Re: Has anyone tried a SCART to HDMI converter with their GS?

[MdntTrain <js@cimmeri.com>]

On Aug 15, 10:59 pm, Herbert Fung <lemonhe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've been wondering about possible alternate video outputs for the GS.
> Some threads I've read seem to indicate that SCART monitor is ideally
> suited to display native GS video, but those are hard to come by in
> North America.
>
> I've also been noticing that many new monitors have HDMI inputs, so I
> wondered if any SCART to HDMI converters would work.
>
> Has anyone tried this yet?

A 15khz true analog RGB monitor is ideally suited for the IIgs, but
almost all of them are very old and will likely need some kind of
restoration (as I have done).  The 2nd best seem to be SCART monitors
because they have a 15khz RGB input via their SCART connector... and
with the right cable, you can connect the IIgs directly to such
monitors.  I have a Samsung 19" LCD with SCART that I bought here in
the USA, and which works very well direct to the GS in all of its
modes.

Sampling problems crop up when the IIGS signal is converted from
analog to digital.  This has already been discussed extensively in
previous threads on the IIgs and VGA video.

However, even in purely analog, I found that connecting the IIgs to a
high resolution monitor via its high bandwidth Component inputs, via
an analog YPbPr converter, at 480i, resulted in very poor display (or
very good, depending on how you consider it) in the IIgs' dithered
modes, namely the 640x240 mode... because every single line was
perfectly visible.  While accurate, this is not what the IIgs is
counting on.  The IIgs is counting on a limited bandwidth monitor
(instead of high bandwidth) in order to affect dithering of two colors
to produce a new one.  Without this dithering, you get a screen that
is highly unpleasant to look at, and even though in 480i mode, my
monitor did not apply any special bandwidth limiting to that mode.

Because HDMI is typically a high resolution digital input, even with
its 480I and 480P specification, and if you had a SCART RGB -> HDMI
converter, I predict the too-high-abandwidth problem will likely crop
up again -- as well now a sampling rate problem -- UNLESS the SCART
RGB-> HDMI converter applies some sort of bandwidth filtering to
closely replicate the limitations of an analog RGB monitor.  This
filtering is typically not mentioned in the specs, so its trial and
error to find out how any given converter will behave.

One device that does (or did) do proper filtering is the Highway 100
SCART->VGA converter.  Despite being digital and going to a high
bandwidth format, the box limits the bandwidth correctly to where the
IIgs super hi-res mode is displayed nicely on VGA.

- John Singleton