C64 component video mod?

[Smokeless Joe]

Has anyone tried the Commodore 64 Component Video Mod?  I’m seriously looking at it for my C64C.  
 

Any idea if it would work on a C64 Reloaded MK2?

[carlsson]

I'm not sure how it works in the first place. It mentions a daughter board that "sniffs" data. As far as I know, the VIC-II accesses the memory on so-called badlines and generates the image, outputting chroma + luma as mentioned. Is this yet another reimplementation of the VIC-II in FPGA, and in that case why is the original chip still required? Does it take the chroma + luma signals and convert those into YPbPr? I know the FPGA implementation by Synthetic Dreams was said to achieve 96-98% compatibility. I don't know if the FPGA implementation in Ultimate 64 achieves more, but the last few percent may be the hardest to obtain. Perhaps the original VIC-II chip and its S-Video output is there to cover the last few percent, programs that don't place nice with the FPGA reimplementation have the option to fallback to the original chip at a slightly less crisp display.

 

IIRC the MK2 takes a regular VIC-II chip, which would suggest it can work with this kit as well but I don't know for sure.

 

Personally I don't have any particular issues with the S-Video, and I understand that a LumaFix will improve the picture significantly. Somehow the C64 never looked as crisp as the emulators do today, which is why some of those include CRT filters etc to give it a more old school look.

[youxia]

Supposed to be working great, you can read more here:

https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=70902&start=0

https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=75459&start=0

 

I would get it myself, but fitting it is not easy so it would cost me a lot more than the base 50E. Will pass for now, I get perfect RGB from MiSTer.

 

I have a LumaFix, older one, and it helps a bit with jailbars, but overall the RGB from MiSTer/RPi is much better than S-Video on my C64C. The picture is just better  defined and I don't get weird colour clashes . The difference is really big (same on my 65XE). I'm using it only on CRTs, so not sure about the modern panel look.

 

I've read somewhere people saying that S-Video is nearly identical to RGB but maybe they meant it about consoles.

[ApolloBoy]

I have one of these installed in my 64C, looks fantastic and it wasn't too bad to install. The hardest part is getting the RF modulator out but everything else is fairly easy by comparison. 

 

It's also worth noting that this can do RGB with sync on green, which the OSSC and most PVMs can support. You'll need to connect the mod board to a USB Blaster via a JTAG connector, and then load this palette editor: https://github.com/Hojo-Norem/c0pperdragon-VIC-II-Palette-editor