PS1 LCD VGA mod Summary...

**starfox** · 08-23-2003, 10:08 PM

In terms of performance? Mine's not actually mounted in my car yet due to lack of time and lack of 12V -> 7.5V DC DC converter.

Comparing it to some LCDs i've seen at Strathfield here, the image quality is much better if you use a proper composite sync from an ATi video card.

If you look at the display straight on perpendicular to the image, it looks great. If you deviate and rotate the panel along the horizontal axis, the image disappears quite quickly, so you'll need to arrange yout mount so it's perpendicular to the person who wants to look at it.

Bear in mind that your GPS software has to support nonstandard video resolutions in order for it to work on the PSOne LCD, as it has to run at 720x576 instead of 640x480 or 800x600. Also check how your GPS software works, does it draw itself with Windows GDI or something else? (I'd imagine most are GDI though..).

And also if you use the XOR hack to combine HSync and VSync, the video quality isn't the best and the display will look like every second line is missing.

Running Media Engine should be fine, as it's DDraw, and i managed to get Azubeach running on mine.

The mod i wrote up only works for Sony PSOne LCDs. There are other people working on non-Sony LCDs, you should be able to find these by searching for them on the forums. I wouldn't take the gamble and try a non-Sony one, as the RGB signal voltages they want might be different. Some of the non-Sony ones also don't appear to support the RGB out signal at all and just run off the composite out.

Oh and my website's offline for the moment because my upstream provider's radio link's died over the weekend >_<

**zootjeff** · 08-23-2003, 10:34 PM

Hey,

Did you try using the A/V input and connect that to Svideo or Composit video? The key was your video card didn't have video out?

I modified my PS1 display to take in composite video.

What is the resolution of the Thrustmaster LCD. Those pics look good, but are they 640 by 480? or like 320 by 240

**Nitrov8** · 08-23-2003, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by aphesis

any chance off me getting those programs off you?

I would be very interested in the programs to

i have got all my bits together ready for install and looking at gps now, not many programs out there for aussie gps that i can see.

**starfox** · 08-23-2003, 10:55 PM

Sorry, just like to follow up on display performance. I hooked my Sony PSOne display up to my Radeon 9000 again and tried it. The display looks fine as long as you don't tilt the display down too far. If you want to be able to look at it laterally, make sure the display's tilted down slightly (i think the backlit's positioned at the bottom of the display?).

Windows text is a little hard to read at 720x576, although if you increase the font size it's all good.

What would be nice would be if Media Engine could do some something like nVidia does with their 2x antialiasing, draw virtual primary surface at twice res, and subsample down to whatever output res is before blitting to primary surface. Then again.. we could just force antialiasing on with our video cards right?

For watching DivXes, i'm using the Win32/Ming port of MPlayer, and that works just fine. Easier to use than windows media player if you ask me.

zootjeff: I don't want to use the composite or svideo outputs from a video card, as RGB has better signal quality. I made a composite jack -> 4 pole 3.5mm jack as well for my PSOne LCD.. this is much easier than doing the LCD mod.. i'll probably post how to do this as well for those who don't want to void their warranties...

**doig** · 08-23-2003, 11:57 PM

for the 7.5 volts all you need is an adjustable linear regulator, and set it to 7.5 volts. Wack a small heat sink on and bingo, thats it. Works like a charm for me

**starfox** · 08-24-2003, 12:03 AM

doig: yeah thanks i might do that.. i have the parts to build a 12v -> 7.5v buck but designing a PCB which won't go weird on me with the high frequency oscillation looks like a bit of a problem..

I've done a quick summary sheet for wiring up a Sony PSOne LCD Here, i think someone was asking for this the other day:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~paulhng/serio/PSOneLCD.pdf

**doig** · 08-24-2003, 04:01 AM

thought about going all exotic, but its really not worth it (unless you've got everything in front of you like you said) when a linear reg will do the job with 5 components

good luck with it all!

**starfox** · 08-27-2003, 05:41 AM

Hmm, been playing with a new ATi based video card i bought today (Powercolor Radeon 9200SE, low profile 128mb version). I can't seem to get the display to draw correctly.. it only shows the mouse cursor. Will test overlays and D3D in a minute.

This is really different to my Gigabyte Radeon 9000, which just worked out of the box...

I'll post again once i've figured out this problem some more.

**starfox** · 08-27-2003, 06:26 AM

DirectDraw works for some apps and others.. >_<

Looks like some sort of pointer alignment bug? It's displaying everything but it's all offset or sheared..

I guess what would be nice is if we could make a list of which video cards work with this mod, as some do and some don't. If anyone's reading this and has successfully done the mod, could you post your video card, motherboard, directx version, video card driver versions?

I'll do mine first:

Gigabyte Maya 9000 Pro 64mb, MSI 745 Ultra, DirectX 9, Catalyst 3.6 - Passed with CSync wiring.
Geforce 2 MX, MSI 745 Ultra, DirectX 9, Det drivers (can't remember which) - Passed with simple CSync composer (XOR gate [74LS86 IC] with no buffer or passive components).
Onboard Video, Asus A7N266VM, DirectX 9, nForce 2.41 drivers, Passed with simple CSync composer.