AD724 on a Sega Genesis (in same color issue)

I agree with Ad, pots are a horrible idea for video mods. Not only are they unnecessary but it makes the mod impossible to install for those who don’t have an Oscilloscope.

 

I think he's only talking about for testing purposes.

But if you are capable of making a video mod, you are capable of working out the voltage divider - it's electronics basics.

Otherwise you are just gonna get people messing with it until it "works for them" , next thing it's posted online or on YouTube and it gets everywhere. It's happened many times before with bad mods

 

Okay, so these chips are kind of available to buy. It depends on the country you live in.
Every seller listed has either high shipping cost to outside the USA, too high minimum orders, requires credit cards and all the usual annoyances.
Worldwide and economic shipping with okay reliability.. There is an Ebay offer from China.
5 chips for around 20 Euros, I think that's barely acceptable (so I'll buy ).

I realize the problem is the obscurity of these devices. I mean, who really needs those in this day and age.
This niche problem is made worse by the legacy LM1881 existing. Tons of documents and guides reference it, so this is the chip every seller stocks.
They're a limited design. No separate hsync output and the CSYNC it produces still has the serration / equalization pulses in it.
Also they want 5V for good operation / low jitter (otherwise 3.3V will kind of work as well). This often means attenuating the CSYNC output with resistors > slower signal flanks again.

So yes, any modern sync stripper IC is > LM1881.
But we're mostly stuck with it :/

 

Mouser has them, works out OK if you can tack them onto an existing order.

 

My project requires every component to be cheap and readily available for everyone, otherwise it defeats the point.
But hey, I just found this while browsing for solutions: https://www.ebay.com/itm/5PCS-X-EL1...C-SEPARATOR-HORZ-8SOIC-Intersi-l/332320291476
This device appears to be a slimmed down ISL59885, just missing the automatic HD detection.
The price is fine, availability is okay even on Ebay

 

El1883 has been around forever. Were guides using it for the ps2 vga iirc

Edit: pic

 

ISL59885> EL1883 > LM1881

the ISL59885 removes Macrovision pulses too, which is a nice plus.
They use almost the exact same footprint, so you can drop in an EL1883 with just the change of one part. This design accommodates both.

–Segasonicfan