richc@madvax.UUCP (Rich Commins) (07/22/87)
I have a friend with a commodore 1903 color monitor (the kind tha
was made for the commodore 128). It is RGBI. Do you know whether or not
it would work with an Amiga? With the new lower priced amigas, he is a
little bit tempted, particularly if he didn't have to buy a new monitor.
Thanks,
--
--
Rich Commins (415)939-2400 \ /\
Varian Instruments, 2700 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598 \/--\
{ptsfa,lll-crg,zehntel,dual,amd,fortune,ista,rtech,csi,normac}varian!richcbryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) (07/23/87)
In article <614@madvax.UUCP> richc@madvax.UUCP (Rich Commins) writes: > > I have a friend with a commodore 1903 color monitor (the kind that >was made for the commodore 128). It is RGBI. Do you know whether or not >it would work with an Amiga? With the new lower priced amigas, he is a >little bit tempted, particularly if he didn't have to buy a new monitor. It will work, but the results won't be as "colorful" as you might hope. You could interface it one of two ways: 1> As a composite monitor. Advantages: no special cable required. Disadvantages: A color composite picture does not look as good as color RGB. 2> Build a cable to go from the Amiga's RGBI output pins to the monitor's input. Advantages: The picture will be clearer than the first method. Disadvantages: RGBI stands for "Red" "Green" "Blue" "Intensity". One bit is available for each. This makes for a maximum of 15 colors (Black half-intensity is the same as Black full-intensity). For use with the Amiga this means fiddling with colors so things look ok. The "PopColours" program from March, 1987 "The Transactor" is highly recommended for this purpose. (You could type it in from the magazine, download it from a BBS or purchase the new Transactor Amiga disk) 3> Buy a conversion kit. WARNING: THIS IS ONLY A RUMOR!!! A company is said to be preparing a kit to convert the 1902 into a RGBA monitor. Don't ask for details because I don't know any more than I have already told you. Don't expect high quality, but you might just be surprised. The Amiga has lots of ways to view it's output. But the best is, of course, RGBA (Red-Green-Blue-Analog) which lets you see all 4096 possible colors. In the absence of this, the methods listed above should give good results. I'd recommend method 1 or 2 until either method 3 becomes reality or your friend saves enough pennies to upgrade to a better monitor. (Probably by then a multi-sync type) ----------------------------- |\ /| . Ack! (NAK, EOT, SOH) {o O} . ( " ) bryce@cogsci.berkeley.EDU -or- ucbvax!cogsci!bryce U "Success leads to stagnation; stagnation leads to failure."
sgt@alice.UUCP (07/23/87)
In article <614@madvax.UUCP> richc@madvax.UUCP writes:
# I have a friend with a commodore 1903 color monitor (the kind tha
#was made for the commodore 128). It is RGBI. Do you know whether or not
#it would work with an Amiga? ....
There are two ways to do this.
1) The easy way, with less than perfect results
The amiga has RGBI (ttl digital) outputs along with the other more commonly
used signals on its 23-pin video connector.
With the appropriate cable, this would work with your friends monitor.
HOWEVER. He would be restricted to the same 16 colors as the c128 must have
been, or as a ibmpc was.
I don't know how these outputs are derived from the amiga's analog RGB
signals. Can anyone enlighten us? Does the hardware try to do the
best it can to approximate the colors specified in the lookup table?
2) the hard way, which requires hacking your monitor.
Modify the monitor for analog rgb input.
This requires that you know what you're doing, and can replace the
digital input section with a linear, analog one.
Anyone trying this had better know how to find out if the monitor has a
'hot' chassis, and design the appropriate isolation circuitry to avoid frying
your amiga.
Another question:
My commodore 1080 (standard amiga) monitor has a switch for digital
input (RGBI) can someone tell me how to make a cable to use this monitor
as a pee-cee monitor? I hate going back to pc's after my Amiga, but
color instead of green would make it a bit more pleasant.
#Rich Commins
Steve Tell
--
Steve Tell, Student: Duke University
Summer Employee: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
Neither of these want anything to do with my opinions.higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES) (07/23/87)
[line eater fodder...]
In article <614@madvax.UUCP> richc@madvax.UUCP (Rich Commins) writes:
$ I have a friend with a commodore 1903 color monitor (the kind that
^
Believe that's 1902 not 1903, sir.
$was made for the commodore 128). It is RGBI. Do you know whether or not
$it would work with an Amiga?
Rich, I'm posting this rather than mailing it to you since it might be of
interest to others.
Authorized Commodore Service Centers have been given the information to
make a modification to the 1902 to allow it to properly display the
RGB Analog signal from any Amiga model. Your friend can take it to one
to have this work performed. Most Amiga dealers are service centers.
Paul Higginbottom.DISPATCH@NCSUVM.BITNET (07/23/87)
Yes, you should be able to use it. However...you will need a 9 pin to
_23_ pin connector. Commodore states on the side of the carton for the
2002 that it will work with the amiga, pc10, c128 or 64. I have verified
this myself. The difference, if any, seems to be slight, and the 2002
is about $40.00 to $50.00 cheaper than the "amiga" monitor (1080?).
The 2002 is essentially a repackaged 1902.
Hal
lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) (07/23/87)
In article <2150@cbmvax.UUCP> higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES) writes: > >Authorized Commodore Service Centers have been given the information to >make a modification to the 1902 to allow it to properly display the >RGB Analog signal from any Amiga model. Your friend can take it to one >to have this work performed. Most Amiga dealers are service centers. > > Paul Higginbottom. Wow, I impressed, some real customer service!! Has anyone thought of advertising this fact??? Do you know how many 64/128 owners will jump at the chance to get an Amiga, now that they don't have to spend $350 for a new monitor??? Call to arms! Let's spread this info word of mouth and build up our userbase. -- "Truth is false and logic lost..." - Neil Peart (who at the time didn't realize he was talking about RU) lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu <--------OR--------> {seismo|ames}!rutgers!topaz!lachac
daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie) (07/23/87)
in article <8707230136.AA12265@cogsci.berkeley.edu>, bryce@COGSCI.BERKELEY.EDU (Bryce Nesbitt) says: > Keywords: C128 > > Disadvantages: RGBI stands for "Red" "Green" "Blue" "Intensity". One > bit is available for each. This makes for a maximum of 15 colors > (Black half-intensity is the same as Black full-intensity). That's what it stands for, but that's actually misleading. RGBI is merely 4-bit digital video. The 4 bits, plus proper sync, is all the monitor gets. Where are the colors? The monitor chooses them, of course (in fact, we have one monitor around here that can be switched from producing IBM flavor RGBI colors to Apple flavor RGBI colors). The 1902 monitor does in fact produce 16 different colors. Black with intensity on is mapped as purple. But on a different monitor, it could be black, green, pink, or any color. -- Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga Usenet: {ihnp4|caip|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh "The A2000 Guy" PLINK : D-DAVE H BIX : hazy "Catch a wave and you're sittin' on top of the world" -Beach Boys
schwager@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu (07/25/87)
> /* Written 11:26 am Jul 23, 1987 by lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu in uiucdcsm:comp.sys.amiga */ > In article <2150@cbmvax.UUCP> higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES) writes: > > > >Authorized Commodore Service Centers have been given the information to > >make a modification to the 1902 to allow it to properly display the > >RGB Analog signal from any Amiga model. > ..snip... > Has anyone thought of advertising this fact??? Do you know how many 64/128 > owners will jump at the chance to get an Amiga, now that they don't have to > spend $350 for a new monitor??? > > Call to arms! Let's spread this info word of mouth and build up our userbase. > /* End of text from uiucdcsm:comp.sys.amiga */ Ok... but first, how much will the change cost?? (Mail replies; I'm going on vacation for 2 weeks and will miss some notes...) -mike schwager -- {ihnp4,convex,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!schwager schwager%uiuc@csnet-relay.arpa University of Illinois, Dept. of Computer Science
scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) (07/26/87)
In article <13484@topaz.rutgers.edu> lachac@topaz.rutgers.edu (Gerard Lachac) writes: >Wow, I impressed, some real customer service!! I must say I'm impressed as well. >Has anyone thought of advertising this fact??? Do you know how many 64/128 >owners will jump at the chance to get an Amiga, now that they don't have to >spend $350 for a new monitor??? As I see it most C64/128 users will be buying into the A500. However, at least up here in Seattle, the A500 is currently only being sold in a A500/1meg/monitor bundle for just under $1k. The dealers claim that's the way they come from C-A. Thus those wishing to upgrade their C64/128's and keep their monitors will either have to buy mailorder or get a A1000. But still this is interesting. Next thing you know they'll be posting patch lists to enable users to patch their kickstart/workbench to fix bugs. :) Or post 1.3 on Usenet, yeah! That's the ticket! (I don't know about yall but it took a long time for 1.2 to get to Seattle) If C-A under Gould is really intent on supporting us users then lets see some stuff we can ALL benifit from. Scott Turner -- UUCP-stick: stride!l5comp!scotty | If you want to injure my goldfish just make UUCP-auto: scotty@l5comp.UUCP | sure I don't run up a vet bill. GEnie: JST | "The bombs drop in 5 minutes" R. Reagan Disclaimer? I own L5 Computing. Isn't that enough?
grr@cbmvax.UUCP (George Robbins) (08/05/87)
In article <303@l5comp.UUCP> scotty@l5comp.UUCP (Scott Turner) writes: > > As I see it most C64/128 users will be buying into the A500. However, at > least up here in Seattle, the A500 is currently only being sold in a > A500/1meg/monitor bundle for just under $1k. The dealers claim that's the > way they come from C-A. Nope, the pieces are sold and priced separately at this time. Of course the dealer would probably prefer that you bought $1k of goods at a crack rather than just odds and ends. > Thus those wishing to upgrade their C64/128's and keep their monitors will > either have to buy mailorder or get a A1000. Or be a little more forceful with their dealers. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing arpa: cbmvax!grr@seismo.css.GOV Commodore, Engineering Department fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)