Re: AppleColor RGB Monitor on Mac Possible?

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article "Brian A. Davis" <badavis@nbnet.nb.ca> writes...

>I just received some free Apple IIGS hardware and I had a question.
>
>Is it possible to use the Apple IIGS monitor (AppleColor RGB) on a
>Macintosh? If so, what Mac models can support this monitor?

    Normally, not at all, as the AppleColor RGB works at NTSC
frequency (15.75 kHz) and the Macintosh requires at least VGA
scanning frequency (30+ kHz). There is one exception to this,
and that is if you have a Macintosh with a Nubus slot and the
"High Resolution Display Video Card" (820-0185-xx) to plug in.
This video board supports both NTSC and VGA frequency displays,
and will support the IIgs display automatically.

    I would recommend against this setup though, for a couple
of important reasons:

- Highest resolution supported (640x400) will be interlaced
- Highest possible refresh rate is 60 Hz
- Dot-pitch is only 0.37mm
- Viewable screen area is only 11.5" (assuming no border)

    In otherwords, your going to have an image that is flickering,
generally fuzzy and unclear, and in a lot of cases, part of the
screen clipped (unless you set it to 512x384, if even possible).
Note many people these days are dumping their 14" and 15" displays
to upgrade to larger 17" and 19" displays. A 12" display is rather
cramped nowerdays, unless we're talking about a portable notebook.

    It's better to leave the display on an Apple IIgs, or get a
new connector cable and hook it up to an old Amiga, Atari ST or
even Sega Genesis or SuperNintendo. It probably makes a nice
TV/VCR display with a Video Overlay Card too I'll bet. :)

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca