Any thoughts on this video mod?

[beamrider]

https://www.etsy.com/listing/771296773/ ... mK-thQpoT4

Seems quite good on the face of it, but a little pricey from the UK.

Apparently it replaces the RF circuitry completely.

Anyone on here bought one?

[English Invader]

It looks like an oven-ready version of the S-Video mod for the VIC that's been going around (in various implementations) for several years. Personally, I don't see the point if you have a composite cable and a CRT television; it might produce better results if you're hooking up to a flatscreen (composite is terrible in that arena) but I wouldn't hold my breath.

[beamrider]

but it has some kind of buffer chip..?

He claims it's better than the s-video mod.

[English Invader]

but it has some kind of buffer chip..?

He claims it's better than the s-video mod.

I must confess to not noticing the description first time around but my understanding is that it's still going through S-Video so it's still an S-Video mod. If it were a mod for RGB-SCART I would be a lot more interested because that's something that would make a real difference; it'll either give you a great picture on CRT or a competent one on a flatscreen.

In any case, I wouldn't really class the mod as expensive. £30 is nothing compared to the HDMI mod for the N64 (£200+ if you need to pay someone to install it for you, £125 for the basic kit which is currently sold out through popular demand).

[Richardc64]

... if you're hooking up to a flatscreen (composite is terrible in that arena) but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I don't understand why that should be. My VCR (Yeah, I still have and use one,) output is composite and it has always looked fine on flat screen TVs. I've only recently connected VIC to a flat screen and yeah, it looks terrible.

What makes VIC's composite different?

[English Invader]

What makes VIC's composite different?

It's not just the VIC; it's composite and video games in general and how they interact with a flatscreen. On the surface, it's fine; you see the boot-up screen and you think "Oh, wonderful!" but then when you want to go and play and something like Galaga (dark colours on a black background) you'll find you can hardly see the sprites (jack up the colour and the brightness and it's still the same).

I haven't actually tried the VIC or the C64 on a flatscreen but I've tried plenty of other systems and I've found composite and RF inputs to be a waste of time. My best results have been with RGB Scart and component. I haven't had occasion to try S-Video but I asked a couple of questions about the picture quality in Boray's S-Video thread and he hasn't got back to me.

[eslapion]

but it has some kind of buffer chip..?

He claims it's better than the s-video mod.

Buffer chip ??? I didn't even know such a thing could have any use for video on the C64 or VIC-20.

Jaystonian sold a Clearvideo board for the C64 which is essentially a replacement for the ultra cheap single NPN transitor video amplifier built into these machines (in the RF modul box in the C64 and on the mainboard in the VIC-20).

Yes, it does provide a significant image quality improvement as it uses a good quality video amplifier from TI's THS73xx family.

[beamrider]

Yes, I think it's the same board, but for the Vic!

[girv]

I have one of these now (in the UK) - the instructions say to "...find the Luma & Chroma from the Video Port..." but none of the pinouts I can find have these names. I'm assuming it means pin 2/3 on the VIC chip but I've asked for clarification before I start hacking up my VIC20.

It talks about disconnecting the existing RF circuit from these signals. I'm wondering about just mounting the board in a DIP socket with legs 2 & 3 cut off to avoid any desoldering on the mainboard.

[Mike]

[...] "find the Luma & Chroma from the Video Port..." but none of the pinouts I can find have these names.

That is because NO unmodified VIC-20 has separate Luma/Chroma on Video Out to begin with. There's only Composite, which in turn gets output on pins 4 and 5 on the video port.

The instructions you have refer to the C64 for sure.

Practically all S-Video mods that have been published then go and re-purpose pins 4 and 5 of the VIC-20 video port to provide Luma on pin 4 and Chroma on pin 5. Whatever you then use as video cable, it has to honour this new pin usage: for myself, I use a combination of DIN to Cinch breakout adapter (standard Stereo equipment) and AV cable like you see here:



Yellow carries Luma, Red carries Chroma, and Audio is provided by the White wire. Be careful with the open Blue (or Black) Cinch: its inner conductor carries the +5V supply for the RF modulator - leave it as is, but don't short it by accident.

You have to make sure, that there are no extra resistances in the DIN to Cinch adapter.

Also note, such a modified VIC-20 will not anymore provide a Composite signal, just the B/W Luma signal. There are also adapters available which can recreate the Composite signal from Luma and Chroma, but you shouldn't need those.

[girv]

Thanks, that's sort of what I thought but wasn't sure.

Update: The developer replied. The instructions were to repurpose the video connector on a C64. He suggested connecting an s-video cable directly to the ClearVideo board and leaving the VIC20 unmodified as a solution. I made up cables but, as you can see from the photo, the ClearVideo fouls on the VIC20 RF shielding and can't be fitted as-is I'm also not sure if that tall grey resistor block will knock up against the keyboard when the unit is reassembled.

A stack of two 40-pin DIP sockets on top of the motherboard socket might be enough to clear it, but I only had one and couldn't confirm.

How hard is it to remove the shielding? Looks like it's held in with solder.

Beginning to regret this a bit :/ I probably should have checked the fit before spending the evening assembling cables

[girv]

Update: Great developer support here! He's been caught out by the popularity of this board and is going to redesign it over the next few weeks so it fits in all VICs, and has offered me a refund or one of the new boards when they are ready. I'm in no rush so I've opted to wait for a new board. In the meantime, I might try making a riser, or building another S-Video mod I've seen posted on Denial.

[girv]

Just as a test, while I'm waiting for the new "left handed" board to arrive, I mounted my wrong-handed board on a stack of DIP sockets. I can't close the case when it's like this, but it shows the output quality you can expect. I've only tried composite output before and this is obviously a *lot* better, but I don't know how it compares to other S-Video mods.

You just need to move the VIC chip from the motherboard to the ClearVideo board and connect a suitable cable for this to work, so it's minimally invasive really. I like that