I am currently using the common CGA/EGA/RGB/YUV to VGA converter board to display the video output from my Amgia 500 to a modern LCD. The output quality is OK, but nothing to write home about. It works well enough for games, but not as well when running Workbench.

I wanted to try using OSSC and an Amiga RGB to SCART cable and determine if there was a reasonable difference in quality. At first, the OSSC was having technical issues trying to lock onto the 15KHz signal from the Amiga. I did a bit of digging and I discovered that I needed to upgrade the unit. I had a 1.6 OSSC unit and I needed to upgrade it to 1.8. These are hardware revisions and not firmware versions. Usually, you cannot simply upgrade a piece of hardware to a new version. Luckily, in this instance, it can be done by implementing a couple of small hardware modifications. Be forewarned, it involves soldering really small details, like removing a resistor which is a little larger than 1mm in size and soldering a thin wire to the pin of a micro-controller, which is less than 1mm in width.

Once that is done, you need to set TX mode for the OSSC to DVI; it is set to HDMI by default.

I then needed to upgrade my firmware version, which must be accessed using the remote control for the unit and is not accessible via the two buttons on the unit. The process is quick and straight forward, just follow the instructions on the wiki. I used the latest version at the time, which was 1.12.

The result was a video signal that was better than the one I am getting from the signal conversion boards. I cannot upgrade my setup right now as I need to purchase another Amiga RGB to SCART cable and another OSSC, since my setup also includes and Amiga 1000. I would also need to get a DVI switch box since that is the best video input supported by the monitor I am using.

Categories: Amiga
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