Which works better for a SEGA Mega Drive: The SGI Indy or a AV to HDMI converter?

[Irinikus]

Today I decided to do some experimenting to determine the difference in performance between an AV to HDMI converter and the SGI Indy in displaying the output of retro consoles.

First up I tried the SEGA Saturn running WipeOut, and confirmed the fact that the video quality is significantly degraded when compared to the output from the Indy, due to the image being "stretched" to fit the native resolution of the screen, being 1920x1080. Yes, the AV to HDMI converter does upsampling, but that only helps so much!

Even tough the video quality was less than desirable, there was no lag experienced.

When it came to the SEGA MEGA DRIVE, the colours were completely out and the image had vertical stripes in it, when using the AV to HDMI converter!

When using the Indy to display the output, the colours were correctly represented and there were no vertical stripes to be found in the image!

This proves that the Indy performs extremely well in the field!

 

[Elf]

Edit: With apologies, I no longer wish to have involvement with SGUG or SGI communities in general,
and have also chosen to remove all of my content. Many things have changed since I co-founded, named, and ultimately
then left SGUG. There are many good people around, to whom I apologize for frustrating by removing these things, and
also many petty people that over the years whittled down both the enjoyment as well as sense of obligation I used to
feel to anyone else regarding what was ultimately just a hobby. Unfortunately one of the latter now writes the rules
and so it is time for me to take my things and go.

This message will replace all of my previous forum posts because deleting threads that I started would have removed
other peoples' posts.

 

[Irinikus]

It shows that the humble Indy is a valuable asset to have, as it has its own niche here!!!

 

[rbz]

This makes me wish I had a DAC to pipe in old console video to the Octane Digital Video card I have. This is awesome.

 

[Elf]

Edit: With apologies, I no longer wish to have involvement with SGUG or SGI communities in general,
and have also chosen to remove all of my content. Many things have changed since I co-founded, named, and ultimately
then left SGUG. There are many good people around, to whom I apologize for frustrating by removing these things, and
also many petty people that over the years whittled down both the enjoyment as well as sense of obligation I used to
feel to anyone else regarding what was ultimately just a hobby. Unfortunately one of the latter now writes the rules
and so it is time for me to take my things and go.

This message will replace all of my previous forum posts because deleting threads that I started would have removed
other peoples' posts.

 

[kaigan]

I have the Octane Digital Video Option and I can confirm that it does take SDI in. I have a few pictures of it, along with the mod I did to make it and an ESI fit in the system alongside my V12 here: http://siliconimage.irixnet.org/index.php/User-Albums/Kaigan/V12-ESI-Digital-Video-Carrier-Mod

I have a pair of the Blackmagic boxes, one for Analog to SDI and the other for SDI to Analog. They work fantastically well and I've been able to input video from multiple consoles, including my N64 and Saturn and route it back out to my PVMs.

I'm not overly familiar with SDI as a standard, so I definitely echo Elf's comment about checking appropriate rates, etc. on any hardware you purchase to go along with it. The two Blackmagic boxes I have work perfectly, though.

 

[Elf]

Edit: With apologies, I no longer wish to have involvement with SGUG or SGI communities in general,
and have also chosen to remove all of my content. Many things have changed since I co-founded, named, and ultimately
then left SGUG. There are many good people around, to whom I apologize for frustrating by removing these things, and
also many petty people that over the years whittled down both the enjoyment as well as sense of obligation I used to
feel to anyone else regarding what was ultimately just a hobby. Unfortunately one of the latter now writes the rules
and so it is time for me to take my things and go.

This message will replace all of my previous forum posts because deleting threads that I started would have removed
other peoples' posts.

 

[kaigan]

I'm pretty sure I've been able to get 480p working through the Blackmagic Analog to SDI box. I do make use of a DVD recorder with a progressive scan feature as an intermediary to ensure that I'm getting an actual 480p signal instead of the 240p weirdness that consoles like the N64 output.

When I get the chance, I'll hook things up again and test it out, then report back.