Oric 1 display in North America

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MrM
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Oric 1 display in North America

Post by MrM »

Hello! I recently bought an Oric 1 off eBay from a fellow in the UK. What would be the easiest way for me to hook the Oric 1 to a display here.

The first problem is we use NTSC so the UHF output isn;t of much use to me. That said, with a little bit of research I discovered that channel 36 in PAL equals channel 34 over here so I was able to see "something" on my NTSC TV at least, albeit a black-and-white picture that jumped around a bit. It was legible enough to type a program up though so I was happy about that!

The other problem is that SCART inputs are virtually non-existent on televisions here.

So after a bit more research it looks like my best option is to get a powered DIN to SCART cable, along with a SCART to HDMI box. IS that the easiest option or is there a way to go straight from the DIN output on the Oric to either the VGA, composite or component video on the TV?

Thanks!
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ibisum
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by ibisum »

SCART is pretty much the way to do it.
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Dbug
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by Dbug »

You may be interested by this thread: http://forum.defence-force.org/viewtopi ... =75#p15400
And for the first time, we used a video projector to display oric (real hardware) screen on the wall (instead of showing stuff on emulator).

We used that : www.amazon.fr/SCART-HDMI-vers-Convertis ... B00AYUJCPK

We plug scart and we get HDMI output. Sometimes, on PC monitor (hdmi port), the picture "jumps" sometime, but on this video projector it was working well.
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by MrM »

Thank you, it sounds like I was on the right track. I ordered this cable along with this converter. Can't wait to see what it looks like :D
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by mmu_man »

Another option is converting RGB to composite.
I started a project to make a PCB using an AD724 chip at the hackerspace, but it's not finished yet. I have a prototype with wires everywhere which just works for me...

In theory the chip has a PAL/NTSC selection pin, although I'm not sure which timing it accepts on input in either case.
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by MrM »

That sounds like an interesting option, presumably less expensive as well. The cable + HDMI converter cost me in the region of $65 CAD so it wasn't cheap.
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Chema
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by Chema »

Hi!

Doesn't your TV have an RCA input?

SCART and RCA are basically the same thing... http://retrocables.es/tienda/index.php? ... &id_lang=4
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by MrM »

It has a lot of RCA inputs but they're either for composite video (the yellow, red and white set, or "AV" inputs as we call it here in Canada) or component video (aka YPbPr). None of the RCA inputs accept an RGB signal as far as I'm aware.
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by Chema »

I see. Anyway I think there are rgb scart to rca composite adapters. i recall seeing some on eBay, though I'm not sure how they work.

Edit: it seems I was wrong. They are the other way round. Circuits for encoding rgb signals to composite do exist, but nothing seems to be easy to use. And not cheap either http://www.jrok.com/hardware/RGB.html

Sorry for creating confusion :oops:
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by MrM »

I thought it would be a lot simpler too but alas it was not to be. I bought a powered DIN-5 RGB to SCART cable and a SCART to HDMI converter so hopefully that configuration works. In hindsight it would probably have been easier (and maybe even cheaper) to just buy a small used PAL LCD television set for all my retro needs :D
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by Godzil »

It is really time to have a proper Oric to VGA hardware, but my project todolist is already that big so don't expect it (from me) soon :/
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by ThomH »

Were you considering doing any internal modifications?

50/60Hz is software selectable. So to start up in 60Hz mode you'd need to alter the main ROM. But you probably don't want that because if your screen can't do 50Hz then you're just going to have issues with most software.

My further reading of the schematic is that the colour clock is asynchronous. So if you replace that oscillator, and the colour ROM (the 256x4 at the top but slightly left of centre on the schematic, not the main one that contains BASIC et al), you should be able to get NTSC colour at 50Hz from all software. Somebody would need to create a ROM image for you as I'm not sure it's been done before but it shouldn't be too taxing.

Were you considering that sort of modification at all? Obviously RGB video, all by external components, would be a much easier and better-looking way to proceed.
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by HigashiJun »

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I had the same problem here in Japan where SCART does not exist.

The easiest way for me to connect my Atmos was to buy these 3 items:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Oric-1-Atmos-H ... 2749.l2649

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RGB-SCART-to-Y ... 2749.l2649

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Com ... 194&sr=8-1

Provided your TV set has YPbPr input, you can have an easy SCART connector.

Cheers.
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by peacer »

- Off Topic -

I didn't know our little fellow's fame reached to the Japan. So glad to hear that.

Aisatsu from Turkey :) Arigatou gozaimasu :)
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Re: Oric 1 display in North America

Post by Dbug »

Since we are doing thread revivals, since the original answers I also experimented with HDMI converters and made a video about it three months ago:

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