Amiga 500

[amiga72]

Hello there, I was wondering if someone could tell me how I might go about hooking up my Amiga 500 to a monitor with a VGA port?

 

[Rick Ethridge]

Your A500 outputs to 15 KHz scanning. VGA requires at least 31 KHz. Also the connector which is 23 pin would need to convert to 15 pin. Clearly, you'll need a scan converter. Try looking at Ebay where some are marketed.

 

[KC9UDX]

You can go two routes:

The first is the cheapest: Get an A520 RF modulator (won't be using the RF part) and one of the above mentioned NTSC -> VGA converters.

The second works better: Get a 'flicker fixer'. Very expensive and hard to find, probably. But, they put out a much higher quality signal than the eBay things.

 

[gonk23]

Search eBay and the other Amiga forums for "GBS-8200". Apparently it shows some undesired artifacts, but it's cheap and better quality than an A520. However I haven't actually tried one myself (yet).

 

[Scali]

Your A500 outputs to 15 KHz scanning. VGA requires at least 31 KHz. Also the connector which is 23 pin would need to convert to 15 pin. Clearly, you'll need a scan converter. Try looking at Ebay where some are marketed.

Not necessarily.
There are various VGA monitors that can handle the Amiga's signals.
I have a 23-pin to 15-pin VGA converter plug, with no additional logic inside, which worked with all monitors I tried it on, which were multisync SVGA monitors of course.
So a scan converter ('flickerfixer' or 'scandoubler' in Amiga lingo) is not necessarily required.

 

[KC9UDX]

Either you were very lucky or I was very unlucky. I've tried the same thing dozens of times and never found a VGA (multisync or otherwise) monitor that would sync to 15kHz without modification, unless it was specifically designed to.

Granted, the modification is really easy, but usually prevents the monitor working properly as intended.

 

[Timo W.]

Get an old, cheap LCD TV with SCART input and an Amiga RGB-to-SCART cable. Cheap, easy, and great picture.

I've tried the same thing dozens of times and never found a VGA (multisync or otherwise) monitor that would sync to 15kHz without modification, unless it was specifically designed to.

True, only very few multisync monitors sync at 15 KHz (speaking of CRTs). Most start at 24 Khz. If it's not multisync, 31 KHz is minimum anyway.

LCD/TFTs never sync at 15 Khz, unless they are not monitors but TVs.

 

[Stone]

True, only very few multisync monitors sync at 15 KHz...

Here are the specs for the original NEC MultiSync I (JC-1401P3A).

Synchronization Range

Horizontal: 15.5 kHz to 35 kHz Vertical : 50 Hz to 62Hz

I still have one available in excellent condition.

 

[dhoelzer]

The Indivision scan doubler is a wonderful add-on that you can install directly between your Amiga's motherboard and the Denise chip. I highly recommend them: http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=918

 

[vwestlife]

Get an old, cheap LCD TV with SCART input and an Amiga RGB-to-SCART cable. Cheap, easy, and great picture.

If the OP is in North America, then TVs with a SCART input are very rare here -- about as rare as the aforementioned multisync monitors which support 15 kHz video. (Although I have one of those myself -- a Mitsubishi Diamond Scan AUM-1381A.)

 

[geoffm3]

Yeah, SCART TVs and Multisync monitors that sync down to 15kHz are pretty rare here. Which is why you can pry my Commodore 1080 from my cold, dead hands.

I have often wondered if there are good candidate VGAs for modification out there though. Maybe not to the point where they could do broadcast vs VGA scan rates, but modifiable to fixed 15kHz.