Ok, here is the deal. I don't need this thing. Between the cap card in my main pc, my iScan units, and if I get extremely desperate, my Toshiba LCD, I am fine on Pal support. My Toshiba will display Pal in color, it just crops some of the image and stretches it some, not great quality. My iScan on my HP monitor, and cap card on my main pc handles Pal much better then my Toshiba does. But honestly I only have one thing that uses Pal, and I don't really play it, so I just don't need this at all.
This unit was sold under the Emerson badge also at about $300 retail when released, but with slightly different power features. The Emerson one lacked a fuse holder and a switch to swap between North American and European current, and used an external 15 volt power brick. This one has the power supply built in, the NA/EU 110/220 power switch, and a easy access fuse holder, so this one is considered superior to the Emerson rebadge, and retailed for a tad more when you could find it.
This box can convert Pal/SECAM to NTSC or convert NTSC to PAL. There are switches on the back to adjust it the way you want. Internally this thing is driven mainly by chips made by Sony. Its not like those tiny laggy digital boxes with no name chips.
The thing is with this unit it does not do any comb filtering. It is made simply to convert the composite video signal, not clean it up. If your TV has a shit comb filter this will not help your picture noise situation. Any picture clean up with still depend on your tv's DNR features/settings.
I cant locate the info anymore, but years back when I got this I had come across a post of someone modding this to accept and output s-video also. I don't recall how extensive the mod was though, or what all parts were required. This was quite a few years back.
Visually if you like older entertainment center type equipment, the large metal box stuff with wood panels on the side and gold colored feet, this is something you would probably dig. It's large, metal with side panels and gold feet, heavy, and looks nice on a shelf.
Anyway, basic specs are:
Built-in switchable power supply for both 110V and 220V AC systems
Converts any NTSC, PAL B/D/G/I or SECAM video inputs to NTSC or PAL B/D/G/I video outputs
Professional, full digital processing
Line conversion 525 to 625 lines
Built-in time base correction function for signal synchronization
I took pics so you could see the unit and also see it running. As you can see it displays Pal stuff at the correct 4:3 aspect ratio on my LCD. No cropping issue in the image like what would happen if I just let my Toshiba handle the conversion.
So anyway, if anyone would be interested in it, I would be willing to do a trade or maybe sell the thing. Trade wise just typical stuff, Nes, Snes/SFC, TG/PCE. Money wise I am not sure on a price. If someone was really interested they could make a cash offer and let me think it over.
Topic: Interest check 1999 Sony driven Pal/SECAM to NTSC composite video converter (Read 227 times)