Re: CRT TV as monitor working backwards

[kevin@hackaday.com]

On Wednesday, August 15, 2012 1:42:52 AM UTC-5, KP wrote:
> On Aug 13, 7:50 pm, Michael Black <et...@ncf.ca> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 8 Aug 2012, KP wrote:
> 
> > > I plugged a IIgs composite-out into the composite-in on a 13" CRT
> 
> > > Sharp TV.  Much to my surprise, I was shocked that, when put in
> 
> > > GRAPHICS mode (lo-res, hi-res, any res), the picture is crystal clear
> 
> > > (including the text portion of the screen in GR or HGR mode).
> 
> > > Likewise much to my surprise, I was further shocked that, when put in
> 
> > > TEXT mode, the text is ludicrously fuzzy and blurred.  The latter
> 
> > > effect disappears when I reduce the COLOR setting on the TV to 0.
> 
> >
> 
> > > See, I thought that the composite out was supposed to be super clear
> 
> > > in text mode, and that it was the graphics modes that were supposed to
> 
> > > struggle.
> 
> >
> 
> > I thought it was text that was the problem.  The Apple II did 40
> 
> > characters, I thought that was a deliberate decision because the average
> 
> > tv set would have problems with 80 columns.  You need to tell the
> 
> > difference between an "8" and a "B" and so on, which requires sharp
> 
> > characters.  Graphics is different, they can blend together and you still
> 
> > see them, though I suspect they aren't generally as small as characters so
> 
> > the issue isn't there.
> 
> >
> 
> >     Michael
> 
> 
> 
> The TV in question has NO problems whatsoever with text mode coming
> 
> out of a //e.  The problems with text mode are SOLELY with the IIgs.

Typically it is the text that causes hell on anything with a composite input, some newer TV's are better at it (maybe tv's made after dvd became big?) and some just confuse me, like my 9 inch trinatron which I can read fine print from tv commercials, but an apple II is fuzzy.

I agree with Michael above that its the differences between the video generation on the machines, the GS has a fat nasty graphics generator made JUST for the task, the 8 bit machines have a shift register which is sending serial pulse streams out the back.