How To Hook Up MiSTer FPGA S-Video & Composite – The cables you need for the new YC cores

I made a video about it which I will embed here however, below that I wanted to give the same information but in written form.

With the advent of the tremendous new S-Video cores from Mike Simone, we can now get native S-Video (and by extension, composite) video from the MiSTer’s analog IO board. The goal of this guide is to help you understand how the cores output S-Video and show you a range of options for how you could hook this up to your TV. At the time of writing the project is still a work in progress, so this information could change over time.

As I explain at the end of the article, when the project is released then Mike will also be releasing designs for a low cost open source dongle which which will handle most of these steps for you.… Read the rest

Tell Him He’s Dreamin’ – CRT Prices in Estonia – 27.04.2022

This is a new series of posts where I show some of the more interesting and more outrageous online CRT sales in Estonia. Where I live it is still possible to get a good deal on a local CRT, but there are more and more dreamers popping up who think that a TV is worth 50, 75 or even 100€. There are a few hardcore retro gamers like myself in Estonia but come on guys, you are not sitting on the next investment, just be happy someone is hauling that thing away for you.

This week I am very happy to say I found no terrible deals! Each CRT I found was a reasonable price, I mean if you think 30€ is reasonable for a dusty AF 14 inch Trinitron.… Read the rest

Tell Him He’s Dreamin’ – CRT Prices in Estonia – 11.04.2022

I decided to start a new segment where I wrap up local CRT offers in Estonia (the country where I live). You can still get some good bargains here but seeing more and more offers having their go at high prices. I keep track of these and I am happy to say the high priced units stay on sale for ages, which tells me the market is not adjusting to these prices.

The segment name is from the classic Australian movie “The Castle”. The Kerrigan family are the Australian patron saints of getting a good deal.

Ok lets look through this weeks deals

Interesting Samsung TV and VHS combo. I have the 14 inch version of this and it’s nothing special beside being a combo unit.… Read the rest

What is the future of RetroRGB? w/ Bob – Zezcast #7

In this episode I talk with Bob about the past, present and future of RetroRGB. I love talking about organisations, leadership and how to grow a community.

We start with what does an average day and week look like for Bob. What work does he do and how does he coordinate the community on a daily basis?

Then we look back at how RetroRGB was ~2 years ago. No doubt the community has grown significantly in that time. More than just moving from New York to the ‘burbs, how has his work changed?

In the final part I ask Bob about the future of RetroRGB and what vision he is trying to move toward?

Retro FOMO & Whacky CRTs w/ Shank Mods – Cathode Ray Podcast #19

In this episode we have the pleasure of chatting with Shank from Shank Mods. You know him from that Hot Wheels PC video, GameCube Joy-cons and creating a portable Wii, among many other great portable modding projects.

Shank Mods on YouTube

Our talk is a really casual chat with Shank about the mods he does, his love of CRTs and more details on 4 Layer Technologies, the company he co-founded to provide components to enable more people to create portable systems

00:00 Start
02:20 The impact of his videos on our fomo
08:30 Shank’s trip to the Computer Reset Warehouse
13:00 More talk about CRTs
27:10 The potential in HD CRTs
34:30 Time Sleuth hijinks
47:00 Buying pro and jank monitors from eBay
55:00 Shank’s love of whacky CRTs: Shrek, Disney, Hot Wheels
1:04:00 Moving from CRTs to flat panels for Melee back in the day
1:14:00 Shank’s home setup
1:25:00 Shank’s PVM 20M2 repairs
1:31:00 His business “4 Layer Technologies” and their portable Wii kit

Which CRT wiki?, repairing a BVM input card, weekly thrifts – Cathode Ray Podcast #18

Head over to the Zez Retro YouTube channel to check out the latest episode of the Cathode Ray Podcast. This week we discuss the BVM cards Steve has been working on. These had some really bad cap leaks and a lot of cleaning was required. We also take a long look at the current state of CRT information on the Internet and the now various wikis which exist

How to get Composite & S-Video from a GBC-Control (with help from Antonio Villena)

In today’s article I will show you how to piece together composite and s-video output from the GBS-Control. I’ll do this by using the “VGA->Composite/S-Video adapter” by Antonio Villena.

Lets start by looking at the adapter by Antonio. It is a small and relatively affordable device to allow s-video and composite from a MiSTer. You plug this into the IO board and you get a small switch for PAL or NTSC output.

The signal coming from the MiSTer is just RGBs, so 1 pin for red, 1 for green, 1 for blue and one for sync. The adapter has some components which do the work of converting RGBs into s-video and composite. To enable this, the adapter also needs 5v on VGA pin 9.… Read the rest

Rebuilding a Sony PVM 1344Q CRT from 1992

One aspect of running a CRT repair shop is having a stock of random parts salvaged from machines that are unrepairable. I have a large “graveyard” of CRT parts from mostly Sony Trinitron PVMs. Recently I traded for a rough Sony PVM 1344Q from 1992. This monitor was filthy and had a number of issues. In short, the PVM needed a replacement bezel, shell, cleaning, and numerous other parts replaced and repaired. The CRT tube was replaced with a new tube in 2001, but it was not installed properly and produced a terrible image. The deflection yoke will need to be reseated and adjusted. You can see a full inspection of this monitor here: Is this Monitor trash?! | The Sony PVM 1344Q CRT Inspection – YouTube

I searched through my “graveyard” of used Sony PVM parts and found a shell, bezel and plenty of other donor parts from a Sony PVM 1342Q that was donated after the tube and mainboards failed beyond repair.… Read the rest

Collecting, color calibrating and repairing CRTs with Dan Mons – Cathode Ray Podcast #14

Today, Steve I released this week’s episode of the Cathode Ray Podcast with Aussie Dan Mons, creator of RetroNAS and man who (probably) has more CRTs than you.

Beside being a Linux wizz who has assembled the amazing new RetroNAS project, Dan has a long history within the movie production and VFX industry. He regails us with stories about CRT color calibration.

The RetroNAS project: https://github.com/danmons/retronas
Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_daemons

RGBHV to RGBs to use the Time Sleuth on a CRT

In my previous blog I showed you how to make a dongle which converts RGBHV to RGBs. We saw that this was very useful for use with a GBS-Control. Due to the system’s off the shelf hardware, it only outputs RGBHV and if you want to use the signal on a regular 15khz CRT, you are going to need RGBs.

There are other uses for this dongle too. Another great use case is paired with a Time Sleuth for testing 480i and 240p on CRTs.

The Time Sleuth was created by Dan “citrus3000psi” and is a monitor lag tester. It generates it’s own test pattern over HDMI. You then plug that into your TV and hold the device up to the screen.… Read the rest

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