Re: CRT TV as monitor working backwards

[Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com>]

KP <kjpmail@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 13, 3:48 pm, KP <kjpm...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Aug 11, 2:19 am, Jerry <awande...@yahoo.ca> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> KP <kjpm...@gmail.com> writes:
>> 
>>> [...]>
>> 
>>>> What I'm using isn't a "monitor" per se--it's just a CRT TV with an
>>>> RCA plug for composite video in.  Last night after posting here, I
>>>> tried it again with some GS-specific software that uses the GS higher-
>>>> end graphics modes.  It looked fantastic!  I just don't understand why
>>>> graphics that are supposed to look beautiful only on an RGB monitor
>>>> would display gloriously well on this composite screen, but text--that
>>>> should look decent regardless of the screen--wouldn't.
>> 
>>> I'm curious what the IIgs Finder looks like on your TV, and perhaps some
>>> of the text in 640-mode super-hires (like from the About dialog, for
>>> example).
>> 
>>> --
>>> Jerry    awanderin at yahoo dot ca
>> 
>> No fringe AT ALL when the color is disabled.  TINY bit of fringe when
>> the color is on, but for all intents & purposes, it's utterly
>> insignificant.  If every TV gave me this quality of display via
>> composite-in then I would stop looking for ways to convert the RGB
>> signal because it would basically amount to hair-splitting.
>> 
>> I was honestly shocked when I saw the results.  Running Arkanoid II,
>> for example, you can't even tell that you're on a composite monitor
>> rather than an RGB.  It's that good.
> 
> That's why this is so bizarre.  The IIgs modes that are supposed to be
> terrible via composite look GREAT.  Whereas PLAIN 8-BIT TEXT looks
> terrible unless I turn the color off.

Well, actually, I've always felt that the composite display of color
graphics was the best, by far--with fairly sharp luminance for detail and
both solid, saturated colors and plenty of subtle dithered colors. 

The only problem with a composite monitor (or TV with composite in) is the
limited bandwidth for text displays. 40-column text is usable, but somewhat
blurred, and 80-column text is all but unusable--because typical composite
processing limits luminance bandwidth to 3 or, at best, 4MHz. 

Most color monitors/TVs continue to limit luminance bandwidth even with
color turned off (after all, there's no information expected there for a
standard NTSC signal).

The AppleColor Composite monitor did something very unusual for an analog
monitor--it increased the luminance bandwidth substantially when it
switched to monochrome mode. 

And, of course, actual monochrome monitors almost always had 12-20MHz
bandwidth for crisp text. 

The first most visible sign of luminance bandwidth limiting is that
single-pixel wide vertical lines in characters get dimmer than single-pixel
high horizontal lines. 

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon