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Any ST/OSSC users on here?


bfollowell

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After looking at many options for connecting my STE to a modern display, I finally decided upon an OSSC. I received it a few days ago and am really pleased with the color output, but am working hard to get the monochrome to look quite right. After a lot of playing around, I finally have a decent looking high resolution image, that is fairly clear, had no vertical lines, and is centered. The problem is that it takes up most of the width of my 1080p monitor, so the image is stretched. The ST has an aspect ratio of 8:5, so 16:9 isn't horrible, but it is stretched a slight bit in width. For any of you more experienced, have you had any luck correcting this?

 

My basic sampling settings are Line2x and Upsample2x. My advanced timing settings for 640x384 are:

H.Samplerate: 800
H.Synclength 96
H.backporch 110
H.Active 640
V.Synclength 2
V.backporch 34
V.Active 420

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

IMG-3207.JPG

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I used a Best Electronics Best ST Multi Sync adapter cable. It has a built-in switch to switch from low/medium to high resolution, assuming you have a monitor that will support it. Most modern monitors will support high resolution. It's the color resolutions that are iffy. I have that connected to AV3 on my OSSC and the OSSC HDMI output to my Asus 1080p monitor and I have a signal. It was a simple as that. As mentioned, I had to play around with settings quite a bit to get the image centered and clear, but I definitely had an image as soon as I turned my OSSC and my ST on.

 

Other people make those cables as well, or you can get one of those switch connectors that attach to the monitor port of the ST and then connect your own basic VGA cable to it. Those connectors will always have a switch to change from color to monochrome resolutions. Exxos' store usually has them.

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Funny you should mention that. I just ordered an STE Scart cable from Cool Novelties for use with my OSSC for color modes. I had a couple of others tell me that the little switch box adapters work much better than the Best Electronics cable as well. I may look into getting one, but I honestly don't know how often I'll use high resolution with my STE, and since I've already ordered a Scart cable for color, it may be a waste of money. If I might ask, which switched adapter do you use? The main one I see is the one from Exxos. I'm assuming you just use it with a standard VGA cable from the adapter to the monitor?

 

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On 2/18/2020 at 6:06 PM, bfollowell said:

Funny you should mention that. I just ordered an STE Scart cable from Cool Novelties for use with my OSSC for color modes. I had a couple of others tell me that the little switch box adapters work much better than the Best Electronics cable as well. I may look into getting one, but I honestly don't know how often I'll use high resolution with my STE, and since I've already ordered a Scart cable for color, it may be a waste of money. If I might ask, which switched adapter do you use? The main one I see is the one from Exxos. I'm assuming you just use it with a standard VGA cable from the adapter to the monitor?

 

Yeah, it is the same one that Exxos sells, and you can do VGA to the OSSC with it.

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OK, thanks. I may pick one up if he ever starts making them again. Let's face it, the main thing I like doing with my STE is playing old games and tinkering. I know there are a few monochrome games, but not many. Most of the monochrome stuff is geared more towards business or productivity, and I'm doing productive stuff, I'm doing it on my modern PC, not my STE. For the few times I want to do something in monochrome, the image I'm getting will probably do me just fine.

 

I am thinking it would be cool to find an old Practical Solutions Monitor Master though, just so I wouldn't have to keep swapping out cables all the time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry to horn in, but I have a few questions...

 

I'm using my OSSC with an Atari STE, running the video and stereo audio outputs from the computer into the OSSC via the AV1 SCART input.  The SCART cable I'm using is made specifically for the STE and has L/R audio inputs.

 

The issue is that I'm not getting any audio output from the OSSC via the HDMI output.  Is this normal?  Am I missing something in the setup menu?  I know the SCART cable is good because I can hook it up to a SCART->HDMI converter and get both video and audio.

 

If I use a different video cable connected to the OSSC AV3 VGA input and a separate audio cable connected to the AV3 audio input I get both audio and video out of the HDMI output. I would simply use this setup, but for the STE the video quality is much better via the AV1 SCART input.  For STF,  STFM and Mega ST computers the AV3 VGA input looks better.  I have no real idea why.

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Is it the Cool Novelties cable? The only reason I ask is that I just received mine a couple of days ago and I can't believe the difference using that with AV1 makes over using my Best Electronics ST/VGA cable with AV3. Night and day difference, especially with medium resolution.

 

As far as getting no sound, I have no trouble getting sound from mine. That being said, I only ordered my OSSC from videogameperfection.com a few weeks ago, and I got one of the newer models that has the analog audio to digital conversion module built-in as standard. I think that started with v1.6 of the OSSC and it could be only with the videogameperfection.com versions of the OSSC, I'm not certain. Anything before that and the conversion module was an add-on that had to be purchased and installed separately.

 

Where did you purchase your OSSC and which version is it?

 

EDIT: I just noticed that you said that you get audio out if you use the AV3 input and AV3 audio input. That tells me that you have a newer version of the OSSC. For that matter, the fact that you even have an HDMI output on AV3, rather than DVI, tells me you have a v1.6 OSSC. I have no idea why the sound wouldn't work with AV1 then. The only thing I can point to, since mine works flawlessly without messing in the setup menu at all, is that you have a bad input on your OSSC, or there is something wrong with or different about your SCART cable. Nothing against any other suppliers or manufacturers, but I can't praise the quality of the Cool Novelties products highly enough. I really can't think of anything else it could be.

 

Edited by bfollowell
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Is your SCART cable the one with the L/R audio inputs?

 

My STE SCART cable came from some ebay seller.  My non-STE SCART cable is from cool novelties, as is my VGA cable.  My OSSC, which is v1.6, came from an ebay seller, but I'm pretty sure they all come from the same source in China.

 

Yes, I was shocked at how much nicer the video looks on the STE using the SCART cable.

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I'm curious about the non-STE SCART cable. Specifically, I know the pre-STE STs had mono sound out of the monitor port. I'm curious, does the STE still have mono sound out of the monitor port for, say if you were using an older model SC1224 monitor or something that didn't have stereo RCA jacks?

 

So, anyway, my point is that, if the STE retains the mono audio output on the monitor jack of the older models, you could try that with the Cool Novelties non-STE model SCART cable that you have. Assuming that worked and you got audio from the HDMI of the OSSC, then you've ruled out pretty much everything except for your Chinese STE SCART cable.

 

Personally, I'm really leaning towards that being the weak link, but I could be wrong.

 

If you determine that it is your cable, Cool Novelties sells the one I bought through ebay. I'll attach the link below.

 

Good luck!

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ATARI-STe-RGB-SCART-LEAD-WITH-STEREO-AUDIO-VIDEO-CABLE-2-METRES/390925970438?epid=2190028715&hash=item5b0500ec06:g:occAAOSwxH1UCzra

 

EDIT: A quick Google search and I was able to confirm that the STE retains mono sound through the monitor port, so hook up that Cool Novelties cable and see if you have sound that way. At least then you'll know if the AV1 input is good.

Edited by bfollowell
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I've never gotten any sound out of either of the SCART cables going through the OSSC.  They work with the SCART->HDMI converter though, so I think it's the OSSC.

 

For now I took an old H/K receiver and Bose cube speakers and connected them to the STE via RCA cable.  Great sound, problem solved until I can figure out what is going on.

 

It's been a good weekend for the ST.  Got my HD working and loaded with games and applications, got a great looking video output via the OSSC and got sound for the STE.  Played a lot of Oids this weekend.  Damn, that game is stupid hard.

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Hmmm... I'm stumped then. You did say you got sound out of the HDMI output when using the AV3 audio input though, correct?

 

If so, I really don't know what else to tell you to try. It really sounds like it's the AV1 input on your OSSC. Do you have anything else that will connect via SCART that you can check it with?

 

If not, I'd say it's time to contact the person you bought it from, but since you bought it from China, that may not be so easy.

 

What firmware is your unit on? If it's not on the most recent version, maybe update it and give it another try.

Edited by bfollowell
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1 hour ago, bfollowell said:

What firmware is your unit on? If it's not on the most recent version, maybe update it and give it another try.

 

That might be worth trying.  I did update it after I bought it back in November.  Thanks, have a good one!

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7 hours ago, Colleton said:

 

That might be worth trying.  I did update it after I bought it back in November.  Thanks, have a good one!

 

I did read somewhere that you have to use the right version of the firmware update. There should be one that has -aud or -audio at the end of the filename. If you updated with one that didn't have that, that could be part of the problem. I doubt it though, since you said you had audio through HDMI when using the AV3 input. Still, it might be worth a try. I think the latest firmware is v0.85 maybe. Even though I only bought my unit about a month ago, mine's only on v0.81.

 

I just checked, and yes, the latest version is v0.85, and you can get the audio version here:

 

https://www.niksula.hut.fi/~mhiienka/ossc/fw/release_audio/

 

The wiki says:

-aud: Audio-enabled firmware for v1.6 boards and earlier boards with audio add-on board installed

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My guess is firmware version.  I've got an early OSSC with DVI output, and all it does for audio is pass SCART audio to the 3.5 inch audio jack.  I'm not sure if current OSSCs have this jack, but if so you could check to see if the audio is there as this is the way an ancient OSSC would have handled it.

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