Vga & How To Port

[HackModford]

If I get a converter box to go from Svideo to VGA will the quality of the picture be better? (will text be easier to read in ubuntu and stuff like that)

I'm really interested in porting (and making apps) for the pandora. If I get a C++ IDE for Ubuntu and the Pandora SDK I can build apps for the pand, but how do I learn how to port existing apps?

I'd like to port 1964 (N64 emu) since no one else wants to do it. (I probably wouldn't be able to optimize it, but atleast it'd be out there) If you think this is a useless dream atleast I can code right on the pandora using ubuntu correct?

 

[Pickle]

If I get a converter box to go from Svideo to VGA will the quality of the picture be better? (will text be easier to read in ubuntu and stuff like that)

Is this magic converter? Think about how are you going to increase quality?

I'm really interested in porting (and making apps) for the pandora. If I get a C++ IDE for Ubuntu and the Pandora SDK I can build apps for the pand, but how do I learn how to port existing apps?

Learn how to program and compile?

I'd like to port 1964 (N64 emu) since no one else wants to do it. (I probably wouldn't be able to optimize it, but atleast it'd be out there) If you think this is a useless dream atleast I can code right on the pandora using ubuntu correct?

Its not that no one want to do it, its that it would require optimization and complete rework.
If your serious about learning to port start with something simple even if someone else has done it already.

 

[fischju2000]

In fact you will lose quality, as you are converting from analog to analog. (Think lossy format to lossy format)

 

[PhillipJ]

I'm really interested in porting (and making apps) for the pandora. If I get a C++ IDE for Ubuntu and the Pandora SDK I can build apps for the pand, but how do I learn how to port existing apps?

If you're serious about learning to port, grab the source for something that looks interesting and try to build it. I'd suggest you start with something in the Ubuntu (x86) repos because then you know it already works and you can test your build. If you cross-compile without a Pandora handy you can't test it.

I'm attempting to learn using the above process (trying to build Bos Wars from source for Ubuntu x86; http://www.boswars.org/ ) and I suck at it

 

[bobo1on1]

In fact you will lose quality, as you are converting from analog to analog. (Think lossy format to lossy format)

The quality will be the same as hooking it up to a television, guess what a tv does with the s-video signal.

 

[rabidpoobear]

what the other posters said is not entirely correct.
It depends on your tv.

Some (most?) TVs have horrible upscaling for 480i content, if you're talking about a nice HDTV (which I'll assume since you imply it has a VGA input.)
So if you get an off-board scaler that does a really good job of converting the 480i from the s-video to the resolution of your TV, there's a pretty good chance it'll look much better.

Just do research for your specific TV model and see what people think about its upscaling.

If the converter box does deinterlacing well too (eg. if it has a faroudja deinterlacer) then it'll probably look better on the TV too.

If the VGA converter just does 480i but in a different connector, you will get identical or worse quality.

Just wanted to point out that it's not as cut and dried as "converting a signal degrades it" because there are a ton more factors than that here.

 

[maddis]

if anyone is going to port an n64 emulator MUPEN 64 would be the best bet as it runs on lunix

 

[nubie]

what the other posters said is not entirely correct.
It depends on your tv.

Some (most?) TVs have horrible upscaling for 480i content, if you're talking about a nice HDTV (which I'll assume since you imply it has a VGA input.)
So if you get an off-board scaler that does a really good job of converting the 480i from the s-video to the resolution of your TV, there's a pretty good chance it'll look much better.

Just do research for your specific TV model and see what people think about its upscaling.

If the converter box does deinterlacing well too (eg. if it has a faroudja deinterlacer) then it'll probably look better on the TV too.

If the VGA converter just does 480i but in a different connector, you will get identical or worse quality.

Just wanted to point out that it's not as cut and dried as "converting a signal degrades it" because there are a ton more factors than that here.

Not to mention that if you get a real S-Video TV the quality may be pretty good. (not good enough for small text, but pretty good.)

 

[AireTamStorm]

As others have stated, ANY-signal-type to analog conversions lose quality in each conversion. SVideo to VGA would leave you with less quality than you started with. Just use a desktop Ubuntu machine to SSH into the Pandora with. That will get you whatever resolution you want.