[Coco] Re: [Color Computer] Composite monitor on Coco

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 10 September 2004 22:56, orangedeal wrote:
>It has been at least a decade since I did anything at all with a
> Coco but I distinctly remember that a composite monitor was MUCH
> better than a TV.  The RGB analog on the 3 was a little better yet.
> I remember, not so distinctly, that capturing composite video is
> not terribly difficult.
>There were several adaptors available back then, none very
> expensive, and it seems like there were even some people that
> brought out the video signal just before it went into the astek box
> and put in a coaxial RCA jack with that and a ground.  Not sure if
> maybe the adaptors included some amplification.  One thing if you
> are using a TV with the antenna signal,  using a shielded coaxial
> cable makes a fairly dramatic improvement over the cable supplied
> with the coco.  I soldered an RCA plug onto a short VCR cable and
> used it for years. Much less flicker on the screen that way.
>
As an aside, the little switch boxes that came with the coco's were 
all made before the FCC required they have at least a 60db isolation.  
Many of those that had the 300 ohm flat leads for output were not 
more than 25db, meaning the coco leaked out into the cable systems, 
and vice-versa, neither of which helped the quality of the picture 
obtained on a tv.  As you say, switching to a decent piece of foil 
shielded coax, and a direct connection to the antenna jack of a cable 
ready tv made one heck of an improvement in the picture.  The biggest 
problem with the foil shielded coax is its fragility of connection 
when its connector is anything but an Augat SN-59, no other connector 
comes close to being as sturdy as that one.  The foil shielded coax 
in case no one has mentioned it before, has a leakage thats about 
50db lower than the normal braided shield, which is in fact pretty 
leaky stuff.  You get around 50-55db of shielding with the braided 
stuff, and 110db or more with the foil stuff.  Which is exactly why 
the cable folks use it by the kilomile.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
99.26% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Yahoo.com attorneys please note, additions to this message
by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2004 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.


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