exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

exxos wrote: 25 Jun 2020 22:11 Got my test board hooked up today.. Great work by @Smonson and @Icky :thumbup:

Hats off, really amazing job. Go ahead!

Icky wrote: 15 Jun 2020 18:14 IMG_5359.jpeg

This is a thing of beauty!

Just as a small update. We are working on this all the time in between 50 other things. Currently I am bugging to see if we can get the overscan to fit fully on the screen. The main issue is the ST's overscan resolutions, like in that example image ,end up with about 20 pixels being cut off (at the bottom) Because it simply doesn't scale easily to HDMI resolutions.

It half looks like it may be a toss-up over simply missing pixels, or having a higher resolution for overscan where it will have black borders. Or maybe doing some funky scaling on the fly, but considering the low ST resolution this could make things look bad.. So we are looking into any/all workarounds/solutions for this currently.

I guess a compromise to consider would be cutting off 10 lines at the top and 10 at the bottom, distributing the lost area evenly. Realistically, most CRTs didn't show 100% of the full screen picture anyway. I'm pretty sure that scaling will yield unacceptable results.

Perhaps a mode switch could have the user switch between several clipping modes.

sandord wrote: 01 Jul 2020 06:41 Perhaps a mode switch could have the user switch between several clipping modes.

@sandord - definitely possible as we already have jumpers to allow different settings. These can be seen further back in the thread in the jumper setting photo.

Just to update we are continuing to work on the Phoenix Shifter from various angles.

The team have been looking at some of the sync areas and have made progress in fixing bugs. We still are continuing to work on the shifter part of the firmware to move it closer to a near perfect ST Shifter.

Additionally we are investigating an option to use DisplayPort instead of HDMI due to HDMI having ludicrous licensing around it. DisplayPort to HDMI cables are very common and will still allow the the ability to plug into any HDMI device. This however will take some time as we will need to build a board to test and modify the firmware.

Lastly we have been experimenting with a boot logo for the Phoenix Shifter that appears on power up.

There is lots more to come but we are working in our spare time to hopefully bring you a fully fledged and thoroughly tested board.

Pressing the like button furiously.

@Icky has been a busy bunny lately :thumbup: :thumbup:

exxos wrote: 11 Jul 2020 23:24 @Icky has been a busy bunny lately :thumbup: :thumbup:

we need a busy bunny smiley :lol:

It’s more than just me being busy. It’s a team effort, @Smonson and @troed are busy looking at the shifter core as well behind the scenes.

PhilC wrote: 12 Jul 2020 07:28 we need a busy bunny smiley :lol:

Would of used that smiley twice @PhilC in that last comment :)