Help in getting going

[whoisdoupe]

Hi there,

desperately looking for any help out there in getting my original bread bin working.

 

have the power supply (working) and what I think is the correct leads to get me from video output via RGB into a converter for HDMI...just faced with a blue screen (think that could be the default on the projector though).

 

Nothing seems to have any impact: powering up unit etc.

 

Any help would be amazing. Photo included below.

 

Thanks guys

[eightbit]

Umm, what is up with the SCART breakout for A/V? The C64 does not have RGB for one. It only has composite and chroma/luma output (or S-Video). I would suspect those composite and audio leads are feeding the relative pins on the SCART connection...so you are connecting to nothing. Why aren't you using a normal composite or S-Video DIN cable with this? Like this:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Commodore-C64-C128-High-Quality-S-VIDEO-Composite-Video-Cable-TV-Lead-Cord-/250925966106

[carlsson]

Yes, without seeing what is inside the SCART connector we can just guess. At best it splices the signals for composite video in and mono sound onto the RCA plugs. The HDMI converter in the picture anyway operates with composite video and stereo sound, it is not capable of RGB so that is a misunderstanding. However it should have a switch to select direction: composite to HDMI or HDMI to composite.

Edited January 16, 2020 by carlsson

[whoisdoupe]

9 hours ago, eightbit said:

Umm, what is up with the SCART breakout for A/V? The C64 does not have RGB for one. It only has composite and chroma/luma output (or S-Video). I would suspect those composite and audio leads are feeding the relative pins on the SCART connection...so you are connecting to nothing. Why aren't you using a normal composite or S-Video DIN cable with this? Like this:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Commodore-C64-C128-High-Quality-S-VIDEO-Composite-Video-Cable-TV-Lead-Cord-/250925966106

Thanks carlsson and eightbit.

 

I was simply using the lead that I ‘thought’ would do the trick, hence needing to be corrected.

 

I had seen the lead that you send the eBay link though and was wondering if that’s what I needed.

 

I’ll get one of those and see where that takes me.

 

Thanks guys, can’t wait to play Gladiator.

[whoisdoupe]

9 hours ago, eightbit said:

Umm, what is up with the SCART breakout for A/V? The C64 does not have RGB for one. It only has composite and chroma/luma output (or S-Video). I would suspect those composite and audio leads are feeding the relative pins on the SCART connection...so you are connecting to nothing. Why aren't you using a normal composite or S-Video DIN cable with this? Like this:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Commodore-C64-C128-High-Quality-S-VIDEO-Composite-Video-Cable-TV-Lead-Cord-/250925966106

Will that lead plug into the white box I have in order to get the output into hdmi?

[carlsson]

It will kind of work. The cable Eightbit linked to has a mini-DIN for S-Video output plus a RCA jack for composite video fall back, and the mono audio spliced onto two RCA jacks for faux stereo. Ignore the mini-DIN and connect the others to the HDMI converter to make it work, though possibly with some delay in the HDMI converter.

 

The Retro Computer Shack cables are of excellent build quality, but in practise there are cheaper options. In case you have access to a soldering iron, you might even be able to adjust your existing cable as desired, a little depending on what it looks like inside the SCART connector. You could more or less remote the SCART connector and solder the RCA jacks to the DIN cable, which for a medium advanced person might take 20-30 min + preparation to the pinout. Let me know if that is something for you and you can get pinouts.

[eightbit]

I will tell you right that that you are going to obtain an absolutely horrible picture with that little white box. I know, I have the same one....but I only use it for quick testing of composite devices. No way I would use that to actually use the machine.

 

If you want a good picture you should either use a Commodore monitor, a CRT TV (or older LCD like a Sharp Aquos from 2000-2002) with composite (or preferred S-Video). If you only have newer HDMI displays, I have found this is the best way to get an excellent (monitor quality) picture to HDMI:

 

https://www.retrotink.com/product-page/retrotink-2x

 

It's pricey ($100) but it is the way I currently display my C64 and other computers that use composite and S-Video...and it works REALLY well.