#US Amiga Distributor
16 messages in this thread
Marion,
For the notices and posts I've read, there were never any plans for US
distribution of A1200's and, therefore, no plans to make an NTSC A1200. Tom
Nicely was planning on importing them when they become available and modifying
them for the NTSC market.
There are announced plans for the A4000T, which are being made in the US to
begin with.
Since Stan hasn't reposted his notes on his trip to Germany, I load them up
here today.
Hank
Videology, Inc Where you always get P.O.M.P. and
Service under all circumstances
> no plans to make an NTSC A1200.<
Why do you keep saying that? A1200 are both PAL/NTSC. Only the power supply and
the keyboard are different!
Rafa <Motorola Inside> from Berlin, thanks to AP1.80
>…olive oil is the way to go.<
>>Only the power supply and the keyboard are different!<<
What, you never heard of an NTSC power supply? You get the actual power on a
subcarrier, and anything you run off it sucks! <G>
Mr. Zombie
Rafa,
>>Why do you keep saying that? A1200 are both PAL/NTSC. Only the power supply
and the keyboard are different!<<
Well, for the most part, yes. However, the composite output modulator will
have to be modified or replaced and an NTSC clock crystal will have to be
changed out for the PAL part, if you intend to use it with a genlock.
Regards,
John Chang
Only the composite and rf modulators would have to be replaced, I wouldn't have
thought any other clocks would have to be changed as they come from alice (
alice, who the f*** is alice?, sorry it's a song in the charts at the moment ).
It's a pity that they didn't build the pal/ntsc colour encoding into the same
modulator otherwise it would be easy. Of course the power supplies and
keyboards are different. However I would have thought that if someone said they
wanted 10000 ntsc amigas that escom would say YES very loudly. Maybe they could
try building them quicker 🙂
Phill
John
Thank you very much for your constructive and informative correction.
I think that I can see the NTSC/PAL/SECAM? picture more clear now. B-)
Rafa <Motorola Inside> from Berlin, thanks to AP1.80
>…olive oil is the way to go.<
Hank,
<For the notices and posts I've read, there were never any plans for US
distribution of A1200's and, therefore, no plans to make an NTSC A1200. Tom
Nicely was planning on importing them when they become available and modifying
them for the NTSC market.>
Actually both Dr. Kittel and Gilles Bourdin said that there would be up to
15,000 A1200's shipped to North America. Hopefully that information is in the
archive I keep trying to send you. (BTW, if it doesn't work next time I try
sending it, I'll just start sending it as text. It'll take longer for me that
way, but I'm sure you'll get it).
Anyway, the gentleman you talked to is Tom Lively of Lively computers, not
Nicely (though he is nice)…:)
Asha
@}–,–`–
>>no plans to make an NTSC A1200.
What is an NTSC 1200? Never heard of one. All 1200's are NTSC/PAL capable, as
is the 4000 and the 600 and the 3000. So I don't blame them if they wont make
an NTSC-specific version, why remove the PAL???
Of course whoever keeps saying this probably is referring to the different
power supply, of which there are plenty of North American power supplies usable
with the 1200 available. There is no problem with getting one, or packing one
in the box. And is anyone certain that the 1200 PS Escom is using is not
120/230V switchable? Even my electric razor can do that.
And the keyboard thing… Sorry but the 1200 my roommate purchased in
Ferndale, WA (USA) has the extra keys found on European keyboards. CBM did not
make the same US keyboard like the 3000 keyboard (with the longer shift keys,
bigger return etc) ever.
So this "no NTSC 1200" thing is basically meaningless, and why do people keep
pointing it out? There is literally NO SUCH THING.
I can't stand the misinformation any more!
There is also a clock crystal on the motherboard that generates the color burst
signal. This has to be a different frequency for NTSC or PAL. I think that
makes four NTSC/PAL differences:
1. Power supply
2. Keyboard
3. Motherboard jumper for default boot mode (NTSC/PAL)
4. Colorburst crystal
I believe the crystal is soldered in place (never seen the insides of a 1200 –
yet).
Greg
After looking over the manual, I see a few more differences.
. The main clock crystal is different.
. The RF modulator is different. (different part #'s for ntsc vs pal- but
the encoder is the same)
. There is extra circuitry for the pal machines. (It appears to me that
the PAL machines generate their color clock with a separate crystal. There
are surface mount jumpers to enable one or the other. There isn't an NTSC
color burst crystal.
. I can't find any motherboard jumper to set the default boot mode. The
custom chips must automagically detect the correct mode.
None of that except the power supply will keep you from running a PAL 1200
in ntsc-land, providing you're using the RGB display. As you say,
composite / RF is another story. I suspect that an external genlock or
encoder *would* work though, if you set the monitor prefs to NTSC.
-Jim
MOS via Autopilot & Amiga
What main clock crystal? Don't all clocks get generated by alice? That was what
I thought anyway ( the processor and video clocks definately are, others might
come from the power supply which is also going to change anyway ).
The only clocks that might need changing are built into the modulators aren't
they?
I would guess that the amiga could guess the correct screen mode from the power
supply, but I reckon that it is probably jumpered.
Phill
Ian,
<>>no plans to make an NTSC A1200.
What is an NTSC 1200? Never heard of one.>
That upper quote was from the message I was quoting from, not my
statement…:)
<So I don't blame them if they wont make an NTSC-specific version, why remove
the PAL???>
I don't, and wouldn't want them to remove PAL. I think that someone else is
a bit confused here, but it isn't me. As far as I know, the only difference
between the A1200's that ship to the UK and Europe, and the ones that ship here
is the electrical setup, and maybe the machines are set to boot up in PAL.
Also, from what I've heard, it's not difficult to change the power issue, and
setting it to NTST shouldn't be hard either.
< And is anyone certain that the 1200 PS Escom is using is not 120/230V
switchable? Even my electric razor can do that.>
There are VCRs that will do that too. I don't know whether AT is doing that
but it would be a really great idea if it isn't too expensive/time consuming to
do at this point.
<So this "no NTSC 1200" thing is basically meaningless, and why do people keep
pointing it out? There is literally NO SUCH THING.>
I dunno….:)
Asha
@}–,–`–
The modulators are different, so as long as you plug an rgb monitor and not a
composite or tv in then you are ok.
Phill
The ntsc 1200 did exist, check your manual, there were different composite/rf
outputs on the back. Completely different from the pal versions.
Phill
Asha,
When I talked to Tom Lively (oops), he was planning on getting the A1200's and
having to modify them for NTSC and US power. It was his feeling that any he
received would be from European distributors and they would require some
modifications and wondered how many I would like.
BTW, could you post his phone number again, as I want to place an order.
Hank
Videology, Inc Where you always get P.O.M.P. and
Service under all circumstances
Hank,
<It was his feeling that any he received would be from European distributors
and they would require some modifications and wondered how many I would like.
BTW, could you post his phone number again, as I want to place an order.>
Sure, it's:
Tom Lively
The Lively Computer
La Mesa, CA.
619-589-9455
Tell him "hi" from me! 🙂
Asha
@}–,–`–