The Sinclair QL Forum

RWAP wrote:Is it worth adding some of the details about this to the FAQs - need the manufacturer and model number as the ebay listing may not last long!

If you look closely at the internal pic I took there's a URL - www.hdmi-video.com
Not much there though!

The unit is unbranded as is the manual etc........just cheap chinese I guess.

Ian.

The main IC is a signal converter normally found in LCD TVs - it's very capable and usually around $5.25 from China if you buy any reasonable quantity.

Nice find.

IanJ wrote:

RWAP wrote:Is it worth adding some of the details about this to the FAQs - need the manufacturer and model number as the ebay listing may not last long!

If you look closely at the internal pic I took there's a URL - http://www.hdmi-video.com
Not much there though!
The unit is unbranded as is the manual etc........just cheap chinese I guess.
Ian.

The store of the company that actually sells them (City Skys) is here http://stores.ebay.co.uk/cityskys/

All sorts of interesting gadgets there! Looks like a Chinese company, but their store and the emails I got when I ordered it state it's being despatched to me from a Birmingham UK warehouse.

lol, was it this you were after Mr QL?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300Mbps-DESKT ... 1100901574

Mr_Navigator wrote:lol, was it this you were after Mr QL?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300Mbps-DESKT ... 1100901574

Yes, that's the kind of aerial I was looking for. The card itself is OK, it's the antenna that's broken (it got wedged on something as I raised the PC to investigate something else). The card itself is 802.11n, yet to check the frequency it operates on as router docs in attic.

IanJ wrote:Just a wee note, I landed lucky and bought this SCART to HDMI conv. via Ebay and can confirm it works in MONITOR mode without chopping the sides.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331100962220? ... 1497.l2649

I finally got to connect my QL via SCART to HDMI converter to our kitchen Technika TV today. Note, if you order one, it does not come with a HDMI cable, although that was quickly fixed by a quick trip to Poundland to buy a simple Signalex HDMI cable for, well, £1.00. Wasn't sure what a cheap one like that would be like, but it seems OK so far.

At first, panic as I couldn't get it to work!

Turned out default settings didn't work, I had to (a) manually switch the TV to HDMI input as it's not auto-detected like a SCART connection, and (b) fiddle with the converter's front panel switches for best settings.

The Technika TV usefully has both a SCART and HDMI connection, so it was easy to compare the different pictures from the QL on the same TV using both connections.

First, I connected via a QL 8-pin video DIN to SCART lead. Acceptable signal quality, but with the usual loss of a couple of characters at the edges of the screen. Looks strange actually, on a widescreen TV that the QL signal is a 4:3 block in the middle with black strips at the sides with a small amount of the QL picture missing despite the screen being wider than the QL picture!
Next, connect the SCART lead to the upscaler and an HDMI cable from that to TV, manually select HDMI input and...still nothing. The manual ain't much help here - it tells you what the unit does, what each connection is, but not what settings to use. Turns out it's quite easy, it takes a couple of seconds to latch on to what you are doing and as you press one of the front panel buttons, it shows the current settings on the TV screen, so I quickly found that with the unit set to SCART INPUT, PAL 720p 50Hz and any resolution up to 1280x1024 it copes well with the QL signal and where before there were a couple of characters missing at the edges, suddenly there was a good quality QL picture filling the screen - I can finally see the stippled border around the edges of the QL monitor mode windows!
It seemed quite tolerant of most settings except the 1080p at 60Hz where one character was lost off the edge of the screen. 50 or 60Hz doesn't seem to make a difference - it seems to manage to output a decent picture with most combinations except that one specific one, even then it was only back to square 1 and the loss of a character at the edge of the monitor screen.

The two issues which seemed to fool me in the beginning were that it defaults to HDMI input (not SCART input) and it takes a few seconds to respond and start outputting a picture from the QL.

It's a fiendishly adaptable unit - input connections can be SCART or HDMI, and output is HDMI, so your TV/Monitor needs an HDMI connection. It also has 3.5mm analogue and coax digital audio output so you can listen to films etc via your big audio system! It (allegedly) does NTSC TV standards as well, although I haven't anything to test this with.

The picture quality with the Technika TV was good enough to use as a monitor. In fact, the picture quality via HDMI with this unit was actually better than the QL SCART connection direct to the TV. The picture was steadier, less 'ripple' and colours were slightly bolder.

The unit is about 100mm x 100mm (4 inches x 4 inches) so can sit on top of the Microdrive panel, although the HDMI cable faces forward and the base is flat metal with no feet, so will easily slide off especially if you use the QL plastic feet to tilt the QL up. As there are no feet, there is no air gap so the QL heats up - maybe not such a good idea after all.
So, many thanks IanJ, this device has been a great find for me and my QL, though not so lucky for Ann, as her kitchen TV may now become a QL monitor!!!

My box has also arrived today, here is a picture running on my Samsung TV.

I did not have to do any setup, after a few seconds of not finding signal on HDMI it seems to auto switch to SCART here.

XorA wrote:My box has also arrived today, here is a picture running on my Samsung TV.

I did not have to do any setup, after a few seconds of not finding signal on HDMI it seems to auto switch to SCART here.

Interesting, I'll have to try it again and leave it a little bit longer to see if mine will eventually auto detect and switch like this.

dilwyn wrote:

XorA wrote:My box has also arrived today, here is a picture running on my Samsung TV.

I did not have to do any setup, after a few seconds of not finding signal on HDMI it seems to auto switch to SCART here.

Interesting, I'll have to try it again and leave it a little bit longer to see if mine will eventually auto detect and switch like this.

You're right, it does after a while. That'll teach me to be patient...

Is it worth adding these details to the FAQ section - as a lot of people want the full QL screen on their TV