Commodore 64 monitor

Whenever there's a setup thread, I'm almost guaranteed to see atleast 1 or 2 of these monitors used as a display device. I find this strange, because they are so dang old.

My question is, what is the picture quality of these? I have noticed that they have a special plug that divides the luminance and chrominance, which is what an s-video cable does, but I often see a composite cable plugged into the front. Does it accept VGA or RGB or anything else? Does it have speakers? Finally, what is the diagonal screen size of these?

I think that's all.

Commodore monitors make excellent gaming monitors because of their size (13"), input options (composite, split chroma/luma, and RGB), sound (some models sport stereo speakers), and price ($10 to $20 at thrift stores and yard sales).

As far as I know, few 13" TVs offer the option of anything better than composite. Of course, most of them will probably have better chroma/luma filters than the cruddy notch filters used in the Commodore monitors. On the other hand, the split chroma/luma picture excellent. But you need a special breakeout cable to connect modern s-video cables. 15 kHz RGB is apparently another step entirely, but I lost interest in obtaining/hacking any cables when I got my XRGB-2. These monitors do not do VGA.

Being as old as they are you'll run up against a flaky model now and again, but it's definitely worth your while to track one down. Two models I can personally recommend are the 1084S and Magnavox Professional - both of which offer stereo sound. The latter even offers enough vertical CRT size control to anamorphically squeeze a 16:9 image. Look out for the odd model that does not offer split chroma/luma if that's how you plan on using it. Check out www.gamesx.com for more detailed in (i.e. pinouts).

Thanks! :)

What do the cables that plug into the RGB socket look like? I've always been confused between PAL SCART and RGB, JAP RGB, etc.

The analogue RGB ports on the Commodore monitors are ususally 9 pin D subs or 8 pin mini dins. Again www.gamesx.com is the place to look. One caveat is that these monitors require sync which some systems (most notably the PSX) do not provide. You have to build a circuit to strip sync from the composite video in these cases. If you just want to hook up a single system buying a custom cable from someplace like Redmond Cable may be the trick.

PAL SCART cables share the same 21 pin housing with Japanese RGB cables but the pinouts are different. In fact, there have been reports of XRGB-2+s being burned out by using SCART cables sold as Japanes RGB cables. If I'm not mistaken, SCART housing accommodates RGB, s-video, and composite.

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What do the cables that plug into the RGB socket look like?

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If you're interested, I can snap a picture or two for you.

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Originally posted by Mode7
If you're interested, I can snap a picture or two for you.

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If it's not too much trouble, I'd love a snapshot.

Now that I think about it, I may ask if someone will take me to the fleamarket or Salvation Army or anywhere fun like that sometime soon. It could be fun.

http://www.geocities.com/interimkine/rgbcable.txt

Digital cameras are a wonderful thing, are they not? This is the RGB cable for my jamma unit, which will employ a 1084s monitor -- I say will since I'm actually still waiting for the monitor to arrive. Here's the pinout as well.

Definitely check some pawn, thrift and used computer shops first. I ended up having to resort to eBay, and even though I got one for quite cheap it still cost me an arm, leg and the better part of my left thigh to get it shipped. Happy hunting.

Mode7: Thanks for the picture, it somewhat reminds me of the larger DIN-style connector that many mouses used before they used PS/2.

At the moment, the pictures in your Jamma thread aren't working for me, so I'll check back later.

And yes, the digital camera is godly.

I'm currently looking up some monitors... That 1084 seems nice, but they look to go for a significantly higher price on eBay (the only place I can find monitors) than the other models.

What does everyone think of this one?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=1753772908

Does $40 seem too high?

And where would I be able to get an AC adapter?