from the Mega Drive that just flicks across the screen.

The cables themselves going into the BNC ports are shit. The blue one is ridiculously tight and i can't be sure it is properly connected. The yellow is way too loose. This whole thing is thoroughly annoying. Kind of out of ideas right now
 

Khaz

Member
He has a sync stripper built into the cable. Thus the reason it needs voltage. But any correctly wired mega drive cable should have it.

Oh, I'm not quite familiar with these Scart to BNC. It does seem logic to fit them with a sync stripper, I just wouldn't expect it in a Chinese one bought off eBay. So there is something fancier in his adapter, please disregard my previous comment lol.

Before trying anything else, have you tried contacting the seller to tell him it doesn't work? he may send you another one or you may just want to be reimbursed. If it's from eBay, tell him you'll have to leave bad feedback, that usually make them move faster.

It's difficult to say without the proper tools. It could be your adapter, or your Scart cable, or the console itself, or even the display.
 

Huggers

Member
So I bought some BNC to phono plugs and attached the Wii component cables directly to the BVM. The good news is I get a colour image. The bad news is I get two of the same image side by side on the screen
 

dofry

That's "Dr." dofry to you.
This might be the correct thread for my question, so here I go:

I am about to buy an Amiga 500 and would like to add a HDD to it to ease the pain of using 3.5" discs. Are there any easy solutions to do this?
 

Huggers

Member
Change it to 480i.

Thanks dude I got there in the end by myself, cheers anyway.

So yeah got the Wii working through component on the Sony BVM. Played some VC games. They look STUNNING. The colours and scanlines are insane.

To get my old consoles (Snes, Mega Drive etc) going I'm assuming I need a new cable as the one I got from Retro Gaming Cables seems to be dodgy.

Edit to add a pic. The Dr in all his glory;

screenshot_2014-12-14d7sro.png
 

MattyH

Member
As the title says im looking for a crt to play my dreamcast and ps2 and possibly gamecube on im leaning towards a 14 inch or would a 21 be better
 

BONKERS

Member
Some updates from hdmyboy - full hd for you DMG-01 game boy: http://kck.st/1vOyM1u
Tomorrow will probably be the first time a DMG-01 ever live streams to the internet. As we will be on the channel of GaminGuys on twitch.tv. Hopefully we can show you the full 1080P60 :)

Here's an off screen recording we did earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz7JZ2fzFb4

The campaign is going ok as we are currently at 33% funded with two more weeks to go. And looking at our figures we think we could make it if we got a bit more coverage in North America and Asia, as currently most of our backers are from Europe.

We are especially having trouble getting on to more gadgety sites like Gizmodo, or Kotaku so if you would have any contacts, that would be great.


I thought Kotaku had covered it though IIRC? I'm pretty sure I saw it there. Maybe i'm wrong.

RetroRGB tweeted about it on his website feed, that's how I found out about it.
http://retrorgb.com/


Personally, i'm thinking the campaign would be potentially more successful if it wasn't just limited to the original DMG. I know I would've chipped in for that, for me that's just a deal breaker. The DMG market is pretty limited as it is, as so many are being bought up and modified in every possible way. And then the prices driven up because of that. (Even Unmodified a bit).

Not to mention not many people retain DMGs for playing in the first place due to its successors and poor quality LCD. Even backlit.


This is just my opinion however. I'm sure you will be sucessful as there is a market for this.

As the title says im looking for a crt to play my dreamcast and ps2 and possibly gamecube on im leaning towards a 14 inch or would a 21 be better

20" is the sweet spot for CRTs IMO
 

SegaShack

Member
As the title says im looking for a crt to play my dreamcast and ps2 and possibly gamecube on im leaning towards a 14 inch or would a 21 be better
Just go to a local Goodwill store and get a Trinitron. Don't go less than 19 inches.

Are you looking for a CRT monitor or just a standard TV?
 
im looking for a really good CRT tv until a pvm pops up local to me

On the consumer side, Sony Wegas from late 90s and early aughts are pretty good and much easier to find than professional monitors. Most have component inputs too so you can settle for that in the absence of RGB.
 

Khaz

Member
The worst part I think is that the weight is completely lopsided, no matter how you hold it it's bound to lose balance and roll forward.
 

BONKERS

Member
T-That's too big...! Space constraints these days :(

Not to mention you'd have to really site far away or the set would have to have very high line resolution.

And they weigh a ton. I have a 27" and that I feel is too big even for a CRT. Not to mention I constantly fear of it falling down and taking the whole 10 foot wall-unit with it haha

It weighs like 200lbs I think

Picture>
 
Not to mention you'd have to really site far away or the set would have to have very high line resolution.

And they weigh a ton. I have a 27" and that I feel is too big even for a CRT. Not to mention I constantly fear of it falling down and taking the whole 10 foot wall-unit with it haha

It weighs like 200lbs I think

Picture>

To be HONEST... I mean really... I thought the Sony PVM 20-L5, or 20 inches in general would not be sufficient but man it's actually a lot bigger than I thought. 14 is without a doubt meh, but it's like all I have to look forward to to get an upgrade is a Nec XM29, or 37 (I forget). I'll never find those, and although bigger is better 20 is just fine. Though I wish I had huge nec sometimes because I have a few locals visit me once a month and we run retro games.

How far away do you have to sit anyway? I used to have a 27" sony trinitron but I never really sat that far away from it, maybe about less than or close to one meter away.
 

Khaz

Member
My 4/3 display is 52cm (20") and sits on my desk where I play it. I wouldn't mind having one a tad larger (66cm 26" would be nice) so that I could sit further away from the pixels. Right now I'm sitting 1m away from it to play my games, where I think is the perfect distance. In comparison I sit 2m away from a widescreen of 26" (making it the same height as the 4/3) that I keep for DVDs and the Wii/Xbox/PS2, and I do find it too small. That widescreen needs to be replaced by a 32" with component. If I had to get a 4/3 for the living room, I'd choose a a 29".

If I had a 14" display I'd have to stick my nose 30cm away from it lol, it's just ridiculously tiny.
 

Gunsmithx

Member
Ok, I finally decide to get a that banbridge 5 way switch and it seems I can't find it on ebay anymore, anyone got a place to buy them that ships to the US? Thanks for any help you guys can give.
 

Peltz

Member
Ok, I finally decide to get a that banbridge 5 way switch and it seems I can't find it on ebay anymore, anyone got a place to buy them that ships to the US? Thanks for any help you guys can give.

I think you'll have to import it. I imported it from Amazon.uk to the states.

I'm less than thrilled with the quality of the device and don't even use it now. I manually switch wires as I switch consoles at this point.
 
Ok, I finally decide to get a that banbridge 5 way switch and it seems I can't find it on ebay anymore, anyone got a place to buy them that ships to the US? Thanks for any help you guys can give.

Might have better luck searching Bandridge instead of Banbridge because that's what it's called.
 

StevieWhite

Member
Guys, I am thinking about getting another upscaler. I already have a Framemeister - should I double down, or are there other alternatives that might be a good compliment to it?
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Guys, I am thinking about getting another upscaler. I already have a Framemeister - should I double down, are there other alternatives that might be a good compliment to it?

Maybe an XRGB-3 so you can do VGA? Good for Dreamcast
 
I think you'll have to import it. I imported it from Amazon.uk to the states.

I'm less than thrilled with the quality of the device and don't even use it now. I manually switch wires as I switch consoles at this point.

Maybe you got a defective unit to be that unimpressed? I bought a 5 way that replicates the audio/video quality of a lone scart pretty much, but decided to move onto the automatic version of it. Much more convenient but it seems to dim my games, but it's something I can fix with a few brightness notches up.
 
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