Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

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deezdrama
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Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by deezdrama »

So over the past 5+ years ive tried out several rgb to ypbpr transcoders with mixed results.

Many years back when I had my groovymame crtemudriver emulation PC setup I tried many of the cheap chinese transcoders and never could get one to work. I dont know if its because they expect a composite sync instead of on H or what but they were a waste of money.

I heard great things about the Audio Authority 9A60 transcoders but even back then were next to impossible to find! I imported one from an arcade site in Turkey for almost $100!

So when I ran into another a few years later on ebay for $35 I jumped on it even though I didnt need it..... Just for backup.

Good that I did because the one I use has been giving me problems and needs solder reflowed, new rca connectors, and the 3 caps swapped out.
So I hooked up my spare and it vertically rolls so needs some attention more than the first one.


These issues plus the fact a buddy wanted a similar solution had me looking for any new possibilities that were being produced today.

I stumbled across these on aliexpress, I expected them not to work but figured for $20 shipped it was worth a shot.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMYcddI

They only require 5v via usb-c instead of 12v like the audio authorities.

I connected it and couldnt get it to sync at all

After fooln around w it for a while I found it would sync and post an image with the Y cable connected to Pb on the aliexpress transcoder. It didnt take long to figure out I got a perfect image with Pr cable on Y, and Pb on Pr of transcoder..... So thats funky and unintuitive but this thing syncs fine and is nearly indistinguishable from the needle in haystack 9A60 audio authorities!

What else is nice is the R G B pots on top that you can dial in rgb levels if your crt isnt calibrated for whatever reason.... This gives you a little play to adjust/correct your image colors.

The 5v usb power port is a little loose but as long as you arent moving it around its fine.

It supports scart and vga for rgb inputs.


What would these be used for?

If you have a crtemudriver emulation pc setup to output 15kHz to a crt via RGBs on vga and want to use a consumer crt that has component inputs.

Or

Like me.... Outputting RGBs from your mister fpga and going out to an extron and multiple PVM/BVM's and want to throw a component consumer set in the mix.

Might be helpful for running a component consumer tube in an arcade cab too idk.


I just know for years it was near impossible to find a good solution so figured id share this.

Comparison pics here that I posted on reddit...

https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/comm ... are_button


++++EDIT++++
video added...
https://youtu.be/JypoLDJY91s
Last edited by deezdrama on Thu Nov 24, 2022 5:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
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NoAffinity
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by NoAffinity »

Thanks for this! I have a green antz transcoder serving the purpose at the moment, but feel like I need a backup. At $22 shipped, I'm game.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
deezdrama
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by deezdrama »

NoAffinity wrote:Thanks for this! I have a green antz transcoder serving the purpose at the moment, but feel like I need a backup. At $22 shipped, I'm game.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
yeah, I expected a sub par device or one that didnt work....was pleasantly surprised. Worth the price I think.
Sirotaca
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by Sirotaca »

Would you be willing to open it and post pictures of the internals? I'm just curious if it uses the BA7230LS like some of the other AliExpress ones. It should be immediately obvious if it does, because it uses the rare SZIP-24 package.

The reason I ask is I built one using a BA7230LS recently but was a bit disappointed by its performance. Don't get me wrong, it's good enough for 240p/480i on a consumer CRT. But when going through my OSSC I noticed a slight chroma shift, and it fails the checkerboard test rather miserably at 480p, basically just smearing it into a solid gray screen. I've got some revised prototype boards on the way based on the application note in the LT6550 datasheet; it'll be interesting to see if it performs any better.
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NoAffinity
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by NoAffinity »

deezdrama wrote:
NoAffinity wrote:Thanks for this! I have a green antz transcoder serving the purpose at the moment, but feel like I need a backup. At $22 shipped, I'm game.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
yeah, I expected a sub par device or one that didnt work....was pleasantly surprised. Worth the price I think.
Aside from the obvious mis-labeling of the inputs. :D

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
deezdrama
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by deezdrama »

NoAffinity wrote:
deezdrama wrote:
NoAffinity wrote:Thanks for this! I have a green antz transcoder serving the purpose at the moment, but feel like I need a backup. At $22 shipped, I'm game.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
yeah, I expected a sub par device or one that didnt work....was pleasantly surprised. Worth the price I think.
Aside from the obvious mis-labeling of the inputs. :D

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
yeah they are labeled wrong but at least the color of the ports are right I guess lol
deezdrama
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by deezdrama »

Did a little unboxing/comparison/review vid

https://youtu.be/JypoLDJY91s
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NoAffinity
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by NoAffinity »

"Daisy chaining of confusion" lol. Boy dont I know that feeling. Nice video!

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Josh128
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by Josh128 »

Well, thanks a lot for making me make an impulse purchase of something I dont really need. :mrgreen:

Seriously though, I like the fact that it has the D-sub 15 and SCART inputs, thats quite nice.
deezdrama
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by deezdrama »

Josh128 wrote:Well, thanks a lot for making me make an impulse purchase of something I dont really need. :mrgreen:

Seriously though, I like the fact that it has the D-sub 15 and SCART inputs, thats quite nice.
For $20 it cant be bad lol.

Hey if you or anyone else happens to test vga rgbhv with it could you let me know how it works?

Im wondering if it can take rgbhv from a setup like crt-emudriver and be able to seperate sync and transcode to ypbpr 15kHz. Im sure it can just like the 9a60 but didnt test that.
robinmasters
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by robinmasters »

Hi,
Do you know of a box doing the opposite?

Ypbpr to Vga?
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Josh128
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by Josh128 »

robinmasters wrote:Hi,
Do you know of a box doing the opposite?

Ypbpr to Vga?
GBS-Control
robinmasters
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by robinmasters »

Josh128 wrote:
robinmasters wrote:Hi,
Do you know of a box doing the opposite?

Ypbpr to Vga?
GBS-Control
Thanks, I should have mentioned "apart the gbs control"
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Josh128
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by Josh128 »

Show some love to Mike Chi, COMP2RGB.

https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/comp2rgb
robinmasters
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by robinmasters »

I already have it :-)
But unfortunately it only gives rgbs on scart, not vga.
jd213
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by jd213 »

There's the Crescendo RTC2200, but haven't seen any on ebay lately so dunno how hard they are to find nowadays.
robinmasters
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by robinmasters »

Found this on ali
€ 28,80 33%de réduction | YUV à RGBS YPBPR à SCART YPBPR à VGA, convertisseur de composants de Console de jeu, RGBS à composant de différence de couleur
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EyewqwP
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WrenlyBewick
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by WrenlyBewick »

How does this product compare to the JamCoder? I just obtained a Sony Trinitron KV-27FV310 that has not been RGB modded, and I consider it too precious a TV to even try!
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NoAffinity
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by NoAffinity »

Got mine a couple days ago, finally tested it last night. Looks great! I havent failed collrs in yet and they're a little dull out of the box, but expect that'll go away.

Interestingly I swapped out my green antz and plugged this transcoder in its place, and there was a noticeable amount of noise in the image. I replaced the usb c power cable with the one that came with this ali unit, and the noise cleared up. One usb c cable plugged into a surge protector usb port vs a different usb c cable plugged into a surge protector usb port. :shrug: the first usb c cable I've been using with the green antz and gets use daily, with no noticeable noise or issues.

So far, only tested with scart input and stripped csync (sega Saturn stripped luma that is).

A great value for less than $30 shipped imho.

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NoAffinity
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by NoAffinity »

Did some more testing, all works well.

SNES jr. w/ dejitter mod (csync)
Sega genesis/cd/32x model 2 (triple bypass, csync)
xbox 360 downscaled via gbs control (rgbhv)

Got the colors dialled in too, looks really good.

I like that it auto detects the sync type. The green antz requires manual switching between csync and h/v sync.

The only minor imperfection is a blueish vertical band/overlay on the left edge of the image that is maybe 6-8 pixels wide. It is a blueish tint on that portion of the image. It is not noticeable on all screens and I havent tried tuning down blue to see if that gets rid of it without impacting color balance. Again, it's pretty minor.

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BazookaBen
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Re: Finally a cheap $20 RGBs to YPbPr transcoder that works!

Post by BazookaBen »

robinmasters wrote:I already have it :-)
But unfortunately it only gives rgbs on scart, not vga.
So get/make a SCART>VGA cable.
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