Re: This can't be true...

[Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net>]

In article <1hedhs2.u6m8msbrjz5oN%bieling@terra.es>,
 bieling@terra.es (Jorge Chamorro Bieling) wrote:

> Don Bruder <dakidd@sonic.net> wrote:
> 
> > In article <1hebjf9.10ohgzb1kxg1ymN%bieling@terra.es>,
> >  bieling@terra.es (Jorge Chamorro) wrote:
> > 
> > <snip>
> > 
> > > Article ID: 5508
> > 
> > Why can't it? It's absolute fact. And based on the tag at the end, it
> > looks like it might even be "directly from the mouth of Apple Inc."
> 
> Sure, it comes from :
> <http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=5508>
> 
> What I think is that in the article, the two phrases that explain why
> some recorders may not work are *not* true at all :
> 
> 1.- "The Apple IIe does not contain the color burst element of the NTSC
> video signal"
> 
> and
> 
> 2.- "By modulating other portions of the video signal, the Apple IIe
> simulates this missing information and allows an image to be produced on
> a television"

Why would that be untrue? All it takes to make color from a B&W signal 
is the proper "jiggling" of the signal timing. Nudge it a little in 
either direction, and you've got color dots rather than B&W dots. No 
need to "build" the NTSC colorburst part of the signal, and it ends up 
working with any hardware that isn't super-picky. Granted, it might come 
out looking like crap, like when you try to put 80-column text on a TV, 
but it at least worked to some extent in most cases.

Nowdays, rather than being surprised that a piece of gear chokes on the 
Apple II's "bastard NTSC" signal, I'd be more shocked to find gear that 
*DOESN'T* barf - The display gear these days is built to a lot tighter 
tolerances than "back in the day" to deal with all the new 
digital/hi-definition/S-video/etc. signals that all our digital gear is 
shipping to them for display. Back in the day, there was enough "slop" 
in the display hardware that tricks like the Apple II used were barely 
considered "tricks" at all unless you were the guy designing it.

-- 
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
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