GCVideo DVI Internal mod

[meneerbeer]

Hi,

I made my own PCB for GCVideo DVI. The board fits underneath the DVD drive and there is no need to remove your digital video connector. I might want to sell some of these if there is any interest.

Here are some images of what it looks like:



More images can be found in this album.

As can be seen the mod is fully internal. Unfortunately I was too impatient with the cutout for the HDMI connector, so it does not look very good. Installation is fairly simple. There is a small breakout board. With kynar wires you can solder this breakout board to the bottom of the video connector. The breakout board then connects with a flatcable to the main board. I will post some pictures of the installation this weekend, if there is any interest.

I currently have one board wired up and it is working fine. I will be testing it a bit more. When I think it is good, I think it is a good idea for some other people to test it. So basically right now I am also looking for testers. They can get the board at a reduced price. (probably 30$ with shipping)

Currently it does not carry sound over HDMI yet. I believe Unseen is working on that, if, in the very unlikely event, he does not succeed, then I am planning to look into adding audio.

[ZephaniahNoah]

Wow! The quality looks great! Will there also be a standard composite and/or RGB output? I'm interested in buying and testing this. But don't currently have the money.
EDIT: Also, I would be interested in more pics of installation.

[marcus9199]

I would definitely be interested in one. I've got good soldering skills, and would love to do some testing for it.

[badsector]

Me too, if sound over HDMI works

[tesla246]

I would be highly interested indeed. However, for me in order to bite the bullet, it needs to provide the following:

-HDMI signal that works on tv's as well instead of only monitors.
-Sound through HDMI is a must.
-OSD with scanline option.

Maybe an easy install because my awful soldering skills prevent me from doing most mods, sadly. However, if that is not possible, I might just try soldering anyway, as I really look forward to playing my gamecube games again with superieur sound/video.

Your internal mod looks really professional; nothing is sticking outside. Also, no required desoldering of the digital out port is a plus.

[andre104623]

I would be highly interested indeed. However, for me in order to bite the bullet, it needs to provide the following:

-HDMI signal that works on tv's as well instead of only monitors.
-Sound through HDMI is a must.
-OSD with scanline option.

Maybe an easy install because my awful soldering skills prevent me from doing most mods, sadly. However, if that is not possible, I might just try soldering anyway, as I really look forward to playing my gamecube games again with superieur sound/video.

Your internal mod looks really professional; nothing is sticking outside. Also, no required desoldering of the digital out port is a plus.

The Shuriken video already proved the fact that the HDMI signal does work on TV's. The pluto board itself has a design flaw that makes it very incompatible with TV's. In my tests I never found a TV that would produce any picture at all one TV ( The one in my bedroom ) would say its getting a 480p signal but still no picture. Sound though the HDMI connector I can see many people needing that for normal use. I myself really like the SPDIF optical out because I have a nice sound system that takes direct optical input. The shuriken video does not have the ability to run a OSD or overlay scanlines because of the FPGA it uses. But I still really like it

@ meneerbeer What FPGA did you use in your design? I really like the way you have it installed very clean

[meneerbeer]

I would be highly interested indeed. However, for me in order to bite the bullet, it needs to provide the following:

-HDMI signal that works on tv's as well instead of only monitors.
-Sound through HDMI is a must.
-OSD with scanline option.

Maybe an easy install because my awful soldering skills prevent me from doing most mods, sadly. However, if that is not possible, I might just try soldering anyway, as I really look forward to playing my gamecube games again with superieur sound/video.

Your internal mod looks really professional; nothing is sticking outside. Also, no required desoldering of the digital out port is a plus.

The Shuriken video already proved the fact that the HDMI signal does work on TV's. The pluto board itself has a design flaw that makes it very incompatible with TV's. In my tests I never found a TV that would produce any picture at all one TV ( The one in my bedroom ) would say its getting a 480p signal but still no picture. Sound though the HDMI connector I can see many people needing that for normal use. I myself really like the SPDIF optical out because I have a nice sound system that takes direct optical input. The shuriken video does not have the ability to run a OSD or overlay scanlines because of the FPGA it uses. But I still really like it

@ meneerbeer What FPGA did you use in your design? I really like the way you have it installed very clean

XC3S200A, same as pluto IIx. The pin mapping is different though. Code is just the GCVideo code, so it has the OSD, linedoubler and scanlines etc.

The board seems to work fine with TVs. Tested it with 2 TVs and they both work. The HDMI signals are connected similar as the Shuriken Video, so perhaps that explains it.

I burned Swiss a few hours ago to test 480p mode. It works, but the image has some sparkles. It really depends on how the flatcable is positioned, sometimes there are no problems. I need to look into this. Should be possible to fix.

[andre104623]

I would be highly interested indeed. However, for me in order to bite the bullet, it needs to provide the following:

-HDMI signal that works on tv's as well instead of only monitors.
-Sound through HDMI is a must.
-OSD with scanline option.

Maybe an easy install because my awful soldering skills prevent me from doing most mods, sadly. However, if that is not possible, I might just try soldering anyway, as I really look forward to playing my gamecube games again with superieur sound/video.

Your internal mod looks really professional; nothing is sticking outside. Also, no required desoldering of the digital out port is a plus.

The Shuriken video already proved the fact that the HDMI signal does work on TV's. The pluto board itself has a design flaw that makes it very incompatible with TV's. In my tests I never found a TV that would produce any picture at all one TV ( The one in my bedroom ) would say its getting a 480p signal but still no picture. Sound though the HDMI connector I can see many people needing that for normal use. I myself really like the SPDIF optical out because I have a nice sound system that takes direct optical input. The shuriken video does not have the ability to run a OSD or overlay scanlines because of the FPGA it uses. But I still really like it

@ meneerbeer What FPGA did you use in your design? I really like the way you have it installed very clean

XC3S200A, same as pluto IIx. The pin mapping is different though. Code is just the GCVideo code, so it has the OSD, linedoubler and scanlines etc.

The board seems to work fine with TVs. Tested it with 2 TVs and they both work. The HDMI signals are connected similar as the Shuriken Video, so perhaps that explains it.

I burned Swiss a few hours ago to test 480p mode. It works, but the image has some sparkles. It really depends on how the flatcable is positioned, sometimes there are no problems. I need to look into this. Should be possible to fix.

I had a similar problem. I fixed it by moving the 54mhz line away from the other wires. But your using a ffc cable so i wouldn't know how to fix that. Maybe cut the trace and run a wire

[meneerbeer]

I had a similar problem. I fixed it by moving the 54mhz line away from the other wires. But your using a ffc cable so i wouldn't know how to fix that. Maybe cut the trace and run a wire

I made sure the clock is not next to any data signals. The clock signal is surrounded by ground and power. Obviously that does not necessarily have to mean it is not the clock.

I have taken a better look at the problem. It is a bit weird. The problem only occurs with 480p, which would make sense, because I guess there is more data going over the data lines (I have not really had a good look at what is different between 480i and 480p for the data lines). So I have Swiss running at 480p. The weird thing is: only sometimes the problem happens. In that case there are sparkles in the image and when I move the FPC it gets worse/better. However this morning when I booted my Cube again, the problem was gone and moving the FPC did not cause anything. At that point I figured it might be caused by heat or something. However, that does not seem to be the case either. It is just that it sometimes has the sparkly images at boot and it only happens maybe 10% of the times.

For now I buffer the incoming video data, before it is processed (causes a lag of about 20 ns, good luck noticing it ). And I think that has solved it, but it is kind of hard to debug a problem that happens so infrequently. Currently the gcvideo immediately runs the incoming video signals through logic (checking whether VData is 0x00 etc.). This makes the path the signal needs to go through a bit longer and I know from previous projects that this can cause some trouble.

If Unseen agrees, it might be a good idea to add the buffering to the GCVideo source.

Edit: 99% certain the issue has been fixed.

[meneerbeer]

Working on the audio stuff currently. It is a very dirty hack that really does not do any justice to GCVideo. Basically I am combining the GCVideo code with the HDMI code from the Neo Geo project. No success yet unfortunately.. My current guess is that the Verilog synthesizer for Quartus does things differently than the one from Xilinx. I will need to test the code with an Altera FPGA.

Not sure if I can get this to work soon. I should be working on other things..

[tesla246]

Sounds amazing meneerbeer . Very excited for digital sound through HDMI. Will definitely be an improvement over analog.

On another note: have you considered connecting it through a quick-solder board? Similar to what Mega did with megadrive V5, but only on the removed or possibly underside of the digital connector instead of the dvd port of course. And then connect it through an ffc cable to the FPGA. Would this be feasible or does it add too much delay in the signal? Just a thought I had. Could be a universal board of course, for quickly connecting even other future FPGA projects/boards that utilize the digital signal.

[andre104623]

Sounds amazing meneerbeer . Very excited for digital sound through HDMI. Will definitely be an improvement over analog.

On another note: have you considered connecting it through a quick-solder board? Similar to what Mega did with megadrive V5, but only on the removed or possibly underside of the digital connector instead of the dvd port of course. And then connect it through an ffc cable to the FPGA. Would this be feasible or does it add too much delay in the signal? Just a thought I had. Could be a universal board of course, for quickly connecting even other future FPGA projects/boards that utilize the digital signal.

His idea is even better you don't need to remove the port. But the MEGA3 is old news plug-and-play is around the corner

[novenary]

I'm interested in seeing the inside if you don't mind, in particular how you hooked it up to the mainboard.

[XC-3730C]

I would deffinitely be interested in this for my GC!

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[bobrocks95]

I'll post here as well to make sure you see it- I'd love one of these boards! I don't bring much to the table, but I can test it on 5 different displays if you're still looking for guinea pigs.

If not I hope you offer pre-assembled boards in the future, I know a lot of people would like that, and this board sort of goes in a different direction than the Shuriken (more expensive but feature-rich FPGA, you have to cut a hole, but it isn't sticking out and you get to keep your digital port, etc...) so competing isn't a big worry.

S/PDIF would be a nice option, but as long as a pin header/via is there like on the Pluto board, and someone could add a buffering circuit if they wanted to, that pretty much covers it.

[lev11]

@meneerbeer do you have any more of these boards? I'd like to see some pics of the wiring if you can too please.

[gcpro]

i want one

[meneerbeer]

Seems like some people are eager for this board. I tested the newest GCVideo code (with enhanced DVI) a few weeks ago and it works.

I think I still need to enable the SPDIF signal (which is easy, just writing it here so I do not forget..). You will need to get an optical transmitter yourself. I can not really imagine a lot of people will use SPDIF.

I am kind of busy (supposed to be working on graduating :p), but I will post some pics of the installation soon. Basically there is a small separate PCB that can be glued onto the GameCube's motherboard that has an FFC connector, so you can connect it to the main HDMI board. With kynar wires you can then solder all the video signals from the Gamecube. Nothing special actually. Not sure how one would make a plug and play solution. I guess what I could try is to make a board that can be soldered directly onto the bottom of the digital video port, but I would need very thin PCBs and I am not sure if I can get those cheap anywhere.

Anyways, the whole setup has worked very reliable for me.

Last few weeks I have also experimented with using the board on an N64 (I ran out of interested in the GC version, running out of interest is a bit too common for me unfortunately..). Sort of as a cheap alternative for ultrahdmi (but no 1080p/720p). I have something running. I am currently stuck on adding audio support. The games use weird sample rates, so these need to be converted first, which seems not very easy if you want to do it correctly..

[XC-3730C]

Here is the GC shuriken HDMI adapter on my 50" plasma with Gameboy Player:



Is there a way to connect to a VGA monitor? I have a HDMI to VGA adapter from ebay, but it doesn't work with this adapter.

[megalomaniac]

why would you build an HDMI version when there is an analog version available capable of displaying YPBPR, RGBC, VGAHV?

have you tried testing the adapter with some other HDMI device to confirm if its potentially the adapter...and try another monitor if possible to rule out potential monitor incompatibility

[XC-3730C]

I didn't build the HDMI board myself. I bought it premade from a user here. If I had the option of buying a premade analog version, I would do that.

I was told by the guy I bought the HDMI adapter that I would need an active HDMI to VGA adapter - one that had it's own external power, which neither of my adapters have.

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[megalomaniac]

sounds like you have the potential solution....
the adapter is trying to pull power from the HDMI 5v supply and the HDMI board you have cannot provide enough current to power it


you could try to cut the power input coming from the adapters HDMI input and feed it with a wall plug in 5v adapter...
there might or might not be a 3v regulator on the adapter PCB....

if you post a nice large clear photo of the adapter i might be able to help you get it working and wired up...

[XC-3730C]

I will just buy another HDMI to VGA adapter with US, and use a USB wall charger.

Where could I get an analog GC video board?

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[meneerbeer]

The Shuriken Video has a 5V regulator with a 12V input iirc. That is quite a big step down, but I do not think it would not work because of that. Also keep in mind that the Shuriken Video does no linedoubling and 480i is not officially supported for VGA. Same goes for 576i and 576p I think. Your Yoshi's Island screenshot looks really nice.

Not trying to be a douche, but I think you should discuss this somewhere else. There is a thread for the Shuriken Video, although the issue here is more general HDMI to VGA.

I will try to post some more pics later today. I currently have two PCBs soldered, of which one I currently use for the N64. I have parts for 3 more PCBs I believe. I think it would be good to sell some of these boards to see if it works for them and get some feedback on installation.

[XC-3730C]

Meneerbeer,

I will take my VGA concerns elsewhere, thank you.

You will be offering more HDMI boards for GC soon?

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