Commodore 128 40/80 Column Video Adapter v5.1

Commodore 128 40/80 Column Video Adapter v5.1 

At the bottom of this product information page you will find the user manual of this article.

40 Column VIC-II display

The 40 column input is displayed via the composite (cvbs) or svideo/chroma (y/c) signal. Earlier versions of the adapter (v3 and v4) only had the composite output for 40 column mode.

The reason for this is that my particular TV did not have the ability to display RGBi and SVideo through the same connector, which allowed me to switch not only on the video adapter, but also on the TV. This is not what I wanted, so I decided that the best option for me was to use the composite signal.

80 Column VDC display

The 80 column display consists of the RGB signals of the VDC mixed with the intensity signal and a few resistors that convert the signal from digital RGB to analog RGB. In order to be able to display this in color, a very low current must be sent to the TV to be able to "tell" it that it must switch from composite to RGB.

Audio output on both displays

Another advantage of this adapter is that it provides audio output no matter what video signal you use. The audio ouput comes from the same connector used for the 40-column display. But instead of interrupting this signal, it has a constant pass through.

The Commodore 128 40/80 Column Video Adapter in the media

Douglas Compton has made a review of this adapter for his "10 Minute Amiga Retro Cast", which you can watch via this link.