VERA's connector for composite video

[mobluse]

What kind of connector does VERA have for composite video? Maybe it's RCA. One could save a connector if one uses the same four pole connector as Raspberry Pi has for AV output (audio and video). Maybe the four pole connectors for AV input on car screens and LED projectors have the same pinout as Raspberry Pi, but I have not tested that. One needs to check that the stereo speakers are not switched.

Another alternative is to use the VGA connector for composite, because there were laptops that had tv-out (i.e. composite and S-video) via the VGA connector and one can still buy the passive adapters. In that case one should choose a popular adapter that gives good picture quality. One advantage with using VGA for composite is that one can use one less connector.

One reason to support composite is that modern projectors and TVs often only have HDMI and composite (AV) and one might want to use a big screen to demonstrate CX16.

[DragWx]

Composite is supported. The various VERA video connections can be found here in the documentation, right after the "VERA Video Header" section.

There's VGA, S-Video, and a standard RCA jack for composite video. There's no HDMI port, but there's plans for a solution to that later.

[ahenry3068]

I found my ideal Commander X16 Monitor at the Salvation Army about 3 weeks ago.

Circa 2010 Toshiba 18" LED flat screen TV. 1080p native resolution. $35.00

I almost settled for an ACER 20" monitor (no tuner) for $40.

What impressed me was what was on the back.

20230612_200306.jpg (4.72 MiB) Viewed 2680 times

Not visible because of the VGA cable plugged in, theres an S-Video jack directly
below the VGA Port

[BruceRMcF]

Note that the HDMI would be "either/or" ... either the VGA / composite (S-video, etc.) or the HDMI. AFAIU, they are working on finalizing the design of the HDMI-compatible (aka "IMDH") Vera card, people will pick which one they want.

I don't know the details, but they may require different timing to get the correct aspect ratio using HDMI.

[ahenry3068]

I'm going to be using the 15 pin VGA like 98 % of the time.
I might only switch inputs if seeing if there are display differences for Software
I might happen to be writing

[Wavicle]

Finalizing the design of the HDMI VERA meaning waiting for me to finally have time to circle back to it... I have the HDMI transmitter dev board ready to go, I think. I just need to Gerber out the design and send it to be manufactured. I got a bit burned the first time around when I learned that the documentation for the IC that I selected put critical information for designing around the part in a footnote of one table and nowhere else. That picture of the board in Dave's video from a couple of months back - that was the board. The only reason it has to be either HDMI or VGA comes down to space. The solution implemented would allow for simultaneous output of both (if it works at all, still need to get that dev board back and find out).

I spent my last couple of weeks of free time designing a standalone VERA with a SPI interface and built-in Wi-Fi using an ESP32-S3. The first board design for that went to JLCPCB this afternoon - I'm hoping it will come back in time for VCFSW, but it's doubtful. In any case, next on my plate is either finalizing the YM2151/YM3012 replacement designs or sending out the HDMI VERA to get manufactured or a console form-factor X16-compatible... decisions...

[mobluse]

If you want to save space you could remove the composite connectors and use VGA for TV-out (i.e. composite video). There are passive VGA to RCA and S-video cables, but they require a special VGA port, but CX16 could have a such if the FPGA is modified. Then only those who need composite would need to buy a Universal VGA to Video TV Out S-Video AV and 3 RCA Female Converter Cable Adapter. Then you could have only HDMI/IMDH and VGA connectors.

[DragWx]

What you're describing is what Nintendo did with its multi-AV port, and Nintendo used it on the SNES, N64, and Gamecube. You just needed whatever breakout cable had the hookups you needed.
The problem is, that was all Nintendo's proprietary design, and I don't think we'll find any kind of general standard for something similar.

We could look to the MiSTer community for how they're handling this though; there's enough open designs for hardware that will interface with the MiSTer's analog video and break it out into various formats, and enough people manufacturing these boards, that if there were a version of the VERA which provided compatible signals and hookups, a MiSTer adapter could be reused for the VERA, hypothetically. That's probably the closest thing to a "standard" as we're going to get.

(I'm unaware of any reasons there might be to avoid referencing anything from the MiSTer, just in case; I'm bringing this up as a bystander who isn't involved in the development process)