amiga 500 to tv

[eddiendvicky]

hi could any 1 tell me if you can connect an amiga 500 to a tv without using the modulator thank you, happy vintage gaming

 

[ahm]

hi could any 1 tell me if you can connect an amiga 500 to a tv without using the modulator

Amiga 500 appears to only provide RGB video out and composite video out, so you'd need an appropriate monitor or an RF modulator.

 

[linuxlove]

Also, the composite video out on an Amiga 500 only produces a monochrome picture.

 

[carlsson]

Fortunately, Gateshead suggests the United Kingdom which would mean PAL, SCART-land. In that area, it is much easier to find a regular TV that takes 50 Hz, 15.625 kHz RGB input as the Amiga outputs. You just need a special SCART cable, which can be found on eBay and other marketplaces. However bear in mind the build quality of the cable can affect picture quality. I have a SCART cable to one of my Amiga 1200's, and the image quality is only slightly better than composite video through RF modulator. It might depend on which TV it is connected to, but other (slightly lower resolution) SCART enabled computers like MSX2 produces much better image on the same small 14" CRT TV.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Do you suppose the poor results in RGB are due to the inherent bandpass of the TV? If it's the cable, perhaps a series peaking coil could improve things.

 

[DonutKing]

What other options are available? I have an EGA monitor with the 9-pin dsub connector, is it possible to hook this up to the Amiga?

 

[carlsson]

Chuck: I am not sure. I have a couple higher resolution Sony monitors which take SCART RGB. I might try to plug in an Amiga on that display and see if the picture quality is any sharper. For reference, using a 23-to-9 cable on a 1084 gives a much sharper picture than SCART on a 14" TV. Then again, there is a reason why people want dedicated computer monitors even if they visually resemble a TV.

Regarding EGA monitor, does it accept analog (0.7Vpp) signals? I'm not sure about the horizontal and vertical sync frequencies for EGA.

 

[dabone]

Amiga is 15k, analog RGB, Ega is 15k and 24?k RGBI, so in theory it should work like a cga monitor, but look terrible because it would only show 8 colors.
There are plenty of UK amiga users over at amibay.com that would be able to tell you how to make a scart cable for your 500, this should give comparable video quality to the 1084 because it's the same signal. Alot of uk people are even using older 4:3 lcd tvs that have scart input.

Later,
dabone

 

[RetroHacker_]

Amiga is 15k, analog RGB, Ega is 15k and 24?k RGBI, so in theory it should work like a cga monitor, but look terrible because it would only show 8 colors.

Yeah, an EGA monitor wouldn't work, but CGA is the right frequency. As for the 8 colors, a long time ago I modified an IBM CGA monitor to be an analog monitor - bypassing the video input circuit on the board and driving the video amplifiers directly.

-Ian

 

[carlsson]

With respect of getting slightly off-topic, I wonder if the Microvitec CUBs (mostly seen in the UK) consist of a such internal modification, as I have a faint memory of having read they can be used both with BBC Micro (TTL RGB) and other systems using analog RGB. Or perhaps the reference I read about was someone who had modified it in the same way RetroHacker mentions.

 

[mikerm]

I thought about playing around with this puppy: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=50&products_id=918

Would be kinda cool to have an A500 on an LCD

 

[dabone]

I have one, it's really easy to install. No drivers, remove a chip from a socket, plug it in the socket, then place the chip in the socket in the board. Plug in your monitor and enjoy.

Later,
dabone

 

[nige the hippy]

There's an A320 Modulator on ebay at the moment.

I ran an old TV chassis (actually a really nice Sony trinitron portable) I found in a skip, straight off my amiga using a 23 way D and driving the video & sync inputs directly. I've just googled for the pinout of the video connector it's at http://pinouts.ru/Video/AmigaVideo_pinout.shtml
I would imagine it could drive a modern VGA monitor or TV with VGA input, directly from the 75 ohm analogue video outputs & separate H & V syncs. TVs seem to accept a fairly wide range of input frequencies/sync polarities.
I originally modified a 25 way D with a hacksaw, but I have some 23 Ds (somewhere!) and it is still possible to buy them.

 

[linuxlove]

I would imagine it could drive a modern VGA monitor or TV with VGA input, directly from the 75 ohm analogue video outputs & separate H & V syncs. TVs seem to accept a fairly wide range of input frequencies/sync polarities.
I originally modified a 25 way D with a hacksaw, but I have some 23 Ds (somewhere!) and it is still possible to buy them.

I've tried building a cable to go from Amiga RGB to VGA, and it didn't work. When I was looking for info and pinouts on the Amiga RGB connector, I did read that it output its signal at 15kHz, so no wonder it didn't work.
Great minds think alike? I cut up a DB-25 connector just yesterday to build this cable

 

[mikerm]

You can do RGB to VGA if you find a VGA monitor that can sync at 15mhz, they are just really hard to find.