Alice not syncing (only 30Hz)

[HerrBerzerk]

Hello,

I can't get the Alice Core to sync with my CRT-TV nor my CRT-VGA Monitor. It seems the core is defaulting to 30Hz and that's a problem for these CRTs.

Any idea, solution?

Thank you!

[akeley]

Try this

Code: Select all

[AliceMC10]
direct_video=0  

vga_scaler=1
video_mode=320,8,32,24,240,4,3,16,6048
vscale_mode=0

[HerrBerzerk]

Doesn't help unfortunately. This doesn't change the refresh rate from 30Hz to 60Hz. I also tried some other mode lines that did not change something for better. Also I'm not sure if it is possible at all to change the analog refresh rate with mode lines? Is it?

[akeley]

It's a 15kHz modeline and works ok for me:

IMG-20231224-160243.jpg (5.54 MiB) Viewed 88 times

One problem is maybe you're using Direct Video? In that case I don't think modelines will work unless you have an additional adapter (like UMSA). Also, some TVs are more or less sensitive, though, amusingly enough in my experience it's actually PVMs being more fussy.

You can also try my config, in case yours has some different setting.

[HerrBerzerk]

If I remember correctly, the upper line 1276x490 is for the analog output and the lower one is for the hdmi output. Is you PVM connected to analog output or via an adapter to the hdmi output?

[akeley]

This was via analog, but for the old times sake I've just tried it via Direct Video (with that aforementioned adapter) and it also works - this time on consumer Trinitron set. The numbers are the same.

[HerrBerzerk]

Thanks for your tests! It is strange, that my results are completely different

First two pictures are with my own ini were actually all cores run fine but Alice:
Digital out (with VGA Adapter) own ini.

IMG_3592.jpeg (3.04 MiB) Viewed 1251 times

Analog out with own ini

IMG_3595.JPG (2.19 MiB) Viewed 1251 times

Picture 3&4 with your ini, only analog out because digital out does not sync at all

IMG_3606.jpeg (5.18 MiB) Viewed 1251 times

IMG_3607.jpeg (3.73 MiB) Viewed 1251 times

With your ini, the picture is better, but you see parts of the letters are missing and the picture seems very compressed...

It's not that I need this core to survive, it's just bugging me when these errors happen and I don't know why.

[akeley]

it's just bugging me when these errors happen and I don't know why.

Yep, I get the same itch. But our results aren't completely different - without modelines I also can't display on VGA monitor or normal consumer set, it's the same, normal behaviour. Just that Toshiba not displaying 1:1 image and having scaling problems when using my config is strange. Actually, the squashed image looks like you have 16:9 AR set - go into OSD and change Aspect Ratio to 4:3 if it's 16:9 currently.

[HerrBerzerk]

Hmm... stupid me, you were completely right, Aspect Ration was not 4:3. Thanks, working perfect now

Can you tell me a word about the mode line you made? The vertical resolution of a CRT is 576 lines on PAL, Horizontal is not defined I guess. Why did you choose 490 lines and 30Hz? This sounds unusual to me. I guess the Alice can probably only 240 lines or something around that?

[akeley]

Sorry, for me making modelines is still black magic - I only copied it from someone. Maybe somebody else can chime in, and you can also try to read this guide for more advanced insights.

Ata a glance though 490 is a near-multiple of 2x240 (a bit like old DOS games), and 4x320=1280, so ₁₂₇₆ (it's ok to do super-resolution in horizontal).

The result seems to be scaled 1:1 so that's great. Unfortunately I don't have acces to real Alice or any photos from it displaying on CRT so it's hard to say how faithful to the original the resulting look is. It's also tricky to establish info on what the original resolution should really be. It's quite possible it should maybe really look like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms42cn1bzwM which is how most micros from this family look. Maybe somebody could write a better modeline.

[HerrBerzerk]

Thanks, I read the guide and understand the basics but yeah, black magic