LaserActive RGB Mod

[SuperDeadite]

Was an easy mod, and works great.  Signals must be amped though
This only works for games fully generated by the PACs.
If you play an LD game, you will see the sprites in RGB, but no LD Video will be shown.
You can also feed the RGB into a 32X, so yes 32X will work with an LA by doing this.





Composite:


RGB:

[BlueBMW]

Awesome!  Glad to see that it worked!  I didn't have an amp handy to test it fully.  Unamped it was visible from a sega pac but dim.  From an nec pac it wasn't strong enough to work right.  So yes it must be amped.

[PunkicCyborg]

bravo guys! makes me want one even more....

[kattare]

Nice work with the mod!

I've looked at doing this mod on my Laseractive, but had read elsewhere (and now you've confirmed it) that the LD games don't work through it.  Kinda makes it a moot point doesn't it?  Why keep around a massive Laseractive other than to play the LD games?  ;-)  I keep hoping someone will find a way to snag RGB out of the laserdisc side of the unit and recombine it.

[BlueBMW]

It might be possible to extract the LD video data, separate it back into rgb and then combine them again for rgb out.  From what I understand however, LD video is natively composite so you wouldn't gain anything from having RGB on the LD video.  The only benefit would be that you'd have rgb on the pac graphics overlay.

[SuperDeadite]

Well, it takes up less space then having a MD/MCD and PCE-DUO sitting next to each other. 
The LD games are composite native (live all LD videos), so it's impossible to get RGB without
using some kind of video processor, but it wouldn't look any better then the composite would.

[SignOfZeta]

Yeah, you'd need some extraordinarily high end shit to get a mixed RGB signal, the sort of broadcast-grade thing that costs $10,000 and isn't even being made anymore.

I can see getting a superior s-video from it though with a lot of work. I think the two sides mux their video after a Y/C separation but the chip they used only outputs composite. I suppose that could be improved upon.

[thesteve]

seperating the comp back to RGB and mixing it is simple.
you just need a color decoder chip from an old tv to seperate the colors.
6 resistors to mix it.
an rgb amp to output it and your done.

[kattare]

Well, it takes up less space then having a MD/MCD and PCE-DUO sitting next to each other. 
The LD games are composite native (live all LD videos), so it's impossible to get RGB without
using some kind of video processor, but it wouldn't look any better then the composite would.

That's true.  I hadn't thought of the sega side of things.

seperating the comp back to RGB and mixing it is simple.
you just need a color decoder chip from an old tv to seperate the colors.
6 resistors to mix it.
an rgb amp to output it and your done.

What kind of signal degredation would you see on the LD side of things with the color decoder?  Sounds like it might be a pretty nice mod to do. 

Looks like (if you can find a place to buy it) something like the Motorola TDA3330P would do the trick. PDF: http://www.eetindia.co.in/ARTICLES/2000DEC/2000DEC05_AMD_AN2.PDF?SOURCES=DOWNLOAD

This is pretty tempting: http://www.converters.tv/products/ntsc_to_rgb/43.html  Seems to have lots of easy to access adjustments and would save a lot of build time.

[SignOfZeta]

seperating the comp back to RGB and mixing it is simple.
you just need a color decoder chip from an old tv to seperate the colors.
6 resistors to mix it.
an rgb amp to output it and your done.

Yeah but...what's that going to actually look like?

[thesteve]

the signal degradation of the LD (comp) output should be the same as any television using comp input.
the RGB overlay from the pac should be without degradation

[SignOfZeta]

the signal degradation of the LD (comp) output should be the same as any television using comp

Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. This varies a lot from TV to TV.

[thesteve]

so it depends on how well the vid decoder is tuned.
most of the later sets are great at it.
anything with a picture tube uses the required circuit.

[SignOfZeta]

Yes, but this circuit is effectively being used whenever you plug a stock LA into any TV. For that sort of work to be any kind of upgrade you need something well above average.

[thesteve]

not true
the pac supplied grafx will be superior with the mod and the LD supplied backgrounds are of lower quality as recorded.
so you wont be improving on the quality of the LD playback, only the game supplied portion.