[Coco] Coco to "plain old monitor"

[Joel Ewy]

No, I don't think the AOC monitor will work.  The referenced 
documentation says that it requires a horizontal sync rate of 30KHz.  
The CoCo 3's HSync rate is ~ 15KHz, the same as old-fashioned NTSC 
video.  As Mike Pepe pointed out, the vast majority of (S)VGA monitors 
do not sync below 30KHz and therefore won't work with a CoCo3, or an 
MM/1, or a Commodore Amiga, et cetera.  There were a few monitors that 
were produced, probably between the late '80s and the mid '90s, that 
could be used as NTSC-sync-rate RGB monitors, and could also be used 
with the SVGA cards of the day. 

These are getting rather old and hard to find.  In all the hundreds of 
PC VGA-type monitors I've come across, I've found exactly two.  One was 
a Sony CPD-1302, which I bought used a dozen years ago, with the 
intention to use it on my MM/1.  It actually had a switch so it could be 
used as a CGA monitor, an EGA monitor, or a VGA monitor up to 1024x768i 
(I think).  I used it as a VGA monitor at 800x600 for a number of years 
until the picture began to get bad.  Maybe I'll try to fix it some day.  
The other is an NEC Multisync 3D, like Mike likes.  I got it from a 
friend recently.  It had a touch-screen thing stuck on the front, which 
I removed.  One of these days I'll make a cable to hook it up to the MM/1.

There are adapters you can buy that will allow you to hook an SVGA 
monitor up to an older system that puts out 15KHz HSync.  They have been 
discussed on this list before, but I don't remember any names.  Since 
the Commodore Amiga was a very popular computer that used RGB monitors 
at NTSC sync rates, a web search along the lines of ' adapter amiga svga 
monitor ' might yield useful results.

JCE

Robert Gault wrote:
> Bill wrote:
>> My oldest PC is hooked to an AOC 4V Spectrum monitor. It's ranges are 
>> from
>> 800x600 to 1024x768, 32bit color. It is not a composite monitor, 
>> sadly to
>> say. I guess it won't work, huh?
>>
>
> Based on what I see here
> http://www.monitorworld.com/Monitors/aoc/spectrum4v4vira.html
> http://www.softhut.com/aoc14.html
> your monitor should work with a Coco3 via the RGB output. You will 
> need to make your own cable and it may be hard to find a connector for 
> the Coco end.
>
> Speak about being vague, why didn't you say whether your Coco was a 1, 
> 2, or 3?
>
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