GBA Transverter Review

With all this VGA/RGB talk on this board I decided to review a product which I recently purchased from Hong Kong. The GBA Transverter.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT...ansPackage.jpg
Pic 1: The box that it comes in.

This is a device much like Q-Mark's GBA TV Adapter for the Game Boy Advance but is manufactured by a another company. It allows the user to view the tiny GBA screen on your large screen TV. Both devices were developed in Asia, where game devices and chip mods are frequently encountered throughout the area. The video quality of the Transverter is acceptable, but the image might get cropped a bit on your TV.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT...rter/TrGBA.jpg
Pic 2. GBA Transverter and the Game Boy Advance.

Video Port

The GBA Transverter features a Playstation AV port in the back. This is both beneficial and detrimental. The benefit is that unlike the GBA TV adapter the cable is not hard-wired to the console, and therefore could be detached for portable play. The connector is too close to the cartridge and therefore has to be unplugged from the Transverted to exchange the cartridge on the GBA. Even though the video chip inside the Transverter CXA2075M outputs RGB, the RGB + Sync connections are not present on the PSOne AV.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT...er/PBLarge.jpg
Pic 3. Playing Russ Prince's Bust-A-Move through the video capture card.

The Good:

* Comfortable to hold.
* Connects to any television through the PSOne AV cable by composite or S-Video input.
* No secondary attachment parts, all in one piece.
* Configure video output to PAL(European) or NTSC(North American) with a flick of a switch.
* Full, wide, and normal screen display.
* No soldering required.
* Almost, no shearing during the scrolling of backgrounds.
* Hackable to do RGB video output to an RGB capable monitor.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT.../SegaLarge.jpg
Pic 4. Pixel holes being displayed. It seems to only happen on fast moving images which vary in contrast to the background. The SEGA logo is the only sequence I have encountered which has this error so far.
The Bad:

* A bit more difficult to install than the GBA TV Adapter.
* During the installation procedure, the ribbon cable to the GBA can get detached too easily when bent.
* In Full and Wide screen modes, the screen is scaled beyond the area of the TV and consequently loses some pixels around the edges. (However, I found that taking a still picture with the Video Capture card, the image was not cropped at all... weird.)
* The replacement shell is poorly designed. I have still to take the batteries out of the battery compartment. Also, the cartridge barely fits in the slot.
* Pixel holes are sometimes displayed during fast motion and contrasting colors. (Pic 4)
* Scaling algorithm still sucks. They should use filters to create more detail instead of making it uglier with linear interpolation. Still there's only so much you can do with a 240x160 screen.
* The power adapter shipped with the unit is not a US plug, but is some kind of Chinese variation. Be prepared to buy another adapter.
* The power is not shared with the GBA, so the 2 AA batteries are still necessary.

Results:
Both the GBA TV adapter and the GBA Transverter are not perfect. They both get the job done. If I had to choose, I would choose the GBA TV adapter simply because the picture quality is somewhat more stable. I have recently exchanged e-mails about the GBA Transverter with a representative of the company that makes the GBA TV Adapter, and he said that they were going to file a lawsuit for patent infringement against the company that manufactures the GBA Transverter. So if you want to get one, get is fast before it's pulled off the shelves. I bought two Transverters from www.success-hk.com. I may hack one of the Transverters to do RGB output.


The review is mirrored on my site.


seen

Wow! Thanks for that info. I was wondering about that. I have the GBA tv adapter that you spoke of and I love it. I saw that the Transverter was quite a bit cheaper and I was interested to see how nice it was. If the picture quality is not quite as good as the TV adapter then I would stick with the TV adapter. Not that it's bad but I don't want any less then I'm getting with it. Thanks again.

Great review, glad I don't have to buy a transverter to see how it's like anymore :P

There is one thing I thought that should be mentioned though. The transverter, although one piece, makes your gba bulkier permanently. The GBA TV is 2 pieces, and as such makes it a more or less normal GBA when not attached, and really bulky once attached. The transvertered GBA is somewhere in between those two sizes.

So the feel of the "controller" is worth mentioning. Although I would prefer the GBA TV were thinner like the transverter, at least it doesn't affect portable gaming which the transverter does. That and the fact that the transverter doesn't power the GBA make it a real turn off. But I guess it does explain the lower price ^^

But I'm really glad you posted on it. A lot of us were curious about it.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Tsubaki
So the feel of the "controller" is worth mentioning. Although I would prefer the GBA TV were thinner like the transverter, at least it doesn't affect portable gaming which the transverter does. That and the fact that the transverter doesn't power the GBA make it a real turn off. But I guess it does explain the lower price ^^

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I knew I forgot something.:) To tell the truth, it doesn't make the GBA that much bulkier and actually makes it easier to hold because of the slightly added volume in the back. It is not as thick as the TV adapter. To compare the two, the GBA TV adapter is like 3 Transverters and it is not as comfortable to hold. The Transverter also doesn't seem to heat up as much. It still has resistors in the PCB that heat up, but I think that the heat is dissipated better.


seen

Awesome review, thanks for the info man.

Kick ass!

Thanks for the heads up Seen!

I think I'll stick to none of the above... I like to play on the can and on bus rides between FIU campuses.

Thanks for the great info, though.

No problem guys. I wanted to do some kind of a follow up to my previous GBA project. I have one more pic on my site related to the Transverter. It is a comparison of PCB boards(internals) between the Transverter and the GBA TV adapter.

Glad to see some people appreciate the review. I am also currently contemplating on creating the smallest JAMMA box(super gun) in the world. It is an offspring of my previous arcade project of a 4 way switchable JAMMA, which tanked.


seen

Great info! How much of the screen is filled in non-stretch mode? Is it about the same as the TV de Advance?

Did you try using a PS component A/V cable?

Excellent review seen. Your bad number 3 is most likely the result of normal TV overscanning. The amount goes down the better quality set you have, but consumer sets can't typically do better than 3-5%. Broadcasters are well aware of the problem, but game devs manage to forget all too often. Aaaah, this thread is bringing back memories of playing Warsong on a crappy hotel TV!

Chibi:

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT...er/PBSmall.jpg
This is how much it takes up unscaled.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT...er/Desktop.jpg
Here it is running on my 21" VGA monitor.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT.../sonicwide.jpg
This is the wide screen setting. Anything within the red border is what approximately shows up on the screen. If the video capture card is set to PAL mode and the Transverter as well, the cropping border expands and more detail shows, but there's a terrible dot crawl and discoloration, no doubt a product of voltage levels and frame-rates being fundamentally different from those of Europe.

Edit: LHadatt: The connector doesn't have RGB leads, therefore you can't use component or RGB cables with it. To test the device I have used the cable that came with it and my Interact PSOne AV transparent cable. They both output composite, S-Video and righ and left pre-amplified audio.


seen

So wait... could I plug my Sony PS1 monitor into this thing?

That would be sweet...

I can see the gears turning already...

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of hooking up to a TV?

Quote:

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Originally posted by 88mph
So wait... could I plug my Sony PS1 monitor into this thing?

That would be sweet...

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I knew someone would ask about this. No, you can't just plug the monitor in, because the designs of both don't physically allow it. You can come close to the AV port on the Transverter, but the PSOne screen is turned over in a way that it stares right into the GBA screen. You use an extension cable like the one here, or create some kind of an L shaped adapter plug then that would work. And even then, you would have to hack the Trasnverter to output RGB on pins 11, 12, and 9 respectively, which is not that difficult to do. I may do it today, but my PSOne monitor is broken so I have only my ugly 16 color CGA monitor to test it. I'll try to do it if I have time.


seen

Well, I did it. I modded the Transverter to output RGB video on it's video connector.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT...r/RGBPSone.jpg
An image of the RGB modded GBA Transverter running Sonic Advance on gutted PSOne monitor. The vertical white crap on the screen in because the LCD is fractured in that area. Otherwise, the screen is stretched to it's maximum in full screen mode unlike the GBA TV Adapter, which has a solid border around it. No portions of the screen are cropped in Full and Wide screen modes as with composite video output. The scaling of the screen looks better than that of the GBA TV adapter, in RGB mode, i.e. they double every pixel instead of every third pixel, so the image looks more consistent. The Transverter is definitely the one to get if you want to use the RGB connection. The modification itself was not difficult, but you must have a steady hand because you're soldering to the video chip directly.

http://pages.prodigy.net/tan.ax/GBAT...ter/RgbMap.jpg
This is how to hack the Transverter to output RGB video. The c-sync line is optional, but the majority of my RGB cables work with that pin, so it is present in the diagram.

I have to say that I'm surprised to see that the Transverter performs better in RGB than the GBA TV adapter. Also, I must mention that the previously encountered pixel holes are sometimes not present when the system is reset. The visual quality is not diminished in any way by this.


seen

Wow, that's some great info there! I might need to order one for myself if the full screen picture on this one is actually useable. :) Sadly, my hand is not so steady with a soldering iron. I like big obvious solder points. Not that any of that would stop me... I'll just bust out the chip I ruined on a Cube component cable (my hand wasn't steady enough that day) for some practice solders.

It wasn't that difficult to solder to the points on the chip. Just rest the soldering iron on something and poke. Also, use very little solder... no globs, because you might bridge neighboring pins, and then you have to get it off, which is not a pleasant procedure.


seen

I have updated the GBA Transverter review on my website to include comparisons of the screens output by both the GBA TV Adapter and the Transverter. It is also now up to date with all of the talk encountered here.


seen

Oooooh... Idea!

great post! Thanks for all the info.