P8X32A Parallex Propeller VS uVGA-III

[johnkelton]

My goal is to generate a RGB video output. Can someone please explain the output color bits for P8X32A Parallex Propeller VS uVGA-III.

I am not familiar with display systems and trying to understand both solutions. Propeller chips are just $8 vs $60 uVGA-III; however, uVGA-III have GUI based programming Visiginie

But, if propeller chip can also achieve the same display output as that of uVGA-III, then why not learn how to program propeller?

Datasheet of propller:
http://www.parallax.com/sites/defaul...t-v1.4.0_0.pdf

If someone can direct me to some material that I can read though and better understand both solutions. An awesome thing would be that if someone can explain both solutions.

[ESPsupport]

Hmm, that seems like an extremely odd request.

In different words, why would you even expect to be able to reprogram an apple to make it an orange?

How can you compare a propeller chip to a uVGA board?

If you even want to try to compare why not compare a propeller chip to a Picaso chip? Hmm, about the same price.

Why do you think Propeller support 4D displays (even the tiny Goldelox uOLD-96s)? Because they are different and have different capabilities.

By all means use a propeller to drive a uVGA-III as many have done before, anyways

[johnkelton]

Thanks Mark for your prompt reply. The only "useful" informative thing I got from your reply is that P8X32A Parallex Propeller is not comparable to uVGA-III. No where in my post above I mentioned that I am a display guru and my post was to simply request someone to point me to the right direct so that I can educate myself and see why I am making a wrong comparison. I am sorry to say but your reply did not sound supportive or educative.

Here is my goal:
Display couple of sentences via VGA cable on my monitor. If you look into P8X32A Parallex Propeller you would see that this IC supports VGA and composite output. Couple of video for you and other people interested in this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GDA6pbgg68
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef7ZAb5fOv8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHx9Rm2v3V8

uVGA-III Can also achieve the same thing and surely can go way beyond it.

The reason I did price comparison was because I could achieve my goal by using either. Remember a customer only cares about what gets their task done. They dont care about other bells and whistles if they are not used in their application.

I am trying to draw comparison between the video generation capabilities of P8X32A Parallex Propeller and uVGA-III.

[ESPsupport]

Well, I would hope that you could find that in a nice Parallax document, but a quick look yields all sorts of bits and pieces all over the place.

It seems like the Propeller can do lots of video resolutions, but the true usefulness of the device is quite low, eg from the datasheet "Supports 2 unique colors per row" (A row being a 'scanline'). In one application note it says "The Colors parameter is a 32-bit value containing either four 8-bit color values (for 4 color mode) or two 8-bit color values in the lower 16 bits (for 2 color mode)" which is a bit different but basically says it only supports 8 bit colors.

So it still looks like a true comparison isn't really possible, whilst it appears the Propellor can do VGA it looks like it's capabilities are quite limited.

[James_4DSystems]

Hi John

I think what Mark was saying to your first message, is why are you comparing a Module (uVGA-III) with an IC (Propeller).
Really to make a fair comparison, you should be comparing the processor on the uVGA-III (Picaso) with the Propeller.
You are comparing the price of an IC with the price of an assembled PCB. So obviously the uVGA-III is more expensive than the Propeller chip...

Based on the youtube vids you posted, you are trying to make a game?
Is that right, or is what you are trying to achieve something else. Can you be more specific.

Regards

[johnkelton]

Thanks man, I came to a similar conclusion that its very low color resolution. I have seen on guy run SpongeBob on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwmBNqdt2Yg . Moreover, once I started going through their video libraries code I got convinced thats its a pain to deal with. For learning purposes I might use Propeller to understand how rgb signals are generated etc But I like uVGA-III and I have bought many 4D Systems products before so less of a learning curve. Well, anyways, thanks for your support. :-)

[johnkelton]

Thanks James for your explanation. Yeah I do agree that I should have compared development board to a development board. However, if we just compare the price of both ICs even then Picaso is like twice the price.
http://www.parallax.com/product/p8x32a-m44
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...0TY7yJ0w%3D%3D

But again, both ICs' applications are different and it seems to me that for the purpose of generating simple graphics/gui on a VGA monitor, Parallax Propeller IC is an economical solution. With Parallax Propeller, I would only need few resistors to get RGB/Composite out.

But Picaso alone wont be able to do this and I would need to actually get uVGA-III dev board to generate the VGA signal that is useful in anyway.

As mentioned above, color resolution seems to be one of the issues of Parallax Propeller. Moreover, the learning curve is too steep.

My Objectives:
1. Create a simple GUI interface
2. Animate graphics
3. Embed Interaction with The Outside World

The youtube links I shared were to just give you guys an idea about the video generation capabilities of Propeller ICs.