CD-i member Mobius Strip Tech has made a lot of improvements on his CD-i homebrew technologies since we last talked about it one month ago. Now he has a full RGB board available including detailed instructions. Mobius: "The people have asked and we here at Mobius Strip Technologies have answered. The first RGB board made specifically for the Philips CD-i 400 and 500 series. This board is a completely custom circuit designed in house. It offers a proper 0.7Vpp RGB signal, 0.35Vpp 75ohm combined sync (CSYNC) signal, and a TTL CSYNC signal. Sync signals are built from the H-Sync and V-Sync signals directly from the video encoder to ensure proper timing. This sync signal is 100% compatible with the OSSC, as well as Sony PVM’s."
You can buy the RGB installation pack here (include output connector. 8pin miniDIN or 9pin miniDIN are recommended.) and the RGB board itself here. The instructions can be found here.
Next to that, Mobius Strip Tech now also offers a Dual Frequency Oscillator (DFO) board (to switch between PAL/NTSC). Mobius: "The Dual Frequency Oscillator, or DFO as it is more commonly known, is a small device that enables dialing in exact frequencies for replacing the crystal or crystal oscillator of your console. More than that, it also enables two different frequencies to be programmed and switched depending on current use case. The most common application is for proper NTSC/PAL switching. However it has also recently become popular for the consolized NeoGeo MVS market, where the refresh rate is off by just enough to cause issues with modern scalers and displays."
Mobius Strip Tech continues: "Exciting news. I am now offering Dual Frequency Oscillator (DFO) boards. These are the 5v version which can in fact be used on 3.3v systems. I am still in the process of documenting installs, but these are available for purchase today. What does it mean to check frequencies before purchasing? Is that for people who dont have 450 or 550 cd-i models? The frequencies for most other CD-i should be the same but there are so many variations I can't be certain. I list the frequencies on the site. You can compare them to the original crystal to verify it matches. The mainboard may even state the expected frequencies. The NTSC value was slightly different from my NTSC 550, but it's minor enough to not cause an issue. Around ~0.01hz different. Replacing the XO with a DFO does not tell your player that it is now a 60 Hz player nor does it make it display RGB video. If you already have a 50/60 Hz switch and/or RGB mod, then it will make it accurate. You can read more about the background here."
[Thanks, Mobius Strip Tech, Retrostuff, Simon Laroche]