dblSCAN 4000 Price: £200 Developer: Lincware Computers Ltd Po Box 25, FN-10300 Karjaa, Finland tel: ++358 50 557 3696 Supplier: TBA Looking to play games on cheap PC monitors? This new Finnish video card could be the answer. Believe it or not, but there are disadvantages to owning a Big Box Amiga stuffed with processor acellerators and graphics cards. Take my A4000 for example. I'm quite chuffed that I have a Picasso graphics card inside. The Picasso can display a screen of 1024 by 768 pixels in 24 bit colour, and I use it in 800 by 600 mode with 256 colours for a Workbench display. It works very well indeed -- it's a lot faster than the standard AGA display and most serious application software works perfectly. However, in order to take advantage of the new video modes and resolutions offered by the Picasso, I've had to buy a SVGA style monitor -- it's the sort that would work on a PC or Apple for example. It gives an excellent picture, but sadly it isn't compatible with most of the standard Amiga screen modes. The Amiga likes to work at a video friendly refresh rate of 15kHz, whereas PC style SVGA monitors like to operate at 31.5kHz. Give a 15kHz signal to a 31.5kHz monitor, and nothing happens. This means that my SVGA monitor can't, display PAL or NTSC screen modes. (On the otherhand, unlike some SVGA monitors, it will however display dblPAL or Multiscan Productivity modes.) Most application software can be asked nicely (or not so nicely) to change video modes from a stanard PAL or Interlaced PAL to the custom Picasso graphics modes. In this way I can still use software such as Imagine, Final Writer, MusicX, Cygnus Ed and others on my rock steady and very quick 800 by 600 display. Makes you sick, doesn't it? Here however, is my problem. In selling my soul to gain the higher graphics resolutions, I've said goodbye to the vast majority of Amiga games software and demo disks. These programs usually take over the Amiga chipset completely and entirely, before my Workbench utilities have a change to upgrade the screen mode into a SVGA friendly refresh rate. They pump out 15kHz video, and the result is that when I load Arcade Pool, I can't see a thing on my nice big monitor. One solution would be to use a multiscanning monitor capable of syncing down to 15Khz as well as supporting the 31kHz modes, but when I tried the Microvitec for a while I wasn't overly impressed with the picture quality. The Good News The Good News comes in the form of the A4000's video slot. Inside the Amiga is a slot with all the signals from the video chips. Fitting delightfully into this slot is the dblSCAN 4000 card from Finnish Amiga fans, "LincWare Computers". The dblSCAN takes the PAL (or NTSC) video signal directly from the video bus, and re-outputs it at an SVGA friendly 31.5kHz. At the back of the card is a standard 15 pin socket, and when I plug in the monitor I get a wonderfully steady picture. Time to load Alien Breed 3D II again! Even better, I can connect the output of the dblSCAN card directly into the pass-through input connector of the Picasso card. This means I don't need to mess around with swapping cables depending on what software is running. If a screen display can't be converted from Workbench, it will be up-rated by the dblSCAN hardware and display anyway. As this conversion is all handled by hardware, there is not special software to install or use. Everything is handled totally invisibly. The Bad News There are only a few snags with this smart piece of hardware. Unlike the Power Computing's ScanDoublerII hardware, this Finish kit will deal only with high resolution PAL and NTSC screen displays. It won't de-flicker Interlaced displays such as 640 by 512 PAL screen, nor will it display a Super High Resolution PAL screen in any useable form. This is presumably because the card contains about half the amount of expensive video RAM compared to the Power Computing card, and this in turn keeps the price down. The dblSCAN also lacks the very useful Composite VHS/SVHS video output which the Power card offers. Apart from these shortcomings, there isn't a great deal more to say about dplSCAN. It displays all ordinary PAL screens very nicely (although I noticed a little corruption in the lower right corner once or twice) and the price is fairly reasonable. It's a perfect way for A4000 owners to make use of cheap SVGA class monitors for Workbench use, and yet still regain the ability to play games and demos. Combined with a graphics card it makes the Amiga even more flexible when dealing with graphics. If I was depending on a scan doubler to enable me to use certain application software which works best in PAL, I think I would consider the Power Computing card. Although it is twice the price, it also de-flickers an interlaced display which means a steady 640 by 512 is possible. The dblSCAN can only provice a 640 by 256 display. However, application software this stubborn is rare, and for game and demo use a non-interlaced display is perfect. If you have the money to spare, it's the easiest way to get some fun back into your Amiga. dblSCAN 4000 For Amiga 4000 only ease of use: 95% It's true plug and play -- a totally hardware solution, with no software or even instructions required. performance: 80% Steady PAL or NTSC high-resolution screens, although slightly dark and with (very) occasional glitches. value for money: 75% It's tricky to rate -- a graphics card would be a better buy, but won't achieve the same results. overall: 85% A deceptively straight forward gadget that all serious A4000's owners could do with.