Weird Stuff Exhibition 2 - Part 1

[This video is blurry and hideous due to a nearly catastrophic production failure, noted in the video.]
In this video I disassemble a couple of ancient video scalers and analyze their circuitry. There will be a part two soon in which I look at a lot of other devices that may be more interesting. Stay tuned!
Donate to my channel: ko-fi.com/gravis
Support me: / gravisvids

[@Boomproof]

"I haven't posted in a time because I feel sad." - It's been a long time since I last heard souch sincere words; Definately happy to be subbed to you and catch your video uploads!

[@Leo9ine]

It's honestly so cathartic how dry and done with life you sound in this one. It's very relatable.

[@forgottencameras]

It makes me feel a little better hearing someone else say the same things keeping me from uploading regularly pretty much verbatim. I know it wasn't meant to make anyone's day, but you did so thanks. Also your channel kicks ass and your content helps my daily wind-down without making me feel like I'm wasting time.

[@CathodeRayDude]

I should note, when I said "custom chip or ASIC" - those are the same thing, I was thinking in terms of like, either a chip this company got from a vendor that just makes those, or one they designed themselves, but definitely an ASIC in either case

[@spambot7110]

could also be an FPGA, i know they've only entered the public eye more recently but they've been around for a long time

[@DacodaNelson]

I had this sneaking suspicion when the giant box was opened, it would be an adorable little piece of PCB stuck to the base by a hot glue gun, because it's so much easier to sell something to institutions for thousands of dollars more when it would require they build a custom cabinet to store it in. So glad not to have my cynicism dashed.

[@simarriott524]

Making my way back through your old content dude. Really enjoying it! Keep up the good work

[@TonyStark-dk4zk]

Just found your channel. Awesome content. Solid! Give us more! I have yet to view everything you've given us thus far. May I dare to offer suggestions? Hee hee, yes indeed... Hacks for outdated electronic devices?... An ever reaching spectrum of implementation via common elec devices (from outdated to now) to include privacy, security, and detection (awareness) of breaches? Dude, we want more of your content. Empower us further. Thank you for everything you've shared... You rock!

[@Kylefassbinderful]

The title got me thinking about the old Bay Area staple, _Weird_ _Stuff_ _Warehouse_ in Sunnyvale. RIP, you will be missed.

[@ClaymoreClay101]

Cool video. Its also fun to dive into the guts of niche electronics like the video converter you disassembled. Just spit balling here, but the IC under the heat sink located in the center of the PCB might actually be an FPGA. The MCU might be responsible for controlling the behavior of the entire device and also programming the FPGA during device start up.

[@sixspeeddeath]

🎶Oooooooohhhh. Who likes to shoot video under the sea? Ca-thode Ray Dude🎶 In all seriousness, I enjoy the electronic breakdown videos.

[@Brokenrocktail]

Are you an electrical or computer engineer? I have to say I'm very impressed by your depth of knowledge on hardware system architecture and board design. I suspect you're in engineering or some related field, but if not then even more power to you, becuase few people can look at a pcb with or without Google and figure out exactly whats going on.

[@lishd]

agreed - the content was well worth what was only mild distortion in a few places. let me know if i can help with the sad. *hugs*

[@calebcourteau]

I’m curious about your educational background. How did you gain your massive knowledge electronics?

[@AJMansfield1]

I'd hazard a guess that that winbond chip in the first device is mostly there to contain some kind of data (an FPGA or PLD bitstream?) that that microcontroller uses to bootstrap the main chip in the middle with.

[@alkalineburrito]

The quality wasnt that bad at all, i still enjoyed the video^^ excited to see part 2!

[@asafoetidajones8181]

Real solid content here and good didactics. Not my area of interest but I know quality.

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

I know its a bit late but the 2 projectors I picked up over the years locally both didnt had any other video imput then DVI and VGA I was looking for a prohjector for my retro consoles when meeting up with friends and both of them only had Computer imputs

[@Heisenberg2097]

Just the right ratio of Info/Entertainment/Depth as for my taste. Nice rational style too.

[@Charlesb88]

DVI can output 1080i because some early DVI output devices such as early external digital TV tuner boxes (used back when many HD TV’s still came with analog-only tuners or no tuner at all) could receive certain HD tv signals in 1080i and they would simply pass it along to an TV rather then have to de-interlaced it first. These days few HDMI devices would need 1080i output but since you can still get an external HD TV tuner or ahD cable/satellite box these with HDMI output, they could still output 1080i if need be. Built-in de-interlacing is much better these days over HDMI so fewer situations require sending interlaced HD video over HDMI anymore.

[@AmauryJacquot]

the smaller scaler is digitizing the analog input, and replaying the digital buffer to the larger size, this only needs about 1 frame of delay. You can do OSD with no latency, it's just a matter of replacing pixels on the fly on the output. the big chip under the radiator could be either an asic or an FPGA / CPLD of some sort... looking at the 2nd scaler, the chip under the radiator of the first could be this exact same genesis scaler (the chip package under said radiator looks identical)...

[@douro20]

Kramer presentation switchers are very good for what you want to do with video scaling and conversion. They are also very affordable on eBay.

[@graywolf2694]

Thrift stores by me suck, all they ever have is cloths and glass, maybe some keyboards

[@alynicholls3230]

the big fancy unit has a bad cap somewhere, if you start it and it fritzes out but if you then leave it powered on and powercycle and it works that is textbook bad cap.

[@User0000000000000004]

Are those Klein tools?

[@jaapaap123]

The chip under the heatsink might be a Faroudja chip. I don't know what they need for external components.

[@martin09091989]

In the left bottom corner, thats surtenly a micro, an the socketed chip on it´s right of it seems to be a ROM chip that contains the consciousness of that FPGA! Right nex to the FPGA is an ADC. Above are three RAM Chips, and left of them the digital Video handeling chip.

[@martin09091989]

Yep, you further describe exactly what happens! The mystery chip hase to be an FPGA, otherwise it would be pointless to have a ROM chip pressent just for that micro. Thats just, so the micro can load the FPGA´s brain into it on startup.

[@BushidoBrownSama]

There are a lot of devices very similar to the cheap $20 scaler you have there, I have a scaler branded by StarTech that looks like it came from the same design house, it has the same 3 buttons with the same labels. Sadly my StarTech branded scaler only takes in standard def but can do so over Composite, S-Video & an 8pin din female connector that will accept YPbPr & RGsB (depending on which input you set) the device then processes it with an adaptive comb filter and outputs the video to a host of HDTV resolutions up to 1080p, (when it only advertised up to Psuedo 1080i, probably something mathematically similar like 1920x540p) over DB15 "VGA" connector in YPbPr or VGA/RGBHV you can also output typical PC resolutions up to like 1600x1200. Curiously I have seen 2 units visually identical to my scaler one branded by Audio Authority, the other was sold on an Australian website where it comes with a male SCART to male 8 pin din cable stranger still, the bottom of the PDF says it can take in computer resolutions like your unit can & output those same resolutions leading me to think someone screwed up the PDF for that entry lol

[@BushidoBrownSama]

Inspired by your video i decided to open my unit up. i have a main chip under an epoxied on heatsink, i have a SyncMOS Sm89516 c25jp (removeable microcontroller?), i have an unsoldered SW4 perhaps to toggle on/off? I have the same unsoldered JP5 & JP6 perhaps for rs232, SPI or I²C? On the underside, I have a 24lc08 series I²c eeprom, a micronas vpc323x comb filter, a voltage regulator & 2 ram chips If i could get this thing to handle hi def input instead of just standard def that would be sick

[@316diag]

Silicon Image slso made affordable SATA chips and widely used.

[@martin09091989]

An ASIC Is and custom chip! "application-specific integrated circuit" 🙄 This Chip might be an FPGA of some sort or flavor. Those are very good at handeling alot of date in real time, because you can utilize every bit of logic or processing power you program into them, to exacly what the aplication need´s.

[@undergroundmonorail]

He addressed this in a comment three years ago 🙄

[@plushifoxed]

21:01 h

[@RubberBanned]

Hecking good video!

[@Lastman737]

Your area must have better thrift stores. Mine are jammed full of absolutely uninteresting black plastic cheap junk.

[@ksboyintx]

Spoiler Alert ** buckle up the 2020 sequel is not as good as 2018

[@xp8969]

But it ends well, after 1 final disaster on 1/6/21

[@BenderRodriguz]

Awwww like number 661 I was so close.

[@TheArtOfTechSupport]

It's funny when people say the world is hard before 2020

[@xp8969]

To be fair, everything from 2016 to 2020 sucked

[@nickwallette6201]

Just wait until 2022! Woo...