RE: [N8VEM-S100:1520] New/Old Project (Altair restoration)

I have a Bt848 card... unless I chucked it out? But I am more into using CRT's with my retro computers.
I use either an old security monitor 12" or recently got a cheap 14" TV from craigslist for $10. I see 20" TV's at the goodwill store for $6. Nobody wants them. I was more inclined to spend $10 for a 14" than to buy a big 20" for less. Weird huh?

That back burner project sounds very cool. Would you consider adding PAL support to the input? I have a few systems that have PAL output and they work poorly on my security monitor (the screen is always shifted too low). I guess I'm lucky they work at all.

:)J

CC: n8vem...@googlegroups.com
From: frave...@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [N8VEM-S100:1520] New/Old Project (Altair restoration)
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2013 00:26:51 -0400
To: n8vem...@googlegroups.com

It's also often the case that the composite decoders built into modern TVs are garbage. If you can find an older Bt848 or Bt878-based TV card for a PC (it'll be a PCI card), those did actually rather well (still not as good as a cheap CRT TV, but way better than my LCD TV).

One of my back-burner projects is to make a multipurpose analog-to-HDMI converter (composite, S-Video, VGA, etc.) geared towards vintage computers and game consoles. Implementing the decoding and upconversion logic in an FPGA would give me the flexibility to really tune the results to something that would look nice on a modern 1080p display. Sadly, spare time is a scarce resource for me these days, so it'll be a while before I acquire the round tuits to get the thing started. I have a good mental roadmap, but that means nothing without the time.

- Dave

On Mar 16, 2013, at 0:03, Crusty OMO <crus...@hotmail.com> wrote:

Sounds like a good example of too much resolution.

> Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:42:21 -0500
> From: litte...@mchsi.com
> To: n8vem...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [N8VEM-S100:1515] New/Old Project (Altair restoration)
>
> One thing to keep in mind, is that the original monitors had CRTs.
>
> I hooked my TRS-80 Mod 1 to several LED/LCD monitors and the sync
> was bad and the chars looked like they were made from a group of
> broken lines or dashes. Very unreadable.
>
> The persistence of vision and the phosphorus glow decay actually
> helped create the character shape. The glow of the phosphorus
> fattened up the 'lines and dashes' and filled the voids thus creating the
> shape of the chars.
>
> Todd
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Riley" <frave...@gmail.com>
> To: n8vem...@googlegroups.com
> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 8:38:05 AM GMT -06:00 Central America
> Subject: Re: [N8VEM-S100:1514] New/Old Project (Altair restoration)
>
> On Mar 9, 2013, at 1:26 PM, "Eric Osman" <er...@osmancrew.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Josh -
> >
> > If that yellow jack on the new TVs will work, then I should be fine, as we have a small one that isn't being used, except occasionally in the guest room.
>
> Just be aware that newer digital TVs aren't always friendly with older composite sources that weren't necessarily 100% in spec. For example, my TV from about 3 years ago has a very hard time even syncing to an Apple II or NES output, and their composite decoders are NASTY when it comes to anything digital. If you can scrounge up an old TV that has a composite interface (the cheaper the better, because the cheaper ones had sloppier control loops that were a lot more tolerant of bad inputs) and have space for it, you'll be a lot happier. Craigslist is often a good source to get one for free, since no one wants to have to haul one to the dump.
>
>
> - Dave
>
>
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