Type: Line blending
Setup required: None
Cost and availability: High cost to benefit, rarely found second-hand online
The Universal Video Converter (uVC) was produced by UltraCade Technologies between 2003-2005, and were intended for downscaling PC’s to a tri-sync arcade cabinet. They accept XGA, SVGA and VGA resolutions, and downscale to EGA (640×384, 24KHz) and CGA (640×240 15KHz ie 240p). Outside of PC output, the VGA/640×480 will likely be the more useful input resolution, given the other two are VESA-standard PC resolutions and not typically output by most modern gaming consoles.
The RGB output is compliant for most arcade chassis, with >1.0vpp for the RGB and sync signals. However if outputting to most standard definition CRT’s INCLUDING professional video monitors, the RGB levels should be attenuated to 0.7vpp.
It is recommended to strictly input either of the 3 resolutions stated above. While the uVC will accept a 720×480 signal, it scales the image horizontally and retro-inspired games that predominantly scroll horizontally will have noticeable warp and shimmer. The uVC also had sync ‘flagging’ which presented as a rightward curl at the top of the screen, though this was not present on an NEC Multi-sync CRT monitor that was capable of receiving the higher voltage HV or C-sync without requiring sync attenuation; therefore it will probably look fine on most arcade monitors.
The 240p output is achieved by blending 2 adjacent fields, though without any picture adjustments, an external primary image shifter may be required to offset the vertical line averaging for line-doubled content. 24KHz/384p output looks decently sharp, though most tri-sync monitors can display native VGA without scaling, which brings into question the usefulness of 24KHz output from a VGA source. XGA/1024×768 is however twice the vertical height of 384p, and is the superior resolution combination if the video source is sprite-heavy.
In summary, this is a great scaler for arcade cabinets, as it is essentially plug and play. For most other setups, there are far more accessible and suitable downscalers such as the GBS-C.
See the links below for further information:
https://www.emphatic.se/ultracade.html
https://www.retroblast.com/reviews/Ultacade_uVC-03212006-01.html
https://service.globalvr.com/downloads/ultracade/components/040-uvcmanu-uct_uvc_user_guide_v03b.pdf