I've got a British 1200, but I'm in America. I tried booting it in NTSC mode with an LCD TV through composite (picture was monochrome and too big for the screen) and an old PC monitor through an RGB/VGA adapter (no picture, just some kind of error message or warning about incompatibility from the monitor). What's NTSC mode supposed to do then? Right now I'm using my laptop as a screen for the Amiga via a low-quality USB composite video capture device. I think it'll work for tracking and module-listening, but will probably be too laggy for demos or games. What's the cheapest way for me to get my Amiga working with TVs over here? (Or Atari/Commodore/PC monitors, but preferably TVs). The cheapest thing I've found is the VGA converter on this page.
I tried booting it in NTSC mode with an LCD TV through composite (picture was monochrome and too big for the screen)
Your LCD TV Does not support 50Hz modes and/or PAL, evidently.
and an old PC monitor through an RGB/VGA adapter (no picture, just some kind of error message or warning about incompatibility from the monitor)
Teh amiga tuns at 15Khz in regular modes, which most PC monitors do not accept. You need to get a scandoubler or use the Amiga in a Productivity (30Khz scan rate) mode, which is only limited to Workbench and certain apps.
What's the cheapest way for me to get my Amiga working with TVs over here?
Get an LCD TV that accepts 15Khz on the VGA port. Does your LCD TV have a VGA input? If so, try it.
Awol wrote:What's the cheapest way for me to get my Amiga working with TVs over here?
Get an LCD TV that accepts 15Khz on the VGA port. Does your LCD TV have a VGA input? If so, try it.
The TV that I tried it on wasn't actually mine, and it did not have a VGA input. I do have an LCD TV with a VGA input, but it's broken at the moment (failed resistor on the power supply, should be easy to fix). However, I don't have high hopes for that working with my Amiga. I'll try it after I fix my TV. But if it doesn't work, then buying that VGA converter I linked to in my first post (basically a super cheap scandoubler) will be cheaper and more convenient than buying a new TV.
I don't have high hopes for that working with my Amiga.
You'd be surprised, actually.
Seems like most LCD TVs, since they have to do 15Khz anyway for television, acccept 15Khz inputs on the VGA port too.
(basically a super cheap scandoubler) will be cheaper and more convenient than buying a new TV.
What's the rule usually? cheap is not good.
Those scandoublers are of bad quality and many times they don't even have the necessary bit depth to display all of the A1200 colors. Becareful with them, don't expect them to be superb.
is the easycap thing that you're using? it work semi-great with my atari.
Awol wrote:I don't have high hopes for that working with my Amiga.
You'd be surprised, actually.
Seems like most LCD TVs, since they have to do 15Khz anyway for television, acccept 15Khz inputs on the VGA port too.(basically a super cheap scandoubler) will be cheaper and more convenient than buying a new TV.
What's the rule usually? cheap is not good.
Those scandoublers are of bad quality and many times they don't even have the necessary bit depth to display all of the A1200 colors. Becareful with them, don't expect them to be superb.
Well, I have a little experience with RGB hookup with this so here goes:
Firstly, your TV might accept 15khz but I have yet to run across one in the US where it does. I think the problem is NTSC TVs generally don't have SCART connectors so there is no reason to make the VGA input accept 15khz. It's surprising how often electronics manufacturers don't include seemingly obvious features. Still, no reason not to try it.
As for that adapter which you linked- I have one which uses that same Analog Devices chip (AD724). It works just fine with just about everything, the only time it doesn't in when the RGBS has a slightly odd sync signal which is basically just a few almost-jamma-compatible arcade boards. The color bitrate is just fine, so don't worry about loosing colors. The only issue is that obviously you will loose some image clarity by converting from RGB to composite. S-Video will be quite a bit better.
Last edited by arfink (Sep 19, 2010 12:24 am)
is the easycap thing that you're using? it work semi-great with my atari.
Yup!
As for that adapter which you linked- I have one which uses that same Analog Devices chip (AD724). It works just fine with just about everything, the only time it doesn't in when the RGBS has a slightly odd sync signal which is basically just a few almost-jamma-compatible arcade boards. The color bitrate is just fine, so don't worry about loosing colors. The only issue is that obviously you will loose some image clarity by converting from RGB to composite. S-Video will be quite a bit better.
There's also an RGB>S-Video converter on that page. The guy who sells them recommends getting both and hooking it up like this: RGB>S-video>VGA, so you basically get S-Video quality in NTSC on a VGA port. There are some pics of someone using them both together in this thread on EAB.
I picked up my Amiga while I was in England because it was cheaper than buying one over here, but since I've got to buy video adapters anyway, I'm wondering if it was worth it. 
Last edited by Awol (Sep 19, 2010 12:40 am)
Analog wrote:is the easycap thing that you're using? it work semi-great with my atari.
Yup!
arfink wrote:As for that adapter which you linked- I have one which uses that same Analog Devices chip (AD724). It works just fine with just about everything, the only time it doesn't in when the RGBS has a slightly odd sync signal which is basically just a few almost-jamma-compatible arcade boards. The color bitrate is just fine, so don't worry about loosing colors. The only issue is that obviously you will loose some image clarity by converting from RGB to composite. S-Video will be quite a bit better.
There's also an RGB>S-Video converter on that page. The guy who sells them recommends getting both and hooking it up like this: RGB>S-video>VGA, so you basically get S-Video quality in NTSC on a VGA port. There are some pics of someone using them both together in this thread on EAB.
I picked up my Amiga while I was in England because it was cheaper than buying one over here, but since I've got to buy video adapters anyway, I'm wondering if it was worth it.
I was just gonna suggest that thread as proof that the colors don't drop out. And yeah, RGB to SVIDEO to VGA is pretty good.
you can change to 60 hertz during bootup
by pressing both mousebuttons.
dunno how useful it is though
you can change to 60 hertz during bootup
by pressing both mousebuttons.
dunno how useful it is though
It hasn't done anything useful for me. 
Fixed my TV, but the Amiga won't work on its VGA port. Guess I will need a converter.
The amiga doesn't have a "VGA port", what are you doing? Or you mean the RGB port?
Or if you have an adapter for 23 pin Amiga RGB to VGA, you NEED special modes ON WORKBENCH ONLY (nothing else) for it to work.
Oh by "its VGA port" I meant "the TVs VGA port". Yeah I was using an RGB/VGA adapter on the Amiga.
Yeah I was using an RGB/VGA adapter on the Amiga.
Which will only work in PRODUCTIVITY MODE or, with luck, Euro72.