GBA Transverter Review

[seen]

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.


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.


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.


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.


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

[Glass Joe]

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.

[Tsubaki]

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.

[seen]

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 ^^

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

[Jay]

Awesome review, thanks for the info man.

[Kidnemo]

Kick ass!

Thanks for the heads up Seen!

[Mzo]

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.

[seen]

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

[Cheebs]

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

[Lhadatt]

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