[Coco] CoCo 2 (Video)

[Rob Rosenbrock]

My Switch-a-roo from CoComan arrived today. It took me a few tries to get it working, but it is money well spent.

I didn’t get video at first due to several mistakes. I think the SCART-to-HDMI adapter was switched incorrectly for HDMI input, and I incorrectly connected the composite line into the RF output of the CoCo. After playing around a few moments it came up. A few sparkles on the screen went away once I selected NTSC format.

Switched to RGB, I have a great picture. Even at width80 everything is nice and sharp - just as I remember on the CM-8 monitor! Absolutely amazing to see my CoCo displayed on my VGA monitor and to hear the sound coming out of my stereo speakers. (Okay, I need to work on getting that sound on both channels now…)

If I switch over to CMP the picture isn’t so great, but much better than anything I’ve had before. Text is very legible. I may try recapping the CoCo3 to see if I can improve this, but it is acceptable if I am just interested in playing games. I need to find a test for artifacting.

The inverted video poke works fine. But everything went south when I turned off the color burst. That poor adapter just couldn’t make sense of the signal, I guess. Easy to fix, and I won’t do that again...

I am interested in those cables/connectors - just to see the difference. I’ve spent a bit too much on this already, so don’t want to be buying yet another CoCo. Thanks, though.

I have one of the CoCoSDCs from RetroRewind coming in. It’s a blind buy, so I don’t know if it is any different than other SDCs sold. Once that’s in, I’ll be able to run programs again without having to resort to cassette. I do have floppy drives, but I don’t remember where I stored my disks.



> On Jan 23, 2023, at 11:33 PM, Robert Emery via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com> wrote:
> 
> I got a bunch of 10- pin connectors on closeout from a pinball supplier,
> could send you one with (or without) ribbon cable you can solder to, or
> make you a VGA cable like mine, minus audio(?)
> 
> Switcheroo is a solid option, just way more than $20. I still need
> composite for artifact colors, but that has always been how CoCos work.
> 
> Are you possibly interested in a CoCo 2 with CoCo DV installed? I'll be
> making a video about it soon too.
> 
> Bob
> (La CoCo Strangiato)
> 
> On Mon, Jan 23, 2023, 9:13 PM Rob Rosenbrock via Coco <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>>> 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
>> 
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>> 
> 
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