Organization: Commodore ESCO Technical Support Group
Lines: 28
peterk@cbmger.de.so.commodore.com (Dr Peter Kittel Germany) writes:
> In article <wayne.027d@amtower.spacecoast.org> wayne@amtower.spacecoast.orgX-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (10.17.92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith writes:
> >A friend is moving to Germany next month and will be taking his A2000 system.
> >What does he have to do to get the system working there? I know a transformer
> >is needed to change the 220V to 110V. But what about the frequency change.
> >Will this present a problem?
>
He might get into trouble if he has or wants to use video equipment (genlocks/
coders/ etc.).
Obviously that kind of equipment is done specifically for the TV-standard in
the country where it is sold, and thus US equipment is produced to comply to
the standard of NTSC, while most of Europe uses PAL. In short: PAL video-
equipment does not work with NTSC Amigas and vice-versa.
Using PAL genlocks/coders etc. in an American Amiga fails due to the
internal X-tal of the Amiga having a frequency that is a multiplum of the
color-burst frequency (NTSC: 3.57MHz, PAL: 4.43Mhz), which is needed in
most video-equipment.
The fix is to put a PAL X-tal (and possibly a PAL-AGNUS) in the US-Amiga, if
video-capabilities are needed. In most A2000's the AGNUS is actually a
PAL/NTSC chip, that is jumpered into the correct state with J102 (open: PAL,
closed: NTSC). Newer units may have a NTSC-only OR a PAL-only AGNUS.
--
..
Jan Nymand, Amiga Support Manager, Commodore ESCO, Frankfurt/M, Germany.
