Nix McRetro
In this video, we look at hooking up a Sega Mega Drive Model 1 VA4 to the Sony PVM-9044QM via RGB. It looks fantastic, but don’t take my word for it. Watch the video and enjoy the mismatched colours! Why are they mismatched? Try and have a guess! Part 3 will answer everything! :P
I’ve got Sonic the Hedgehog running, complete with proper CRT scanlines. No XRGB required here! The picture is looking a little dark and the colours aren’t quite right, but for an initial experiment I’m rather pleased with what this little monitor can do.
The RGB connection is a bit of an improvised affair. Instead of having a proper cable ready, I’ve borrowed the probes from my oscilloscope and connected them to the Mega Drive’s video outputs. We’ve got red, green, blue and synchronisation signals to worry about, and I’m using whatever probe colours happen to be available.
The oscilloscope itself was purchased for investigating a power-supply problem that I still haven’t got around to fixing. Naturally, it’s now being used as a source of cables for playing Sonic on a professional video monitor. Excellent value for money!
At first I couldn’t get a useful picture at all. Then, for reasons that weren’t immediately obvious, Sonic appeared on the screen. After a little more investigation I realised that the probes had switches marked 1x and 10x. Leaving them on the 10x setting was attenuating the video signals and causing all sorts of confusion.
With the switches in a more suitable position, the picture began behaving itself. Looks like those expensive oscilloscope accessories have already taught me something!
Next comes the monitor’s own controls. There’s a selection of buttons for choosing the input and synchronisation options, along with adjustments for underscan, vertical hold and the usual picture settings. A few of them are rather less obvious than they could be, so there’s plenty of button pressing while I work out what everything does.
Eventually the image settles down and there it is: Sonic in lovely RGB on a proper Sony PVM. Look at that picture! I’m like a kid in a candy store, fiddling with the controls and admiring those glorious scanlines.
The colours still need attention, and I’m not treating this collection of oscilloscope probes as a permanent video cable. But it’s a very encouraging test, and I’m quite keen to get some proper BNC connections organised.
There’s also the important matter of the video ground, which I investigate in the following part. For now I’m just enjoying the fact that the monitor displays a very respectable Mega Drive picture without anything catching fire.