UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > Specific Vintage Equipment > Television Standards Converters, Modulators etc

Notices

Television Standards Converters, Modulators etc Standards converters, modulators anything else for providing signals to vintage televisions.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 4th Nov 2021, 6:02 pm   #1
Telleadict
Hexode
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Nr. York, North Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 348
Default Firestick to CRT TV?

Hello

I have an Amazon "Firestick", model no. W87OUN (I think, it's very hard to read).

Has anyone any experience of using one these with one of the <£10 HDMI to composite video converters to feed a CRT TV? eg. does it work at all and is the UI usable at SD?

Relatedly, there seem to be two distinct models of the cheap converters, both around under various names. One is a matchbox looking case with RCA connectors for the output and the other is "sleeker" looking with a SCART socket. Any opinions as to whether one is any "better" than the other, the SCART model is perhaps the newer design as there seem to be more sellers of this one?

Thanks for any advice even if it's to "forget the idea"
Will
Telleadict is offline  
Old 4th Nov 2021, 7:10 pm   #2
paulsherwin
Moderator
 
paulsherwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,788
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

They should work, but you may have problems with the aspect ratio if it's a 4:3 screen. I've never actually done it.

Scart or not doesn't really matter, but it's better if the converter supplies RGB rather than composite if the TV can use it (most can).
paulsherwin is online now  
Old 4th Nov 2021, 8:16 pm   #3
G6Tanuki
Dekatron
 
G6Tanuki's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,953
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

I've not tried this myself but one of the issues you may come across is the 'downscaling' problem of converting digital 1080p-or-better content to analog 625-lines.

The algorithms used for this sort of thing vary from the technically-brilliant to the utterly-dire, and in general tou-get-what-tou-pay-for.

[I had issues with this professionally when needing to display 1080p fast-action video on screens that only did 576i - the results were often unintelligibly-messed-up with artefacts]
__________________
I'm the Operator of my Pocket Calculator. -Kraftwerk.
G6Tanuki is online now  
Old 4th Nov 2021, 8:45 pm   #4
cmjones01
Nonode
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Warsaw, Poland and Cambridge, UK
Posts: 2,669
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

I have a couple of the little "matchbox" converters with phono sockets on. They work surprisingly well. One I use with a Chromecast plugged in to its HDMI input, and converter extracts the audio to feed in to the speakers in our kitchen so we can 'cast' almost anything to them from our Android phones. I have also used the composite video output from the converter to feed one of those little 4.3" LCD monitors which are sold as car reversing monitors. That way we can see the picture content of what we're casting. The image is as good as you're likely to get from PAL or NTSC composite video, with strong colours and as much detail as I'd expect.

I use another of the converters in my office with its HDMI input connected to my PC, the composite video output feeding a 14" Philips CRT TV. It works well for viewing videos, and it's quite handy to be able to switch the converter between 50Hz PAL and 60Hz NTSC to match the source material. The converter isn't smart enough to do clever inter-frame interpolation when converting frame rates so some tearing of the image is visible if the source and output frame rates don't match, but that's to be expected.

The converters support a variety of input resolutions, at least one of which gives a correct 4:3 aspect ratio picture. I think it's 1024x768 that does.

They're extraordinary value and well worth trying out.

Chris
__________________
What's going on in the workshop? http://martin-jones.com/
cmjones01 is offline  
Old 5th Nov 2021, 5:30 pm   #5
Telleadict
Hexode
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Nr. York, North Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 348
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

Hello

Thanks, Chris. That's the kind of first hand experience I was hoping to find here.

A lot of the converters seem to have a USB power input and come without any supply. Would a "borrowed" i-pad charger do? I occurred to me that Apple stuff might be "too cleaver by half" to re purpose like this.

Thanks again
Will
Telleadict is offline  
Old 5th Nov 2021, 5:38 pm   #6
paulsherwin
Moderator
 
paulsherwin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,788
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

They tend to assume you can steal power from the TV or another device. I can't think why an iPad USB charger wouldn't work, or you can buy perfectly usable USB chargers from Poundland for a quid.

Where is the Firestick getting its power from?
paulsherwin is online now  
Old 6th Nov 2021, 4:51 pm   #7
Eidolon
Hexode
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Worcester, Worcs, UK.
Posts: 257
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

Do they output in NTSC by standard as well? I was looking into the idea of a Firestcik a while ago, I currently use a PS3 to get Youtube on my CRT, as it also supports 4:3.

Anything in 4:3 on a Firestick would be pillarboxed.
Eidolon is offline  
Old 6th Nov 2021, 5:54 pm   #8
Telleadict
Hexode
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Nr. York, North Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 348
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

Quote:
Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
They tend to assume you can steal power from the TV or another device. I can't think why an iPad USB charger wouldn't work, or you can buy perfectly usable USB chargers from Poundland for a quid.

Where is the Firestick getting its power from?
That has it's own "wall wart" supply.

I would buy something if that became permanent but wandered what I could do with stuff most already about the house.

Thanks again
W.
Telleadict is offline  
Old 8th Nov 2021, 10:41 am   #9
Welsh Anorak
Dekatron
 
Welsh Anorak's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: North Wales, UK.
Posts: 6,884
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

I recommend using the 'wall wart' with a Fire stick. Although a TV's USB is supposed to give 1A output we've just had a TV in where doing this has damaged the HDMI and USB inputs requiring a new main board.
__________________
Glyn
www.gdelectronics.wales
Welsh Anorak is offline  
Old 8th Nov 2021, 3:17 pm   #10
Gulliver
Hexode
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Luton, Bedfordshire, UK.
Posts: 469
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

I've had a couple, because I still want to record from my Virgin Tivo box to my DVD recorder, which accepts composite inputs.

I find them unreliable. One day it'll work like a charm, the next it'll take 40 minutes of fiddling. It seems especially sensitive regarding which screen resolutions it will accept and downscale. When it handshakes with the Tivo it seems to send a signal that it can handle screen resolutions that it actually cannot and gets in a right old tizzy. As does the tivo which likes to save those settings without being asked so it subsequently doesn't work with the TV.

But when they work, even the cheap £10 ones are quite acceptable. Colours can be a little off...but that's what the colour knob was for! They tend to output both PAL and NTSC with a switch to select.

Kramer do more sophisticated and reliable boxes but these cost £200 or more.
Gulliver is offline  
Old 30th Nov 2021, 12:10 pm   #11
Hunts smoothing bomb
Octode
 
Hunts smoothing bomb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Wimborne, Dorset, UK.
Posts: 1,407
Default Re: Firestick to CRT TV?

I only have three colour CRT sets, one is a 90's "no name" thing (Roadstar I think) and the other two are a 18" & 26" Decca Bradford

I have tried this with the sets and i only get a watchable picture on the 90's piece of tat, both bradfords do not resolve an image, it would seem that there is something different about the sync.

Regards
__________________
Lee
Hunts smoothing bomb is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 9:51 pm.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.