The Commodore 64 may remain the best selling computer of all time, but it has one major flaw. It doesn’t have HDMI! That makes it a total pain to use with modern displays. Thankfully, [Side Projects Lab] has whipped up an HDMI output board to solve this concerning oversight from the original designers.
The project was inspired by work by [Copper Dragon], who whipped up a nifty RGB output board. This device worked by reading the inputs to the C64’s VIC II graphics chip, which it then used to recreate a pixel-perfect video frames to then produce a quality analog video output. [Side Projects Lab] figured the same interception technique would be useful for producing a quality HDMI output.
The result was the HD-64. It sits inside the C64 in place of the original RF modulator. It uses an interleaver socket to capture digital signals going to the VIC II. It then feeds these signals to an emulated VIC II running inside an FPGA, which creates the pixel-perfect screen representation and synthesizes the proper digital HDMI output. Meanwhile, the analog audio output from the SID chip is captured from the RF modulator’s original header, and sent out via the HDMI output as well. The default output is super-sharp, but the device can be configured to allow scanlines and anti-aliasing if that’s more to your tastes.
If you want to hook your C64 up to a modern screen, this is going to be one of the tidiest and sharpest ways to do it. We’ve seen similar hacks for other platforms before, too. Video after the break.
[Thanks to RobIII for the tip!]
Since it needs original VIC chip, it doesn’t fix the VDC bug that could lock up the computer.
Also I noticed it doesn’t mention Commodore 128, I wonder if this can be used in 128 mode, 40 column mode? 80 column mode already has RGB out and there are HDMI adapter that takes digital RGB to HDMI
You could always get a Vic kawari if you worry about bugs, it does hdmi and replaces the Vic chip.
Costs the same as other HDMI replacement. Unfortunately the creator said it won’t work in a 128 at all.
It’s not open-source, that’s (imho) definitely an information worth mentionning.
That’s okay, I think. If it was, some Chinese company would start to make cheap copies for profits. ;)
I did not complain about it not being open-sourced.
And is that a problem? If someone open sources their project it means they want to share it to the world, if a company thinks that it is interesting enough to make a profit from it, everyone wins (provided the chosen license allows commercial use, obviously).
SOURCE: an author of two open hardware projects that are being sold by Chinese companies.
“And is that a problem?”
It depends, I guess? Say if the author puts his/her heart into it and others get rich for it, while the original author never gets the credit he/she deserves?
It’s not even about money, but acknowledge.
“an author of two open hardware projects that are being sold by Chinese companies.”
Okay. But I don’t see how that matters, exactly.
If someone made someting primitive like, say, a “Volt-Blaster Board”, then no real ingeniuty and love was involved.
It was just a quick, obvious solution to a minor problem. Not a lifetime project.
It’s also means that if the project owner disappears, the project is dead and gone.
Yes. But on other hand, it also makes it precious. Make it human.
There are a lot of family cookie recepts that die with beloved granny who knew it.
The loss is sad, but it also made the cookies special in the hearts of family.
If the recept was known by everyone, including companies, then it had not same value in retrospect.
I think the word you’re looking for is recipe.
What are you talking about man hahaha
I used a composite video to HDMI converter (external) in a C64 project presented on HaD a few years ago. The picture looked just fine to me.
An analog RGB to HDMI converter for the Amiga would be super.
There have been rgb to HDMI adapters for Amiga for ages. It’s even possible to get around it entirely with passive adapters if a monitor has VGA or DVI input, but the internal mod is trivial.
It’s getting to the point we might as well throw a WiFi enabled RISC KVM in there and use the television’s web browser to open the video feed š¤¦š¼āāļø
Also that Micro HDMI connector is cursed, never used a good one, signal always drops. Hopefully USB-C with DisplayPort Alt-Mode will get easier to use. The cables for that are robust and cheap.
Micro-HDMI is disgraceful trash.
Canon finally seems to have learned this after crippling its cameras with this junk year after year after year…
I just wish it was a little easier to use DisplayPort for smaller projects. Last I looked it required a minimum frequency and packets while DVI/HDMI uses direct clocking of pixels so for low resolutions you can get away with something slower e.g. cheaper FPGAs.
Looked at using HDMI over USB-C for that reason but it has basically no support in comparison (IIRC).
Makes it much harder to keep a very trimmed down build if you want USB-C and video especially combined.
Wish there was one for the VIC20….
RCA AV to HDMI Converters can be found under $10 on amazon
Analog to digital conversion tended to be grainy and fuzzy and some of the cheap ones tended to be quite laggy. I’ve asked about one before, I was looking at a $200+ device that are as close to zero lag as possible
That’s harder to implement, I think, given the original hardware.
Conversion from Nipkow disk to HDMI, I mean..
The biggest issue for not being able to make this for the VIC-20 would be the fact that the VIC-20 doesn’t have an internal modulator to be ripped out. meaning that there is no hole in the casing and mounting holes on the PCB to be re-used. regarding the hardware itself. If you are able to make a VIC-II in an FPGA, you are certainly able to make a VIC as it is a much simpler design (and already wonders around on the internet in various FPGA implementations).
The idea of the project, ripping the modulator out (which nobody uses these days anyway) and using the freed up space and hole for the new hardware is, brilliant. By using the freed up modulator holes in the PCB the new hardware is mounted elegant/stable/strong inside the C64.
Just get a Vic kawari. You’ll get HDMI and don’t even need a Vic chip anymore. Though I don’t disprove of people building things, there is something better already.
Same price and fixes VIC bugs
For anyone interested, there is a good HDMI converter for the Atari 8-bits.
Discussion:
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/307175-sophia-2-improved-gtia-replacement/
Original supplier seems sold out, but maybe the creator has some. Another possibility: https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/Atari_Sophia_2_video_HDMI_stereo_board_eba1d654.html
An HDMI? “An” surely you just mean A HDMI
This is great, but would be better if it could replace the VIC-II chip completely. The bigger problem is running out of VIC-II chips.
To me this seems like a complete waste of time and effort that they could have put towards a million different better projects.
To each his own though.