Author Topic: Composite Video to HDMI Converters  (Read 245 times)

Marll

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Composite Video to HDMI Converters
« on: December 23, 2009, 12:09:15 PM »
Does anyone know if these work very well? Having an HDTV, Turbo games just don't seem to live up to their former glory when it comes to color and clarity.

It seems like from the information that I have read that these converters are able to upscale the video a bit, improve the color and the overall look of the pixels, and then if you put the TV into 4:3 mode it should look very similar to what the games would look like on an SDTV.

http://www.hdtvsupply.com/composite-video-to-hdmi-scaler.html

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jperryss

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Re: Composite Video to HDMI Converters
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2009, 01:21:19 PM »
The HDTV normally has to scale the image to it's native resolution. It looks like this thing does it so the TV doesn't have to. What we don't know is if this thing does a better job than your TV's scaler.

Personally I would take that $100 to Craigslist and grab a nice flat-screen CRT. Your TG is worth it.  :mrgreen:

Trust me, I know it absolutely sucks how crappy those old systems look on a big TV. We're upgrading our living room TV soon and I was dying to move the current 46" DLP into 'the game room' but I won't because the picture sucks. My current game TV is a 27" Phillips CRT that I picked up in the late 90s, but I'd like to upgrade it to a 30-32" Trinitron or something similar.
« Last Edit: December 23, 2009, 01:27:31 PM by jperryss »

SignOfZeta

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Re: Composite Video to HDMI Converters
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2009, 07:41:32 PM »
While we won't know until someone actually bites the bullet and buys one of these things, I suspect it will actually be a downgrade from what you get with most TVs.

Getting a good picture from something composite on a LCD is really hard, but the best way to start is with the RGB signal if you can. The TG/PCE already muxes a RGB signal into a composite one, then this thing is going to digitally convert it back to RGB internally in order to display the picture. That's a lot of conversion for nothing.

Someone pointed out an eBay RGB to component converter that was cheaper and almost certainly yields better results. You'll need an RGB mod first though, of course. He seemed to really like it.

Speaking of this problem, I wonder what the laserdisc people are doing? LD is natively composite, after all, and still has plenty of irrational hardcore enthusiasts. What are they doing?

MotherGunner

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Re: Composite Video to HDMI Converters
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2009, 08:07:52 AM »
My 42 LCD looks great with my PC Engine Duo-R but then again I am only using S-Video.  I also run it on a nice CRT so yea, good advice on getting the CRT instead.
-MG

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Marll

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Re: Composite Video to HDMI Converters
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2009, 09:16:07 AM »
I'd gladly get a CRT (or actually I used to have an older Commodore monitor that worked amazing with the Turbo) but currently I have nowhere to put one. I'd gladly pay money for something as long as I knew that it would make the picture quality better on an LCD.
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King_Vidiot

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Re: Composite Video to HDMI Converters
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2010, 04:38:17 PM »
I've been looking for ways to upgrade my sega genesis/CD system from composite cables to something better for my CRT or LCD. 

The two best options (apart from an s-video mod) seem to be getting a SCART cable (genesis plug on one end, scart on the other) and then running that through a SCART to Composite adapter (for the CRT) or SCART to HDMI adapter (for the LCD). 

Apparently this works really well for the picture quality for genesis/sega CD. 

Since the turbo duo has the same type of plug as the model 1 genesis, couldn't it do the same thing?  Does anyone know if the turbo and genesis convert the same internally?