Re: Apple IIGS monitor replacement

[Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

>Mitchell Spector wrote:
>> 
>>     I believe it's a flaw in the video design of the IIgs. RGB video is fine,
>> but composite is a mess (excluding emulated 8-bit Apple IIe video). 
>> Apple did quietly offer a solution/fix, that was to purchase and install 
>> their Video Overlay Card. You get respectable composite video with
>> that, without any of the massive color shifting and color inaccuracies.
>> 
>> I took some quick snapshots to (roughly) show the difference:
>> 
>> Apple IIgs composite-out (built-in port):
>> http://raptor.golden.net/~mspector/IIgs-composite.jpg
>> 
>> Apple IIgs composite-out (Video Overlay Card):
>> http://raptor.golden.net/~mspector/IIgs-VOC.jpg
>> 
>> Apple IIgs RGB-out (AppleColor RGB):
>> http://raptor.golden.net/~mspector/IIgs-RGB.jpg
>
>These are very interesting.  I've never seen a IIgs hooked up to
>a composite monitor, so it's interesting to see how the 8MHz and
>16MHz dot clock affect it.

    I put them side by side (the left half of the screen), it gives you
an even better comparison. You can see how the Video Overlay
Card does it's aliasing, the text is slightly blurred but the trade off
is the color shifting is far less visible:

http://raptor.golden.net/~mspector/Video%20comparison.JPG

>>>Or is there a way to force the GS to display 640 mode in monochrome...?
>> 
>>     Absolutely. Go into the Control Panel, choose the 'Display' option. 
>> Under "Type:" switch it to 'Monochrome'. This *only* has an affect on
>> composite output, it does absolutely nothing to an RGB display.
>
>That's good--I wasn't sure that the IIgs could do that.

    It essentially acts like the monochrome switch on the color displays
Apple sold for the IIe and IIc. Everything goes into black and white
(or shades of grey for native GS graphics)--*all* video modes on a
composite display.

    For text modes it won't change, they're always displayed in greys
on a composite display, regardless of what is set in the Control Panel.
Border will display in color, but only in graphic modes. With the mono-
chrome setting active, then even that will display in greys along with
everything else.

Mitchell Spector