I saw some mentions in another thread about using old Amiga monitors for Genesis RGB. Is there a list of "old school" computer monitors that will work with the Genesis's NTSC RGB output? And are the connections the same DIN hook up for any of them?
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I saw some mentions in another thread about using old Amiga monitors for Genesis RGB. Is there a list of "old school" computer monitors that will work with the Genesis's NTSC RGB output? And are the connections the same DIN hook up for any of them?
Early VGA monitors will work (the ones designed to be compatible with CGA/EGA signals), Amiga RGB monitors and Atari ST RGB monitors should support NTSC sync rate RGB signals. (it just has to be able to accept horzontal sync down to 15 kHz -VGA is 31 kHz minimum standard)
Ah, okay, do you know how a Genesis would interface with a monitor like that? What kind of connections/cables are required?
Here's the pinout of the 1084: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=48761
Here's the pinout of the MD1/MD2/32X: http://www.gamesx.com/avpinouts/genesisav.htm
Connect the dots... I mean pins. :D
Genesis -> Scart cable + Scart -> VGA adapter should work, I would think.
Radical, thank you! Now I just have to find one of these monitors.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilly Willy
Only for one old enough to sync down to ~15 kHz, modern VGA monitors only accept 31 kHz Hsync and higher. (so you'd need a line doubler as well, like the "flicker fixers" they have for the Amiga)Quote:
Originally Posted by snakesqzns
clickyQuote:
Originally Posted by mugenmidget
Just hunt around. They're out there. :D
Ooh, I actually looked at that one earlier, but of course I'm hesitant because of the price. Honestly it probably isn't that bad, all things considered, but Christmas spending means I'll have to wait a little before splurging.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chilly Willy
:(
But one other thing I found that gave me pause:
Is there any truth to that? And in that same thread, the Sony PVM-2530 is mentioned. Would that work with the Genesis's RGB output?Quote:
Originally Posted by http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17007
BTW Chilly Willy are you in a situation where you could create a cable for such a monstrosity if necessary? Like if I bought all the supplies, shipped them to you (with money for return shipping), and gave you a nice bonus for your labor? I know your time is pretty valuable (especially with all the great work you're doing on the Neo Myth) but I'm just curious if it's something you would be available to do.
EDIT: The X-RGB3 looks kinda expensive but seems cool enough, and apparently would let me use any VGA monitor I can find. The problem is Japanese SCART versus European SCART. The cable is apparently easy enough to make (http://www.mmmonkey.co.uk/console/other/jrgb.htm). Would there be any problems with this approach (besides cost)? Does seem like overkill, probably better to just keep my eyes peeled for capable monitors.
Not sure about the 1084... I've got a 1080. I also noticed the RGB in on the 1084 doesn't look like the pinout I gave... that looks more like the 1080 as well. Maybe you should keep an eye out for the 1080 instead. There was one on eBay that sold just before I posted, and went for $20-$30 cheaper than the 1084.
Oh, okay. I'm also looking at various Sony PVMs now and they look like they should do the trick. Someone semi-locally (an hour away) has a PVM 2030 for $75 dollars, I'm gonna see if they'll meet up halfway before I end up grabbing something off of eBay. But that sounds like a good price for the 1080, thanks for pointing those out, I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled. I hope RGB gaming is boss.
I think I finally found a TV that will work, but I need help figuring out the pins on its input. Sorry for the crappy picture, but hopefully someone can manage to tell me what kind of connector this is:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...t/rgbinput.jpg
Is there a pin out for this kind of 8 pin connector? The TV was manufactured on November 1986 and is an "LXI Series" which may or may not be a SEARS brand from what I have seen. The model number is 564-42701651.
Woha, that's awesome where did you find a TV like that? (mind posting a few full pictures of your set?) Is it a TV or multimedia monitor?
Anyway, lacking proper pinout, you might be able to find out by experimenting. First establish which pins are ground: I think that can be done with a multimeter by testing the resistance between contacts: those close to zero should be ground. (someone correct me if there's a better way, or if I'm mistaken)
Once that is established, you could just to trial and error to figure out which pins are sync, R, G, and B. By the looks of it, it seems like the signals might be grouped in rows, with one row of grounds and the other with coresponding signals (assuming +5V isn't needed as it is with SCART -all it does is enable RGB mode).
If I had to guess, sync would be the pin off to the right and RGB to the left (probably either RGB or BGR from right to left), not sure which row would be ground and which would be the top or bottom rows. (but 8 pins is the exact number for RGB+sync and independent gnd signals -if it uses shared gnd that complicates things, but given the dedicated nature of the connector and the fact that VGA and SCART have dedicated gnd pins, I think that's a fairly safe assumption -DVI-analog has shared gnd though) It'd be more confusing if sync on green was used as well.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=136227
A guy here mentioned that such 8-pin ports (in rectangual orientation, not DIN) were used in some professional monitors/tvs used at TV stations and studios, so maybe that's whare your's is from, no mention of pinout though.
Thank you for the helpful reply. :) I managed to find it at a spur of the moment thrift store run. They only wanted $5 for it and the picture seems very good, so I am absolutely thrilled with it. It even got rid of my interference issues I was having with the Atari 7800 (old TV didn't work with the direct RF as well for whatever reason). Once I get RGB going I imagine it will be an even better TV.
Here are some more pictures of it, sorry for my awful camera work:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...dget/front.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...idget/back.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/b...idget/side.jpg
I heard LXI series was a Sears thing, so I popped in part of the model number into their parts search. It came up as a Sanyo television, and they even still have replacement front doors (mine is missing as you may have seen) that probably have the Sanyo brand written on them. I'm not sure if that will help with finding the pin out, though. :(
I'll need to see if I can get a multimeter so I can start experimenting with the pins as you have suggested, I was worried about just jamming things in randomly. Thank you again for the excellent post, I'll just need to grab some supplies and get to testing. Hope it pans out.
I think as long as you can establish which are gnd pins you'll be OK. (most damaging stuff would be from shorting something, so keep gnd to gnd, and mixing up R, G, B, or Sync should be OK) I'd start with a single color (say green) and sync only, to limit the combinations for tial and error. (after establishing gnd of course) After you get the single color displaying, you'd only have 2 combinations for the remaining 2 pins. ;)
Awesome find, I know sony had a multimedai version of their trinitron series with a wide range of inputs too. I'm jelous now. :p
There's a family freind who works at channel 8 (NBC affiliate) in Salinas, too bad I didn't know about that kind of stuff before, maybe I could have asked him to try and snag an old monitor when they were replacing things. (I's pretty much all LCD flat pannel stuf now, and they used to have tons of CRT sets) Maybe they still have some kicking aroung, wouldn't hurt to ask. ;)
How big is that? ~20" (or closer to 17)
Regardless awesome find, and soemthing I hadn't really considered finding in the wild so to speak.
Edit: no s-video on it? Huh, I wonder if that dates it at all.
Also, how sharp is the composite on it (with sharpness maxed out of course), I've seen some nice, older high-end TVs with excellent comb filters, with my genesis's blurry composite almost like s-video. (actually RF, but that has to do with the excellent, variable automatic fine tuning feature of my freind's Zenith AS3 TV -unfortunately it was stuck at RF as only accepted input selection via the remote, and I thought that was a more recent trend ... at least with the awsome RF quality you could use a modualtor or VCR and still get a great picture, and a good modualtor or VCR should output stereo via RF as well -which is what I suggested my friend do)