[Coco] Perhaps a silly newbie question

[gene heskett]

On Saturday, July 02, 2011 10:52:11 AM Mike Needham did opine:

> Greetings fellow coco enthusiasts:
> 
> I was just looking into powering up my new COCO2 and noticed that unlike
> my COCO3, it does not have a composite video out.  I have a composite
> monitor (actually 2 of them) and was not sure if I can actually hook it
> (the 2) up to the monitor without an intermediary box... in other
> words, is the TV out the same as composite?
> 
No, its an rf output, designed to be fed to a std ntsc tv, and I believe 
selectable to be on either channel 3 or channel 4.  I've found the cheap 9" 
B&W tvs of 15 years ago to be quite usable.  Colors tv's too, but my main 
interest was programming so text was important & the colors detract from 
that.

> If not, what do I need to hook it to the monitor?  Thanks for the help
> in advance.

There are, or were, little adapter switches that had a transformer in them 
for the coco's output, adapting its 75 ohm coax to the 300 ohm flat line 
used by most tv's 20 years ago.  It also supplied the FCC required 
isolation to keep the coco's signal from bothering the neighbors tv's.

There were also, video kits made to get a composite output, one of my 
coco's has one in it.

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)
Behold the warranty -- the bold print giveth and the fine print taketh 
away.