mjohnson@druhi.ATT.COM (Mark A. Johnson) (08/04/88)
I have an Atari ST with a monochrome monitor and a Toshiba T1000 with a puny little LCD screen. I would like to buy a single color monitor that I can use with both systems. The T1000 is a PC-compatible with a built-in CGA 9-pin RGB connector in the back. Has anyone successfully adapted either the ST color monitor to work with a PC-compatible or a "standard" RGB monitor to work with the ST? Advice, speculation, or even hard, cold facts are all welcome. Mark A. Johnson mjohnson@druhi.uucp att!druhi!mjohnson
coffey@sdsuelx.uucp (pat coffey) (09/23/88)
Jos Vermaseren asks: . . . > This leaves the question: why is the American preference for color so much > greater than in Europe? I posed this question a long time ago, but nobody > could come up with an explanation. Anybody has one? I bought an Atari 520 ST when they first came out. I wanted a good, clear monitor, so I got a monochrome monitor, which was much better than what IBM had to offer at the time. I soon discovered, however, that most of the software available in the U.S., especially the PD stuff, was not runnable on my system. After several years, I broke down and bought a color monitor so that I could run some of these programs. When I do my real computer work, I always use the monochrome monitor. When I joined our local Atari user group, I discovered that most of the early members were former owners of 8-bit atari machines. I think all of them had color monitors and all of them loved computer games. None of the games worked on monochrome at that time. I don't know if that's the reason, but I recently heard that U.S. dealers are having a hard time finding color monitors, so the picture in the U.S. may soon change. _ _ Pat Coffey |_) (_ San Diego State University |
richard@pande.UUCP (richard) (10/01/88)
>Jos Vermaseren asks: >> This leaves the question: why is the American preference for color so much >> greater than in Europe? I posed this question a long time ago, but nobody >> could come up with an explanation. Anybody has one? Americans, in general, have more disposible income than the rest of the world. I'm sure the European preference for colour is just as great, but the *relative* cost is higher. Same for other toys like CD players. I'm only in this for the mummy. richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {well connected site}!gryphon!richard
t68@nikhefh.hep.nl (Jos Vermaseren) (10/04/88)
In article <120@pande.UUCP>, richard@pande.UUCP (richard) writes: > >> This leaves the question: why is the American preference for color so much > >> greater than in Europe? I posed this question a long time ago, but nobody > >> could come up with an explanation. Anybody has one? > > Americans, in general, have more disposible income than the rest of > the world. > > I'm sure the European preference for colour is just as great, but > the *relative* cost is higher. Same for other toys like CD players. > If it were that simple I wouldn't have asked. For your information: CD players were available in Europe before they could be bought in the US. The best theory I have heard thusfar is: Americans want to have something they can show off with, even when it means that their everyday comfort is less. Europeans place everyday comfort higher on their list. It still doesn't sound convincing. Jos Vermaseren
jbe@pcsbst.UUCP (John_Brown Evans) (10/06/88)
In article <120@pande.UUCP> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Ricardo Autobahn) writes: >Americans, in general, have more disposible income than the rest of >the world. > >I'm sure the European preference for colour is just as great, but >the *relative* cost is higher. Same for other toys like CD players. I'm not sure how much *disposable income* you have, but here the general consensus seems to be - you use a color monitor to *play* and a monochrome to *work*. Ever tried text-processing on your color monitor? Name : John-Brown Evans Company : PCS GmbH, Munich W-Germany. UUCP : ..uunet!unido!pcsbst!jbe; jbe!sws4@pcsbst.UUCP ----- Language without meaning would be meaningless -----
me@pcsbst.UUCP (me) (10/06/88)
In article <120@pande.UUCP> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Ricardo Autobahn) writes: >>Jos Vermaseren asks: >>> This leaves the question: why is the American preference for color so much >>> greater than in Europe? I posed this question a long time ago, but nobody >>> could come up with an explanation. Anybody has one? > >Americans, in general, have more disposible income than the rest of >the world. > >I'm sure the European preference for colour is just as great, but >the *relative* cost is higher. Same for other toys like CD players. > No, this is not the reason. Maybe, the Americans have more money than the average European (although I have some doubts on this, especially with Germany). But the price difference is not high enough (100$ -200$ from monochrome to color monitor, less if you use a TV) to cause such a difference between sold color and monochrome systems. I guess the reason is that Americans use the ST often as a game machine while Europeans do real work with it (text processing, programming and so on). For this kind of work the monochrome monitor is an absolute need. You get a system that has a better screen, higher speed and better user inter- face than any 'industry standard' PC you can buy for double the money. Especially students like the ST much for their work. Isn't the rumour true, that the Americans didn't discover the ST as a real PC, isn't it true that we have more Sts here in Europe than you in America? I for myself never thought of buying a ST without color monitor not because of the price (I connect him to my Color TV with a scart cable for playing games) but because of the superb screen. PS. Apologies for my bad english. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Elbel UUCP: ...!unido!pcsbst!me ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opinions might be my own, but how shall I know what I think until I read what I write? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
poole@forty2.UUCP (Simon Poole) (10/07/88)
In article <120@pande.UUCP> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Ricardo Autobahn) writes: ... > >Americans, in general, have more disposible income than the rest of >the world. > Ugh, this is nearly as bad as Dan Quale claiming "America is the envy of the rest of the world", in particular with reference to Europe your claim is much to broad to do justice to the diversity of political and social systems (and incomes) that exist in Europe. >I'm sure the European preference for colour is just as great, but >the *relative* cost is higher. Same for other toys like CD players. I don't think this is true, for most people the problem is that they only want to have/can afford ONE monitor, not the difference in price (about 20% more for a 1040ST and 10% for a Mega 2). Since the ST does not have such a `games machine` image here, people tend to buy the B&W monitor, mainly because it's much easier on your eyes (and there is quite a lot of stuff here that only runs on a B&W system). Matter of fact I've always wondered why people in the US put up with such things as Mac screens, 50 line displays on the ST, the gastly default Apollo workstation font, low resolution colour monitors etc., perhaps there's a US-optician Mafia? :-) -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- UUCP: ...mcvax!cernvax!forty2!poole Simon Poole BITNET: K538915@CZHRZU1A ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
to_stdnet@stag.UUCP (10/10/88)
From: thelake!steve@stag.UUCP (Steve Yelvington) In <655@pcsbst.UUCP> jbe@pcsbst.UUCP (John_Brown Evans) writes... > I'm not sure how much *disposable income* you have, but here the > general consensus seems to be - you use a color monitor to *play* > and a monochrome to *work*. Ever tried text-processing on your > color monitor? Yes. That's the primary use of my ST. The quality of my SC1224 (the original 1985 JVC version) compares favorably with the monochrome monitors on the Atex publishing system I use at work. I bought the color because the first ST I examined was sitting next to an Apricot PC running GEM on a monochrome monitor. The Atari made the Apricot look pretty sick, and it cost about the same. If I planned to do desktop publishing, the picture would change. :-) And if I were buying my system from scratch, I'd choose monochrome and put the extra money toward a hard drive. | thelake!steve@stag.UUCP / ...rosevax!pwcs!stag!thelake!steve
wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) (10/12/88)
In article <484@forty2.UUCP>, poole@forty2.UUCP (Simon Poole) writes: > Since the ST does > not have such a `games machine` image here, people tend to buy the B&W > monitor, mainly because it's much easier on your eyes (and there is > quite a lot of stuff here that only runs on a B&W system). Here's my two cents worth -- in both places (North America (including Canada :-) and Europe) the monochrome monitor uses a 70 Hz refresh, right? But the colour monitor uses 50 Hz in Europe, if I'm not mistaken, and 60 Hz in North America. Perhaps there is more noticeable flicker in Europe, and so they don't like to use the colour monitor all day. Over here, the 60 Hz flicker is not so noticeable, and I don't mind using the colour monitor for long periods. The characters aren't as well defined as on the monochrome, but it isn't any harder on my eyes. -- Gerry Wheeler Phone: (519)884-2251 Mortice Kern Systems Inc. UUCP: uunet!watmath!mks!wheels 35 King St. North BIX: join mks Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9 CompuServe: 73260,1043
rob@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rob Carriere) (10/13/88)
In article <521@mks.UUCP> wheels@mks.UUCP (Gerry Wheeler) writes: > [ 60 Hz flicker is less than 50 Hz same, ] and I don't mind using the >colour monitor for long periods. The characters aren't as well defined >as on the monochrome, but it isn't any harder on my eyes. Apparently milage varies here; I have both monitors, and I find the black and white significantly easier on the eyes, to the point that I now sometimes wonder why I bought the color. Rob Carriere
ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) (10/13/88)
In article <782@accelerator.eng.ohio-state.edu> rob@kaa.eng.ohio-state.edu (Rob Carriere) writes: >Apparently milage varies here; I have both monitors, and I find the >black and white significantly easier on the eyes, to the point that I >now sometimes wonder why I bought the color. I love my flicker-free monochrome monitor. I use (1) APL.68000 on my ST for writing APL programs, I use (2) TOM as an APL terminal emulator to reach remote APl sites, (3) Gulam as my favorite shell, and its terminal emulator (4) as a terminal to read and reply to news :-). -- L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo. ljdickey@WATDCS.UWaterloo.ca ljdickey@water.BITNET ljdickey@water.UUCP ..!uunet!watmath!water!ljdickey ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu