[Coco] CoCo 2 (Video)

[Rob Rosenbrock]

> On Jan 23, 2023, at 7:04 PM, Robert Emery via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> 
> Video of an unmodified GBS-8200 working with a CoCo3...
> https://youtu.be/usJbL8xC_VI
> 
> Cheers,
> Bob

Thanks! I appreciate that.

The 80 column screen looks very legible, which is important to me. Most test/reviews seem to be concerned with the basic CoCo2 32 column text and graphics modes. That’s fine, but reading code is a lot easier with more columns.

I settled on buying a Switch-a-roo cable and SCART-to-HDMI adapter. This is the route that I described earlier as being a bit of a rube goldberg type solution - especially since I want to add an HDMI-to-VGA adapter. LOL I ordered the cable through CoCoMan and should have it tomorrow. I was able to test the VGA adapter and found that it didn’t introduce any distortion. I’m hoping the result compares with my CM-8.

I already have a GBS-8200, so I’m game to try that out as well. I just need to get a few of the 10-pin connectors and make up a cable or two for testing.

I worked a bit more with running composite through my Extron scaler to a VGA monitor. If I turn off the color burst signal, the text is much clearer but the background turns to grey lines. Once I do PALETTE 12,63 it becomes solid and the text is more defined. White on black in a 40 column screen looks very nice, too. Just no color. I can’t convince myself that anything is wrong with my CoCo’s hardware.

Still undecided about the CoCo2. I see no future in the RF adapter, so I have no issues removing it from the board. But I think a composite adapter might look just as bad as I’m seeing with my CoCo3. I’m strongly leaning towards the CoCoVGA