Nice work as always Chris! And thanks for helping with the review, feedback, and explaining things to us. I can provide some answers as well. 3:33 - Puts nose on screen and sees some possible shimmer. Solution - Don't put nose on screen when using. ;-) But in all seriousness, there will be some pixel shimmer in all images I believe. I don't know the root cause or any workable solution. It's just part of how the video decoder works and its limits currently. The good thing is it's VERY small and infrequent and most users will never notice it. 4:31 - Sound should be totally dependent on your speakers/monitor. It's not impossible the Phasor is over-driving the signal however. I'd have to try some more tests with different levels to make sure in this case. Sound should come through clearly, at least it did with my simple tests. I think the LCD testing later in the video kind of helped show it could be a speaker issue with your monitor. Perhaps test the HDMI input of the LCD and compare sound quality between direct and HDMI combined. 9:40 - I have some the setting for Composite mode set at the factory so users have a simple 'plug and play' experience. I'd recommend using the remote to adjust the color saturation and sharpness to see if you can produce a better, more CRT-like image. If you find something that is more true to life I can reconfig the LCDs to that standard for distribution. But video is more subjective to the user's eye and I have a feeling each user will adjust to what they feel is best. I'm not sure how much that will affect text modes however. I'm mainly offing a good starting point out of the box, and things can absolutely be adjusted to help create a better experience. Conversely most of these adapters and monitors suffer from a fuzzy picture and can't be turned up. In this case the picture can be softened as desired. As CRT users we are used to more "soft" images which is counter to the modern era. 10:57 you explain some of this tuning as well. Nice! Of course if anyone has questions they can always contact ReActiveMicro's Support directly. New stock of the LCDs arriving this Friday. I'll also send out an announcement with links. Be sure to subscribe to the ReActiveMicro.com Newsletter to know instantly about sales and project release updates along with links to reviews and vids like this one!
Cool, thanks Henry for the feedback. Yes, I wasn't worried about the shimmer - I've seen that with most modern LCDs when used with the Apple II. And the sound was fine - it's difficult for more modern speakers to deal with the 1-bit Apple sound, especially when it's trying to play music. The Mockingboard music sounded great thru both the HMDI adapter and the 12" LCD. I played around more with the settings for Composite and got it to look a little bit more like a CRT. But the settings you have are probably fine - people can tweak as needed.
I have a similar LCD TV/monitor but the problem is -- it has a nice Zoom1 mode for AV, which fills the whole screen almost perfectly. BUT! it cuts off half of the top text line. Does this monitor do the same?
Hi Chris I like your videos. Crisp, focusing on the essential and properly linked to the related sites and products. Giving new ideas and inspiration. Thank you!
Another excellent, professional video Chris! One issue with all of these converters is the color ghosting (for lack of better term) of text when displaying color graphics. Yes, the color in the graphics may be very good, but there is a fair amount of annoying color ghosting. It was difficult to tell in your video, but it seemed to me that there was substantial color ghosting, especially green on text displayed on graphics screens. Is that so, or was it an artifact of the videography (or failure of my old eyes)? On my bench IIc, I've been using a Haier TV and a generic $35 adapter I purchased off eBay years ago, and I've tried other several other adapters, including the VidHD card (the most expensive of the lot), and to me, they all produce about the same quality output when it comes to text on color graphics screens - that is, they all have a fair amount of color ghosting. The only real differences I've seen have been in the richness of the colors in the graphics themselves, as you pointed out in this video. Henry always produces excellent products, and what is nice about his $35 adapter vs the generic $35 adapter I have (and that are abundant on eBay) is that it is a nice, enclosed package, not an exposed board hanging off the back of the monitor. Having seen this video, I may now get one of his adapters. Keep up the great work Chris - we all appreciate it very much!
Hey Ken, yes, there is a small degree of "ghosting", as you describe. It's interesting because it definitely varies with the monitor. CRTs usually do the best job, but even LCDs have a lot of variety. In general, anytime you have white pixels on the Apple II screen you're going to see some ghosting. To be honest, the LCD that Henry sells actually looks the best (to my eyes!) using the composite input rather than the HDMI adaptor. But if you have an LCD that doesn't have composite input, then Henry's adaptor is a good solution.
Yes. The ones from ReactiveMicro are tested to be the most compatible and give the best picture. They also come with all the cables that you need. The ones on Amazon (and other places) are all hit-or-miss clones that might be identical or could be junk. Note that I'm not affiliated with ReactiveMicro's store, just passing alone the information.
I'm pretty sure it's 4:3. If you're curious, here's a long discussion about aspect ratio on the Apple II: comp.sys.apple2.narkive.com/CQmmTdPp/square-pixels
![Programming Like It's 1979: 6502 Assembly language on the Apple ][](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PNOj6GTzfGY/mqdefault.jpg)
Nice work as always Chris! And thanks for helping with the review, feedback, and explaining things to us.
I can provide some answers as well.
3:33 - Puts nose on screen and sees some possible shimmer. Solution - Don't put nose on screen when using. ;-) But in all seriousness, there will be some pixel shimmer in all images I believe. I don't know the root cause or any workable solution. It's just part of how the video decoder works and its limits currently. The good thing is it's VERY small and infrequent and most users will never notice it.
4:31 - Sound should be totally dependent on your speakers/monitor. It's not impossible the Phasor is over-driving the signal however. I'd have to try some more tests with different levels to make sure in this case. Sound should come through clearly, at least it did with my simple tests. I think the LCD testing later in the video kind of helped show it could be a speaker issue with your monitor. Perhaps test the HDMI input of the LCD and compare sound quality between direct and HDMI combined.
9:40 - I have some the setting for Composite mode set at the factory so users have a simple 'plug and play' experience. I'd recommend using the remote to adjust the color saturation and sharpness to see if you can produce a better, more CRT-like image. If you find something that is more true to life I can reconfig the LCDs to that standard for distribution. But video is more subjective to the user's eye and I have a feeling each user will adjust to what they feel is best. I'm not sure how much that will affect text modes however. I'm mainly offing a good starting point out of the box, and things can absolutely be adjusted to help create a better experience. Conversely most of these adapters and monitors suffer from a fuzzy picture and can't be turned up. In this case the picture can be softened as desired. As CRT users we are used to more "soft" images which is counter to the modern era. 10:57 you explain some of this tuning as well. Nice!
Of course if anyone has questions they can always contact ReActiveMicro's Support directly. New stock of the LCDs arriving this Friday. I'll also send out an announcement with links. Be sure to subscribe to the ReActiveMicro.com Newsletter to know instantly about sales and project release updates along with links to reviews and vids like this one!
Cool, thanks Henry for the feedback. Yes, I wasn't worried about the shimmer - I've seen that with most modern LCDs when used with the Apple II. And the sound was fine - it's difficult for more modern speakers to deal with the 1-bit Apple sound, especially when it's trying to play music. The Mockingboard music sounded great thru both the HMDI adapter and the 12" LCD. I played around more with the settings for Composite and got it to look a little bit more like a CRT. But the settings you have are probably fine - people can tweak as needed.
@Barry Manilowa Thanks for the info - I'll pass that on to Henry.
I have a similar LCD TV/monitor but the problem is -- it has a nice Zoom1 mode for AV, which fills the whole screen almost perfectly. BUT! it cuts off half of the top text line. Does this monitor do the same?
Hi Chris
I like your videos. Crisp, focusing on the essential and properly linked to the related sites and products. Giving new ideas and inspiration. Thank you!
Thanks so much Peter! Glad you enjoy them.
That is really cool to see Nox Archaist rendered on Reactive Micro's awesome monitor!
Yes, it looked really nice. Very crisp and bright colors.
Another excellent, professional video Chris! One issue with all of these converters is the color ghosting (for lack of better term) of text when displaying color graphics. Yes, the color in the graphics may be very good, but there is a fair amount of annoying color ghosting. It was difficult to tell in your video, but it seemed to me that there was substantial color ghosting, especially green on text displayed on graphics screens. Is that so, or was it an artifact of the videography (or failure of my old eyes)?
On my bench IIc, I've been using a Haier TV and a generic $35 adapter I purchased off eBay years ago, and I've tried other several other adapters, including the VidHD card (the most expensive of the lot), and to me, they all produce about the same quality output when it comes to text on color graphics screens - that is, they all have a fair amount of color ghosting. The only real differences I've seen have been in the richness of the colors in the graphics themselves, as you pointed out in this video.
Henry always produces excellent products, and what is nice about his $35 adapter vs the generic $35 adapter I have (and that are abundant on eBay) is that it is a nice, enclosed package, not an exposed board hanging off the back of the monitor. Having seen this video, I may now get one of his adapters.
Keep up the great work Chris - we all appreciate it very much!
Hey Ken, yes, there is a small degree of "ghosting", as you describe. It's interesting because it definitely varies with the monitor. CRTs usually do the best job, but even LCDs have a lot of variety. In general, anytime you have white pixels on the Apple II screen you're going to see some ghosting. To be honest, the LCD that Henry sells actually looks the best (to my eyes!) using the composite input rather than the HDMI adaptor. But if you have an LCD that doesn't have composite input, then Henry's adaptor is a good solution.
Nice review, I'm going to order one of those HDMI converters.
Cool, thanks!
ReActiveMicro got lots of great products for apple II, I am wondering if they have any plan to made a clone for Apple II Super Serial Card.
Good idea! I haven't heard of anything like that, but I'll pass it along.
Any difference between the $35 AV2HDMI from Reactive Micro vs the AV2HDMI for $12 on Amazon? They look exactly the same.
Yes. The ones from ReactiveMicro are tested to be the most compatible and give the best picture. They also come with all the cables that you need. The ones on Amazon (and other places) are all hit-or-miss clones that might be identical or could be junk. Note that I'm not affiliated with ReactiveMicro's store, just passing alone the information.
I'm having deja vu here. Didn't this video come out previously?
Ha! Yes, it did but I had never made it "public" so it was only viewable if you knew the link. Doh!
@@CT6502 Aha! Thanks for clarifying that. I thought I was going doolally. I'm not ruling it out, mind you. ;)
What's the chipset used?
I'm not sure. The AV2HDMI converter is similar to ones available on Amazon, so I bet it's the same guts inside.
What is the aspect ratio
I'm pretty sure it's 4:3. If you're curious, here's a long discussion about aspect ratio on the Apple II: comp.sys.apple2.narkive.com/CQmmTdPp/square-pixels
But does it play Crysis?
Yes it plays Crisis Mountain.
Too bad the monitor doesn't come in a beige color!
Spray paint!