Apple II colour video problems

["Roger Johnstone" <bhmhome@es.co.nz>]

Some people have recently been talking about problems connecting NTSC video
monitors to Apple II computers, or alternatively connecting a video source
to an Apple monitor, and getting no colour. I was looking through my copy of
the Apple IIe Technical Reference Manual (1986 edition) and it has a
paragraph I never took any notice of before:

Video standards: Apple IIe's manufactured for sale in the U.S. generate a
video signal that is compatible with the standards set by the NTSC (National
Television Standards Committee). Apple IIe's manufactured for sale in
European countries generate video that is a modified NTSC signal.

I suspect this is the cause of the problem. You may also find Apple
composite colour monitors sold outside the US are set to use this 'modified'
signal and may not work with other video sources? Now, does anyone know why
Apple did this? A conspiracy to get us to by real Apple monitors?

NTSC=Never Twice the Same Colour (little joke us PAL users like to use). I
laughed myself silly when I saw the computer video player RealPlayer G2
(full version) had a tint control! A tint control for digital video?

Roger Johnstone