| Posted By
Richard42
on 2012-05-21
21:04:11
|  PAL/NTSC switch
This weekend I hacked my Plus/4 to easily switch between PAL and NTSC modes. It works great. I wrote up a description of the mod with pictures here:
http://www.fascinationsoftware.com/FS/html/Plus4-videoswitch.html
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Posted By
RobertB
on 2012-05-22
04:05:17
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
Thanks for the detailed instructions and photos!
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org
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Posted By
MIK
on 2012-05-22
06:40:31
 | Re: PAL/NTSC switch
Wow very clever stuff! 
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2012-05-22
07:55:15
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
It was a fascinating read. It always amazes me how much I don't know. Crystal? Oscilloscope? 22pf capacitor?... Khm, right  ("My dremel skills are lacking", that was funny. It wasn't that bad.)
So, once it was all said and done, were there any particular pieces of software you used to test it?
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Posted By
Richard42
on 2012-05-22
11:08:46
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
I have a couple of tape games (Powerball and Speed King) which require PAL, so I used these for testing.
Another tricky thing is converting the CVBS or SVideo signal to VGA. I have several cheap ($40-50) converters which can take both PAL and NTSC. One of them won't sync to the video output of the plus/4 at all (because it's really not that close to spec when you look at it with a scope), and the other one has a lot of noise. I just ordered a more expensive converter (startech.com VID2VGATV2). Hopefully that one will give a better picture. The best picture that I have seen comes from hooking it up to a regular old CRT TV, but of course (in the US) mine won't take PAL, and I don't have room for more big heavy CRTs.
I've also ordered some 27C256 EPROMs, and I'm going to re-do the kernel ROM hack to use the single chip, so that my case will close without bending the PC board.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2012-05-22
15:26:22
 | Re: PAL/NTSC switch
Hi Richard,
If you look around a little, you may easily find LCD monitors with CVBS and SVideo inputs on the side.
In fact,in Hungary you can buy a used for 100 bucks with premium picture.
I am damn sure, that it is even cheaper abroad.
One personal hint from me, HP L2035, "Made in Hungary" version,
It is TFT (not fast TN or brilliant IPS, but super picture quality, good angle view and lot of inputs)
http://www.marseus.hu/index.php?page=products&id=267961
http://www.productreview.com.au/p/hp-l2035.html#details
http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitors/hp-l2035/4505-3174_7-30632279.html
I am damn sure, that it is a good quality monitor, as we produced it in our factory for one year, and HP was very happy with our quality. I was the quality project leader of that product, let it to be released only with zero bugs in design (sent back to project team 3 times; I was really hated, haha)... My team had weekly reporting and alignment with HP USA team, every single defect is deply analysed and solved.
In fact, when monitor production stopped in our factory, HP requested to produce the complete model lifecycle volume instead of going back to China again, so in the last one month we produced only HP 20" premium monitors with the continuous supervision of HP residents, no claims at all.
I can say it is one of the best monitors ever made in the Hungarian Philips factory, and we produced millions to be exact. (in fact I do not work there since years, but very proud of results on HP monitors, like B&O, LOEWE products too  )
BTW: no dead pixels, even dead subpixels were taken out (HP guys were shocked to see what we rejected on the production lines, they could not find anything with those "bad" ones even with magnifier glass).
With this one you may get brilliant and big Plussy picture via CVBS, pivoting, and set anything you want.
Certainly an older one, and little slow for movies, or fast FPS gaming (it is TFT), but I use a similar 19" Philips one since 6 years, and still very happy with that.
Just to be sure, you get a "Made in Hungary" one, the "Made in China" ones were recalled from the market due to a potential electric shock issue. Certainly not the case with our ones, we had a very "picky" HV engineer.
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Posted By
RobertB
on 2012-05-23
03:35:58
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
Would the HP L2035 be able to handle both NTSC and PAL composite signals?
Truly,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
The Other Group of Amigoids
http://www.calweb.com/~rabel1/
Southern California Commodore & Amiga Network
http://www.sccaners.org
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Posted By
MMS
on 2012-05-23
11:50:30
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
It should handle all, as we produced one model for the world, and it has multi PSU, input range: 90-265V.
We directly shipped it to USA, but hard to remember now the tests done.
BTW, it was ~8 years ago. I though it was only 5 or 6...
But it is true, PAL/NTSC not exactly meantioned anywhere in the spec:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11869_ca/11869_ca.HTML
http://www.superwarehouse.com/HP_L2035_Silver_20_LCD_Monitor/P9614AABA/p/384846
IFU also does not mention it, and even in OSD structure there is no possiblility to adjust it:
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00090887/c00090887.pdf
I found a forum, where a guy told it is one of the best ones:
http://www.commodore128.org/index.php?topic=3877.50
RCTech: "Information: The HP L2035 is a geat monitor, ideal for retro computing. It has DVI-I, VGA, S-Video and CVBS-Video including PIP function. It allows to use the digital and analog video signal of the DVI-I input seperately using a splitter, so this thing has 5 video inputs! The Video and S-Video inputs have a good quality, better than external Video->VGA converters. But because this thing is 20", every VIC pixel is a huge block  "
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Posted By
MMS
on 2012-05-23
11:51:02
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
It should handle all, as we produced one model for the world, and it has multi PSU, input range: 90-265V.
We directly shipped it to USA, but hard to remember now the tests done.
BTW, it was ~8 years ago. I though it was only 5 or 6...
But it is true, PAL/NTSC not exactly meantioned anywhere in the spec:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11869_ca/11869_ca.HTML
http://www.superwarehouse.com/HP_L2035_Silver_20_LCD_Monitor/P9614AABA/p/384846
IFU also does not mention it, and even in OSD structure there is no possiblility to adjust it:
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00090887/c00090887.pdf
I found a forum, where a guy told it is one of the best ones:
http://www.commodore128.org/index.php?topic=3877.50
RCTech: "Information: The HP L2035 is a geat monitor, ideal for retro computing. It has DVI-I, VGA, S-Video and CVBS-Video including PIP function. It allows to use the digital and analog video signal of the DVI-I input seperately using a splitter, so this thing has 5 video inputs! The Video and S-Video inputs have a good quality, better than external Video->VGA converters. But because this thing is 20", every VIC pixel is a huge block "
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Posted By
Richard42
on 2012-05-25
10:12:59
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
I wish I had know about the LP2035 a few weeks ago. I'm pretty sure that we had one at my previous place of employment. I didn't realize that it had TV inputs as well. I do have an LCD Monitor/TV (I think it's panasonic) that a friend gave me. The video quality on the CVBS/svideo inputs are better than with my $40 converter, but still not nearly as good as my CRT.
Last night I re-did the kernel ROM part of my switch mod to use a single 32k EPROM instead of the stacked 16k chips. It works perfectly and the case closes easily now. I'll update my web page this weekend.
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Posted By
RobertB
on 2012-06-02
21:57:16
| Re: PAL/NTSC switch
Thanks again, Richard, for the info.
No more students until August,
Robert Bernardo
Fresno Commodore User Group
http://videocam.net.au/fcug
July 28-29 Commodore Vegas Expo v8 -
http://www.portcommodore.com/commvex
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