Guide - wiring up a GBA Converter tv out card

The GBA only had two TV out cards, the Transverter (which is impossible to get) and the Converter, which is still around in limited availability. The Converter doesn't fill a tv screen as it doubles the pixels so more accurate than the Transverter, however uses less amperage to run; in fact, a GBA and GBA Converter runs less than 500mA together at 8v (7.4v is fine).

Here's how to bypass the ribbon connector from the GBA, which from my experience doesn't work well - took me hours to work it out!

Note, this is for the 40 pin GBA (by the ribbon cable it says "40" or "32" - 32 is the same but the contacts on the board look slightly different but still the same):







Result looks crisp on a screen.

He's a pinout I got elsewhere years ago for RGB:

 

It's the GBA Converter, which allows output to a television, it isn't a television channel viewer; allows playing GBA games on a domestic tv.

 

Does this offer better picture quality than GBA Player?

 

I've never seen the output for this, but I've always thought the GBA Player output was pretty crisp if you had component output. The GBA Player Startup Disc does support Progressive Scan mode (though they games aren't optimized for it of course).

It would be great to see the output though. Playing GBA full screen before the days of HTPC's/modded x-boxes and emulators and cheap GBA Players (less hacking up a GBA itself like this) use to be a dream for me. Much easier to handle now

 

The GBA Converter looks nice, i've played the GBA Player (ie addon for GameCube) and the quality is quite similar.

 

The GB-Player quality is better, you notice some bad looking quality when you play in double size on the GBA2TV that you don't notice on the GB-Player.

 

Are these kits still available anywhere to buy?

 

ebay is the only place probably, this is an NTSC one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plug-your...t=Video_Games_Accessories&hash=item2a126e1ffc